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Yep keep making the hole bigger. Forgot to state that earlier.
You need the shoulder to be able to go completely in the spindle. IE: Without the caliper bolted up, Take said 14mm bolt and put it in the hole. You need to make sure the entire bolt goes through the hole but do not drill too much so that the bolt "wobbles" in the hole. I was able to easily control this with my dremel as I slowly took metal out of the spindle holes.
I am able to completely put the 14mm bolt through but still spin the bolt with my fingers with the shoulder completely in. This is the perfect fit. Not too tight were it would seize and not too loose to where it will wobble.
Thanks for reassuring me. I searched the Internet for straight threaded bolts without success. Then I was debating making the hole big enough for the bolt shoulder or grinding down the bolt shoulders. I finally decided to drill the holes larger. I am concerned that although the shoulder of the bolt will be seated in the hole, 2/3 of the length of the spindle hole will not be touching the bolt. I suppose this dosent matter too much once everything is bolted up...but, I don't know.
Will have to wait to continue working because I couldn't find the drill bit locally. Also had to order a Brake fluid pressure bleeder because I have air in the line and pumping the brakes doesn't seem to help. Hopefully I will finish next weekend...sucks when 9-5 work gets in the way of playing with our cars.
-Mark
Wait a second. So do you think i should just dremel the shoulder contact area of the spindle or drill a complete larger hole completely thru? I rather drill it, but like I wrote earlier...body of the bolt won't be touching so all the contact is on the shoulder and head of the bolt and that of the caliper where it threads.
I used a dremel to enlarge the entire spindle opening so that the entire bolt/shoulder would go through as it should. If I am reading your question correctly (please adjust me if I am reading it wrong), you are asking if one should drill the hole completely through, OR by dremeling out the spindle hole so that the shoulder fits in but the entire hole isn't enlarged.
I went out to see 100% what I did and had to take a couple things off/apart. Sorry this is delayed from yesterday.
I did the following in this order.
Used a drill to enlarge the hole to the biggest size drill bit that I had. The hole was still too small in diameter to allow the larger bolt to go through. I then used my dremel to enlarge the hole FIRST to the point that the threaded bolt would fit in the hole, but it was still not large enough to allow the shoulder to go through. I then used my dremel to make the hole bigger at the back to allow the shoulder of the bolt to completely go through. After looking at the back you are correct in terms of the shoulder of the bolt does NOT go all the way through the spindle. So in this case that is exactly why I did what I did. I did not enlarge the hole all the way through, rather I made the rear of the spindle hole larger to make sure that 100% all of the bolt shoulder would fit but not have the front of the spindle bolt larger than what was needed, BUT still large enough that the front of the bolt threads would not get stuck/hang up on the spindle hole.
I hope that makes sense. I really should have taken pictures when I did this some time back as it would have helped.
Note that others just completely drill the hole through. I felt more comfortable with my method as there is way less room for error and or "OPPS, the bloody hole is too big now, time to buy new spindles" type scenario...
I think everything is clear now. I drilled the 12mm holes to 14mm (just enough for the bolt threads to pass). I measured the shoulder and found it to be 15mm. So I bought a bigger drill bit and waiting for that. Then I thought that maybe with the rotational force applied to the caliper that maybe I shouldn't have that extra 1mm of play in the hole around the treaded bolt even though the shoulder will be seated well. So I ordered some dremel sanding stones, but now I think I'm thinking way to much.
lm not sure if I'm going to just dremel the rears or just drill larger all the way thru. Wish me luck!
Hey MBworld!! I’m proud to say I completed Project E55 Brake Conversion. My 2008 E350 Sport OEM brake conversion to E55 brake system is finally finished. It’s been a long road due to mistakenly ordering and/or mistake shipping of parts for this project as well as needing to acquire certain items or parts that were only available to me online. But with lots of guidance from NewShockerGuy, I got it done. Thanks, Nigel!!
(E55 rear caliper versus E350 caliper)
This project basically began with me doing a complete rotor and pad, brake job and couldn’t help but feel how dinky the rear brake calipers of my brakes looked. After reading MB forums that I could slap on E55 rear calipers as a direct bolt-on, I had to do-it. Then members suggested that I need to use the E55 rotor, so I went along with it. After more thought, I knew I had to do a full front upgrade as well, to have the stopping power balanced as the engineers who designed the great w211 intended.
I started off prepping the parts.
I used high-temp engine, metallic silver, gloss to paint the rotor hats inside and out as well as the circumference vents. I also used high-temp engine, black gloss on the calipers. To brighten things up I used a high-temp reflective yellow, vinyl for our AMG tag.
This was all done after repairing torn piston boots. Last minute, I also decided to go with stainless steel brake lines from Stop Tech. I had confusion over wether or not to buy E350 or E55 brake lines. Due to Stop Tech listing their vehicle applications as distinctly different for my vehicle and the donor vehicle parts, I bought both only to find out later that they were both exactly the same. For brake pads, I went with Akebono ceramic pads all around.
