While no longer the season (It's 90 degrees here at the moment), I have been meaning to write this up for a while. I have now had exactly the same strange issue with both my old E280 4-Matic, and my current CLK500. In both cases, when at a stop on ice, and on a slope, one or both front brakes totally locked up, and it was impossible to get the car to move. With the E280, this happened going uphill, and with the CLK, it happened while going downhill, just in front of my garage.

Being a software guy, and suspecting that the old E280 and current CLK have the same generation of ABS (the new E320 ABS sounds totally different when active, but the two others sound the same), I suspect a software issue. The logic would be that the controller detects that the back wheels ares slipping, and that the car is under whatever speed allows the ABS not to release the brakes.

To free up the CLK, I had to melt the ice under the back wheels. Otherwise, there was not enough traction to force the front wheels to slide, then turn. With the E280, I had to have it towed, as I was worried about the brakes possibly locking up while driving normally. The local MB dealer found no fault.

Anyway, that's my theory. Any views?

Momo

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1990 500SL 65k km - until May 11 2004
2004 E320 4-Matic wagon
2004 CLK500 Cabrio from May 11 2004