Nope. It's included in my maint.

Penske Motorcars in West Covina, CA.

The dealer and/or the mechanic didn't questioned why the rotors wears out so fast. Instead, they were just waiting for an yes or no answer from me.

When I told the SA it's abnormal for the rear brake/rotor to wear out faster than the front, he's answer was "Yes, it's kind of strange". And told me the cost of the job.

argue with him.. don't se a new precedent for the rest of us.. A set of Rotors should last at least thru the normal warranty period on a car. My Volvo (legendary for eating rotors) went for 79K on a set for my 960, and 81K on the V70 respectively.. the XC90 is too new, but I can assure you it's not going to need new rotors at 22K!

I kind of did but the SA didn't give a sh*t. Just told me brakes and rotors are not covered under warranty and it's up to me to decide to change in their shop or go somewhere else.

Another example of MBUSA training their dealers. Im sure Sam and I could do a better job of running this defunct LLC.

Call MBUSA! ... no, wait... on second thoughs.. don't

Talk to the service manager, or go to another dealer.

Give it some time bro to recover. Remember it's only been a little while since it finally got back in the hands of an engineer rather than a bean counter.

Ricky you better be right, or im coming to Sugarland to take that X5 away from you so you dont get anymore tickets.

Hey, be grateful you got 21,000. I got 15,000 and had to replace both front pads and rotors. Was told I drive the car too hard. "If it was a regular C class we could get it through warranty, but no way an AMG car. They know you will be driving it hard!! I swear, I don't know how they say this **** with a straight face. So, I drop almost 1K and they send me on my way. Brakes are now squeaking like mad so I come back two days later. They "clean" them and off I go. They are squeaking even worse. I bring it back and they say they are defective and replace everything at no cost. You think they could have done that the first time! So, I have about 3K on these rotors and I am getting a steering wheel vibration when I hit the brakes. Classic sign of warped rotors. I will go nuts If they tell me I need new rotors after 3K miles. If so, I will probably go with the Evo replacement disc. True left and right and lighter. Did you know the stock AMG does not have left and right?

i wish i got 21,000 mi. Bought my car starmarked; 2002 e-320 (28,0000mi). complained of typical rotor issues, 2 weeks after buying car. was informed, by sa, that pads were fine but rotors were warped. i mentioned that the service record stated that the rotors only had 2000 mi. on them. sa said warped rotors are a wear item. stopping for a train could cause the rotors to warp. hard breaking, city driving etc... are also contributing factors. we will not replace under warrantee. my price from them was $1200. No thanks. if these things wear out in 2000 mi. i'll just wait till necessary and get other rotors. so now i am just mindful of my 4 warped rotors when i brake. it's been 9 mos. pads are still fine. lol. i gave up fighting with them. you can't win against a company that believes it is appropriate to have rotors wear at 2000 mi.

My 2003 E320 had the rear pads and rotors replaced about a month ago. The car had 20,000 miles on it at the time they were replaced. Never any hard driving--my wife and I are both in our 60s and I guess we got most of that out of our blood years ago.

I had had a nail in a rear tire about a month before. Since it was on a Sunday morning, I took the wheel off myself to get it fixed. When I did, I noticed the rear pads were almost gone and the rotors looked worse than any I had ever seen. Very, very grooved and chewed up and certainly not something I would have left on the car. The fronts looked fine.

I have had about 12 Mercedes since 1966. I have sometimes changed front pads at 20,000 miles but never rotors or rear pads. I always did the work myself. I think the earliest I have ever changed rear pads on any other Mercedes is about 70,000 miles and then, they were not as bad shape as this was. Front rotors usually lasted two or three pad changes. I never replaced a rear rotor on any of these cars.

As far as the SBC clearing water off the barkes, I live in the desert so that did not cause this. If someone tells you that, it is probably just a dealer's excuse, not a reason for the wear.

I paid for the parts and they gave me a big break on the labor because they admitted it should not have happened. I do not know the book time but I would see the one person working on it through a window to the service area. He was done in about 30 minutes so they must get a lot of practice on the 211 cars.

Well, I guess I am not the only one suffered from the premature brake/rotor failure.

BudC, do you have any experiences with the parts from www.buymbparts.com? I want to get the vented disks/pads/sensors from them. Knowing factory MB won't last I think it's time for a change.

Yes, I've bought quite a few parts from them. You can ask for Rusty and he's pretty knowledgeable. A lot of Mercedes Club members do business with him.

I'm about to order oil filters for both of my cars and a set of plugs for the 300E from Rusty.

They are in Georgia although sometimes the parts come directly from a Mercedes dealership.

Here's another good source for parts that I've used more than once...

http://catalog.mercedesshop.com/

I had pads all the way around when I hit the high teens, maybe 17K or so. No rotor problems.

Mine were changed at 42,000 miles, with the rears more worn than the front. And I do "drive" the car, not potter about..........

Marc

Book rate labor is not something you barter with. Its there to allow the place to turn a profit and encourage techs to work quickly. We all know they run at 120% efficiency so of course they bill for more hours than it takes.

If paying that labor rate is not acceptable try the independent shops. There are some really nice ones and brakes are a simple job (if they can de-activate SBC).

Doing it yourself with parts bought over the net is clearly the cheapest way to get the job done! Only thing is SBC makes that more difficult and you could lose a finger if it goes wrong. 200 bucks or a finger?

It all depends on how and where you drive. I think 21k miles and only rear pads and rotors is AMAZING.

My E500 needed pads and rear rotoros at 12k miles and then pads and rotors all around at 21k miles.

You are doing REALLY well.

But I have seen the rotors glow several times

21000 miles is not bad at all. I had to change my front pads, front rotors, and rear pads on my 04 E500 at ~16,000 miles. The front pads worn through the sensors. The rear pads were really thin but they haven't worn to the sensors yet. Rear rotors were ok. I decided to change the rear pads anyways so I wouldn't have to go back to do it. I didn't do the SBC recall till pretty late. I think the recall is supposed to cut down on the wear or something. Another factor to consider is that more than 75% of my driving is through local traffic.

Here's the update about my rear brakes....my rear brakes endured another 6 months/75000 miles before the warning light turns on. Just had them replaced today at 28700 miles.