ninfru

Hi,
Today during my Service A I was offered to do a "Cleaning brakes".
Apparently dealer takes brakes apart, takes off disks and clean it all. Calipers, brake pads, disks etc. And make sure all is Ok.
This supposedly prolong life of the disks and break pads.
The price tag is $99CAD + tax ($115CAD).
Mercedes Benz recommend to do it once a year.
Is it worth it?
I decided to do it.
I live in Montreal Canada and winters here are quite harsh with lots of salt on a road.
Thanks a lot for you opinion on a matter.

ps: Also, it was a part of the prepaid Maintenance service (I have one), but not anymore. I was assuming that if I have one, then I will not pay a penny to service my car. Beside changing breaks etc... I wonder if tomorrow MB will take away something else and I will need to pay...

MBKLUE

I would get the specifics in writing. At $99.00 I don't see that covering much more than them raising their garage door and driving your vehicle inside! Or did you mean price per "wheel?"

volkvin

In my opinion, sounds fake. They do this as part of servicing the breaks, along with lubricating the brackets and measuring break pad remaining width. I just did Service A at Lone Star (calgary) 490$ all in. I will continue bringing it by the dealership every 12 to 18 months, but will have my trusted mechanic do the 5k interval A service maintenance since i like his choice of materials better.

ninfru

No, this is a total price for all 4 wheels. I am planning to inspect it afterwards. Not sure exactly how thought. And of course I will get work order with details on what exactly being done..

ninfru

Does your 490$ Service A includes cleaning brakes? As it use to be included in Service A and B.
And Yes, I tend to agree that they try to sell all kind of services...

bop11

What do they clean? Never heard of it in 60 years of driving and 40 years of driving MB's. The wheels get dusty, the disc's get dirty form road grime but are cleaned every time you step on the brake. There better not be dirt in the caliper, so what possibly could they do? Spray it with brake cleaner? They wipe them off, measure the disc thickness and the pad thickness as a part of the normal service inspection. In PA we have to have this done every year. They have to indicate the actual wheel they inspected on the inspection sticker, but they always provide a sheet with the actual measurements for all 4.

ninfru

Well, I was told such cleaning is recommended by MB because of the harsh conditions here in Canada. True we do have a lot of salt on roads during our long winter. What dealer service shop did exactly? I did ask them. They said (and I watch them doing that): to completely take apart breaks and take off disks, clean it from dirt and salt. apply solution on a side of the pads so they will function without any resistance. and this is it, I guess... Was I taken for ride and paid for nothing? I still don't know. But it looks like nobody does it, so I would say yes. And most likely will not do it again. Thanks a lot for your input.
And last, but not least, MB service shop doesn't give us (at least me) much time to think with such surprises. I guess this is a part of the strategy to charge for all kind of services (needed or not!)... Thanks again.

bop11

Well actually $90 for removing all four discs isn't bad. And better the dealer because those disc's can be fairly hard to remove without the proper puller. I usually have to hammer at least one off but I am usually only doing that to replace them. The salt can gum up the guide pins and if you don't put a lot of milage on and therefore need to change your brakes every 2 years, this might not be a bad procedure. At over 25K /year I usually need to change them every second year anyway.

Diabolis

^ This. There is absolutely nothing to clean. The wheels are already off the car, so the ONLY thing they could do for your $100 is to spray some water or whatever it is they use down the vanes of the rotors to flush any residual salt that somehow might have been deposited there. And, I have yet to hear of any brake rotor rusting out from the inside due to salt corrosion or anythign else.

If a MB dealership actually recommendd that, I'd ask them to put it in writing what exactly it is that they do and for what reason (as in "what exactly are you cleaning and WHY does it need to be cleaned", not "because of harsh winters"), send it to MB HO just for kicks, and finally accept that the term "stealership" that some people use cound be in fact be warranted. That is bull, plain and simple.