pghbenzo

I knew that would get your attention. I have a 2000 e430 with around 62 k on it and heres what happened. Today I was driving and I noticed it seemed to be running kinda funny it seemed like the trans wasn't engaging proberly. So I drove it thinking maybe I just need to put some miles on it. Well I got to work, about 16 miles and I saw smoke pouring out of the rear wheels. So I bend down and take a look and the rotors where so ho they where cherry red and then they actually caught on fire.....granted it was a small flame but a flame non the less. I blew on them and put the fire out then had the car towed home. It was both rear brakes and I didn't get any trouble signals. Now I did recently add a set of E55 rims and tires to the car and used a but of anti-seize on the rear bolts but I don't think anything I could have done would have caused this. My only thought is maybe the emergency brake got hung up or switching to the larger E55 rims/tires threw off the ABS or ESP and caused the brakes to engage slightly to compensate for what the car thought was rear tire spin or something. I did drive the car for a real, real short period and the rear brake work even though I melted the pads I think.

patrick_y

That's pretty bad. You're at 62k miles, you were probably due for another brake change anyways.

Did you replace the pads AND ROTORS on your first brake change?

The ESP will not go off for something like that. And if it did, you'd see the orange triangle.

Parking brake has a warning if you're driving on it at speeds over 3 mph in the forward direction.

I don't know what Anti-seize is, but when you installed the new rim and screwed on the lugs, if the lugs went in deeper (because the rim was thinner or something) that might make a difference.

MARK CUMMINS

Did You Install the Correct Lug Bolts with your new rims?
If You Installed the WRONG Lug bolts thats where Your Problem started
a Longer Lug will remove the hold down springs and make a mess inside of the rear brake rotors...Seen Several people do this...
The Parking Brake has Brake SHOES inside of the rear brake rotors..so If The E brake failed the rotor will be discolored at the Hub NOT the Disc..
Remove the rear brake rotors and see what failed...

The Godfather

long lugs probably killed your ebrake.

E420SportGT

If it's the long bolts then I am surprised he would have heard the metal scraping noise right after he installed the wheels and drove the car. I did that back in the heyday and I stopped immediately and found that that was the problem. It's pretty noticeable...

my E430 rocket

the foot operated Ebrake controls only the rear rotors correct? and not all 4 corners?

patrick_y

That is correct, most Parking brakes only control the rear two wheels, even in front wheel drive cars.

timstiles

my 2001 did this same thing friday, lots of smoke but no fire, i have the car jacked up today and in neutral it is not as easy as i would expect to spin the rear wheels, how do you adjust the parking brake ?

timstiles

got mine apart, what's the sensor on the right rear caliper for? the wire disappears into the pads and whatever used to be on the end is melted

koskesh

I think that's the brake pad sensor you're talking about, a little warning comes on when the pad wears down and the sensor touches the disc. All four wheels should have this on one pad.