E-Class (W211) W211 SBC Failure (Not ours)

[coolraoul]

I reckon they haven't made any statements about it.

You don't have to change the braking system, sbc itself is a 10-20cm. electronic box. Whole procedure takes couple hours (service should get confirmation from germans)

Don't you find highly suspicious that MB were making cars which were braking down several dozen times a year (w220,w163 etc)?

The Schrempp-era MBs were certainly not bullet-proof reliable. But they were certainly not engineered to break down every XX kms. And they didn't break down several dozens of times a year. Some never did, at all.

I know people with those cars who are experiencing no troubles at all. You might have a greater number of those cars experiencing breakdowns, it doesn't mean they are all unreliable. Far from it, very far.

No way MB engineered a braking system that needs replacement that often.

If that piece needs replacement, then it IS written in the ckeck-up booklet of the MB dealers. And so far, I've never heard anything of that kind, ever.

 

[georget]

SBC was a great addition to braking system of W211 but it turn out to be problematic. So MB decide to remove it from the facelift model. As far as I know there is no 70k lifetime. I have seen cars with 300K without need to replace it. Though newer versions of SBC are more reliable this problem cost millions to MB and Bosh because there is a lifetime warranty. Never less in my opinion W211 is a great vehicle and one of the best Mercedes ever made.

 

[Untertürkheim]

Our W211 E220 CDI has SBC, and is a 6MT model, so we use the SBC all the time for hill starts, and now I would never buy a car without this feature.

At nearly 150.000 km, the SBC system has never failed or had any problems, but we have the car serviced only by MB, and all recalls have been performed.

In fact, the only non-warranty repair was replacing the DPF at ~110.000 km.

 

[Monster]

Good to know there is another reliable W211 in this forum.

 

[Success]

I hate to bring this up again because it has been discussed in detail a while ago, and none of us has experienced such a problem.

But today one of my dad's friends told him his 2004 E240 just had a complete brake failure. Fortunately he was not driving fast and he was able to roll to a stop. He said the warning lights came up suddenly and he lost all braking pressure, he was practically standing on the brakes but there wasn't any braking pressure at all. He sent the car in for repair, the mechanic replaced some 'computer chips' and the car is back to normal. I don't know if the car has undergone all the required recall services, and I don't know the exact repair performed by the mechanic.

The exact same problem has also happened to my dad's other friend's 2003 E320, and my friend's dad's 2002 E320.

From what I have seen and read, there is no hydraulic backup system (Gullwing can correct me if I am wrong), so the brakes become completely unassisted when the electronics goes down, and whatever tiny brake pressure your foot would generate were only applied to the front wheels.

I don't know what to make of this really, our E has been fine, same with ree's and wimmer's car, but then again my father's friend's E240 were going fine for 5 years before this happened.

So what do you guys think?

I'm in Australia. My first post. My W211 E500 2002 at about 150,000kms had a complete brake failure on a busy highway and by luck avoided an accident. Stopped engine. Restarted and went straight to the Perth Merc Dealer service dept who told me 'that happens at 100,000 brake depression. It IS PROGRAMMED into the computer'!! 'and we have a standard charge for fixing that'!
This is CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE. Tried to get some action thru the service manager and the AA/RAC but to no avail.

 

[Monster]

I'm in Australia. My first post. My W211 E500 2002 at about 150,000kms had a complete brake failure on a busy highway and by luck avoided an accident. Stopped engine. Restarted and went straight to the Perth Merc Dealer service dept who told me 'that happens at 100,000 brake depression. It IS PROGRAMMED into the computer'!! 'and we have a standard charge for fixing that'!
This is CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE. Tried to get some action thru the service manager and the AA/RAC but to no avail.

That is complete bs, tell him to put that down in writing, I dare him. You have your car for 12 years now, I am certain you have applied the brakes more than 100 000 times. Mind if you give me more details? Personally I know two others with SBS failure, my friend in Sydney bought his brand new E320 in 2003 and had a SBS failure when the car was a few months old. My other friend who bought his E240 back in 2002 in Hong Kong also suffered from the same problem too. Our 2005 E 350 has been faultless so far but the thought of SBS failure has been in the back of my mind.

 

[Rolf]

The W211 were much better cars than the very unreliable and cheaply built W210 (first round light E-class), which suffered from a lot of electrical and body work/trim problems. I have some friends that have W211 and they have very reliable cars although the SBC was the Achilles heel of this car as well as the R230 SL. Out of all the Mercedes saloons that were ever produced I personally would avoid the W210 the most, I was disappointed with that car when it first came out and never had much of a liking to it as it was built so crap, it lacked the built like a bank vault feel of the legendary W124.