toban

I have 252 miles on my new car. The front brakes are squealing when pressure is applied to them before you stop. I called the dealer and the service manager told me the brake pads on the new brake sytem are very hard and you have to press hard on the brake from time to time and it will go away but this is "normal"? He said with the big V8 engines, they put in bigger heavier duty brake pads and rotors for 2012.

I've seen others with the 2012's having concerns. I'm taking the car in next tuesday. What if anyhting has anyone else done to resolve this problem before I get there. I live 120 miles from the dealer. have other dealers addressed this issue as "normal"?

Sharing any info is appreciated.

Toban

MinnBobber

Hi,
have you seen any of the articles on breaking in new brakes?? Maybe someone can post a link.

The idea was new brakes (pads and rotors) need bedding in with each other thru some very firm use. The pads then lay down a very thin layer of brake pad material on the rotors.

The routine was something like do 6 very firm braking efforts from 45 mph to 20 mph and then speed up again. DO NOT stop (0 mph) as then the super heated pads stay in the same spot on rotor and leave a bad spot. Then something like 5heavy braking efforts from 65 mph to 20 mph and then speed back up to 65.

The article said babying your brakes when new leaves a glaze and results in squeeling brakes when applied lightly and uneven brake pulsing.

Arrie

Sounds like a bunch of BS to me to have to do all this on a car that is sold to a lot of older and not so tech savvy people. I don't thnik this all is needed.

Reason for problems is probably just with bad selection of materials, mainly the pads.

I have a 2010 E550 and had some noises intermittently when braking. And a lot of brake dust.

Went to Auto Zone and bought ceramic front pads. Think it was Duralast or something like that. They cost all of the $60 or so.

Changed them myself and learned three things.

1. Brake pad wear sensor is only one piece on each axle on passenger side. Sensor is super easy to change to the new pad, i.e. don't need a new sensor if it has not tripped yet.

2. Brake pad change is the easiest of all cars I have done it to and there are many. The pins that hold the pads in place come out by tapping in the end of them. No bolts to open. Do not open the big bolts that at first glance look like need to be opened. This will take the assembly apart and you are in trouble.

3. The jack that comes with the car is extremely easy to use. By far the best of any jack I have ever seen that came with any car.


Squeeling noises and brake dust are gone. Brake performane is very much the same as with original pads.

Reason why I did not change rear pads is that the Zone did not have them available. Will do this later though.

MinnBobber

[QUOTE=Arrie;5200252]Sounds like a bunch of BS to me to have to do all this on a car that is sold to a lot of older and not so tech savvy people. I don't thnik this all is needed.


You are certainly welocme to your opinion BUT many brake engineers highly recommend this procedure:

"Bedding allows your brakes to reach their full potential. Until they are bedded, your brakes simply do not work as well as they can. If you've installed a big brake kit, changed your pads and rotors, or even purchased a brand new car, you should set aside time to bed the brakes according to the instructions below. Proper bedding improves pedal feel, reduces or eliminates brake squeal, prevents (and often cures) brake judder, reduces brake dust, and extends the life of your pads and rotors. For more details on the theory of bedding, please refer to this article by Centric Parts: Pad and Rotor Bed-In Theory, Definitions and Procedures"

Will brakes work without this procedure? Certainly?
Will your brakes work better and last longer with this procedure? The experts agree that they will.

Procedure details from website:
From 60mph, gently apply the brakes a couple of times to bring them up to operating temperature. This prevents you from thermally shocking the rotors and pads in the next steps.

Make eight to ten near-stops from 60mph to about 10-15 mph. Do it HARD by pressing the brakes firmly, but do not lock the wheels or engage ABS. At the end of each slowdown, immediately accelerate back to 60mph and then apply the brakes again. DO NOT COME TO A COMPLETE STOP! If you stop completely and sit with your foot on the brake pedal, you will imprint pad material onto the hot rotors, which could lead to vibration and uneven braking.

The brakes may begin to fade after the 7th or 8th near-stop. This fade will stabilize, but not completely go away until the brakes have fully cooled. A strong smell from the brakes, and even some smoke, is normal.

After the last near-stop, accelerate back up to speed and cruise for a while, using the brakes as little as possible. The brakes need only a few minutes to cool down. Try not to become trapped in traffic or come to a complete stop while the brakes are still very hot.

David Bajayo

My E550 4matic 2012, does not squeal. The brakes sound like a cow being butchered. Pads and rotors have been changed. The cow sound just returned again. Tha car has 7k miles, has been on the dealer 7 times. This is my first mercedes ever and probably my last, I traded my old M5, huge mistake. Seventy eight thosand dollar car should not have this problem and regarding bedding , t might be true but with all the money I paid the dealer should know that and do it before returning the car to me. As soon as I get some equity I am getting a Beemer.

RJC

Been through this crap with MB before; it's the rotors and they're slightly out of spec which causes a vibration and squeak.

