Merc sprinters button start - dangerous?

sudocremegg

Anybody drive one of the newer mercedes sprinters?

Our vans have been upgraded and all of our drivers are experiencing issues. The clutch is very sensitive and more prone to conking out.

The problem comes when you are moving off, say from a junction and conk the vehicle out. You can't restart the engine unless you come to a rolling stop. It seems pretty dangerous, and on numerous occasions I've had to come to a complete stop in the middle of a road simply to restart the engine and move off again with traffic having to react to the obstruction.

Now I know you're all going to say "don't conk it out", but we're all very experienced drivers in the job and this issue only started coming to light with 201+ reg's, and these things happen. The new clutches seem very sensitive compared to older mercs.

It's such a hindrance.

Speedline

Might be due to smaller engines. Aren't they a 2.0 now? I'd imagine they have less torque at low revs.

xtradel

I drive a 182 and I experience that problem also especially rolling into a roundabout in 2nd gear so now I pretty much have to stop until it pops into 1st and then tear the hole off the engine to continue! But yeah, having to stop, clutch, neutral and then press button hoping you wont die is a pain in the arse.

zg3409

On some VW's if they cut out, as soon as you press in clutch they automatically restart themselves to help you. Such a feature could be life saving.