mbsickness

Just finished a brake upgrade on a 94 C280. 96/97 C36 front calipers with OEM rotors and Mintex pads. What a difference these calipers made, getting on the brakes now feels like dropping an anchor. Best of all the pedal feel is much improved. Since my setup is from a 96 and later car I also had to change the hubs...just a few milimeters is the difference between the parts fitting and not. Through the whole process I have learned more than I would like to admit on the C36 brakes. In the end it all worked out, although I was fotunate to have a C36 that I could use to test fit and verify parts.

Stock Setup


Hub height difference


Rotor size difference


C36 Setup


Stock 15' rims will not work here

BenzMaster19

Great job! looks awesome!! just paint the calipers and your good to go!

mbsickness

Thanks. Funny you should mension painting the calipers as I have a caliper paint kit in the garage (red) but didn't know if painting them red would make it cheezy looking. If it weren't for the engraved numbers I would have had them powdercoated silver. For now I'm going to try and clean them up some more and run with just the color of the metal.

AMGC

I filled in the numbers on the C36 calipers on my 16V and sanded them flush.

mbsickness

Did you use body filler? I was considering just grinding the surface flat but my laziness won out. Such a shame as the 95 C36 calipers I have seen don't have the numbers but the AMG logo.

BenzMaster19

Thats because those are AMG calipers only,, The '96/'97's are brakes off of the SL600, Hence the Benz star on them... But its very hard/expensive to find those AMG brakes anyways.

mbsickness

Yes they are AMG modified calipers which start out as SL600 units. The technical book for the 95 C36 published by MBUSA lists the calipers as modified SL600 calipers. They list the modifications as clearancing the caliper for the larger rotor and modifying the brake line connection. I would gather that the logo would be added at that time. The piston diameters are identical to the 96/97 units.......at least if what they publish is correct. Of course without having a 95 caliper in my hand I wouldn't put money on it as there seems to be quite a bit of varience between examples. I found a set of 95 C36 brakes on eBay just last week with a buy it now of $499 just for the fronts.

C43AMG

OP - did you go the full route and install the stainless steel brakes line also?

MarcusF

Glad to hear it was the hubs. It looks like you found some used ones pretty quickly. Did you get the hubs on ebay too, a local recycler, or?

mbsickness

Stainless lines will be on the list of items to do in the future.

mbsickness

I found the hubs at a local recycler for $150 for the pair.