CB949

Hi All

I am the owner of a 2018 e400 wagon. My vehicle has persistent "false alarm" activation of the radar-driven safety systems, including the emergency braking system.

I'm in communication with MBUSA on these issues. Their position is that the system is "operating as designed" and they are refusing to take action. They are also telling me that mine is an isolated incident, which I know to be untrue from other forum members sharing their same issues.

What I'd like to try to do is get more visibility into how much this is occurring. I've seen at least 3 other members with the same issue just in the E-class forums, and a few scattered around other models. Maybe if we get a large enough group together, who are all experiencing these issues, we can get MBUSA to step up and do the right thing - before someone gets seriously injured, or worse, by these issues.

So if you are experiencing these issues - false alarms, sudden braking, the system killing the accelerator because it thinks there's an obstacle - please post below, and we will try to get some more attention focused on this serious issue.


Current list of members (as of Aug 28) who have experienced this issue and cited it in either this thread or another:


1. Me, e400 wagon
2. Sunrose 305, e300
3. Brittnie jane, C300
4. Diesel Dan, e550
5. RSnovi, glk250
6. DDgator, glc
7. Bert.DS glc350e
8. Senatov
9. Frandumont glc300 (dirty sensors?)
10. Mickhoog
11. The_Judge e400 coupe
12. sackboydad, e450 cab
13. Streamliner, s560
14. Absent, s560 (loaner)
15. Malmokalle, e class
16. MBZ2019, a class
17. Legume, e400 wagon
18. Darren Boey, C350e
19. Utsenmo, C300

Sunrose305

A few days ago I was driving about 36 mph on a four-lane road a few blocks from home that I have driven countless times. There were two quick beeps immediately followed by the brakes being slammed on very hard for half second. I was catapulted forward against my seatbelt until the brakes released a moment later. It gave me a really good scare. My car has never done that before. I've heard the two beeps of the collision warning occasionally if someone in front of me is making a right turn and a little slow to completely clear the lane. That happens maybe once a month. But there is never any braking. I keep the lane keeping feature turned OFF because I was getting too many false corrections from that system which involved moderate braking and shoving the car slightly left or right. But never anything like this. I'm very fortunate no one was close behind me. Now I don't trust my own car.

Brittnie Jane

Me! I get the red alert icon and also the collision prevention assist inoperative randomly

diesel_dan

I'm not sure mine is anywhere near what you are experiencing, but it does bother me and is repeatable. In spirited driving on a twisty canyon road is where it most often occurs: the Distronic Plus on my car is what activates the warning and would activate braking. The condition is if I am heading into a turn with usually a guardrail in the turn I'll get the distracting beeps -- problem is, the way the system is described, if I am giving steering inputs, braking input, having the trans in Sport (or paddle shifting) and Airmatic to Sport, wouldn't you think it'd get the point I am In Control?!

Anyway, that is where it is with me and I never thought to complain to the dealer about it. I did turn the stupid Lane Keeping Assist or Lane Warning OFF - it can't handle country roads At All! Oil change coming up so I'll ask about it.

Your system may be different if you don't have Distronic... Thanks for starting this thread and getting me to thinking about it.

CB949

update: I pulled together a list of people who have reported these issues, just based on a quick search. I'm sure it's not a complete list, and we are at 15 drivers.

MBUSA - how many does it take for you to decide it's worth stepping up?

MBZ2019

Me too... experienced similar sudden braking issues on my brand new A class. it's 2 months old and we have experienced sudden breaking onramp and offramp freeways and just driving on straight roads with no apparent obstacles in the front nor sides. Just sudden breaks and lurching left/right. Almost caused accidents for my wife as she drove once... we are now filing complaints w/ MB dealership and will see what happens.
They had inspected the car and claimed no error code and all works as designed. They gave me a loaner... I am not picking up my car at this point as I don't want it, and I will keep the loaner to driver as long as I can, despite my A class is brand new. I told them it's not a safe car and given all these reports online, I don't want it.
MBZ needs to do something clearly. Seem to be in denial.... I have bought /leased over 10+ MBZ through the years... and seems like it's time to consider alternatives.

fbsdmd

2016 C300-I get daily random alerts/red triangle with no other cars nearby. Sometimes only a beep or two, sometimes 5-6-7. I also got random alerts in my previous 2015 GLA250. I feel like sometimes they may be associated with burglar alarms at businesses I am passing. I have never had an instance of automatic braking. I got the Collision Prevention Assist Inoperative message fairly often on the GLA250, but never on the C 300.

CB949

Thank you.

One thing I learned in discussion with others: those false-alarm alerts by themselves - without the braking - are most definitely deemed a serious safety issue by the NHTSA.

The braking is an extreme case, but any visual or auditory warning which is being activated erroneously while driving is a dangerous distraction to the driver, and must be remedied by the manufacturer.

Mr. Toad

Good luck with that. They'll keep your car for weeks and then just say, "Could not replicate".

CB949

Well they already have replicated....the 2.0 version of that phrase seems to be "operating as designed".

Which means with enough problem cases, they have a recall on their hands...

Mr. Toad

I'm amazed. My car's been at the dealer for four weeks today for a different problem, and they keep saying they can't replicate the issue.

Legume

I've experienced this too. My 2016 E400 wagon is going back into MB for the third time since July 30th for an extended period so that they can try to 'replicate the issue' (which they haven't been able to do previously)

- Random imminent collision warnings followed by sudden braking and seat belt tightening with no cars nearby
- Random instances of the car wanting to come to a complete stop when Distronic is engaged, with no cars nearby
- Random messages saying that Blind Spot Sensors and Lane Assist Inoperative.

