mbgator

as part of my front end refresh, I also replaced pads and rotors. (2008 CLK550). I bought R1 drilled rotors and Brembo pads. Brake job was easy, about an hour start to finish. Backed out of the driveway to bed-in the pads and was immediately faced with a low, soft pedal.
down he highway to seat the pads, pedal never firmed up. Lots of travel on initial push, I can “pump” a couple of times and it feels better, but nowhere near what I expected, nor what I had before.

Suggestions??

Rudeney

Did you open the system and get air in the lines? If not, the only thing I can say is that I had very bad luck with non-OEM pads and rotors on my CLK550. I first tried Akebono pads and they were terrible -downright dangerous. I switched to Porterfield pads and Frozen Rotors. They were much better than the Akebono pads, but still not up to par with MBZ OE. I eventually went back to OE pads on the Frozen Rotors and it was much better. The only problem was that the Frozen Rotors warped a bit, where I never had that problem with OE rotors. I've pretty much decided to stick to MBZ OE brakes from here on out.

mbgator

Rudeney
I removed the top of the resevoir to allow the fluid to move, but didn't crack open any of the bleed valves. By compressing the caliper pistons, the level increased a bit, but no fluid was lost.

I purchased the Brembo pads through FCP euro and then purchased the R1 rotors on-line.

Will go back in and see what is happening. Was hoping something simple, but never the case with any project I undertake.

Thanks!

Rudeney

OK, that would not introduce air into the system, but you might want to bleed anyway. In fact, you're supposed to change brake fluid every two years, but the world will not come to an end if you don't. One thing I usually do is to polish and lube the caliper pins and spring clips to make sure the pads don't bind. But I doubt that's the issue here as that does not affect pedal feel. These parts may just give you a different feel from the OE setup.

FCPEuro

Brembo's are ceramic and can affect pedal feel. I recommend bleeding and a re-bed of the pads, if things are the same I'd recommend swapping to Pagid's and lets see if there is an improvement in feel.

--Kyle

NewShockerGuy

Also make sure you do not have caliper piston over return... there is a thread on here somewhere about it and how to fix it. I had this SAME exact problem when I did a brake upgrade from the 4 piston fronts to 8 piston AMG calipers on our w211.

Let me see if I can find it.
https://mbworld.org/forums/c-class-w...placement.html

Might not be related but it's something one should definitely check.

-Nigel