Anyone else have brake pads that look like they're delaminating from the backer plate?

As you you would expect, this is under normal street / track usage.

Think the dealer will replace as defective?

Looks defective to me. Interesting hairlines around the holes.

You are a brave man, Mike! Are you running the car at a short track where the brakes don't get to cool off enough between corners? Not sure if MB will replace them under warranty. If that would be my car, I have the pads alongside with the rotors replaced. Can't really put a price on safety. Besides, if the brakes fail, you are a lot deeper into it.

i think we have seen pics of similar cracked BS rotors before on a thread.......might or might not be relevant or helpful

Yeah, I ran 1 session on Sunday at about 70% to test a helmet camera and when I got back I noticed that mess. Not a short track, but hard on brakes with any high hp car.

I think the pads were cooked at an event in August at another track that's hard on brakes. It can't be the driver .... right?

We'll see what they say about warranty on the pads.

MB is not going to warranty those pads, that happens from extreme overheating cycles. As SMP already stated, don't chance it, when in doubt replace everything. I'm on my second set of rear rotars, 3rd set of rear pad, and 3rd set of front rotors and pads...this is a 3800lb car, even moderately fast tracks with moderately heavy braking zones are gonna tear stuff up. If you all remember I completely toasted a set (all the way around) of pads in 45-48 laps (about 185 miles) at Road America and heavily warped the front rotors in the process.

You should seriously consider a brake upgrade considering the amount of track time your car sees.

The only real upgrade is a full carbon ceramic system and the price does not warrant the gains IMO, unless the car was a 75%-100% track car, which mine is not, nor do I believe the OP's car is used primarily as a track car. The stock brakes (front rotors & all pads) are actually very good, even on long hard braking stints there is never much fade. The only thing I recomend upgrading to is full stainless lines and 2-piece rear rotors. The stainless lines might be why I don't ever get any fade, but I tracked the car stock and do not remeber any fade problems. I have looked into some pads better suited for track days, but again you run into streetability issues since most of these pads have a higher optimum operating temp and normal street driving will never get them up to temp, plus they are very hard on rotors, produce even more dust than stock and can be noisy.

Bottom line, run the stock brake system with the exception of the proven mods I just mentioned but be prepared to ante up the $$$ for frequent brake jobs...you play, you pay.

Is bleeding the AMG brake system a DIY job at home or does it require special tools?

Definitely a DIY yooker, just get a vacuum bleeder kit for $75 to $100 and rotate between blue and gold colored ATE fluids to make the job easier and quicker. Once the fluid color changes, you'll be done ... well, except for the finishing touch of having someone lese pump while you safety check the bleed.

I've tried the Porterfield pads and they do not perform better than the stock pads. I've found that using Castrol SRF fulid ($$$) does help. Agree with JrCart, there is really nothing short of full carbon ceramics that will improve performance.

Common on drilled rotors. Not a problem at that size.

I've gone through lots of pads on the track and I've never seen that happen to a pad. It's almost like the bonding material melted?

I wouldn't drive it.

EDIT- Have you seen a set of new pads and do they have some kind of a relief between the pad and the backing plate? I can't tell for certain it has delaminated (although I see the crack in the top) or if that is they way they are made. Good luck getting Benz to fix it.

the cracks on the rotors arent a problem till they really start connecting the holes. I have been through maybe 20 sets of rotors in the last two years in my porsche and the time to get rid of them is really when you have 3-4 connecting holes or obvious warpage. As far as the pads, Im with everyone else, just get thems suckas replaced on your own. You may see if a company like pagid makes something for that application. Also, there isnt a stoptech kit with some more bit to it available? Regardless, as someone else said, going to castrol srf (60 bucks a bottle) is great for any high hp application and will at least help your fluids at an acceptable level.

So the dealer wasn't sure about the "warranty issue" on the pads and rotors (I only asked for the pads to be replaced) and they called the MB field rep to review.

He said, No.

I called MB USA to appeal and after a day of deliberating, they said .... No. They claim the pads have been subjected to "extreme use".

Of course, I denied that because even on the track I drive very gently.

The one point that I tried to drive home was that the orientation of the rotors is incorrect on the right, because on the left it is built to scoop cooler air and channel it through the rotor and help to keep the caliper cooler.

Since the right rotor is the same part as the left, it only pushes air out and never brings cooler air in, which subjects the brake pads, rotor and caliper to higher operating temps.

This causes the right side rotor to crack earlier than the left and it causes the right caliper to turn a darker gold (from heat) than does the left. Indisputable, right?

I expected it to be a tough battle, but I enjoyed the fight because I think the facts are on my side.

Extreme use indeed!
I love this car.

I hope I am wrong, but I hate to say it that you might have just opened up a big can of worms. Anytime a field rep (fancy word for MB claims adjuster) get involved it's not a good thing, now, most likely you car is black balled on an MB list, future "real" warranty issues are going to be under heavy scurtiny and you run the risk of having the balance of your remaing factory warranty voided. Like I said, I hope I am wrong, but I have lots of experience in this department and have had more than one vehicle "black balled" (a BMW M3 and Caddy CTS-V). You should have taken my advice when I posted on this thread a couple weeks ago that MB would not warranty those brakes. Now you just better pray that you don't have any major or "real " issues in the next few months while the car is suppossed to be under warranty because you will be screwed. Should have coughed up the cash out of pocket and replaced them without getting MB involved...you most likely screwed the poochie on this one, gotta know when to choose your battles.

I hope I'm not coming off as harsh, not trying to be a d!ck, just trying to warn you of what might now be in play with your car now. BTW, what stealership did you bring your car too for this work? I'll be sure not to take mine there for any service while my BS is down in the Dallas area, they are obviously not an mod/performance friendly dealership and don't want them anywhere near my beast. This is why it is so important to find a mod/performance friendly dealership, your bone stock (to my knowledge) BS got denied (and prob black balled) while I continue to take my heavily modded BS into my MB dealership for several repairs, all of which have been covered under warranty...even one that definetly should not have been covered.

You may want to avoid Park Place but then again, Ewing does not look too kindly on mods.