I had a near miss today,a teenager in a honda was in the center turn lane of a secondary highway turning left. I saw the smartphone on the steering wheel from about 100ft and luckily kept my eyes on her...at less than 25 feet she floored it in front of me without looking up. At 65mph I laid on the horn and locked up the brakes while steering out of the way. The 79' 300td handled extraordinarily well under hard breaking, thank god and I saw the cell phone fly out of her hands as I went past at under 6". I left a cloud of tire smoke and four black steaks about 20ft long before I hit the borrow pit and came to a stop. She just sat there in the middle of the highway blocking traffic with her hands over her head for a couple of minutes and then began rummaging around in the car, I suppose looking for her phone I though about calling the police but just caught my breath said a prayer of thanks and drove off to pick my kids up from their first day of school. CHECK YOUR BRAKES folks, I sure am glad mine were working well. Mercedes gets another nod from me for engineering a quality automobile. Really nice to know how well these cars handle under extreme braking...I might send the folks in Deutschland a thank you card.
Michael

Of course you can't discount your own abilities, experience and observation, but abilities without brakes are pretty much worthless.

Glad you saved her life. Hopefully she will have learned from the experience, one can only hope her diet coke went tumbling on top of the phone and ruined it.

Locking up your brakes is not indicative of good working brakes. Your braking distance is actually longer when they're locked and you're just a passenger at that point.

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What would you recommend to fix that issue? Greasing the rotors, perhaps?

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When cryptography is outlawed, bayl bhgynjf jvyy unir cevinpl.

I concur on everything you said about the brakes...I had some horrible near misses back in california...I remember slamming on the brakes and wearing flat spots on all four of my tires but I stopped a few feet from the rear of the car in front of me. Even not having abs braking....these cars stop very very well!

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There is a difference between aggressive braking and a panic stop.

The first time I had to make an emergency avoidance manouever in my w116, I was amazed at how gracefully two tons of automobile can move when it has the best suspension money can buy under it.

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Mac
2002 e320 4matic estate│1985 300d│1980 300td
Previous: 1979 & 1982 & 1983 300sd │ 1982 240d

“Let's take a drive into the middle of nowhere with a packet of Marlboro lights and talk about our lives.” ― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

Learn threshold braking. If the wheels are locked the braking distance is increased and you're no longer in control of the car.

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LOL

Reminded me of a 85 300D I once owned. During a panic stop, it would lock up one brake. Found I did not have enough grease on the rotor.

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Jim

That has absolutely nothing to do with whether the brakes are capable of locking up. Kindly recall that your original argument was that lock-up capability is not an indication of "good working brakes."

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When cryptography is outlawed, bayl bhgynjf jvyy unir cevinpl.

Hey man I know how to "threshold break" and more about driving on ice, snow and crappy, dangerous mountain roads than most...but 25ft at 65mph doesn't give you any time to think...just a blink.. The cars handling was exemplary. Glad I can still drive her.

Yes locking up is not an indication of good working brakes. Crap brakes can lock up just as well. Its a meaningless metric. What's your point?

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CENSORED due to not family friendly words

Not exactly, it depends on the nature of the "crap." Air in the system or poor hydraulics can lead to brakes that won't lock up, no matter what. They can lead to much worse as well.

For example...

These cars don't have anti lock brakes, so if you panic stop, they'll probably lock up.

Unless, of course, you grease the rotors.

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83 SD

84 CD

I like the W123 brakes because they modulate nicely and the pedal feels as if you are stepping on a brick, relatively little pedal stroke to increase or lessen the braking compared to other cars.

The friction developed at the tire / road interface falls off significantly when the wheel locks and the tire begins to slide, especially in the wet or in snow. You can lose control of the car by locking the brakes.

I'm usually prepared to point the car at the shoulder and brake in areas where I know the hazard exists.

In case the comment was taken seriously, no, don't grease the rotors.

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CC: NSA

All things are burning, know this and be released.

82 Benz 240 D, Kuan Yin
12 Ford Escape 4wd

You're four times

It's hard to

more likely to

concentrate on

have an accident

two things

when you're on

at the same time.

a cell phone.

www.kiva.org It's not like there's anything wrong with feeling good, is there?

You should get a better hobby than arguing on the internet this one is not working out very well.

Next time you have .26 seconds to avoid death, and after your .15 to .25 sec reaction time is over you go ahead and modulate your self right into eternity... These cars do not have anti lock breaking systems so locked up is all you get in an emergency stop, this car handled the situation in a predictable and easily controlled fashion with a stopping distance of about 150ft the tires on my car are almost new.(which by the way has more effect than the brakes in this case so check them too) If I was in my F350 with antilock brakes that girl would probably be in big trouble... I was able to brake from 65 to a stop in about 150 ft while turning out of the way the first 20ish were locked up the breaks released smoothly and stopped the car with no fade. I think that speaks volumes about the quality engineering that went into these cars 35 years ago, that after 100's of thousands of miles they can still perform this way when properly maintained.

Stay safe