mblover455

My brakes totally failed on my sl55. I could not stoop until i figured out that the only thing that would worked was the parking brake. I almost crashed coming off the highway ramp.
Very dangerous car with this fault. I had done all recalls so far on time. Still my brakes failed. I believe a fault with the battery and alternator can cause failure. watch out. return these cars and get new ones. mine is a 2003 model year sl55.

I almost died today. luckily i had a few seconds to figure this out or else i would have been crushed and dead.

france2112

Damn!!!

Glad you are OK! I don't know exactly what I would do now but I would be pissed as hell!! I'm not a very litigious person but I may want to consult with an attorney if this happened to me. What do you do now? I don't know if I would ever trust the car after that?

mblover455

atleast product liability, negligence, emotional distress, this is serious. I would have died and likely someone else would have died.

Any lawyers on this board want to help?

pinoyamg

Holy Crap! I knew that their touted brakes were questionable but total failure? Glad to know your ok tho. How many miles on your car? No fades, squishy brakes or anything prior to the actual event that may have clued you in?

BoBcanada

should've used downshifting to stop emergency brake can spin you out!

CY

Did they work later after the incident or did you tow it?

pinoyamg

Would MB cover the repairs if the transmission is shot?

vraa

You're not the only one this has happened too.
Are you sure it was the alternator and not the SBC pump?

mblover455

I need to talk to a lawyer. Mercedes will likely do nothing reading other posts online.
the brakes failed. the car shifted to first gear, and the car kept moving slowly until i pushed the emergency brakes.
If there was someone stopped in front of me in short distance, i would have crashed. You have to be ready to push the emergency brakes. or you will die.

this car has had all recalls done on it so far. it is in perfect condition. only 3000 miles. brand new car.

I cant drive this car anymore. what a waste of money and the government should take all these cars off the road and give owners their money back.

Mrdredd

How fast could you have been going in first gear??

You sound way to ridiculous ... only 3000 miles and its a 2003? This is a sophisticated car, with electronic and computer controlled components... what do you think is going to happen if you never use them, or put them to work? The manual even mentions that when you have been driving at speed for a while, you should pump your brakes to make sure they are active and gripping.

I don't know if you've ever experienced, and you probably haven't, but if you let a computer sit for a long time, then all of a sudden just turn it on, youre likely to blow the power supply, or short circuit the motherboard.

It's a waste of money because the brakes failed? That's a retarded statement.
The car is made up of hardware, hardware is not guaranteed - some hardware will fail, NO hardware in ANY car, of ANY manufacturer is guaranteed not to fail, because it is simply impossible for one out of many not to.

Is every human perfect? No, there are retards out there - so obviously if YOU (IE: humans) can't be perfect, do you expect some part in your car to be?

You were in first gear, you couldn't have been going fast enough to "die", and you probably could've smartly avoided any personal physical damage to yourself should you have turned the car into a wall, or guard rail and let friction slow it down.

Vik888

Sorry, but this sounds bogus to me just from the way its written, forget the ridiculous claim that its a 4 yr old car w/ 3000 miles on it.

pinoyamg

I agree! "Coming off a highway ramp in 1st gear?" At what speed? 3k Miles? I see smoke!

mjr24

I'm not a lawyer, but will be in a year or so. OP, you are a moron. That's what I would tell you if you came into my office before kicking you out of my office.

regor60

Well, no doubt he could be a moron, I'm not saying he isn't, mind you, but even morons can experience brake failures in these cars...it's a documented if infrequent occurrence.

However, I am pretty sure that Mrdredd is a moron. He accepts the OP's story but then ridicules him for not attending to and nursing the sensitive electronics in the vehicle and thereby being responsible for the brake failure. Does he work for Microsoft by any chance ?

vraa

Come on guys, lets keep off the personal insults.

bltserv

I own one

The SBC has a backup system.
No F**king way both are going to fail.

Can you say Bullsh**.

Scruffyone

Funniest thread in a long while.

vraa

The SBC backup obviously isn't as strong as some expected.

https://mbworld.org/forums/showthrea...&highlight=sbc
https://mbworld.org/forums/showthrea...&highlight=sbc
https://mbworld.org/forums/showthrea...&highlight=sbc

seattlecarfreak

A few months ago I was driving at around 35mph and all of a sudden my dash flashed red something along the lines of "Brakes Not Functioning, STOP CAR IMMEDIATELY"

I was like.. gee thanks.. next time tell me when i'm stopped.. needless to say.. the breaks did work and it was a voltage regulator issue.. but needless to say it also was not something you want to see on your dashboard with a line of cars and red light ahead of you..

cte430

The backup system requires legs of steel. There was a recent thread on the E55 forum (from a very distinguished member here) who lost his SBC and was also fortunate. Go do a search. Not saying this guy is BS or not, but there are issues with these brakes and if you look around here, you'll find them.

Mrdredd

Let's see

I accepted that the brakes failed - so?
Not maintaining the system, then wondering why it broke.... YES, you are responsible - it comes with owning a car!

If you can't handle this car, and you want something you can ignore and abuse, you should go back to your Ford Taurus.

The same goes if own a computer - if YOU are not maintaining it and keeping up with upgrades, then you get a virus or get spammed via exploits that YOU didn't patch - then YOU are responsible, not Microsoft.

You and people like you are the reason I make such a good living, because you do not care enough to maintain the system's you are given/purchase.

vraa

Less fighting. Now.

IngenereAMG

This sounds like user error.....as usual.

I have had an alternator/battery failure that sent the SBC 'off line'...and frankly it was a no brainer. There was more effort involved in useing the brakes...but the car stopped fine.

If you are exiting a freeway in first gear...which makes no sense...unless you are blocking traffic....and can't figure out how to stop a car, and think death is near.....you probably should not be behind the wheel of a 500hp car.

Mercedes needs an idiot test before selling their AMG's

erichen

this story may be fishy. But, it actually happened to my wife's old 03 E500 with the SBC brakes. That car had a plethora of electronics problems since day one but the most serious occured last year when I received a phone call at work from the wife. She was distraught. She was driving on a local street (thank God!) at around 40mph and was hitting the brakes to stop the car for intersection. The dash flashed red and said something like "brake failure, increased braking distance, stop immediately". She freaked and tried to stop. The car would not stop, it was slowing but not fast enough. She was contemplating hitting the curb, a tree, or a parked car so she wouldn't hit another car with people in it or pedestrians... Luckily, the traffic was not that bad and she avoided hitting the last car waiting at the intersection. She was able to stop by almost standing on the brake to push it down. When these things happen, a lot of times you will not think about downshifting or hand brake... you just push!!! The SBC recall was done later. The brakes came back after she restarted the car.. but it could have been worse. She could have been injured, worse, she could have injured somebody else! The dealer had the car towed and said it was some faulty wire in the SBC... My SL was repaired as well under the recall but I am apprehensive.. Her new 07 E550 has good ol' fashion hydraulic brakes. No more SBC. More reliable? I dont' know, but one less electronic gadget to worry about.

mjr24

Difference is you people had this happen before the recalls were done and a red light flashed. OP said he all the recalls were done. The fact he tells everyone that they should sell the cars and the government should get them off the road is what makes his post obviously fake. He obviously has some sort of agenda and likes to hear himself talk. Yeah....I'm going to call a lawyer and sue Mercedes even though I wasn't injured, my car wasn't damaged, etc. The OP ignored the questions about whether he had the car towed, etc....and instead had to point out how everyone would die driving these.

Some people have no business driving these cars......OP, do you even have a Mercedes.....maybe another NOTCKTS coming up. Sorry Ricky, had to throw that in there....I am done now.