moldyhands

so in the certified pre-owned warranty, it states that there should be at least half the brake life left when it's inspected. well i bought my E500 with 24,000 miles on it about 5 months ago, and now it has about 30,000 miles on it. my brake indicator comes on, and a trip to the dealership tells me it's going to be $270 for new rear pads (not front), and that it's not covered under the warranty. having been a car nut my entire life, i know that pads generally last longer than 12,000 miles (and I don’t drive particularly aggressive either). so i protest that i should not have to pay for brakes that obviously had less than half the life remaining when i purchased the car. The service advisor says I’ll have to talk to the pre-owned manager. after he tells me that 12,000 miles is normal for brake life, I call him a liar. He tells me to call parts, which I do, and they of course back me up. “rear brake pads should last at a minimum 20,000 miles”. So I put in a call to the general manager, but before I get a return call to my message, the service advisor tells me his manager has not only OK’d replacing the pads under warranty, but will also warranty new rear rotors.
Good times at last. The service advisor also tried telling me that because of the SBC brakes, the rear brakes actually wear faster because they apply more to keep the car from diving. Having a rudimentary understanding of physics, I know this to impossible. Even applying ONLY the rear brakes, the front end will dive. Only suspension can counter-act this. this is the second time they’ve tried telling me something that was not true. They really need to learn that some MB owners understand a few things about cars. Oh well, it’s getting done for free now anyway, so no bother.

konigstiger

The variable power distribution of the SBC system does, in fact, apply additional force on the rear brakes than a conventional braking system. Optimal brake force distribution allows brake proportioning front to back and side to side therefore causing increased and uneven levels of wear on the rear brake pads.

moldyhands

i'm sorry, yes you're correct. the guy tried telling me that the rear brakes would wear faster than the front brakes. i understand the SBC system applies more pressure than normal to the rear, but the front are still going to do the majority of the braking, especially under heavy braking (which would be the major cause of faster than normal brake wear).