w4sim

This has not happened over night or just recently, but my brake pedal has always been quite soft ever since i bought the car about a year and a half ago. The feeling you get is that its quite "spongy" and on a very rare few occasions i thought it wasnt going to stop.

Iv not really driven any other S55's to compare this to but despite the fact that people keep telling me its big and heavy car i know its supposed to stop better than that, especially on 8 pot calipers!!! I think my mums diesel Saab has better braking than this, and im not even kidding.

So the question is, where do i start to essentially "tighten" the brakes?

Iv changed the front discs and pads and it hasnt really made any noticeable difference so im wondering what else i could do? I dont think brake fluid has been changed for a while so thats step 1, but from the experience of another car a very long time ago that didnt really make much of a difference. Is there a part that could be worn or needs replacing/updating/tightening etc etc???

Thanks.

alx

Your car should have excellent somewhat spongy by sports car definition but very powerful brakes.

Reset the sbc if your car has one.

Flush brake fluid (with dot 4 plus) and bleed brakes.

w4sim

Thanks alx

Im hopefully going to be doing the brake fluid flush in the next week or so when i can get my mechanic friend to come around.

Whats SBC and how do i know if my car has it? More so, how do i go about resetting it, or is that only on STAR?

w4sim

The one most noticeable thing about my brakes is that everytime i press the brakes theres a small squeak from the brake pedal area followed by a faint "hhsss" sound like air is being compressed.

Iv also noticed that if the car is switched OFF and i repeatedly press the brake pedal, it seems to get harder. If the car is started and i repeatedly press the brake pedal then it doesnt seem to get much stiffer and goes back to spongy within a matter of seconds.

w4sim

Just done another brake pedal test and even im surprised now, i can pretty much press the pedal all the way to the floor when the car is started, even after pumpingit several times.

Just had a look at the fluid and its a green colour. I dont know too much about brake fluid but is it not supposed to be a golden yellow colour, kind of like fully synthetic engine oil?

chazcon

Get off the forums and take your car immediately (and carefully) to a Mercedes mechanic, and have your brake system repaired. Driving your car like this is taking your life and others in your hands.

Everyone has differing levels of auto mechanical expertise - no offense but if you are asking these questions, you need a mechanic on this issue, ESPECIALLY since it involves your brakes. Don't drive it anywhere except straight to a mechanic.

Quadcammer

see my response to your other post.

you need to do maintenance (brake fluid flush) and properly bleed your brake fluid

Quadcammer

oh and 220s don't have SBC

w4sim

Chill out fella - i didnt say i dont have any brakes, its just abit softer than expected.

I know what your saying but iv done this plenty of times before and my mate is a full time mechanic so its not too bad a job for us.

w4sim

Thank god for that, iv been going a little crazy looking for it,

BlownV8

Just wondering. Is the advice better on the CL forum than the S class AMG forum?

chazcon

Agreed. Take your soft S back to the correct forum. And good luck to you, I hope you survive.

alx

It is largely the same car

w4sim

I wouldnt say "better", just more of it as it seems to be a busier forum section for what is essentially the same car.

w4sim

I think you'll find for this topic, and any others i have posted in this section, that it is in the correct forum. So how about you stop worrying too much about me and stop giving daft advice just because you dont have the ***** to tackle your brakes.

w4sim

Only to those who know what they're talking about alx.

chazcon

The ***** to tackle my brakes... lol... did your mom or your dad buy you that car? Where do these people come from? I'm quite a good mechanic, thank you, but I can tell from your first post that you're not. And so my advice stands - get that wreck off the road and to a shop before you hurt somebody.

w4sim

You MIGHT be a good mechanic on what ever planet you come from, but you still havnt got the ***** to tackle your brakes, so my advice stands . . . . stop chatting bull crap when you dont know what your talking about. You didnt understand a single thing from my first post and so you've got it into your tiny little mind that the car has no brakes. How about you try to read the post again, then try and get your grandparents to help you understand the words and see if someone can explain it to you like a 4 year old.

As for my wreck, its better wreck than yours, so keep your over cautious advice to yourself and leave the thread to those that are actually helping.

BlownV8

Ok. I've never visited the S class forum. It's good to know the knowledge basis is more active here.

w4sim

Iv posted the same question over in the S55 AMG forum and iv had 10 replies, whereas in this section iv had 20. So if you dont always get an answer over here, try posting over there.

Alot of people mistakenly think the CL is related to the C-class. Its actually a coupe version of the S-class. At one time or another id like to own a CL55, it looks longer and sleeker than an S-class i think.