I decided to start at the rear since I was tired with doing all the prepping of parts and wanted to get some actual work done. And since the rear were direct bolt-on replacements. This is basically what I started with (to the left) Drilled, slotted, and vented rotors from Baer with E350 calipers and ceramic brake pads. Pads and Rotors had less than 10 miles on them before I decided I wanted this upgrade project. And here is the finished project (to the right). Direct bolt-on as everyone said.
It was a little tricky adjusting the Parking brake. A must-do due to the larger rotor hat.
Seems to be a lot of opinions regarding torque specifications and most info I found online happened to be in forums were unclear with either vehicle, bolt size, application, and/or units of measure. In the end, I referred to a Hanes Manual. I used 10 Nm. on the rotor T30 rotor screw and 115 Nm on the M12 caliper bolts. All three with Loctite. I also used Anti-seize on the inner hub to rotor and rotor to wheel contact points. Pads were installed and new brake sensors re-installed.
For the front rotors the excitement begins. I had to increase the front caliper mounting holes on the spindles in order to house the M14 caliper mounting bolts. However, The 14mm bolts have a larger shoulder on them expanding the required hole diameter an extra 1mm. To begin, I lowered the car to a point where the hanging hub was vertical. I used a bubble level.
So I used a 15mm HSS drill bit and used the level on my power drill to make sure I stayed perpendicular to the hub. Remember to drill slow when drilling through thick metal otherwise the bit will just spin and become dull. My drill has a switch for high/low speed. My wife sprayed WD-40 to help keep the heat down. For the lower mounting hole I had to get creative and mounted a bubble level to the side of my drill. This is because the hub was so low to the ground in order to keep the hub vertical that I had to hold my drill sideways.
Next came the trimming of the dust shield in order for the caliper to seat in the new space. The shield appears to be thin aluminum.
I was thinking i needed my grinder before getting into this project, but ended up using tin snips and then doing some final shaping with a file. I painted the exposed edges with touch-up paint I had laying around, just in case for rust protection and to please the eye of the exposed metal. Hub reinstalled. Then I bolted up the M14 caliper bolts at “80 Nm and angle tightened an additional 45 degrees” per Hanes Manual. (first time I heard of that.) It was hard to find the torque specs online so as a reference to you guys, I used a Haynes Manual. Finally, pads and brake sensors reinstalled as with the rear.
Lastly, I went all around and used a pressure-bleeder to feed new DOT4+ brake fluid in and air bubbles out. Took about 4 Liter bottles in all for the process, so about 3 to flush everything through and about 3/4 of a liter bottle to restore reservoir and lines. Done.
Last edited by Sosyal08; Apr 29, 2017 at 11:25 PM.
Nice looks awesome! Glad I could help! E55 brake brothers unit!
Post some pictures further away showing the car. Love that you painted them black. I was HALF tempted to paint mine burnt orange and I still might later on, but since everything on the car is silver I kinda like the monochromatic look of it all at the moment.
REVIVING: I'm picking up my calipers and rotors next week and looking to do my swap before the month is out (time permitting) and I was hoping you had some finished pics with the black calipers!
Thanks Again, Nigel. Sorry it took so long to post pics. I need to take some pics of the car out in the wild. I get so wrapped up in driving that I forget to park and shoot, lol @so.sosyal
Last edited by Sosyal08; Sep 13, 2019 at 10:14 PM.
Looking to do this project for my ‘’09 E350 Sport. Fronts only.
Can you gents point me to where you got your calipers?
Thanks in advance.
eBay is the going to be the best place to find them. Why only the fronts? You should change the rears as well. Not only to balance the braking since the front will over power the rears by a lot but it's going to look ridiculous with nice front calipers and having the stock sliding rear.
eBay is the going to be the best place to find them. Why only the fronts? You should change the rears as well. Not only to balance the braking since the front will over power the rears by a lot but it's going to look ridiculous with nice front calipers and having the stock sliding rear.
So any year E55 W211 can be retrofitted to our E350? Or is there a specific year I should look for?
Nigel’s calipers look brand new.
-Joey
2003-2009 e55/e63 calipers will fit. Just make sure they are from a w211. You will see that Brembo 8 piston or 6 piston look the same for a lot of MB, but the attaching bracket that is on them won't line up with the spindle holes. IE: SL's 8 piston would look pretty much the same but the mounting bracket would more than likely not fit our spindles, and you wouldn't realize it until you attempted to bolt them up and it didn't line up...etc.
My calipers were not brand new, but I did spend several days, cleaning, taking apart and rebuilding them. Seals/pistons...etc. This was the first time ever replacing calipers on sheer looks because I couldn't stand the 18" wheels with the tiny (even though they aren't tiny) 4 piston sport brakes. The AMG calipers just fill the wheel wells. I've swapped to bigger brakes before for performance/track vehicles but this was a change. Don't get me wrong, stopping power is insane. But it looks good as well. lol I replaced all rubber brake lines with s/s lines because I think it was under 100 bucks and all my other vehicles have s/s lines. It's just part of the thing to do when getting better components and not having to worry about them again.
Mercedes SLR McLaren 722 S Is Extremely Rare Example Modified by McLaren
Slideshow: A one-of-one U.S.-spec Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Roadster became even rarer after a factory-backed transformation at McLaren's headquarters.
I appreciate that.
