While driving approximately 30 MPH along a straight paved road under clear conditions, the right rear tire suddenly locked. There was a loud screech from the tire. The car immediately fishtailed and swung the rear end of the vehicle into the oncoming lane and directed the car towards the sidewalk where pedestrians were walking. Thankfully, I was not traveling fast! After some research, this seems to be an very dangerous, yet relatively common, issue with mercedes. Despite the complaints, a the federal safety agency investigation into the faulty yaw sensor (turn rate sensor) was abandoned. Please reopen the case as this is a serious issue!
2001 Mercedes Benz SLK320 brakes complaints
Page 2 of 2: complaints 11 to 14 of 14, newest first, as owners wrote them.
The front passenger side brake came on for a few seconds.
While driving on a straight, smooth paved road, the right front brake suddenly locked hard enough to cause the car to suddenly jerk to the right and caused the tire to skid. I did not have my foot on the brake pedal at all. Immediately the vehicle's esv dash light came on. Had I not had a firm grip on the steering wheel to hold the car in the road, the car would have left the roadway. This is a very scary and dangerous defect. While reading posts in online forums, several people with these cars are having similar experiences. Below is a link to one such sight for you to research. Http://www.slkworld.com/slk-r170-general-discussion/10071-2001-slk-320-suddenly-brakes-bas-esp-light-comes.html I ask you to please reconsider and re-evaluate the defective sensor(s) failure causing the sporadic unintentional braking.
While driving at speed with weather conditions clear. The right front wheel locked up for a split second causing car to severely pull to the right into other lane, luckily no other vehicles were around and esp/bas light came on and stayed on until restart. Problem then reappeared again at speed and weather clear triggering on and off making vehicle undrivable again luckily no other vehicles were involved. Please investigate this as it is not just happening on this model vehicle of mercedes benz. I have search online(esp/bas problems) at benzworld.com and also at slkworld.com and found numerous people looking into this ongoing problem. Mercedes more than likely has the repair records to support this if they are willing to step up to the plate and fix this sever safety issue.
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