Kar don

my bluetec took forever to stop, felt like the pedal did nothing (over exaggerating) when brand new. At about 300 miles the brakes felt like they had a lot more bite and it kept improving until about 800 miles.

KNS Brakes

Pad bedding is real. Brakes work by a process called adherent friction. In short - the pad materials transfer on to the rotor surface - and then form, break, reform chemical bonds which are the fuel for deceleration.

If the transfer layer is thin or uneven - judder and/or squeal and/or poor performance are the result.

As typical of MB and German cars in general - the pads are pretty aggressive especially as compared to the ceramic type Japanese pads.

This topic and more are well discussed on Stoptech's website.

http://www.stoptech.com/technical-su...l-white-papers

RRRR

I have the E550 cab. Four changes of pad and rotor. Squeals like pig. So you go through the drive through (Tim hortons) and when you start rolling, squeeeeeeeeeel! Embarrassing at that. 12000 km now and still squeals. Tired of returning to the dealer. The other fellow is lucky at 70 thousand , mine is at 100 thousand fully optioned.

Mr. I'm Tired... Of this.

MinnBobber

Have you tried the suggested "bed in" procedure for new pads/rotors? One of the many benefits is helping to eliminate brake squeal.
It's worth a try.

Johnny Mo

Right after I got my new 550 I noticed immediately that there was a bit of vibration under hard braking. I read up all I could on bedding brakes etc and followed the procedure...now I'm at 2500 miles and I feel no vibration under hard braking.

Take it for what's it's worth, but I know guys on the Lexus forums that did big brake upgrades and there were several conversations on the same process to follow.

I agree that while most folks buying these cars wouldn't do, nor would they know where to find out how to bed the brakes, but for those of us that do -it's worth it to try - you're not going to hurt anything.

toban

Hi, I'm the original poster of this thread.

I just wanted to tell everyone I have 1670 miles on my new 2012 E550 Matic and the brakes have been squealing off and on since it left the showroom. I have bedded the bads a couple of times and seems to be good for awhile but then it starts again. I was going down the main street today of the small city we live in and came to a stop at a red light and sure enough the brakes were squealing loud and clear. A friend saw me stop and called over jokingly, Hey Jim, I guess that's the noise you get when you buy those Mercedes Benz cars!"

I called the dealer again and said I've had enough of this. I paid in the mid 90's fully loaded here in Canada and don't expect squealing brakes. I told the service writer who is a knowledgeable guy that the service mgr told me a couple of months ago that the brake pads were so hard I will get some squealing and there's nothing that can be done about it other than to press hard down on the brake pedal and it will go away. HHUUMM! They were squealing as I took the car off the lot when I bought it.

Anyway, I have an appt for Oct 1 because the dealer is 130 miles away. They said they would check it out and try to correct the problem. He agreed this is not something that should be happening but apparently not the only model squealing. He said the 350's also squeal. I'm holding my breath. We will see what happens.

Frutrated owner. Other than this, the car is fantastic in every way. I love the car, the apperance and the performance plus it gets pretty good gas economy.

Toban

jjones

Suggest, you try Porterfield R4S compound (that I sell) which includes an anti-squeal kit and proper bed-in procedures. 80% less dust, much higher heat tolerance 1,100F vs 600 factory, better stopping power and rotor friendly. www.ForMyMercedes.com

johniew398

[quote=MinnBobber;5200324]Ok, my wife's SL550 has break squeal, she says a lot.

I looked up the answers above and we took it out this afternoon and followed the procedures.

Our dealer also said this was normal and nothing was wrong.

I told her if this doesn't shut it up we will try the procedure one more time and then we are taking it back to the dealer. This car cost $111,000. I don't expect that from $100k+ cars and I have had a couple before.

My daily driver is a $26,500 Fiat 500 Abarth and GIMME A BRAKE, it hasn't given me a bit of trouble and the brakes don't squeak?

toban

What do you do when the district Mgr for Mercedes Benz tells you there is nothing he can do to fix the squeal? He told me he doesn't want to put new pads and rotors on as it will happen again.

He said he's going to write the head office a report on this and hopefully Germany will suggest some changes to remedy the problem. He said the E550 and the SL 550 have a braking system for high speeds. Babying the brakes will cause the squealing. I said one can't be racing around and braking hard to avoid the squealing! He stood there looking at me. The service Mgr was speechless.

I told him I was going to send a letter to the head office and he said you can do this but it will come back to him. The Canadian cars have a 2 year warranty on brakes and the car is 6 months old.

I'm really upset with no answer and no suggestion. Just a " go away". I've done the bedding of the brakes etc.

Anyway, we will see what they are going to do. He almost suggested I bought the wrong model with high speed brakes.

I'm ticked and disappointed.

Toban

johniew398

I know these cars high braking systems for high speed; but, so did my 2009 Vette ZR1 (ceramic brakes) and I would imagine my Viper ACR would be considered a high speed car. Neither one of them required bed-in and the brakes never made a noise. Well, I did have a noise on the ACR; but, they had to changed out the emergency brake pads; but, that's a little different.

