When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Car: 2014 e350 4dr base sedan - inboard brake pads sit on one piston on each side
I bought a pair of genuine Mercedes front brake pads from my local dealer. A few questions:
1. The inboard pads have the letters R and L. Do R and L stand for right (passenger side) and left (driver side)? So L pad should be used on the driver side?
2. The outboard pads have a 3M adhesive film. I have never seen an adhesive film on the shim of the pad. The inboard pads (ones that sit against the piston do NOT have the sticky film).
Should I simply peel the paper backing (see the picture) and leave the film intact? In the YouTube videos that I have seen on front brake pad replacement, I have never seen this kind of adhesive film.
What is the purpose of this adhesive film? I thought this is where people applied brake lube/grease to reduce vibration and noise. But this area is covered with this sticky film.
Also, should I apply brake grease on the ends of the pads (the curve parts that ride on the caliper bracket/support pins)?
Where else is it important to grease, and which areas (aside from obviously the face of the brake pads) should I avoid?
Thanks
The high temp silicon lubricant needs to go on the caliper sliding pins. The bearing edge of pads is also a good place for application.
The pad in contact with piston is lubricated with the sticky "synthetic brake grease" (a poor lubricant).
The opposite pad is glued to the cleaned caliper side.
The target is to have the caliper positioning itself with very little efforts while under braking forces.
Also to be considered are the vibrations of the pads that produce noise.
The pads (in conjunction with slide pins) actually help guide the caliper in relation to the disk... vibrations are either prevented with glue or lubricated to prevent sound.
You said nothing about your disks: new, surfaced or as-is? For front brakes, new disks are a good choice. For rear brakes, any choice may be fine.
If you look at the disk wear surface you can tell how well brakes are working.
The Advanced tip is to fasten your pins while someone is applying brake force.
Do brake application twice, first time loose to finger tight then last time torqued up.
This will perfectly pre-align disk - pads - calipers - pins.... no cost strong-smooth brakes.
If you don't do this, it's ok - If you do this, it's perfect.
Try this on one wheel only then put in 500 miles and compare the looks of disks.... you'll understand!
Last edited by CaliBenzDriver; Apr 28, 2023 at 06:57 PM.
I applied an okay amount of CRC brake grease on each sliding pin. Not too much. They were sliding fine, but I did take out each sliding pin and applied some grease.
I will apply some grease on the bearing edges of the pads. From your answer, it seems like I should apply some amount of brake grease around the piston or the area of the pad that touches the piston (metal to metal contact area).
"The opposite pad is glued to the cleaned caliper side" - again I interpret this as "leave the sticky adhesive on the pad, so that it sticks to the caliper slide (cleaned of course)" - but obviously I will still grease the bearing edge of the pad as well.
I applied an okay amount of CRC brake grease on each sliding pin. Not too much. They were sliding fine, but I did take out each sliding pin and applied some grease.
I will apply some grease on the bearing edges of the pads. From your answer, it seems like I should apply some amount of brake grease around the piston or the area of the pad that touches the piston (metal to metal contact area).
"The opposite pad is glued to the cleaned caliper side" - again I interpret this as "leave the sticky adhesive on the pad, so that it sticks to the caliper slide (cleaned of course)" - but obviously I will still grease the bearing edge of the pad as well.
yes you got it, no fault.
👍
grease piston to pad
glue caliper to pad
"High temp silicon brake lube" is what you want on slide pins! NOT: "synthetic brake grease" on pins!
The rotors are the original rotors (drilled), but I had them resurfaced. Before resurfacing, they measured 31.7mm, after resurfacing, they measured 31.3mm. I think minimum spec is 30mm. So plenty of life left.
My car only has 78k miles, 2014.
For the sliding pins, I used the CRC Synthetic Brake & Caliper Grease with temperature range of -45F to 495F. This is what my father-in-law has always used and never had any issues. He gave me that.
