Okay so i saw victor's post about his break failure and wanted to see what it felt like in a controlled environment.

First step was to disconnect the sbc wire harness seemed simple enough. I then started the car and immediately received the stop brake failure error. Brake pedal felt strange as described by the few posted failures. Time to go for a ride or so i thougth, the shift lever would not come out of park-dam!. So right about now my two spotters ( = friends) are beginning to laught at my expense. Time for plan b: re-plug the harness, start the car, put it in neutral and remove the harness once again. Now we can go for a ride and test the brakes without the sbc pump.

Let me be honest by saying that up untill Victor posted his brake failure i regarded all other post's as hollywood drama . I said to myself those guys have never driven a 1960 Chevy Apache truck with drum brakes at all corners what could they possibly know about really standing on the brakes.

The results were shocking, in my situation with the pump unplugged, you lose a good part of your power steering at least 70% of it. The car will also not up-shift no matter what you do so i was limited to 40 mph (a good thing). The speedometer was also disabled. The brakes at this point are useless no matter how hard you press or pump them. The brake pedal travels all the way down but very little force is being applied to the calipers. Victor was being generous about the % effectiveness of the brakes with-out the pump. Applying the emergency brake was way more effective then the brakes. It took six to seven car lengths to come to a complete stop from 38 mph, scary is an understatement. This is a serious problem which will bite MB in the *** sooner or later.

 

that is just scary, at least you were in a controlled enviroment... just put yourself in Vic's shoes

 

Thanks for trying that RFLOW. Good to know it actually works.

Have not tried it full on.

 

Kudos for the quick response, bro and I gotta admit I also did not give it much weight until VRUS said it.

We need to investigate this a bit. i'll see if any of my contacts will fess up to real numbers of claims.

 

Holy crap !!!

 

That's what E-brakes are for kiddies. They don't call 'em EMERGENCY BRAKES for nothin.

 

Albert,

It's like taking a shower in -10C water isnt it?? Really wakes you up.

Like I said.. Didn't want to scare anyone, but, everyone should know what they are dealing with in case of a failure.

My car is still at the dealer because they were having problems bleeding the air out of the system.. There was no way in hell I was going to rush them to finish it yesterday, so, hopefully today I will get it back..

I'll scan & post the invoice showing what was changed when I get the car back.

 

E brakes will work in an emergency but you damn well better be having one hand on the release while you modulate them. Lock them rears up and you are in for some serious heartburn.

 

Actually M-B doesn't call them EMERGENCY BRAKES at all. Look in your owners manual and you will see them called "parking brakes".

 

Keep in mind, don't panic and slam on the E-brake. Lock those rears and that would be no good at say...80 mph. Apply it enough, downshift, and steer if you're heading straight for a building.

 

this sounds extremely worrisome...

is this something we should get huge number of MB owners to post on the MB's AMG owners board or write a letter so they can address this?

(definitely should post vurs' and rflow's experiences on their board if it's not already been done)

is it even technically/mechanically possible for them to retrofit or beef up the "backup brake system"? it may be cost-prohibitive, but it's something they should've done in the first place for consumer safety...

or as some members may have already mentioned, perhaps a letter needs to be addressed to the national traffic safety bodies to get MB to address this safety hazard...

 

Now that is a great idea!!!

I dont have access to the AMG site because it wont accept Canadian VIN #s.. You have my permission to take any of my post and put them on the site. I would like some action taken...