E320 - Stiff accelerator pedal - is it normal?

[fuseman]

A bit more advice please from all you helpful chaps.

Just bought a rather good E320 cabrio Sportline. To me the accelerator pedal seems a bit like hard work to get wound up. It needs a really good prod to get things moving - much more than various other cars I've driven recently even a Honda S2000 which is a bit raw generally.

Is this typical of the car or is mine needing a bit of TLC? It feels to me like an over-stiff return spring but I'm not aware that they come in differring strengths. I intend to lubricate all the moving bits to see if it helps but I wonder if this is a known issue - any advice?

 

[grober]

Can't tell really without sitting in the car BUT Mercs of that vintage all have a "heavy pedal" which has an initial "dead band" before anything happens. Its strange at first but you soon learn to "push through" the dead band to the throttle operational range. Going back to other makes you will find their throttles to be very sensitive after driving your new Merc for a while. I would guess you have nothing to worry about.

 

[Ian B Walker]

Check to routing of the cable under the bonnet. Sometimes they are fitted incorrectly and can be stiff.