I do have the Permatex Ceramic Extreme Brake Parts Lubricant with a temperature range of -40F to 3000F that I had ordered from Amazon. But I get mixed messages from people. Some say it should not
be used on sliding pins, some say, it's okay. According to one reviewer on Amazon (who cited the actual PDF specs by Permatex, it should be okay to use on sliding pins and it won't cause the pins to get stuck, or boots to swell).
However, the Flat Rate Master YouTube channel, mentioned that he's seen dozens of examples of people using the Permatex Extreme Ceramic lube (the purple goo) and the sliding pins get stuck.
I just simply used the CRC stuff that my father-in-law gave me on the sliding pins. I think for the back of the inboard brake pad against the piston, I have no problem using the Permatex stuff. It should also be okay to use on the bearing
edges of the pads.
Now for sliding pins, why couldn't one use for example Super Lube (Multi Purpose Synthetic Grease temp Range -40F to 449F)?
The double side tape is good stuff, it helps brake pad "retracts" properly.
On my 4 piston Brembo caliper, both pads get double side tape from factory.
For my rear brake pad , an ATE caliper, I in-fact added double side tape on the piston side brake pad, the non piston side I can't put any double side tape as the design is different from above video, no place to stick the double side tape.
The sticky pad stuff is the lube, it basically glues the pad to the caliper piston to prevent it from vibrating in theory, the vibrations happen so fast you hear it as squealing, which is more or less what all noise is really.
So what you're going to do is lubricate anything that touches any other metal, mainly the corners and sides of the pad and youre gonna glue that pad to the piston, you have to make sure everything is clean. You can also ditch these and lubricate it anyway but the entire Brembo/ATE system is rather elegant and intended to make less mess and speed up installation.
My caliper is a single piston design like the one shown by the YouTube clip by S-Prihadi. Thanks all for the the great answers, feedback, tips. I really appreciate it.
I'm pretty much ready to install the pads.
The grease attracts dust and sand, so be careful with it.
I live in dry climates, where corrosion is not an issue and for last decade I do brakes with nothing added. Just keep it clean and stainless steel shims do the job.
Hey CaliBenzDriver, thanks for the pro tip. To understand it better: do not torque the calipers yet. Just hand tighten the bolts that go through the slider pins (the bolts that fasten the caliper to the bracket), then when the bolts are hand tightened, press the brake pedal (once all the way down or a few pumps?) to sort of align the pads relative to disc rotors and the calipers, then go ahead and tighten the caliper bolts to spec (I think 18 ft-lb), and then press the brake pedal slowly all the way down until it feels nice and firm.
Hey CaliBenzDriver, thanks for the pro tip. To understand it better: do not torque the calipers yet. Just hand tighten the bolts that go through the slider pins (the bolts that fasten the caliper to the bracket), then when the bolts are hand tightened, press the brake pedal (once all the way down or a few pumps?) to sort of align the pads relative to disc rotors and the calipers, then go ahead and tighten the caliper bolts to spec (I think 18 ft-lb), and then press the brake pedal slowly all the way down until it feels nice and firm.
👏 Yes sir, you got it exactly -
Congratulations this is your research reward from MBWorld guys!
👍
I think you now understand the interactions between [pins - caliper - disk]
-- When loosened [disk + caliper] align PINS during install.
-- When tightened PINS align [caliper to disk].
> The difference is what luxury is about! Strong velvet brakes from the get go and amazing braking precision after 1 day.
the heart of this SERVICE: PIN LUBE
The brake job from the dressed up Albanian shop shows a basic job... the technician has no idea about servicing the slides with silicon lube or what effect this has on degrading braking performance.
extra dry pins from factory... less than 6Mo 😳
I like these floating calipers for their simplicity (multi-pistons fixed-calipers do away with pins to concentrate forces elsewhere... Good luck getting pistons to dance together evenly after rust sets in bores.
😅
Last edited by CaliBenzDriver; Apr 29, 2023 at 03:55 PM.
