Pauljay

Hi Guys

It's been done and now I believe I am the second person (1st in the UK) to do it! Dan **** (on the Forum was the first).

It is expensive if sourced from the dealer but parts are cheaper from Ebay and on the whole will be cheaper than buying a Big Brake Kit.

At the moment I've only done the fronts, in the New Year my rears will be replaced. To be honest I've had limited success. I've encountered a few unforseen obstacles which I've yet to get over!

A quick run down is:

1. Brembo 8 pot calipers are HUGE! The problem is their width.
To fit them you will need 12mm shims put behind the carriers so that they will clear the steering ball joint.

2. The mounting bracket holes are bigger than on your CLK struts and so the strut holes will have to be bored out a few more mm to bolt them on.

3. The dust shield on the hub prevents the calipers from mounting and will have to be removed.

4. 19in rims preferably, although 18s will fit if the wheel spokes are concave.

5. CLK spindles are smaller than the 360mm disc centers. I think you can change them over to W211 ones but I didn't. I left the slight gap alone as my wheels are holding the disc in place as well as the calipers and disc locator.

6. The discs and calipers are VERY heavy (20lbs a disc maybe, 10lbs for the calipers).



Here now are the problems:

A) Because the calipers are so wide and you have to space them away from the steering ball joint you are shortening the hub length pushing the calipers, disc and wheel closer to the edge. The wheel JUST sits on the hub and you will not be able to fit hub centric spacers. I needed to buy a longer locking wheel nut with the new longer nuts.

B) Your wheels are now at the edge of your front wings so if you are lowered like me you will need your arches rolled and flared.

C) Once again due to the width of the caliper on full steering lock you will hit your front anti roll bar. I didn't want to relocate it as I wasn't sure how the car would handle after. You will lose approximately the last 1/2 of a steering wheel turn lock to lock.

I can live with that though.

D) As I didn't change my spindle to the W211 one at 80mph I have a slight vibration on my steering wheel. I'm sure I can dial this out, but this is the first impressions before further adjustments.

E) Lastly, I haven't been able to bleed the brakes properly. I've tried the Star method where the computer does the bleeding for you (this is only for the W211 chassis), then I tried the pressurised method where you systematically bleed the brakes manually starting with Left rear, Right rear, Right front (inside nipple then outer) Left front (same two again).

I got a better feel when manually bled.

The problem is there is still air in the system. I've gone through 9ltrs of dot4 fluids and it's still there!



On driving I have a soft pedal but the brakes still work. Because of snow I haven't been able to do a proper test and get them hot.
The pads are ceramic and together with the discs have covered 3000k, their initial stopping power is good!

All in all I like the look. The calipers nicely fill the wheel, but I can feel the added weight, which gives the car a very slightly heavier steering (which I like because it feels positive). It hasn't effected the cars performance (then again my car isn't standard).

I've checked the seals and lines but there are no leaks. How can I effectively bleed the system and get a firmer pedal? What am I doing wrong?


Here's some phone pics I took. The last one is of my old EBC 320mm discs.

MarcusF

It's too late now, but bench bleeding the calipers may have saved you from the hassle of air in the lines. The spongy brake pedal began with, and may still be - air in the calipers.

Chappy

Cool project!!

Are the 208/55 hubs different than the 430?

Pauljay

Hi Chappy,

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction with Dan.

I don't believe the W208 55 hubs are different from the 430, even though you have a bigger brake caliper. When I contacted Dan he said he had the same problems that I faced.

The car feels good, but when you know it shouldn't be like that, I want to see if there's a fix.

Pauljay

Thanks Marcus!

I may have stumbled on a solution though.

The hard plastic tube that is a vacuum pipe for the master cylinder is old and brittle and has a crack. I've chopped out the cracked section (luckly it was the end going into the engine) and replaced it with a 1in section of rubber tubing.

I'll do another bleed in the New year once I've ordered a new pipe.

Chappy

Thanks for the feedback - great project - keep us updated!

bobbyjo9

That will only affect your power assist and if leaking badly, your idle quality. Sometimes a few hammer "taps" on the calipers will get the bubbles movin. Are you getting any bubbling back into the master? If you completly dried out the lines, you may have to bench bleed the master as well.

Johnpidge

Paul - nice (again!)

Pauljay

Hi bobby

I wasn't around when the initial bleed was done so I don't know if the lines were completly dry. I was getting alot of bubbles in the catch bottle, I didn't check the master.

The pipe needs replacing anyway so I guess it's a process of elimination.

Quick update:

The brakes are getting better the more they bed in. The pedal is still soft but I have good bite. Once fixed these brakes will be SUPERB!!


John

Cheers!

Butters

I have just joined the forum as I have recently acquired a 2000 CLK55. I have been wondering if it were possible to upgrade the brakes with OEM parts from newer AMG models so it's great to see this thread. Really nice upgrade!

Keep us posted with developments...

I'm only in Sevenoaks so not too far from you!

James.

Pauljay

Hey, thanks James.

Welcome!

I've been finnishing off my exhaust system and working on a custom tune for the motor.

The brakes once you get over the initial soft pedal have SO much power!

I've still to order the pipe and do a bleed (because of the above). There's one or two more changes to come, ie chopping and moving the sway bar mount. This will cure the calipers hitting them and I get full lock to lock steering back. It never really bothered me, but I've read that shortening the sway bar will actually stiffen the body more given the set length and diameter or it!

