To follow a car with Distronic

[smillion]

Just returned from a 300 mile jaunt and got to thinking about Distronic which on this trip contributed to a very relaxed experience - I just wondered what the people behind thought.....


.... as for the first time i established that in actual fact the brake lights do not apply (and I am pleased because brake lights in the outside lane are a pain) ... and that it is possible to slow quite quickly using Distronic and that the brake lights do not apply - it made me nervous though to think that those that followed may not be on the ball......

Marc

 

[Nibbo]

Surely the brake lights MUST come on!
What if your distronic did the equivalent of an emergency stop due to someone in front stopping? With merc brakes and no lights to warn them the person behind would have no chance!

 

[Diesel Benz]

Just returned from a 300 mile jaunt and got to thinking about Distronic which on this trip contributed to a very relaxed experience - I just wondered what the people behind thought.....


.... as for the first time i established that in actual fact the brake lights do not apply (and I am pleased because brake lights in the outside lane are a pain) ... and that it is possible to slow quite quickly using Distronic and that the brake lights do not apply - it made me nervous though to think that those that followed may not be on the ball......

Marc

Can you define "quite quickly"? The car can decelerate quite quickly without using brakes and no brake lights appear in this case.

If you feel the brake pedal on a W221 (not sure which car you were talking about), the pedal moves down when the car brakes on its own. If the pedal moves down, the brake lights come on for sure.

But it is the same with SBC brakes, either this car was faulty or it was not "really braking" at the moment the brake lights did not come on.

Have you tried brake hold by the way?

 

[Alps]

on the w211 distronic im sure the brakes do not apply Deisel benz, i think the 221 distonic is distronic plus which also stops the car, the w211 distronic uses just the engine to slow it down, but doesnt apply brakes hence when you go under 20mph of it senses emergency brakes it starts bleeping to tell driver to take over!

 

[Diesel Benz]

on the w211 distronic im sure the brakes do not apply Deisel benz, i think the 221 distonic is distronic plus which also stops the car, the w211 distronic uses just the engine to slow it down, but doesnt apply brakes hence when you go under 20mph of it senses emergency brakes it starts bleeping to tell driver to take over!

I see, I've never checked how the W211 with distronic behaves. I just remember the adds stating that the W221 uses more braking power (up to 40%) compared to the W220 but the W220 again may be different from the W211 (and must be different if you say so).

 

[C43AMG]

Yes the 221 brakes do come on, as Alps said it must be the + that makes the difference.

 

[Diesel Benz]

I had a look at a couple of WIS documents and at least as of 1.6.2004, according to WIS, both W220 and W211 apply brakes when necessary to reduce speed. But the car brakes "only" at a maximum of 20% braking power, not a big difference from full power engine braking.

Could WIS explain this wrong?

 

[Alps]

not sure, ive never felt safe with distronic when someone brakes hard in front and it always gets too close for my liking so i have to take over, im pretty sure it was the + version that applied the brakes only and came to a stop, i could be wrong!