I'm in Canada, so I suppose I'll have to take it up with MB Canada if I can't get any resolution.

CB949

Thanks for chiming in - I've added you to the list.

Darren Boey

Hi All,

I own a C350e that is about a year old and have been having this issue with the random detection of an obstruction which then sets off the chain of safety features which includes the beeping, belt tensioning and braking. On both occasions, there was nothing to the front or rear of the car and the sensors were not obstructed. Together with this issue, I am also getting random occurrences on the assistance graphics whereby a car would randomly "pop up" right in front of my vehicle which has affected distronic. Has anyone experienced this as well?

The car has been in and out of the dealer for about 6 months now and all Mercedes is saying is that the car is operating as it should be and factors such as the weather and the sun can affect the accuracy of the radars which I find absurd. I will be bringing this up to Mercedes Germany and hopefully they can help out.......

CB949

Thanks. It's incredible that MBUSA is stonewalling so many customers who are dealing with an issue that will be life-threatening in the right conditions.

I sent this thread to their head of Corp Communications yesterday - the person who has to do the public clean-up when they ignore issues like this. Hoping she can help get more attention on the problems we're having.

Darren Boey

Mine is an Australian model but this goes to show that its an international issue thats plaguing customers all over the world. Hopefully MBUSA sets a precedent for a remedy to the issue.

CB949

Response from German HQ:

We appreciate the time taken to write and express your concerns to Mr Källenius and Mr Schäfer regarding your Mercedes-Benz E 400 4MATIC.

Kindly be advised that your email has been forwarded to Mercedes-Benz USA, LLC (“MBUSA”) where it will be reviewed. Our colleagues in the United States are in the best position to respond to your email. We are sure that you can appreciate that the Home Office of each country is responsible for handling its own domestic matters.

If this is a duplicate correspondence, you will only be notified by MBUSA if there is a change in the determination previously provided to you. Thank you for contacting us.

Yours sincerely,


Daimler Team for the Board of Management /
Daimler Kundenbetreuungsteam für den Vorstand

Daimler AG
Sitz und Registergericht/Domicile and Court of Registry: Stuttgart
HRB-Nr./Commercial Register No. 19360
Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrats/Chairman of the Supervisory Board: Manfred Bischoff
Vorstand/Board of Management: Ola Källenius (Vorsitzender/Chairman), Renata Jungo Brüngger, Martin Daum, Markus Schäfer, Wilfried Porth, Britta Seeger, Hubertus Troska, Harald Wilhelm

Legume

My issues were similar - the car thinks I'm about to hit something and engages braking and belt tensioning, when nothing is nearby. When I asked MB about it, they thought that it might be an issue of the front sensor being misaligned. They've ordered a new bracket for the sensor, but I think it's the actual sensor or software that's the root cause. In any case, while I hope they're right, I have a feeling it'll wind up being an escalating series of visits back to MB where they replace parts in increasing level of cost.

One of the service guys said that the MB engineers in Germany advised that these collision warnings sometimes happen if cars hits a dip in the road, and then the front sensor briefly points to the ground or if you take a sharp turn and there are objects that may pass through the front sensor's field of vision. While I personally think that these are normal driving conditions anyway, most of the occurrences of sudden braking for me happened on flat roads with no other vehicles nearby.

CB949

Same here.

CB949

I'm starting to wonder if the best thing is for someone to reach out to a journalist to discuss this issue.

What we know for sure:

-The group of users here is a very small subset of MB owners. Most MB drivers are not on these forums.
-Of that small group, we have close to 20 people experiencing these issues.
-Several of us have had this malfunction happen in a situation which could easily have been life-threatening (highway speeds...).
-MBUSA, as well as the office of the Chairman of MB, are aware of this issue, and are making an active decision to (a) do nothing to notify other owners of this issue, and (b) refuse to provide remedy to owners who are experiencing these ongoing issues, and notifying MBUSA of the problem.
-At least one senior MBUSA employee has misrepresented their knowledge of these issues (stating to me, in writing, that I am the only customer in the US with this complaint, which was proven factually untrue when another forum member provided me a copy of their registered complaint with the MBUSA CAC, regarding the same issues).

ygmn

Might be helpful if your list also included the model year..

as I bet systems, parts and programming has changed over the years

CB949

Yes agreed - I'll let the lawyers do that when we get to that point.

2020GLC300

I just leased a 2020 GLC, so we've only had it for a week, and haven't seen this problem yet. I am curious if anyone has found a way to disable the system either by having the dealer program the emergency braking feature off, or by disconnecting sensors, or removing fuses.

If the problem starts on my car, and Mercedes can't/won't fix it, I would just rather not have the feature turned on at all, which would make it no less safe than the 6 other cars I own that don't have this feature.

EDIT: I was looking through the MBUX settings, and it looks like I can change the sensitive of this system and even turn it off completely.

CB949

Quick update: I received a formal 'position statement' today from MBUSA, stating that the issues with this system - including random high-speed sudden applying of brakes by the system, with no obstacle present - fall under the 'operating as designed' umbrella.

They seem unconcerned with the risk of injury and/or death being created by this defect. The minute this happens with someone tailgating us, it will be a very serious issue. It will then be a matter of criminal neglect, not just poor customer service.

MBZ2019

Was able to record the sudden breaking event. See the dashboard flashing on the right and breaks were automatically applied, even though there is nothing on the right side of the vehicle. I am trying to figure out how to best replicate... seem that usually this happens after going at over 40mph and there are solid white line at the side of the vehicle. Presume at higher speed, the vehicle is in a more sensitive mode to react....