iatacs19

I have around 4,800 miles now and have noticed that the brakes are squealing when I am braking lightly. Under hard braking the don't make any noise.

I visually looked at the rotor and there isn't any abnormal wear that I can see.

Is this normal for MB? I am trying to be more informed before I "take it to the dealer".

chief63

Squealing is usually just brake dust, clean the wheels and if possible use a brake cleaner in spray. The fact it's only under light braking is probably because its slightly dusty. The noise will increase with time if not cleaned.

If this fails go to the dealer but I've never seen squealing be anything else. Any other pad or rotor damage will not make this type of noise, they will mostly create grinding noise or a vibration under braking.

Hope this helps.

justthebest

I've had this issue as well (1700 miles) - from what I've seen on forums this is simply sort of the character of the brakes that come on this car. I usually live with it, but I always ask my authorized MB maintenance guy what other brake components are available when it comes time to replace them.

220S

If you're not driving the car hard that often, you'll get squeal. Dust and rotor glaze.

Go out and toss the car into some corners with really hard braking. Seriously. The squeal will go away. If and when it returns, repeat above and it will go away again.

sflgator

+1. MB has awesome brakes (AMG's are actually Brembro brakes I believe) but they do squeal with they're dirty. As others have said, when they're clean, the noise usually goes away.

Maverick1975

welcome to being an mercedes benz owner - squeeling brakes is an ongoing fact of life. Although its intermittent.

Can put a man on the moon but cant get brakes that dont squeek

-michael-

Find an empty backroad. Put gear selector in Reverse, get some speed and brake hard. Repeat twice if needed.
This was a recommendation from a tech guy (Brady or Brandon) who serviced my car @ Beverly Hills Mercedes, he used to have E55 himself.
I tried it myself and it helped.

sjhugh

Not just an MB issue, many cars with big brakes suffer from some squeal. An ongoing fix often requires changing the pad compound which can compromise brake performance. I live with it with a number of my cars and as stated earlier, keeping them clean goes a long way to helping.

I like the advice from -michael-, I’ll give it a go.

.

iatacs19

I did this already 2 weeks ago.

It did help except the squeal came back, that's all. No worries as long as it's normal for the car.

I will spray some brake cleaner tomorrow.

lomita

OK, the easy non permanent fix is simply to flush the brake assembly with the garden hose. Removing the dust will temporarily help. Put a nice stream of water and flush all the brake dust out of the entire brake assembly. Leaves a nice black residue down the driveway.........

The permanent fix is to take the brake pads out, thoroughly clean the pad backing and the adjacent touch point of the pad to the brake caliper/piston assembly. Apply a product such as disc quiet, http://www.autobarn.net/ch05016.html to the brake pad backing and reinstall the pads into the calipers.
Use the brakes as normal, the annoying brake squeal will be gone.

I wouldn't let a dealership get within ten feet of my car personally, not even just to look at it. However, a good mechanic can accomplish this for you at most garages. It's not rocket science.

c63canada

I make sure to give my brakes a few maximum force stop once in a while and have squeeky brake syndrome.

peet

Dust on wheels?

HUH?

Squealing brakes indicate one of two things - pad type or poor pad installation.

By pad type I refer to the triangle of inequality - in this case, clean pad/effective pad/quiet pad - and as they say, pick two. You can get a quieter pad, but you'll have to give up cleanliness or stopping power.

Generally pads that have better performance and dust characteristics squeal while cold - when they warm up the squeal is gone.

The other possibility, poor installation, means that an even backing compound is not in place. By removing the pads, cleaning the backing plate, reapplying a smooth and even backing you may lose this.

Like the folks above say, by stepping on the brake hard, the squeal will go away for a while. This is most likely because you are pushing the pad into the backing goop and fixing it for a moment. However, I think in our case it's a combo of pad seating and pad type because it is definitely worse on cold days for first 15 minutes which backs the concept of pad warmup.

lomita

Therefore, based upon your evaluation, brembo makes **** poor brakes, right off the assembly lines.......

1st amg

I beleive there is a TSB on this for brakes, it is covered under warranty and they should replace them.

lomita

What, the great American corporation forgot to send it to all the continental owners? How convenient.........

superlubricity

I get a hint of break squeal after cold start-up. Goes away after the first mile or so.

c63canada

Same for me

bfischer1

The warranty is good for one year or 12,000 miles which ever comes first. I’ve got a 2008 c63 with 11,000 miles and W.I. Simonson MB in Santa Monica CA won’t fix it free. They want large money to replace everything. I took it to my former BMW, MB guys up the street and they will do the clean and spray fix before replacing the pads and and or rotors. Stay away from the dealerships if you can unless it’s under warranty.

bfischer1

=====================================

I followed these directions and it works. Cost $150. Total. From my local friendly MB, BMW mechanic. The dealer wanted $4100 and they were going to do me a favor and only charge me $2500 for new brakes - my C63 is a 2008 and has 11,000 miles. MB said the brakes are a wear item and out of warranty. Not a lot of class. I told MB USA they had an engineering problem and they should have fixed the brakes long ago.

Yuille36

I had this issue on my E63, and brought it to Mercedes attention. They insopected the car and said that nothing is wrong with it, this is an aspect of AMG Brakes. With high performance brakes, your going to get brake sqeal period. Brakes squeal is caused by the pads vibrating against something under braking. And easy fix is to apply brake pad compound or anti-squeal paste to the back of the pads. But AMG doesn't recommend this, trust me I've asked. Because that is what, I would have done. This is your only salvation, besides spraying the brakes down with brake cleaner or water to flush out the brake dust.

bfischer1

The squeal came back after 2 weeks and I'm going to replace the back brakes, totally. Not at the dealership but my local guys. I had a BMW before my C63 and the brakes had a lot of dust. Maybe that’s the trade off? I can live with dust but not the squeal.

I am Jeff

Before you do that, just take a hose and clean your wheels and spray down the brakes. You'll be amazed at how much brake dust comes out of the calipers when you clean your wheels thoroughly. I believe you should definitely try that out before replacing your brakes.

princealidds

I can't stand the noise from my pads anymore..... My car is 1 month old, I already had MB replace the brake pads, however the annoying high pitch sound is back & its so annoying. I've bled the brakes but the sound comes back after 1 hour!! My 2009 911 never had this issue & my 2008 M5 was fine, both high performance cars (& braking system compared to MB). So it really is frustrating & embarrassing. I'm taking the car back to MB tomorrow morning.
What do you guys recommend for aftermarket pads? I hear Akebono pads are good, however I don't see them available for 2011's yet.... ?

DD GT3 RD

tire dressing will get on the brakes and cause squealing. Dont let the car wash use them. warm up your brakes do some very hard stops, then clean them water only when at carwash

bfischer1

I had everything replaced on the back brakes last month. So far so good. MB USA still won’t take any responsibility for the engineering screw-up. Sad.