ML320 ETS activating in my driveway?

[perdue]

I just bought a 2000 ML320. and am generally pleased, but it exhibits some strange behavior that I thought I'd ask about...

I have a relatively long and fairly steep driveway, but none of the vehicles that climb it daily appear to have any problems. My ML, on the other hand, seems ti "hang" when I first turn right onto the concrete drive and start up. The vehicle slows, there is a whining sound from the front end, pressure on the accelerator does nothing, and the triangular ESP/ETS icon flashes briefly in the dash. After a second or two of being stalled on the drive, I'm able to proceed.

I initially assumed that the ESP was mistakenly attempting to correct a "skid" because of the sharp turn involved, but turning the ESP off didn't correct the problem. Could it be that the ETS is kicking in, even in the absence of wheelspin, and robbing me of torque?

The dealer, of course, was useless: Responses varied from "We're downloading special software into your engine to correct the problem" (turned out to be a generic upgrade for cold-weather starting problems) to the ever-popular "That's normal."

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[AusMBtech]

The traction system can be a bit sensitive at times but the end result is worth it.

Has this fault just started or has it always done it? Simple things like tyre pressures and same wheel diameters can have a big effect on the ets performance.

You need to remember though, the ets system will "see" wheel slip before you do.......as much as we feel it's over reacting, it just doing it's job.

[perdue]

The ETS system (on paper, at least) was one of the things that attracted me to the ML320 in the first place....

It's just strange that a system designed to "help" your traction apparently has (for me) the effect of robbing my vehicle of momentum and momentarily stranding me on an incline. Even if the ETS is attempting to help, why does it take so long to give me back throttle on the hill? This occurs repeatedly in perfect weather (dry pavement); under icy conditions, it would make me very nervous that the car forces me to re-start the climb from a standstill in the middle of the driveway.

I'm willing to be convinced that this is somehow a "good thing" but it intuitively doesn't make sense to me.

Thanks for your reply...

[ML320guy]

As I understand the ETS system, turning it off only turns off the automated braking of individually slipping wheels. The traction system will still operate and its normal response to loss of traction is to take over engine speed to insure that the wheels have traction (a blinking triangle means that there is a loss of traction). It sounds normal to me, just slow down and let off the gas on the corner and you probably won't see the system "kick-in".