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Need to replace both brake pads and rotors on 2011 E 550. What combination of pads and rotors would be best. I am looking to eliminate all the brake dust. Please help with suggestions.
I don't think rotors contribute to dust very much, but using ceramic pads will help a lot. I'm a huge fan of them after having used them for a few years. I'm using Akebono pads and ATE rotors and am satisfied with them so far.
I don't think rotors contribute to dust very much, but using ceramic pads will help a lot. I'm a huge fan of them after having used them for a few years. I'm using Akebono pads and ATE rotors and am satisfied with them so far.
Do you have a link where you bought the pads and rotors? I need to do my brakes in a month or 2 so this info would be appreciated.
ive been using r1concept rotors and pads, they are a vendor here i think. so far so good. Had 4 sets between different makes in the past 5 years. To minimize brake dust get plain rotors, not drilled/slotted, they do tend to eat brake pads faster.
Guys! I have searched a few sites for the Akebono pads for the front axle. All sites show a pad that doesn't resemble the pads on my car now. I find them in Brembo,Centric,powerstop etc. But not Akebono.
Is this the shape/style you're expecting? It looks like Akebono only makes pads for the rear, which is disappointing.
Looks like Brembo makes a front ceramic pad though. I'd be inclined to go that way
Did you try Autohausaz? When I ordered Mercedes OEM brake pads for my 2010 E550, they were stamped with the Mercedes star, but were also stamped “ Akebono” . This was over 5 years ago, however. I would call them and see if they can help. They are a great source.
Did you measure your rotors for legal thickness, or do you have other problem with them?
For me rotors are lifetime item, when I estimated they would last at least 3/4 million miles with my driving.
With pads I love Akebonos, but some say they give you slightly less braking power.
I still can lock the wheels on dry pavement, when clean wheels are really appreciated, but if you like spirited driving, you should choose OE pads for better braking and keep cleaning the wheels.
According to the dealer - my brakes need to be replaced based on the red, yellow, green coding system they use - brake check was marked RED. But It appears there is plenty of materials on the pad through visual inspection. What does the dealer use to determine brake change intervals? This is a new vehicle to me, has 49000 on it so I am not sure brakes are warranted.
When I elect to change brakes - suggestions please...
1. Do I replace the rotors when I do the brakes?
2. Do I need to replace front AND rear brake pads and rotors when doing this?
3. Do I need to also replace the drum brakes as well?
4. Best way to bleed brakes efficiently, with the least amount of mess?
When I replace the rotors and brakes - what brand of brake fluid, rotors and brakes is suggested for best performance. Currently the brakes on the vehicle make a lot of dust. I would prefer less dust, but not at the cost of performance.
If there really is plenty of meat on the pads and they're behaving fine, maybe just leave them be and do them when it does wear down. Be sure to check all four pads on each axle. If the brake caliper is sticking the inner one will wear quicker. Be sure to lube the slide pins regardless (assuming you have the sliding-style caliper, not sure on the V8).
1. I like to replace the rotors whenever I do my pads if they're still fairly new. That said, there's no reason you couldn't resurface them like jaktek1 mentioned. If they're not glazed or warped and are nice and flat, there's no reason you couldn't just run them as-is.
2. If the rear pads have plenty of life and the rotors look alright, you can leave them be.
3. Only if the shoes are worn down to the metal. The drums are only used by the parking brake and not for braking at all. If the parking brake isn't holding the car as well as it should, it likely just needs an adjustment.
4. Lots of people like the Motive-type bleeders where you apply air pressure at the reservoir and then just crack the bleeder and let the fluid flow. I personally like the check valve type since it's simple and usually means I can still bleed it alone, but it sometimes has its challenges.
Any DOT 4 brake fluid is fine, though I'm partial to Pentosin and ATE. I like FCP Euro because of their lifetime warranty on everything and good customer service, but if they don't have what I want I'll use RockAuto, eBay or Amazon.
According to the dealer - my brakes need to be replaced based on the red, yellow, green coding system they use - brake check was marked RED. But It appears there is plenty of materials on the pad through visual inspection..
Had such "Courtesy inspection" on my sedan 3 years ago. I declined the job and the warning light is still off 3 years /18k miles later.
If you are concerned about dust/dirty wheels, I would not recommend the Brembo NAO Ceramic. I put these on my car last summer. They brake well and are quiet. But the dust is terrible. I have to clean my wheels weekly.
Originally Posted by Goon@Night
According to the dealer - my brakes need to be replaced based on the red, yellow, green coding system they use - brake check was marked RED. But It appears there is plenty of materials on the pad through visual inspection. What does the dealer use to determine brake change intervals? This is a new vehicle to me, has 49000 on it so I am not sure brakes are warranted.
When I elect to change brakes - suggestions please...
1. Do I replace the rotors when I do the brakes?
2. Do I need to replace front AND rear brake pads and rotors when doing this?
3. Do I need to also replace the drum brakes as well?
4. Best way to bleed brakes efficiently, with the least amount of mess?
When I replace the rotors and brakes - what brand of brake fluid, rotors and brakes is suggested for best performance. Currently the brakes on the vehicle make a lot of dust. I would prefer less dust, but not at the cost of performance.
Is FCPEuro the best source for parts?
Thanks in advance.
It seems unusual that your car would need new pads after less than 50k miles. OEM brakes typically last at least 70k - 80k miles. I replaced mine early, only because I got tired of the grabbing, that is typical for the W212. Are the inside and outside pads wearing unevenly?
