Brakes Failed?!

Nearly got killed yesterday, I think the braking system failed.
On the A1, coming up to a busy roundabout, I began to brake nice and early from 70mph as usual, and as I got closer to the roundabout I increased pressure on the brake but it didn't appear to make any difference. Got closer and closer, about 50m out I had my foot jammed against the brake pedal as hard as possible, the pedal was almost at the floor and yes, it was braking, but gently and gradually. Like, "coming up to a red light in an empty town centre" gently. I ended up coming onto to the roundabout at 30mph in a stroke of luck at a break of traffic in front of a slow moving lorry that was exiting.

No idea what happened, was pretty shaken up. Haven't ever had such a close call. Don't really want to go out in it again.

I would have thought with pushing so hard on the brakes that at least ABS would have engaged, but it just wasn't braking much at all to even need it. It was the same braking as when I just have a little gentle pressure.

To be honest, this car has been having problems and glitches since we got it. Autonomous emergency braking detecting random obstacles at the side of the road, park assist puts me at weird angles, recently the fuel economy just plummeted for no reason, the headlights barely reach 5m ahead, for a while it would stall when changing gear (its auto) until they did some computer update to fix it...

But this was something else...

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 1

MIIDA

1

Bin the car before you end up dead,it's not worth the hassle.

Reply 2

XMaramena

OP

22

Original post by MIIDA

Bin the car before you end up dead,it's not worth the hassle.

It's a company lease, policy is another 3 years.

Reply 3

CurlyBen

19

Get it back to the dealer then and raise hell. If you're not getting decent braking either the brakes aren't applying correctly or power is still being sent to the wheels. Let the dealership figure out which it is.

Reply 4

Talon

18

Original post by XMaramena

It's a company lease, policy is another 3 years.

I am sure that the policy will require them to supply you with a safe car. Tell the company that you want it replaced. Any company worth their salt will get it sorted out. If they don't go to their complaints department and the Daily Mail. They will eat it up, especially if you can pull a sad face.

Reply 5

Maz_001

Just ask the company car dealer to check it out and explain the issues you had on the motorway and how your shaken up I'm sure they will agree

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 6

gbduo

15

Is it French?

How old is the car, what car is it? If it is still within warranty, then get the dealership to come and pick the car up saying it is unroadworthy and they need to send a low loader.

Reply 7

XMaramena

OP

22

Original post by gbduo

Is it French?

How old is the car, what car is it? If it is still within warranty, then get the dealership to come and pick the car up saying it is unroadworthy and they need to send a low loader.

It's a brand new Mercedes C220 Exec. Well, not brand new anymore - delivered at the start of the year, it's got just over 2,000 miles on it now.

The lease company took it for testing and didn't find any faults, they just gave it back to us the way they found it.

Reply 8

gbduo

15

Holy ****, you wouldn't expect that from a Merc!

That's all you can do, if the company tested the car and couldn't replicate the fault then you are kinda stuffed. Just drive it and if it happens again you need to kick up a big stink. I would write a formal letter to the lease company explaining the fault you had, that you are not happy with their analysis and that if any accident happens, they are aware of the fault.

Reply 9

XMaramena

OP

22

Original post by gbduo

Holy ****, you wouldn't expect that from a Merc!

That's all you can do, if the company tested the car and couldn't replicate the fault then you are kinda stuffed. Just drive it and if it happens again you need to kick up a big stink. I would write a formal letter to the lease company explaining the fault you had, that you are not happy with their analysis and that if any accident happens, they are aware of the fault.

I'm a little skeptical actually, since it's come back, it seems more responsive and there's a new hold feature when I brake that I never saw before. I'm wondering if they did find something and fixed it on the down low so that they couldn't be sued for putting out a deadly car.

Reply 10

gbduo

15

Ah ok...yeh I wouldn't be surprised.

Reply 11

trident3

9

The autonomous braking system on my Mercedes A200 has on several occasions decided to apply the brakes rather hard - on one occasion it did a full emergency stop when I just touched the brakes as I approached a roundabout. The Audi behind me nearly rear-ended me.

I took the car to the Mercedes-Benz dealer I bought it from, they said the software was out of date & updated it.

Reply 12

XMaramena

OP

22

Original post by trident3

The autonomous braking system on my Mercedes A200 has on several occasions decided to apply the brakes rather hard - on one occasion it did a full emergency stop when I just touched the brakes as I approached a roundabout. The Audi behind me nearly rear-ended me.

I took the car to the Mercedes-Benz dealer I bought it from, they said the software was out of date & updated it.

Did you buy it new? What year?

Reply 13

The_Stig

10

Next time pull on the handbrake before you slam into a motorcyclist at 30 Mph and kill him

Reply 14

ikhan94

16

Hmm, seems dangerouds, either sell it or fix it, otherwise the worst could happen in the future...

Reply 15

It's****ingWOODY

20

Sounds like a deathtrap. I'd be going back to them and requesting - nay, DEMANDING - a replacement, sounds like it's screwed.

Reply 16

XMaramena

OP

22

Original post by The_Stig

Next time pull on the handbrake before you slam into a motorcyclist at 30 Mph and kill him

There is no handbrake, just an electronic button that will only become usable under 5mph. If a motorcyclist has been coming out on the roundabout, I would have put it into the dividing barrier and written it off, rather than try to navigate a roundabout with a motorcyclist without sufficient braking control.

Original post by ikhan94

Hmm, seems dangerouds, either sell it or fix it, otherwise the worst could happen in the future...

I don't own it and have no permissions to take out work on it. It's a lease.

Original post by WoodyMKC

Sounds like a deathtrap. I'd be going back to them and requesting - nay, DEMANDING - a replacement, sounds like it's screwed.

Yep, we did that and got the corporate barrier of "well we tested it and found no faults". Which is stupid. To me, that says "we don't believe you, **** off", and therefore completely inappropriate. It's not like we even asked for a refund, we just asked for them to fix it!