Over the weekend, Mercedes-Benz announced a global recall campaign encompassing nearly a million vehicles it believes could be afflicted with faulty brake boosters.
“We have found that in some of those vehicles, the function of the brake booster could be affected by advanced corrosion in the joint area of the housing,” the automaker explained in a statement.
While the issue is global, the United States is believed to account for roughly 300,000 units, with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) advising against driving any vehicle involved in the recall. Affected units will undoubtedly offer lowered braking performance and can even cause total brake failure in some instances. Rare or not, the NHTSA feels this one is simply too risky to chance.
Affected vehicles include GL, ML, and R-Class Mercedes-Benz products manufactured between 2006 and 2012 (a comprehensive list is available here). U.S. regulators are basically going off the MBUSA recall report citing the possibility for moisture to accumulate and cause corrosion within the brake booster housing. The planned fix involves having dealers look at the entire unit and replace them “as necessary.”
Mercedes said there were no known injuries relating to the matter. However, the NHTSA is mighty concerned about a potential vacuum leak creating problems for people on the road. A leaky booster will probably result in a mushy or unresponsive brake pedal and longer stopping distances on the road. Due to the potential hazard (and risk of outright brake failure), the agency has advised all owners not to drive any model under recall until it’s been serviced.
Mercedes first noticed the issue in 2021, launching an internal investigation that fall. The automaker felt confident that the risk was sufficient to launch a recall by May of 2022 and made a formal announcement over the weekend.
Those concerned about their vehicle can toss their vehicle identification number (VIN) into the NHTSA database or use the recall campaign code 22V315000. Alternatively, customers can also contact Mercedes-Benz directly at 1-800-367-6372 or use the NHTSA safety hotline at 1-888-327-4236.
[Image: Mercedes-Benz]
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The best or nothing. Imagine driving Mercedes at 280 km/h on the autobahn and then brakes fail. What are you going to do? May be some kind of ejection seat may help? Deadweight?
Well, the youngest vehicles in this recall are 10 years old. At what point in a vehicle’s life does “potential design flaw” give way to “neglectful ownership?”
1. I have never seen an owner’s manual that described inspecting the internal components of a brake booster for hidden corrosion as standard maintenance.
2. How exactly is one supposed to detect this?
3. Other 10-year-old cars don’t seem to have this problem.
The GL is unstoppable.
Well played
Exquisite panel alignment though… we should focus on that.
This will get expensive.
The bigger question is who is the supplier of the brake booster and are these boosters (or of similar design/type) in any other manufacturer’s vehicles? If there are, are they having the issues, and if not why?
I brake for unicorns.
GL, ML and R class.
The opposite of Mercedes “Greatest Hits”. I’ve had long and non productive consultations from owners of two of those cars….the Benz version of a Vega or Pinto.
I’m going with these cars are now on the 4th owners at least, and given the cubic depreciation they’ve undergone, these are the least of the car’s problems.
There is an R500 AMG out there to prove me wrong…one of them.
Given the amount of vacuum leaks I see on 15 yr old brands of “everything”, I really don’t see this as Armageddon.
Kudos to Mercedes for the recall. These are old cars, long past the original leasee and cpo owner. Unlikely they’ll gain new customers as a result of this.
I recently got a recall for my 15 year old car for a PVC heater replacement, also due to safety risks.
Carmakers aren’t in the habit of doing things out of the goodness of their non-existent hearts or because it’s the moral thing to do, but I will call out every time they do something good for customers who – as has already been stated – aren’t really even Merc customers.
They aren’t doing this out of altruism. They are doing it because they know that the defect is affecting brakes and a mandatory recall is almost certain. Better to be in front of the problem by owning it instead of the issue being broadcast on nightly news. Imagine the news story of a family being killed because a brake booster failed and the reporters document that the manufacturer is playing old GM and denying that anything is wrong…
I am fully aware. Worthy of an attaboy nonetheless.