88MB260E

My friend and I have the front wheel off on my 88 260E. Is there any way to replace the pads without taking off the caliper? The two bolts which hold the caliper seem to be rusted into place. Any help would greatly be appreciated!

bobkat

you should be able to, just need to get something (i used a big flathead screwdriver) between the pad and the disc and push the piston back. Make sure your brake fluid is uncapped, and have someone watch it, incase the level rises when you push on the worn pad to push in the piston. This is how I used to change pads on my 82 300SD, worked well and didn't take the calipers off.

Brian Felts

If you need to get the bolts out try a spray of PB Blaster or Brake Fluid will eat the rust so the PB Blaster can get in. I had to use an Impact gun to get the bolts out of my E 320


Brian Felts

88MB260E

Thanks for the help. After putting a ton of force into it, we still couldn't get it off. I ended up bringing the pads to PepBoys (no I'm not really a fan). For $50, they slapped them on and did a pretty good job. Crazy thing was they actually let me watch and assist! Using brake fluid would've been an idea to try on those bolts. We tried penetrating oil first but that didn't seem to help. All in all, < $100 for front pads installed isn't too bad I suppose. Rotors wouldn't have hurt and I should've found some sensors while I was at it. My advice to anyone who wants to DIY on this (and is pretty sure they can) is to get your supplies from tirerack.com. My pads were ~$50 and I could've picked up 2 Brembo rotors for $80 which wasn't so bad I guess. I don't plan on keeping the car much longer than a year, so I guess I'll just make due with it for the time being. Thanks again for the help. Happy New Year.

electric blue

not sure, but if your car has the single piston design all you really needed to do was undo the 2 7MM allen head bolts that were behind the caliper. I bet the reason you didnt realize they were there was because they have caps on each end. The only time you would have needed to take the complete caliper off would be to change the rotors. You were looking at the wrong Bolts.