john doe iii

I'm creeping 34000 miles and I feel my brakes are about ready for a change? How many miles did your car have before you did your first brake job (rear or front)..... and if you could give my some prices on what the stealer charged you?

Thanks

tbone

51,000 mainly freeway miles, front pads needed to be changed. Rears almost needed to be changed, so changed them at the same time. Cost $6xx dollars. I forgot the exact amount

john doe iii

Did you inspect your brakes yourself or did you receive a "brake message" that told you your brakes were going bad (if that message does exist)?

tbone

My pads did not wear to the point where I received the "brake message". I heard occasional squeaks, so I brought my car in to the dealer.

Your driving habits and conditions play a big factor into when you'll need to replace your pads. There are others on this forum who have had to change their pads around the 20K mile mark.

There is also a thread which explains how to change out the pads yourself.

john doe iii

Thanks!

Nickthegreek

hey, I just recently changed my front and rear pads on my '03 e320 at about 48K. Besides the disabling of the SBC, changing the brakes on my car was practically the same as on my crown victoria. If you want to do it yourself I got some quotes from my dealer. It was $108.65 for the front OEM pads and $176.30 for the rotors. The back was about the same price. Just some pointers if you want to do it yourself are:

1) Your wheel maybe rusted the original rotor so you might need to bust it free with a bar by prying between the brake caliper an the rim it worked like a charm forme with no damage to the rim

2) your original rotors might be rusted to the hub. get a BFH (big ****in hammer) and pound the crap out of them to get them to come off (after you undo the allen screw)

3) See if you have floating vs fixed calipers... each one has to be done differently. I had floating so it was just like on my crown vic, no sweat.

also have a cheater bar ready to bust free the brake harness and caliper bolts (I think I used and 18mm socket and a 13mm socket on my floating caliper don't quote me

4) The back brakes are trickier cause you got the parking brake mechanism... make sure you are familiar with how to adjust the device properly.... if yer front brakes are going you might as well do your back brakes too cause I heard they wear just as fast the front

If everything is done properly you can get all the brakes done for alittle less than what Tbone paid.

Good Luck

********AND DO NOT FORGET TO DISABLE THE SBC!!!!!!**************

Search around and some threads will show how to do it without using star diagnosis

Nickthegreek

oh yeah and the dealer paints their rotors for storage... you can either just slap it on with the paint or buy a chemical paint stripper to get it off

Also I would paint the hub with anti-seize or high temp grease so that rotors will come off easily, and then paint the rim mating surface with anti-seize too