I've always said there are a few things every guy should know that will yield significant payback in your lifetime. #2 on this list in to know how to replace brake pads and rotors. (#1 being able to negotiate especially during car/home purchases...nowhere else can you pay yourself hundreds to thousands per minute).

I've done a good dozen pad/rotor jobs in past but had not yet done one on a benz yet. That said, this was about as easy as it gets. Again, pad/rotors are easy, many guys know this but I just hate seeing people still paying others to do a pad/rotor job...just look it up. There are plenty of writeups and even some videos for simliar cars that are exactly the same as ours...it is very easy guys and the C32 is no different... my comments that I don't see on many/all writeups I found...

- use liquid wrench on the pad retaining pins. Spray both sides of front and rear caliper pin holes and along the shaft. Tap on the caliper lightly with a hammer once you do and let it sit a few minutes before tapping them out (use a punch, if you don't have one, get one, I use mine all the time). I read where a lot of people had trouble getting these pins out and this seemed to work well for me.

- ALways get the sensor if your car is giving you brake wear warnings. For some reason I almost didn't buy one...but actually once you get that error the orginal sensor is already damaged. The sensor, on front of our C32's is only on passenger side. No other description needed as it is very obvious how to replace this once you get into the job (simple).

At any rate, I also wanted to share with the group the pads I went with. I am in the middle of 3 major expenditures currently so really wanted to find a reaosnable solution for my car (front pads) and our wife's '08 MB R350(needs front/back pads and rotors) . My car needs pads in front...my rotors are 'OK' (normally I would replace but just can't swing it now).

I looked around and ended up finding a 'Centric' brand pad and rotor. These are sold by DIscount Tire and some other places I recognize and I found some reasonable reviews for the product. I ended up getting four rotors for R350, front/back pads for R350 and front pads for C32 for less than $350. I went with their mid tier on the pads (ceramic) and lower cost rotors.

I know (based on previous threads) this is an afront to some people's sensibilities because these are, By God, Mercedes Benzes!! I tend to beleive that the value and quality of our cars can be a bit over stated by many so don't really have any qualms looking for a reasonable budget solution to things (within reason of course). If I had more money on hand I may have spent mroe time looking to go with OEM product...soo...

...at any rate, I'll circle back in time to let you know how these hold up on my C32 and the R350. If they work well..then perhaps others can consider them as a solution as well. Centric seems to have a range of products too so just FYI. That all said if these things end up being a bad choice I'll share that too.