icyjay

I just bought Pilenga rotors and Akebono pads from Advanced auto parts and partsgeek.com. I could not find any thread for Pilenga rotors used on CLK although I've been people using Akebono pads.

I'll update how this combination goes. I will have these installed by the end of December. In the mean time, does anyone know how much would it cost about for installation only? I'd appreciate if you can recommend any shop that can do around downtown LA.

I was thinking of going to Pepboys, and they seem to rip off mercedes owners.

Clkboi

Congrats on your new rotors.
Did you get plain , drilled ,crossed both?

I think that any charge over $150 will be a rip off. I did this job with a friend and wasn't really that hard.

Flame3g

man install them yourself its really easy....keeps us udated

dynomite05

Install them yourself, but please don't go to pepboys. Someone should be able to recommend a shop in that area if you don't want to DIY.

Kevwood

There are quite a few DIY threads on this. If you've got some tools, do it yourself like others are also saying, it's very easy.

icyjay

I got the plain one. The current one I have is plain and I haven't had any problems. Besides, it's working pretty good.


Now it sounds like it's an easy job, but when I tried to take a caliper off one time, and nothing would move. I was told that I should use a rubber mallot since it's rusted and all that. I didn't think I knew what I was doing so I stopped. I'll check out the DIY thread and give it a try again...

dynomite05

You don't have to take the caliper off. Just slide the pins out and change the pads.

icyjay

But, I gotta change the rotor. Good to know for the next time i need to change the pad.
Thanks !!

Flame3g

yeah man you got to bang the S*** out of the rotor all the way around it...my rotors were suck on pretty good i sprayed some PB Blaster on the back side let it sit then went to wrok again....rotor just came off lol

icyjay

Finally, I got mine installed. I ended up going to a repair shop. (City Tech Auto Repair, 8419 Garvey Ave, Rosemead, CA 91770)
Pilenga rotors (plain disc) and Akebono pads seem to be good combination. They are very soft when I step on the brake, not making any squeaking noise. I really like the feel of it. It brakes very well, too. I can't really tell difference in terms of performance between these combo and the old sets I had.
I recommend Pilenga and Akebono.


FYI,
I paid $140 bucks for labor: installation of 4 rotors, 4 pads and 4 brake sensors. their labor rate is 60 bucks an hour, and I paid about $350 bucks for 4 rotors and 4 pads.
I am going to get brake pads changed on my Lexus GS300 at this shop soon and they quoted me $100 labor.


Pepboys quotes me as below:
-Front brake pad set: $87.57
-Front Brake rotors: $162.28 x 2
-Front Brake sensors: $18.45 x 2
-Labor for front: $157.90

-Rear Brake pad set: $61.69
-Labor for rear: $92.88

never going to pepboys for Mercedes, but good for free brake inspection and synthetic oil change with coupon.

dynomite05

Sounds like you got a good deal, but I wouldn't take my car to pep boys for an oil change.

icyjay

Final summary,
The Pilenga rotors and Akebono pads were installed in Dec. 2010; my CLK500 had about 50k miles on the car.
I just sold my CLK500 in June 2021, when it had 140k miles.
All rotors and pads were still good after running it for over 10 years or 90k miles. So, I definitely recommend Pilenga rotors and Akebono pads.

I installed Akebono pads in my 2016 Subaru Sti; the original brake pads only lasted 30k miles.
I paid $132 for Akebono pads and I installed them myself on Sti with the skill I learned from this forum. Hopefully, I can run these until I get rid of this car for another Mercedes.