C300 4matic I know it depends on type and style of driving but I'm just looking for a realistic expectation. Thanks.

 

City, 20k Highway 50k mixed 50/50 30k, In my past experiences.

 

just did a tire rotate and brake inspection this weekend and I still have a LOT of pad left on the front brakes at 20k miles. I'd say these should easily see 50k mixed driving. And this is my wifes car. I don't think I've ever had to replace brakes at less than 80k on any car we've owned.

 

I changed my FRONT brake only as my rears are still good. I had nearly 2mm of front pad left at 58,000KM.

My Service Consultant advised me that I have driven further than most on my first brake pads since they are 2 years old and lasted this many kms. He stated most people change them by the time they get to the first year service around 26,000km (C350 models) - guessing they have heavy feet.

 

First year, WTF, thats crazy

 

Ya, that sounds pretty bad.

How much does a break job cost anyways?

 

Depends but from what I was quoted to do a full front and back including rotors would be around $2500.00 Canadian

 

Is this through a dealer or a shop?

 

+1

 

This is a pretty old thread, but thought I would share my experience. I have a 2012 C350 4Matic, and just had the front brakes done (pads and rotors) by the dealer for $685. The car has just over 60,000 km. I drive sporty but not aggressive. I think the mileage is about average for front brakes. I'm sure if you drive like you have eggs under your accelerator and brake pedals, you can probably get more km's, and if you drive it like you stole it, you might be lucky to 40,000 kms. But to say the brakes typically last 26,000 kms is ridiculous.

Whoever quoted you $2500 for a 4 wheel brake job is looking to make a killing, I checked a couple places, dealer and independent, and highest I was quoted was $1600 for 4 wheels, and I specifically requested original MB parts.

 

Good lord. This is where a DIY if possible would be nice.. I paid 450 in total for all 4 brakes, rotors and pads and did them myself. I had no idea I'd saved that much money

That being said, I did manage to get a very good deal on the pricing of the actual brakes, brembo rotors, TRW pads.

 

At 94,000 km I still had over 9mm on front & over 8mm on rear pads. I hope to sell the car at age 15 without changing the pads or rotors.

 

It's curious to me, all the people replacing brake rotors here- or on these Mercedes models. Having owned almost 30 cars, and having been in the auto repair/service industry for decades, I have only rarely seen cars under 100K miles that need their rotors replaced. Heck, I've seen many over the years with over that mileage on their OE pads. My last car, a 2011 Mustang GT, had about 80% pad material remaining on the front brakes at 40K miles, and my driving is 80% in-town. I sure hope the Merc does at least that well!

Are you folks experiencing warped rotors (pulsating brake pedal), or are your service people recommending this?

 

On my last car I got 140,000 miles on my front and 25,000/115,000 (second set) on the rear. It was a VW GLI.

 

I can sometimes get 2 sets of pads before the rotor thickness is below the minimum thickness spec, sometimes just 1 depending on the pad material. Nowadays I don't bother with measuring and just replace them. Yes it was recommended by the "service people", that service person being me.

Here's one set of factory pads on the rear with 82k miles. Fronts still have about 6mm after 110k miles and still going.

<img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7430/10331478586_ca29f049d4_z.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="IMG_8807">

 

Interesting. I wonder if MB uses a 'softer' rotor than other makes (for better performance). Heck, my dad had a 74 Alfa Romeo for 30 years from new; he ran that little GTV up to 280k miles on the OE rotors. Even the wheel bearings were never repacked! He's very gentle on his cars, though, as he also has an 87 Mustang with about 290k on it now. That one has had at least one set of replacement rotors.
My C250 has 70k on it now, but I bought it with 60k and the dealer installed new pads. I should be good for quite a while, I hope, at under 10k/year.

 

^ That's my thinking too. Softer rotors. Whether they do it for performance or NVH reduction I don't know. I can imagine how pronounced the lip would be if I put the above set of rotors through another set of pads.

 

I got 35k from rears and 50k from the fronts. Dealer said rotors were fine no need to replace them.

 

I let off the gas when a light turns red. I leave distance between the car in front. Easy throttle and driving usually means youll need to use brakes less. I always go at least 50k miles on brand new cars, or new discs and pads on any used cars. I have times when i hard brake but i normally drive easy.
I normally change pads because of age and never because the markers start to squeak.

If i buy a car used, i always replace the discs with brakes because most places turn discs too fast, which leads to premature pad wear. Modern discs do NOT need to be turned when they are out of the box.

 

I did not know that pads deteriorate because of age ? I doubt it .I have had the same pads on a car for 20 years & they were still operating OK.

I would be grateful if you could explain about "Modern discs do NOT need to be turned when they are out of the box" as I do not understand what you mean.

 

Many repair shops used to turn (machine) new rotors to ensure absolute true-ness. In many cases it wasn't strictly necessary, and good shops would only take off the smallest fractions of inches as possible.
As a rule, brake rotors do not need to be turned or replaced unless they become warped or excessively worn beyond their design specifications. All rotors have a minimum thickness, with which the rotor will be marked. Depending on driving habits, rotor/brake design and other factors, brake rotors can last hundreds of thousands of miles or far less. I've seen drivers destroy rotors in less than 5k miles, and seen others fail due to design/material failure even faster.
I won't machine rotors on my cars- the thinner they get, the more prone they are to warping. In my life I haven't had to replace rotors, either (knock on wood!), but would before machining them.

 

...the above two practices are right up there with this sailor.................

Prior to my CPO C250 coupe, I put 145,000 miles on the OEM pads/rotors on an Asian 6M coupe................

Again, good call - those two points you've made really set the bar.............


ez

 

I still have the original front pads @84,000 miles I replaced the rears once.

 

It's not the age by itself that wears the pads. Pads work by transferring friction to heat. Pads are designed to take heat, but they get 'glazed' when overheated. I never let that happen, but I've seen the effect of various materials going from hot to warm over time (plastics and metals) and I'm sure that over some years of temperature changes, the material break down. But I change them as a preventative maintenance measure, not a necessity. I also change the oil on my supersport motorcycle long before the 10,000 miles even though I use full synthetic for the same reasoning.

Discs are 'turned' to make them smooth. This is to 'flatten' the surface that the pads touch. That's all fine and dandy, especially if the discs have some miles or have been exposed to high heat. When they are new and out of the box, modern discs do not need to be turned. You put them on the machine and spin them to make sure they are OK and that's it.

The reason this is an issue is because of the way that they are 'flattened'. the best way to describe it is imagining a needle on a record, that goes closer to the center as the record spins. Many shops set them to spin too fast, meaning there are grooves. If you set them so that the 'needle' moves very slow, you can get it so that the discs are completely flat. Most shops don't do this because it takes longer. If you turn them fast, you have grooves and those will eat pads and reduce surface area = reduced braking capacity.

I'm also quite pessimistic about shops because I know most people take short cuts when they can. If I don't see it with my eyes, I expect the worst.

I'm glad others have shared their mileage with pads. I don't drive like an old man at all although as I get older the need to hustle from point a to b is becoming lost. I know people who have gotten 100,000k with pads and if you drive good, that should always be the case. But that means no turning discs if they don't need it, and not driving with a foot on each peddle.


Tanktube, are you sure you got that right? I think you meant to say you replaced the fronts and the rears are OK. Normally, the front does all of the work. If not, you might have some issue.

 

60k miles when I changed the fronts to Akebonos...and since I was replacing the pads with Non-OEM, I replaced with rears as well to match (although they had plenty of life left).

On a side note...2k miles on the Akebono brakes and I still don't have brake dust. YAY!