While I don't know much about the insurance aspect one thing that came to mind when talking about getting rear ended by some other car or truck setting at a stop light is to start taking off. If you just start rolling a little bit then the other vehicle has a much harder hit, if you do not take off at a all you'll be taking a good portion of it and they'll have less of a hit. Something I learned in physics.

One thing I wonder with as many of our MBs out there that are totalled or at least damaged by being rear ended (seems to be the #1 accident isn't it?!?) is it that our tailights just aren't bright enough? In the next few months I'll relay the brake lights and at least add a third brake light or both of the inner tailight bulbs, perhaps all three of those extra lights will be enough.

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Jeff M.
Mercedes W123 DIY pages are now located here.
1983 / 1984 300D Sold
2000 CLK430 Cabriolet ~58k Sold
2005 Avalanche 4x4 ~66k

If you're sitting still or in stop-and-go traffic and you see people coming up behind you, it gets their attention better if you step on and off the brakes to make your brake lights flash.

Especially in the early morning, when people are in a trance.

The flashing lights grab attention much better than steady brake lights.

The other thing that happened to a friend was while warming up his pickup parked at the curb. He had the lights on, and some woman in a trance drifted right into him - probably thinking he was the line of traffic.

So, don't be embarrassed to flash the brake lights and when appropriate the emergency flashers too.

Ken300D

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1982 300D at 351K miles
1984 300SD at 217K miles
1987 300D at 370K miles

ive thought of putting in a third brake light myself. im not sure what will work though. it would be nice to have an led one, but the only places i can see to mount it are the trunk lid or the back deck inside the windw. are there any off the shelf lights that will work.

has anyone mounted something that is redily available to their mercedes.

I've only had a person come up on me like that a few times, most of the times I just gunned it (fortunate timing). Then again my 225hp Grand Prix had a little better speed off the line than my MB does.

I haven't really started looking yet blacksmoke, if I go with the third brake light I'll use LEDs and put it at the top of the rear window. I don't know of any that would directly fit out cars.

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Jeff M.
Mercedes W123 DIY pages are now located here.
1983 / 1984 300D Sold
2000 CLK430 Cabriolet ~58k Sold
2005 Avalanche 4x4 ~66k

In either case, (with you moving or not), you cannot affect how much of a "hit" one car takes relative to the other car. The only things that affect how hard the "hit" will be are the differential velocity and the mass of each vehicle. If you start moving, each car will take less of a "hit" due to the differential velocity being lower. If you start moving before a collision, you might even avoid contact altogether. Of course, I am not an automobile safety expert, and you might actually cause a different accident if you try to move out of the way (hitting somebody else or someone).

SteveM

Well it is a transfer of momentum that takes play if you take off just a little bit. If vehicle 1 hits vehicle 2 at a stop vehicle 1 will nearly stop but vehicle 2 would launch like a jet. However if 1 hits 2 and 2 is moving then 2 still accelerates (no where near as much as before) but 1 is reflected which means they'll be much more likely to suffer whiplash and major car damage. No matter what the energy between the two will be the same, just the outcome of who gets more and who gets less.

Yes by taking off onto the side you could make a bad problem worse, in my instances the vehicle I was waiting for ahead of me just turned so I could take off in my own lane and leave the shoulder open if needed.

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Jeff M.
Mercedes W123 DIY pages are now located here.
1983 / 1984 300D Sold
2000 CLK430 Cabriolet ~58k Sold
2005 Avalanche 4x4 ~66k

Often when a friend is following me someplace at night they'll complain about my dim taillights. Replacing them hasn't fixed the issue, so I'm also thinking about rewiring the taillights and brake lights (already have a brake light relay in for a trailer hookup).

I've never gotten anywhere near being rear-ended myself, but better safe than sorry I guess! If anyone discovers a good third brakelight that would fid a 300TD, please tell :-).

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'81 300TD Wagon 355k (Miss Diesel)
'83 300SD 180k
'84 500SEL 190k (Parting it out)

Wouldn't upgrading to brighter bulbs solve part of the dim taillight problem? Anyway, I had my assemblies apart to get at the bulbs and I found my bulbs had a bit of film on them. I cleaned them up and they seemed a bit brighter. I then took the entire assemblies out to clean lenses, since they don't seem to disasemble, I took a five gallon bucket of mildly hot water mixed with some laundry detergent, sloshed them around and soaked them for a while, rinsed them and put them back together. They seemed even brighter after that.
I thought that these cars can take quite a hit before suffering any serious damage.

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DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012

If the bumpers lined up exactly perhaps that is true but those damn SUVs (silly useless vehicles) troll around here an awful lot and they'd reek havoc as they'd hit it in the trunk if it were an Excursion. Even most trucks would be well above the bumper....

See there is a trick to making more light, both of what you did were fair game and good ideas. I cleaned my bulbs off but never cleaned the housing out. However the cruise amp senses the amount of resistance there and if it is to much it is feared that the cruise amp can be damaged, that is why if you add more brake lights they have to be relayed.

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Jeff M.
Mercedes W123 DIY pages are now located here.
1983 / 1984 300D Sold
2000 CLK430 Cabriolet ~58k Sold
2005 Avalanche 4x4 ~66k

My cruise control doesn't seem to work right anyway so if I decided to going with brighter bulbs it wouldn't matter to me. I don't think there are too many of us out there that have good working CC's anyway. I could be wrong though.
How 'bout adding a big sticker in the back window that says,"Explodes on impact!" I know these aren't Ford products but maybe that'll get someone's attention.

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DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012

Then they'd be to busy in stop and go traffic reading it and thinking about it while talking on their cell phone & eating and slam their silly useless vehicle into you.

I can't think of any other reason why you can't go for brighter bulbs, just don't get crazy and melt something though. What would be nice is if you could find yourself something with about the same wattage in dim mode but brighter for the brake filament. I once was a click away from ordering all LED brakelights but never did because of this issue, and yes my CC works perfectly. The thing about LEDs is that they are much more vivid, but no where near as bright as regular bulbs. Most LED lights also don't use the reflector very much, it is mainly what shines straight back.

__________________
Jeff M.
Mercedes W123 DIY pages are now located here.
1983 / 1984 300D Sold
2000 CLK430 Cabriolet ~58k Sold
2005 Avalanche 4x4 ~66k