O.K. have driven my ML in a while. So I don't remember how it was. On my other cars with no gas in gear rolling forward I notice the breaks start to engage say after press down on it say 1/2" and I can stop the car rolling when I push it down say a inch. But on the ML I notice it start to engage say an inch depress and I can't really stop ML until I depress the breaks 2 plus inches. Seem to be a spoongy between the break engaging and stopping

In normal driving I don't seem to have any problem stoping. I did not do a full break test, but I have taken it to 25-30 miles and apply 3/4 break and it seem to be o.k. although sluggish.

I am trying to ask if this normal for a ML and if not what is going on.

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Silver Honda Accord, 2006
Silver G500, 2003
Silver SLK-320, 2002
Black ML-320, 2000
Bule Porsche 993 Targa , 1997
Silver Merkur XR4Ti, 1987

That's just the breaks!

Frank. Are saying that is how ML breaks are suppose to be???

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Silver Honda Accord, 2006
Silver G500, 2003
Silver SLK-320, 2002
Black ML-320, 2000
Bule Porsche 993 Targa , 1997
Silver Merkur XR4Ti, 1987

blueman:

You may wish to consider that the expression,
"That's just the breaks!"
falls in the same category as "That's the way the cookie crumbles", or, That's how the ice cream drops".

On the other hand, some cars, from time to time, do exhibit faults with their brakes.

Blau, as you are finding in this and another of your threads, Frank is full of one liners that don't offer any information.

I've never been too impressed with the brake feel on my 97 SL320 and 97 C280. The SL has braking action as soon as you press the pedal however the response isn't linear making slow speed braking not so smooth. There is initial braking but pedal travel in the middle does little until you push farther then more braking suddenly occurs. This isn't a case of the brakes suddenly grabbing due to a lining issue.

Some master cylinders have a stepped bore and a quick take up valve, not sure if MB uses this or not. The quick take up larger bore is high volume / low pressure to get the calipers pistons against the pads and the smaller bore is low volume / high pressure to provide braking action.

If the transition is too early modulation is difficult and the pedal will be long. The human foot reacts much better to more / less pressure on the brake pedal than it does to more / less travel. Ideally, the brake pedal will not move at all and just react to force but this isn't possible with a regular system.

The C280 has an annoying initial high pedal force for the first 1/2" of travel then normal after that. This also makes it difficult to modulate the brakes because you are braking through a spring "hump".

If you have bled the brakes and had no improvement, another thing to throw into the mix is the ABS unit might have some air hiding in it. I'm wondering if using a scan tool to operate the ABS or a few hard stops to get it working would do the trick.

My 99 Ford Ranger has brakes that are great to modulate, the feel rivals the hydra boost unit on my 1980 Chevy 1 ton truck. ( the hydra boost unit is as close to a zero travel as you can get with a standard master cylinder. )

My ML is a W166 so not the same, but very solid pedal and linear feel, as good as any Audi or Mercedes I've owned. It does not sound normal to me.

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Gone to the dark side

- Jeff