On Thu, 12 Apr 2001, Coates, Clinton wrote:
:First off, the parking brake light on my 300D started acting up last week,
:flickering on and off at random intervals sometimes when hitting bumps in
:the road etc. I tried pulling the parking brake lever while toeing the
:pedal up to no avail. Put it down to screwy electrics and decided to fix it
:later. You know, probably a bad ground, loose connection with the pedal
:switch etc. It NEVER ocurred to me that the blasted thing was doing what it
:was designed to do, telling me that the brake fluid was low in one of the
:resevoirs... ;-)
The same light (I think, there might be a different one, but I'm not quite
sure) also tells you when the front brake pads are worn out. There's a
little sensor in them, and when they've worn away enough, it shorts to the
rotor lighting the light. Very cool. I've seen it in other cars since,
but I think it's a MB invention.
Another cool MB invention involving brakes (not in your 300D, though) is a
rate sensor in the brake pedal. Studies show that a fair number of
collisions would have been avoided if the vehicle had braked harder, sooner.
If the thingee detects that you put the brakes on hard, suddenly, it
provides max. boost from the booster, even if that pedal position wouldn't
normally get it.
-- dscheidt@tumbolia.com Bipedalism is only a fad.
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