Two Incidents: 1) June 4th: Going down a ~8% grade at approximately 25-30 MPH, towing an aluminum boat with working electric trailer brakes (~3000 lbs on trailer). The road was paved, dry and in good condition, no gravel. I was coasting in 2nd gear (manually selected) and vehicle was maintaining speed with no additional brake applications. I was not accelerating or decelerating. On it's own, the vehicle then downshifted into 1st gear taking the engine above redline, at the same time, the rear axle began hopping (actually skidding / chirping tires quickly), the engine began stalling / starting (Bucking), then the vehicle applied the throttle (again - no input from me) accelerating downhill. I pressed the brake pedal, but the pedal went to the floor and you could feel the ABS system was active, trying to prevent a ficticious skid. I shifted the transmission to neutral, and manually applied the parking brake to control the vehicle. Then the service engine soon, traction control, ESP and ABS lights illuminated on the dash. The vehicle then drove ok with lights illuminated. 2) After 2 days of driving in the campground, the lights (all of them) turned off. 3) On June 6th, pulling out of a gas station onto a road, the vehicle began bucking at approximately 15 mph, it then accelerated to ~45mph completely on its own. Once again - it completely ignored my brake command. We caught this incident partly on a cell phone video as it lasted for a 30 second or so. In both cases, cruise control was not active. This vehicles control system has a significant fault mode that puts the operator and passengers at HIGH RISK. Never should an ABS/Stability/Traction Control system fail that you lose brakes and it apply the throttle. The vehicle was checked in both March & April by Mercedes of Willoughby for bad ABS sensors as the lights have been illuminating on and off for over 1 year. 19,288 miles on the vehicle.
- NHTSA ID
- 11420002
- Incident
- Jun 4, 2021