BLACKCDI

Break job today turned out to be very easy! All you have to do it unplug SBC unit then raise he car, lock it ant start working on it! I went with Pagid break pads, got them from autohausaz.com for $66. They came with sensors, retaining clips and caliper protectors, so turned out to be a great deal! I did not buy new rotors, I decided to take existing ones off and had them resurfaced, $30 for both front ones, they still have alot of meat left on them.
For some reason I had quite a bit of rust behind the rotors and on the wheel bearings so I polished everything off using a metal wire attachement to a drill.
I changed the oil too, went with TOTAL Quartz Energy 9000 0W30 made by ELF. autohaus az sells a 5L jug for $39.96, Mann filter kit cost me $10.29 from the same place. Everything was delivered free. Drove the car and broke in the pads by stoping several times from 60-10mph. Very satisfied with the result, also probably saved myself a good $400 from going to the stealler.

vettdvr

Glad things worked out for you. One minor point. MB does not recommend turning/resurfacing rotors. They recommend replacing. I also found that if the correct pads are used they don't warp and can be reused. I have 80,000 miles on my front rotors and 50% of the wear limit left.

BLACKCDI

I figured I can get one more set of break pads out of these rotors and then replace them along with the rear ones. BTW, I only worked on the fronts, the rear pads are about %60 at this point.

Taylor-Made'90

OK, school me....

How do you unplug the SBC? Where's it located?

BLACKCDI

The sbc is located on the left side of the engine compartment, you will see a big black connector there, pull on a plastic piece on top of it and then unplug the connector. The connector will not come off all the way, something is holding it on the bottom, but as long as the pins are not touching youre fine!
Another thing, when youre rasing the car, keep it unlocked otherwise alarm will go off. Before working on breaks lock the car.

E500 AMG Sport

What's the reason for locking the car once it's raised and SBC unplugged?

vettdvr

One = 1000 words.

tashakes

I'll give this one a shot, just following logic and stuff I have read here.

Every time you unlock and open a door, there are a sh--load of systems that start up, computers, and what not. I believe that one of those systems is the SBC, and if you are working on the calipers (installing new pads) and a door is open, it will switch the SBC system on (or standby, or whatever). From what I read, the calipers can close all the way (since they are out of their normal position/environment) and can probably chop a finger or two. Plus you can bet some nice warning lamps will show up on your dash that you will need to beg a MB tech to extinguish.

Anyway, I may be smoking crack, but that is my take on it. Since I did not want to risk any of this crap, I insrtructed my mechanic to lock the car once it is on the lift and take the keys and put them inside a drawer of his desk. All went flawlessly and the car was done in about an hour.

Here is an oportunity for anyone more knowledgeble than me (not hard) to flame my a$$

Cheers!

E500 AMG Sport

Doesn't unplugging the SBC prohibit the calipers from compressing?

Diesel Benz

One of either option should be sufficient but I would not work with the brakes if the SBC was not disabled (either taking the plug off or with SDS or any other means).

Diesel Benz

Also shows how it should look like once the SBC recall work has been properly done.