nickgailloux

Hey Guys,

I just had my brake wear sensor come on for the first time since I bought the car. I have 101,000km and I bought the car with 40,000km. I have never changed any pads or rotors so far. Its a manual so thats why the brakes have lasted this long.

I plan to change the pads on all 4 wheels because the parts don't cost that much and I'd rather do the work once rather than twice.

I need to figure out if the rotors need to be replaced. I can tell from looking that the front rotors definately have worn down. I bought a digital micrometer to measure so I need to know what the minimum or recommended thickness is, for the front and back rotors.

By the way its a 2005 C230 Sport so it has the big brakes on the front.

Thanks!

samaritrey

i would just say replace them for peace of mind. my cars rotors lasted till 100k i assume on replacement pads but really don't know.

alpinweiss

I recently replaced my front brakes. Interestingly, my rear brakes still have a lot of pad thickness, so I did not replace them. I was told by the Mercedes dealer that this is a typical wear pattern, and the rear brakes will last about twice as long as the fronts.

The front rotors on my C230K SS were deeply grooved and worn, so I did not even consider replacing the pads only. My rotors (330 mm) are cross-drilled, so machining was not a viable option for me. I therefore replaced the pads, rotors, and sensor with genuine Mercedes parts.

There is nothing special or difficult about the brakes. Resist the temptation to use the large torx-head bolts; use the 18mm hex-head bolts on the back of the hub assembly to release the caliper.

Norwichdelta06

you always use 70 percent of your fronts more then yuor rears. That's why you always change ur rears one every time u change ur fronts twice

hanknum

The min. thickness should be stamped on the rotors themselves. If they are grooved and/or warped and have enough "meat" on them, then you can have them turned. Even if they are in good condition, it is a good idea to have them turned or "slightly scuffed". When measuring with a micrometer, check a few different spots and make sure not to measure on the lip at the edge (if there is one).

230kDrew

My neighbor is a mercedes mechanic and told me the rotors on the benz's nowadays are really soft and his honest opinion was that turning hr rotors was never really too good of an idea because of this. He told me the best way to avoid having to buy new rotors was just to change your pads as soon as they start making noise, and also, if you make the decision to go with any pads other than the oem ones was to make sure not to be cheap... A few dollars more for good brake pads saves alot in rotors. I'm lookin at these edc yellow stuff pads because I do runs every once in a while and as the saying goes, if your gonna go fast, you better be able to stop fast.

Norwichdelta06

well our pads are 100 percent ceramic well at least i hope everyone did that......and if it starts makin noise that means it's the wear sensor scratching along the rotors which is not a good idea. I'm not sure if we have a wear sensor on the pad itself? never really looked into brakes on my car yet...but most cars i believe do have it built into the pad. And a rule of them when changing rotors is that if you can feel a lip around the rotor it's time to change them with the pads at the same time. And you are right with not going cheap on pads...probably the 1st most important thing not to go cheap on besides tires

e1000

Yes the minimum thickness should be stamped on the rotor, all good advice except I believe cross drilled rotors shouldn't be turned (machined). Unless there's a good reason to do so, machinging isn't a good idea, you're removing more material from the rotor, reducing it's ability to hold heat. My suggestion is if they're at this point, just replace them instead.

I would highly recommend against EBC pads in general.

MB oem is not ceramic. That's why they dust so heavily, but also have great initial bite and cold performance. Brake wear sensors on MB is not the typical clip type that produces noise as the pads wear down. It's a electrical sensor that is plugged into the pad and as the pad wears, trips the sensor. This will not make any more noise as the wear sensor is tripped.

As a general rule, the MB front rotors need to be replaced about every other set of pads. If there are any doubts, it's best to replace them with the pads.

230kDrew

why should i stay away from EBC? My friend and my neighbor (a mercedes mechanic) both highly reccomend ebc's

e1000

I've had nothing but bad luck with them, and I can find you at least a half dozen threads saying the same thing here. Almost all have been with RedStuff pads, but by the description of YellowStuff, I don't know if I'd want to use them on a street car anyway. Just my opinion.

230kDrew

yea my contact at pepboys said that red stuff, although lower dust, is a bit more bite than i'd want to use with stock rotors... but im curious now, what kind of problems have you had?

e1000

heat spots, terrible bite both when cold and hot, VERY VERY tough on rotors, excessive fade. Pretty much the worst pad I could have ever imagined. All these problems went away after I switched back to OEM. This is on RedStuff. Keep in mind the C350's got the slightly larger 4-piston fixed calipers and larger front rotors from the C32/C55. I'll never put anything from EBC on my car again. There's a thread going on RIGHT NOW in the W211 AMG forums about a guy having problem with his RedStuff pads too. Just terrible.

Moviela

I find the rotors today are only 1mm or so above the wear limit, so two sets of OEM pads just about finishes them.

Mercedes does not permit dealers to turn rotors because the workshop equipment lacks the precision necessary for modern braking systems.

The good thing is that the price of rotors has fallen by half since they wear out after two sets of pads.

The wear sensor is a loop of wire that is pushed into the pad. The CAN looks for the loop and signals a brake fault when the wire is broken. They are less then ten bucks and should be replaced when changing a pad that has a sensor. For reasons only known to the German brake faries the W203 has from one to four sensors. Many cars have only one on the front passenger pad. This means you need to physically inspect all eight pads when the wheels are off. Tires should be rotated each 6500 miles. If you have a staggered setup, well, you get to practice taking the wheels off, and put them back in the same place.

slammer111

The min rotor thickness is engraved on the rotors themselves.

The minimum thickness according to the SA is "the thinnest you can have while INSTALLING NEW PADS".

MB doesn't turn rotors. I'm sure there's a business reason behind that but what I do I know.

General rule of thumb - 2 sets of pads per 1 set of rotors.

230kDrew

Yea, after telling my friend that I had read these concerns, he said it was because the redstuff pads were too rough for the stock rotors and he only reccomdends yellow as a max unless I got differant rotors. MB OEM rotors are simply too soft for the redstuff pad and would be like scrubbing you *** with brillo pads, it will get the job done, but it's gonna hurt!

e1000

Isn't YellowStuff even more agressive than RedStuff? Thought Green was thier less agressive pad. Also, I haven't heard nearly the same complaints for other pads (Pagid, Hawk, Akebono, Axxis, etc etc)

230kDrew

well after looking at the ebc brakes website and talking to my friend, yes. yellow stuff is more aggressive. However, my friend said its something about the specific ceramic compound they use to reduce the dusting that makes them so terrible, as well as the fact that they take so long to bed in. he said that the green are just barely above your day to day house brand pads, and that unless the car is never going to race without proper heat up, no one should really use the blue stuff pads, they simply have to be on fire before they perform. must say though, the colors don't quite correlate to what one would think the gradation to go. if anything, it should be weakest to strongest blue, green, yellow, red. but i don't know who got paid way too much to assign them the wrong colors.

e1000

trust me just steer clear of the whole mess. Lots of other companies out there making great pads for these cars

alpinweiss

I used OEM Mercedes parts. After my Mercedes club discount, the dealership charged me a little over $300 for front pads, rotors, and sensor.

So, if someone has a strong preference for a particular aftermarket brand, they should go with that. But beware of false economy, if replacing with aftermarket parts simply for lower cost. Also, will the friction of the new aftermarket front brake pads match that of the existing factory rear brakes (if replacing only the fronts)?