electronic stability control - Benzworld.org

SEC-Brian · 03-02-2008, 06:40 AM

Last week while my 1987 560 SEC was at the local dealer for repairs, they loaned me a 2006 C-class. I think it was a C320.

On the highway, in the left lane, driving the 06 C-class, the right rear tire blew. It sounded like a shotgun went off! I'm not sure what caused this, but what happened next was VERY dangerous.

The car began to slow down rapidly. I went from 70 to 40 in a matter of seconds. I needed to get to the right shoulder immediately, with the traffic on my right flying past at 70+ mph, I tried to give it a little gas so I could merge right. No dice. THE ELECTRONIC STABILITY CONTROL TURNED THE GAS PEDAL OFF!!! As in, the gas pedal did nothing. I could not accelerate.

I was taught when I was learning to drive that the throttle is an important tool in accident avoidance. More than once, I have used the throttle to rotate the car and regain control - or to accelerate slightly to merge right when a tire blows, for example.

In the end, I caused a huge traffic jam and had to wait for an opening to get over to the right. Long story short, the ESC could have gotten me killed.

One more reason I still love my '87 560.

Brian

asianml · 03-02-2008, 07:39 AM

You could have turned it off.

SEC-Brian · 03-02-2008, 08:19 AM

Tried it. Didn't work. It wouldn't turn off.

JCFair · 03-02-2008, 05:48 PM

Wow Brian what a ride. You were lucky you had the ESP on when you blew the rear tire at 70+ mph. Without it you should have ended up sideways on your roof. I cannot believe the other drivers would be passing you. If anyone blew a tire in front of me they would own the road. Personally, I would have put my right signal on and just moved over.

ESP saved my life once too. I was traveling 70 mph on a two lane road at night. The xenon headlights lit up a big black fury animal just right of the center line. It wasn't moving so I figured I would pass it on the left using it as an autocross cone and just missing it. Then two glowing eyes looked up at me. I did an emergency lane change left then right at 70 MPH! The ESP light came on and stayed on for about 20 seconds as I continued down the road. I really believe that without the ESP system I would have rolled the SLK into the corn field and they wouldn't have found me until harvest time.

Regards, John

n5160u · 03-07-2008, 05:21 AM

Did the car drive normally after the spare tire was mounted? There have been incidents where a massive blowout damaged the wiring to the wheel speed sensor causing weird problems like what you had. ESP should not have caused what happened to you if it was working normally.

kyle21nluvnit · 03-11-2008, 07:54 AM

ESP did exactly what it should have done in this situation. A blow out at 70mph is no joke and the ESP system could care less if you are able to get over to the right lane, it made sure you didnt end up broadside in the highway. Its unfortunate that other drivers were not courteous enough to let you over, but be assured that you would have had a much more difficult time controlling the vehicle with a flat tire at 70 mph without ESP.

**MB-SV** · 04-09-2008, 03:16 PM

Glad nobody was hurt.

Safety experts now believe stability control systems such as ESP are saving more lives than ABS brakes.

Sounds like something went wrong, not allowing any acceleration at all.