1) Not necessarily. Rotors typically outlast pads 3 to 1. Unless you have some gouging, squealing, or grabbing, there is no reason to replace rotors with pads. Especially with only 50k miles on them.
2) No. Replace the brakes on each axle only as required. Typically, rear pads wear out much earlier than front brakes.
3) Unless you have accidentally driven with the park brake set, for a very, very long time, the brake shoes should last the lifetime of your car.
4) I personally love the Motive system. In fact, I just used it last week to do a brake fluid change as part of the 80k mile service on my car. It is so easy, and mess free. I use it in combination with a 60 ml veterinary syringe, that I extract the brake fluid out of the reservoir with. If I didn't use this method, my second choice would use the check valves that Atraudes recommends.
The advantage to the check valves is that, other than a catch bottle and the above mentioned syringe, is that you will need no special equipment. The disadvantage is that every time you buy a new car, you have to install new speed bleeder valves. And that can be a little messy. The advantage to the Motive system is that you can use it with multiple cars. You may need adapters for different cars, but most of them can be used on a lot of different cars. For example, the adapter you will need for an MB will fit almost all modern European cars. Another advantage to the Motive is that you can use it to help friends and family change fluid. This is impractical with the speed bleed valves.
For brake fluid, I would recommend either Bosch ESI6-32N or ATE Typ 200. Both are great choices that meet MB specification, at a reasonable price. FCP Euro is a great choice for parts, especially because of their lifetime warranty. If you are not sure about what to get for your car, they will help you. Either call or email them.
I recently changed front and rear brakes on mine, at approximately 55,000 miles and 7 years (assuming they're original, I've had the car 4 years) using the FCP Euro brake kit consisting of the Zimmerman rotors and the Akebono pads. I received a warning message in the dash to check brake wear. I found the inner pads of the front and rears had worn pretty evenly down to the sensors while the outers looked fairly thick. I always replace rotors at the same time as the winter salt use in VT is pretty harsh on everything. I was pretty shocked to see the condition of the inner surface once they were off the car. They were also stuck on and required a good pounding to get off.
I felt the Akebono pads seemed to take a long time to break in and required more brake pressure to stop than the old set, but after several weeks of use they feel good now. This may have been due to the fact I didn't do my usual break in as I was rushed for time plus I had studded snow tires on which I hate to brake hard with them as it can cause the studs to come loose. They feel like OEM now and are really smooth, while the old ones vibrated at high speeds or hard braking.
I have the Motive bleeder and it almost makes bleeding brakes fun, it's super easy to use. I use either the MB fluid or Pentosin DOT 4 LV. 1 liter seemed to be the right amount.
Inner surface of front rotor, outer surface looked fine. Inner pad on right, outer on left.
I always replace rotors at the same time as the winter salt use in VT is pretty harsh on everything. I was pretty shocked to see the condition of the inner surface once they were off the car. They were also stuck on and required a good pounding to get off.
I felt the Akebono pads seemed to take a long time to break in and required more brake pressure to stop than the old set, but after several weeks of use they feel good now. This may have been due to the fact I didn't do my usual break in as I was rushed for time plus I had studded snow tires on which I hate to brake hard with them as it can cause the studs to come loose. They feel like OEM now and are really smooth, while the old ones vibrated at high speeds or hard braking.
To minimize the risk and severity of the rotors sticking to the hub, I strongly recommend applying a thin layer of anti-seize to the surfaces of the rotor and hub that come in contact with each other. It only takes a few minutes to add this step, and it will save countless time of frustration, of pounding and prying and cursing, if you ever have to replace the rotors later. It won't help you now, but it may in the future. This is particularly important if you live in the Rust Belt.
The semi metallic pads really chew on the rotor something fierce and leave a ton of dust. Switch to the Brembo NAO ceramic, powerstop's Z23 pads, or EBC red stuff. You will not really notice a difference in cold stops, it'd have to be freezing.
As for rotors, Zimmerman, Brembo, or Powerstop's Eurostop rotors will work. The reason is you need the high carbon discs which withstand high speed braking without squealing or warpage. I install a TON of brakes for Mercedes, the normal G3000 stuff will do perfectly too if you want to pick up a slotted+drilled setup, but cheaper rotors will literally warp within the first week of driving.
As for DOT4, the cars use a special DOT4 which is low viscosity, probably for the ABS and PRE-SAFE braking system. Use Pentosin DOT LV or ATE SL6. Regular DOT4 works too but I'm in this business because I respect specifications when its easy enough to.
I replaced front rotor using duralast only $35 each and front pad using duralast gold and rear pad using duralast max. No dust like OEM and braking performance is ok. Thst time it had 125k mileage now it had 185k mileage and still fine.
I can tell you without hesitation, the best “mod” and the only “mod” I’ve done to mine was to ditch the OEM drilled rotors for the Zimmerman non-drilled and the akebono pads. The drilled rotors were noisy, would start to groan after about 10k miles, and seemed to chew up the inside pads like a cheese grater, and would quickly start to pulse like they were warped. Did it twice to my car within 50k miles, at which point I came on here somewhere to ask this same question, and was led right to FCP for the parts. It’s been 12k miles since then, and 0% complaints. No warping/pulsing. No groaning. Far far far less dust. I’ve stood on them a few times on the highway and out them to heavy work coming through West Virginia not too long ago. Simply flawless. And they look great too. I don’t get the whole drilled rotor thing at all. I know why, in theory, but in practicality and reality for the car itself, it’s just a cosmetic thing that seemed to cause me nothing but problems over the many years I’ve had my car…
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