It should all be done in a week (bar the tune) so I'll post up then.

bigwill

hey pauljay,

how the bleedy hell did you squeeze a 55 in your 430! cos i'd like to know. i have a 430 cab and i think its just lacking that little extra bit of oooomph. i'm thinking of doing a AMG brake swap and want to know if there is a simplier plug and play, like 4-6 pot 330mm. someone on the forum did metion that the stock brakes are very good already (5ft more or less long to stop from 60-0 compared to a porche 911 - i could be wrong). so the question is - other than it looking better does it make that bigger of a difference for all the troubles you'd to go thru.

bigwill

Pauljay

Hi Bigwill,

When doing the 55 conversion the mechanicals are relatively simple, it's the ECU that's the problem. You can get around this by purchasing a new engine ECU or finding someone that is a good tuner and knows Bosch coding, that way you can still use your 430 ECU.

Everything bolts up and you can use all your cars parts even the transmission providing it is 'touch.' The question is cost. Can you get the engine and labour cheap enough?

The conversion only adds a little value to a 430s selling price (roughly on par with a high milage 55). Don't forget if you do it you have to do it right and change the exhaust, suspension, brakes and custom map.

I put the E55 brakes on because I had upgraded from stock 430 300mm calipers to Brembo 320mm ones. I still got fade sometimes and the pads (yellow pads) smoked. My cars is fully loaded and is therefore quite heavy so I needed something more substancial. All other big brake conversions ran into £4-5000 and so I went the Ebay route, £900 all in!

Stock CLK 55 brakes are good (as you know the brakes are only as good as the tyre and how big the disc circumference is) but this application addresses all my needs and cools the disc better more so looks fantastic!

The initial bite is good even with a spongey pedal, but the power is much better than my EBC brakes!

330mm will not require the surgury that I had to perform and will be cheaper. Depending on how you drive your car you may still overheat the brakes.

If you can do both cheaply like I did, what a beast!

bigwill

thanks for the valuable tips.....now i'm off to find a low milage 55 engine.

Pauljay

Hi Guys,

I haven't been on much lately because back in January when it snowned I hit some black ice on the Highway doing 70mph. I broad-sided, caught it but ran out of road and into the barrier!

My car was a write off economically because it needed a whole new front end, but I tell you, man our cars are TOUGH!

I bought it off the insurance and have been fixing it up. It's now back together with a new updated front bumper, I'm just waiting on my clear Halos to finish it off.

Getting to the point, I've had a few requests wanting an update so here it is.

Before the crash I chopped 4in off either side of my front anti-roll bar. This made it much stiffer than before, to the point where the rear lost traction on hard cornering. (Something to do with roll resistance). Anyway I looked up why this was happening on the web as I was sure the front would break loose first. (Don't forget that I have Eibach anti-roll bars front and rear plus Ashs front and rear tower struts).

Lucky for me the tower struts have some adjustment so I dialled out the front and dialled in on the rears. I had to do several test drives to get the ride quality and handling right. She now has race car handling!

Moving on to the calipers, I haven't touched them. Acually I did add a shim to fit into the tiny gap between the spindle and discs. My wheels can now be taken off with out the discs moving position. This also cut down the slight vibration.

As the pads and disc mated together the feel and bite got better. I still have a soft pedal initially (a bit like our accellerator pedal with the first inch or two nothing then you get action) but the brake performance has risen.

Now blasting in to bends I can brake late and corner much harder with confidence and a smile on my face.

Aside from the minor alterations this transplant is well worth doing if funds allow.

mikata

Hi Pauljay, I'm glad Í found this thread. I have been searching alot on google for this conversion but haven't found alot.

I have a CLK 320 W209, and I have been really keen on doing this caliper upgrade myself. Would you recommend me doing this or is it too much of a hassle?

Thanks!

Pauljay

Hi Mikata.

I would definately do the conversion again!

Some people don't like to mess about with what's not 'factory'.

If you want the looks as well as performance, do it!

Cost maybe the only definining factor.

mikata

Good to hear!
Me, I dont mind if it's "not factory". I might get the 6/4 pot calipers from CLK63 new instead.
They are basically plug and play for my car which would be easier for my part to find a mechnic here that could do the job.
I think it's really cool that you have the E55 brakes and now I know it can be done

Pauljay

Good luck with your project mikata.

It's good to know the CLK63 brakes will fit!

Please post pics when done.

mikata

Thanks Pauljay! Will do
This project will take some time, but when it's done I'll post some pics!
Thanks for the help!

corsair944

Hi Everyone, I know this thread is 5 yrs old, but Im in the process of doing this.
Has anyone used the W211 hubs in this upgrade?
I just bought a set of 06 E320 hubs they bolted on perfect but the anti skid sensor is totally diffrent. I looked at pics of E55's and they appear to be the same rear mount sensor.
I did a car-part hub search and R230 comes up the same. I have a 03 SL500 so I took the wheel off and the sensor is rear mount also.
Any input gang?

corsair944

My W208

corsair944

W211 E320, smooth with no notches for sensor pick up

cm60k

Why messing with differ hubs..!?!, they got differ off-set & differ internal, especially
in the Rear (where the hub mount at the hub lip)..!!

you can simply use your hub, if you want to go with 55K brakes..!

ZAYED,,

corsair944

Hi Zayed, Im just trying to use the set screw to keep the rotor flush to the hub.
In the original post here it was mentioned but no one really said if there was a particular W211 hub that was used (E320, E500 or E55)
Calipers will be finished today. Will post pics