Three problems related to cruise control have been reported for the 2001 Mercedes Benz ML320. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
The contact owns a 2001 mercedes Ml320. While driving approximately 65 mph the contact depressed the brakes and the cruise control would not disengage. The contact crashed into a ditch and was able to turn the ignition off. There was no mention of whether a police report was filed or if there were any injuries. The failure occurred intermittently. The vehicle was included in the recall under NHTSA campaign id number: 11v208000 (vehicle speed control:cruise control). The vehicle was taken to the dealer where the technicians were unable to provide assistance because they were unaware of the recall. The contact made several attempts to call the manufacturer and did not receive a call back with information about the recall repairs. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 85,000.
Mercedes benz has a serious design and quality control problem. While driving the brake switch fails causing the cruise control to accelerate. The Mercedes Benz service manager and lead mechanic both acknowledged and explained this problem to me noting that current models could suffer from the same design and they've been having problems with their vendor providing faulty brake switches. I was driving my 2001 Ml320 with cruise control at 60 mph. I tapped the brake to disengage the cruise control as I was exiting the freeway. The car began to accelerate. I braked harder and the car increased acceleration to the point of almost over powering my efforts to brake. I was panicked so I stepped on the parking brake, put the car in neutral, the engine raced harder and harder, as I pulled off the road and pushed the gear shift into neutral and turned off the car. The service manager and mechanic explained that by design if the brake switch fails then the cruise control won't turn off as it's supposed to when you apply the brake pedal. Furthermore the cruise control senses that the car is slowing down because I was braking so it increases the acceleration to get the car back up to the cruise control set speed. The more you brake the more the cruise control will force the car to accelerate. The mechanic said the solution was to manually turn off the cruise control, but I was so panicked that thought never occurred to me. If it was my wife or 16 year old son driving they would have crashed the car. The service manager acknowledged that Mercedes Benz is aware of the problem. They fixed my brake switch for free after hearing my scary story. I told them I thought they should have a recall to fix this design problem. The design should include a secondary brake switch or some type of automatic cruise control turn off function.
Tl - the contact owns a 2001 mercedes Ml320. The contact stated that while driving 65 mph on a curb using the cruise control, she tried to disengaged the cruise control but it would not stop. She also mentioned that in order to stop the vehicle she had to turned the vehicle completely off, as a result the vehicle ran off the road. The dealer was contacted who advised her to bring in the vehicle to run a diagnostic test. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure who did not offered any assistance. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 92,000 and current mileage was 93,000. Pm.