I exchanged emails with our our sales person and he wants me to bring it in; but, I am going to let her wait and see if the bed-in accomplished anything.

Will let everyone know.

Arrie

The whole talk of bedding the brakes is big BS! There is no need for that!

The only "bedding" you might need is when you change the pads only and the rotors have the small grooves worn on them. It will take a few miles driving with use of brakes to have the new pads to wear to meet those grooves.

It is quite obvious Mb uses very questionable brake components. I mean the rotors and especially the pads. Squeeling sound from the brakes comes from vibration of the rotors. There is nothing else in the brake system that can vibrate with high enough frequency to produce the high pitch noise.

What then makes the rotor to vibrate? Bad pads!!!

Yes, MB should fix their problem under warranty but the dealers can only use MB parts, i.e. the same sh.. they build the cars with.


Do you a favor and get 3rd party ceramic pads. The problem will be solved and then go talk to your service advisor with other customers present and LOUDLY state how you solved the brake squeel issue. And then go tell this to the service manager too.

Very good pads cost very little compared to the time you spend with the dealer with no solution to the problem.

A couple of months ago I installed myself front ceramic pads from AutoZone that cost less than $100. Just a week ago I installed AutoZone semi metallic pads on the rear wheels (they don't have ceramic). I have no brake squeel and the best part is I have no brake dust on either axle. And braking performance is BETTER than with the OEM pads. I have DISTRONIC and it clearly is better stopping behind the car with the 3rd party pads.,

After both brake pad jobs the only "pedding" I did was to drive 1/2 miles on my neighborhood roads to use the brakes hard to make sure they are all the way agaist the rotors. Speed limit is 30 mph.

Some years ago pads came with some protective coating on them that you had to grind off of them but now there is nothing on them.

Wake up people. Brakes are not that difficult and certainly do not require "pedding" procedures as some posters claim. These come from dealers who don't know how to fix the problem with their very highly priced cars.

Live Oak

Y'know, this brake squealing thing is simply ignored by the dealership, because there is apparently nothing they can do about it and MBZ won't address the problem. The SA essentially says it's normal. The techs suggest I must be a bad driver. (14 new cars, in 47 years, and I've NEVER had squealing brakes; suddenly I don't know how to drive. And NEVER ride the brakes.)

And this is embarrassing for Mercedes Benz.

I live in a community that is a prime source of Mercedes customers. The ZIP code is in the top 15% of household income. A lot of high-end cars. It's a close community, everybody talks to everybody else. Most spend at least some time at the local "Mercantile" and associated businesses. When I drive my 550 into the lot, and the brakes go "SQUEEEEEL!" people turn around and look. Then I get the very careful question, "How do you like your Mercedes?" with the unspoken question, "Does it always make that much noise, and are the brakes any good?" And then, when I back out of the parking place, "SQUEEEEL!" and everybody turns and looks again.

I can only imagine how many sales Mercedes has lost in this community because of this one extremely noisy E550 --- and how many sales BMW has gained.

ImInPA

If brake squeel is causing folks this level of embarassment, I would suggest you either join a different country club, get third party brake components, or, just get one of the nice cars your neighbors drive without the brake squeel.

Live Oak

It's not my neighbors who are embarrassed, it's Mercedes. And I think that's a shame.

And, after paying $70,000, why should I get third party brake components????? JEEEEZ!

leapingpoint

As others have said above, it's the pad bedding. If you don't drive your car often, you have higher chance of getting the squeaky sound from your front brakes. Some have mentioned that they don't get this from other cars that they drive drive daily. Yes, it's because you drive them daily.

Simply bring your car up to speed then apply the brake several times, the squeaky sound will go away.

Live Oak

WRONG!!!!

Our car is driven every day. Locally, and on the Interstate. 30,000 miles in < two years, after all. I've even tried a "bedding" a few times, and it makes no difference.

And why do all our other cars, with the same driving pattern, not squeal?

SQUEEEEL!

Arrie

Forget the pedding! There is no such thing needed, period!

Bad brakes squeel regardless what you do. Brakes should not need to be babied like this. They need to work from the first drive without issues.

Right thing to do is use good quality components, i.e. pads and be free of trouble.

If you go to Europe it i very common to hear brakes squeel on very many cars and people do not pay attention to it. Here in U.S it is a big deal. If I had the problem I could bug my dealer for it but I don't as I want clean dust free pads anyway and that is what the dealer does not have. So, I get third party pads of good quality with no dust or squeel issues. Problem solved and no more embarrassing squeels in the parking lot of my club.

johniew398

Ok, we used the procedures for bedding as some of you have suggested. The noise went away for maybe two days and then
came back as before.

I took it in to the local dealer and I didn't need to tell them as when I pulled in to the service entrance it was literally howling.

They took the brakes a part they said and cleaned the pads, was quiet for maybe one day and is now back almost as loud

I have an appointment to take it back in on Monday.

If I have to I will just go buy the brake pads and have them install them although I am sure they would say it voids the warranty.

Live Oak

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