... and a brake pump that is known to fail without warning that costs a few grand! ....
I don't have SBC braking on my Merc. But SBC brakes don't fail without warning. Mercedes in their arrogance designed a 'fly by wire' braking system that had a design life of so many brake pedal presses before the system said ....... ' I need a new pump before this one dies'. And it's 'only' about £1500 . I believe Mb have started selling re-furb'd SBC pumps
There have been quite a few posts on MB forums where they do apparently fail with very little warning. Here's one:-
"today one of my dad's friends told him his 2004 E240 just had a complete brake failure. Fortunately he was not driving fast and he was able to roll to a stop. He said the warning lights came up suddenly and he lost all braking pressure, he was practically standing on the brakes but there wasn't any braking pressure at all. He sent the car in for repair, the mechanic replaced some 'computer chips' and the car is back to normal. I don't know if the car has undergone all the required recall services, and I don't know the exact repair performed by the mechanic.
The exact same problem has also happened to my dad's other friend's 2003 E320, and my friend's dad's 2002 E320.
From what I have seen and read, there is no hydraulic backup system (Gullwing can correct me if I am wrong), so the brakes become completely unassisted when the electronics goes down, and whatever tiny brake pressure your foot would generate were only applied to the front wheels. "
Steve