Experience with Distronic

[Guest bbwannabe]

Hello all,

Just want to share the experience I have (or having) with the Distronic on the W211 over the past few days. Yeah yeah, I know. It is a dated piece of tech especially so with the Distronic Plus already available years ago. (The LS460 had it 10 years again, many others before that)

Anyway, I got the parts myself from Steve (MBenzNL) and Mitesh (NavDoctor) was so kind to install it for me. We had some fun retrofitting my W211 with it. It was quite a fast install, maybe 1.5 hour install? Less if you have Parktronic installed as he wouldn't have to run one additional cable to the gear shift area.

SAFETY WARNING: KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE ROAD AND NOT ON YOUR BLACKBERRY OR DASH BOARD WHEN USING THE DISTRONIC! ALSO, THIS ARTICLE IS ONLY AN ADVICE NOT AN AUTHORITATIVE SOURCE OF INFORMATION

Ok, now that is out of the way.

Distronic is awesome! Everyone should tick this option when buying the car. Haha... I traveled on the expressway 6 times with it turned on and I touched the pedals barely 6-7 times!

Things I like:

1. New safety features! It warns you if you're about to crash into something at your speed. If you brake immediately, chances of you NOT crashing is greatly reduced!!! This feature is on even if Distronic is off. (But it has to be installed lah!) It will beep and flash a red icon in the dash. Tried it myself, it really works.
   
2. The mechanism for slowing up and speeding up is quite elegant. (see Things I noticed)
   
3. You can set the aga safety distance you want to keep with the car in front. (Close, Normal, Far).
   
4. I know exactly what speed the car in front is travelling at cause my car will drive at that speed too. Heehee...
   
5. (need to verify fact) - it supposedly will brake with up to 40% brake power when a crash is imminent. Full braking power 0.6s before the actual crash if you still haven't step on the brake.
   

Things I do not like:

1. It detects motorcycle only if they are not on the road line. So if it is largely in the center it will be fine. (Geeky answer: divide the lane into 5 section, center 3 sections will be detected)
   
2. I could no longer specifically set the Cruise Control to say 99km/hr (+9 is the limit for white ant!). As it works in ranges of 10 now (80, 90, 100). However, you can still drive to the speed you up and then activate Distronic. It will limit to whatever speed you were driving at (a workaround I guess).
   

Things to note:

1. It ain't for city driving. Cause you have to stop the car yourself.
   
2. Now that the car actively sense for danger in front, it might give you warnings you're already aware of. (it beeps and flashed when I was going to brake at the same time. kinda normal for me to brake at that moment any way)
   
3. Distronic only works if there is something MOVING in front of it (read Things I noticed)
   
4. You can turn off the beeping and keep the flashing icon. (not that it is beeping all the time, only when shyt happens)
   
5. It only brakes with only 20% braking power! Meaning even if it wants to brake quickly (eg when car cuts in abruptly) it might not be able to.
   
6. IMPORTANT! There were 2 instances when the car was unable to slow down. One instance was a car cut in abruptly and was too close for Distronic to react. In this special case, I had brake myself, not jam brake but still supply quite a bit of brake. In another, it was red light and the car in front had stopped, I slowed down all it could then flashed and beep to alert me to brake manually and I did. (I was testing it and it worked :whistle:)
   

Things I noticed:

1. Abruptly changing lanes works. It detects a car in the new lane in less than 1s.
   
2. It detects motorcycle. (Caveat mentioned above)
   
3. (need to verify) - If there is a vehicle in front and you signal to change lane and then change lane, the car speeds up to your desired speed quickly.
   
4. (need to verify) - If you don't signal, it speeds up, well, not as quickly.
   
5. If you go around a large bend (think CTE to BKE filter road, or PIE to ADAM [or is it Thompson??] road), and you were following a car, it will maintain roughly that car's speed for the whole bend (say 50km/hr). Why is this amazing? Because when you go around a bend, it will lose the lock on the car in front. So it is smart enough to know that you're negotiating a bend or direction change and not speed up to 120km/hr (that you set earlier)!
   
6. It will not speed up if you move the steering wheel (changing direction).
   
7. It detects cars straight ahead of the car ONLY. This removes a LOT of false readings.
   
8. (Geeky alert) It works by calculating relative velocity. So stationary objects just gets ignored!
   
9. The speed up method is quite elegant. When you drive behind a car that is far away (further than your safety distance), it will speed up to the average of your desired speed and that car's speed. So it will not need to brake too much when it reaches the safety distance and yet it is fast enough to get to the safety distance that you will not complain its damn slow.
   
10. If a car cuts in abruptly but is traveling slightly faster than you, it will show a solid red icon warning and slow down a bit but NOT JAM brake. Which is really nice because it is unnecessary to do so! The car will travel out of your way quickly anyway.
    
11. It warns if you cars suddenly appear in your safety distance with a solid red icon. It will not flash and beep if it seems 'safe'. (read above) Kinda like a reminder that you're too close to the car in front.
    

[Guest blackknight]

good review! wonder what was the costs of parts and install?

[Guest bbwannabe]

just another update, did 4 more runs on expressway today. 0 pedal work. hahaha. laziness is the way to go!

hmm... might be best to check with him directly. he said i was a robert to pay that price. haha...

[Guest jenvid]

U need to upgrade distronic plus bro... Thought it was standard in the new E350.. Once you tried Distronic Plus, there's no turning back... keke...

[Guest bbwannabe]

ar bor. i not richie enough for w212 or w221 leh! if got i sure whack. for now i shall be content with this. hahaha...

[Guest dav1dyeo]

Hi Bro (bbwannabe),

Can share where you got your parts ( Distronic ) from? Got web address?

David

[Guest bbwannabe]

replied to your pm!

[Guest Jarebbsg]

bbwannabe wrote:

ar bor. i not richie enough for w212 or w221 leh! if got i sure whack. for now i shall be content with this. hahaha...

Hi bbwannabe, can advise where you install your Distronic?

Estimate how much $$$? important deciding factor

I will check with them if they have Distronic Plus given it is April 2011 already.

Thanks.

[Guest rssid]

OPTION: DISTRONIC/PROXIMITY CONTROLLED CRUIZE CONTROL [219]

Distronic module (radar sensor): A2045400017

There ya go !

Credits

http://www.mbworld.org/forums/c-class-w204/286291-w204-rare-factory-exotic-options-backup-camera-distronic-tv-tuner.html

[Guest bbwannabe]

the installation is brainless for Distronic. Not sure about the complexity for Distronic Plus though. Anyway, free free to contact Steve for parts.

http://www.mbenznl.nl/

got it from him. he is quite famous.