Next time get Akebono brake pads. They're ceramic brake pads so you don't get any brake dust. I would say get them from FCPEuro for their lifetime warranty but you might not own the car long enough to get to a 3rd set of brake pads.
Next time get Akebono brake pads. They're ceramic brake pads so you don't get any brake dust. I would say get them from FCPEuro for their lifetime warranty but you might not own the car long enough to get to a 3rd set of brake pads.
I put Akebono brake pads on our lovely W210 sedan, who we loved so much that kept it in family for much longer than we usually do.
At the time of sale, the pads had about 120,000 miles of them, but doing the inspection, I measured them.
120k miles wear out about 30% of them
I ordered Akebono pads from FCPEuro and they did NOT fit. No, I didn't make a mistake in ordering. I called their representative, and they confirmed the pads were meant for my car (checked based on the VIN).
They were about 1.8mm wider (in the width dimension), and the outboard pad would NOT sit flush in the caliper. The little nub on the back of the shim would fit into the hole on the side of the caliper, but then the pad itself wouldn't fit
flush against the inner wall of the caliper. Unless I took a grinder and shaved off some metal from the top of the brake pad (width wise), it would not fit. And I'm not going to alter pads to deal with fitment. That I think would be a no no.
I even took pictures of the same dimension of the original pads and the Akebono pads. See below.
I ordered these, waited 8 days for delivery, only to find out they didn't fit. As much as people rave about these pads, I guess I wouldn't bother getting them again. I am sure they are great pads, but based on my experience, I'd rather not deal
with fitment issues, returns, etc. FCPEuro agreed to a return, and I am sending them back to get my money back. Luckily, my local dealer had the genuine Mercedes pads for 129.99 (which sells for 95 on FCPEuro, but I didn't want to wait another 8-9 days for shipping. I live in Minnesota).
I ordered Akebono pads from FCPEuro and they did NOT fit. No, I didn't make a mistake in ordering. I called their representative, and they confirmed the pads were meant for my car (checked based on the VIN).
They were about 1.8mm wider (in the width dimension), and the outboard pad would NOT sit flush in the caliper. The little nub on the back of the shim would fit into the hole on the side of the caliper, but then the pad itself wouldn't fit
flush against the inner wall of the caliper. Unless I took a grinder and shaved off some metal from the top of the brake pad (width wise), it would not fit. And I'm not going to alter pads to deal with fitment. That I think would be a no no.
I even took pictures of the same dimension of the original pads and the Akebono pads. See below.
I ordered these, waited 8 days for delivery, only to find out they didn't fit. As much as people rave about these pads, I guess I wouldn't bother getting them again. I am sure they are great pads, but based on my experience, I'd rather not deal
with fitment issues, returns, etc. FCPEuro agreed to a return, and I am sending them back to get my money back. Luckily, my local dealer had the genuine Mercedes pads for 129.99 (which sells for 95 on FCPEuro, but I didn't want to wait another 8-9 days for shipping. I live in Minnesota).
What part did you actually end up ordering? According to Akebono's parts catalog it's a EUR1342 for a 2014 E350 sedan. It's different for other cars like the E550 or the coupe. FCPEuro doesn't always seem to have the correct cross reference but if you order by specific part number, then it doesn't really matter. Or maybe you just got a bad part
Learned a good lesson to go by the part number, not not necessarily trust FCPEuro's website and no question about the quality of Akebono brakes. I just didn't get the right part.
Learned a good lesson to go by the part number, not not necessarily trust FCPEuro's website and no question about the quality of Akebono brakes. I just didn't get the right part.
Ouch, this is ridiculous specifically from a place like FCP.... it's not fleeBay.
Stick with your goal.
Akebono is the perfect example of how Japanese licensed the German technology & the plant heavy equipment investments.
They were allowed to substantially improve performance over legacy semi-metalic parts over soft-disks. Japan being famous for not having any local ressource, they sourced supplies from German supply chain.
NGK are the same deal with spark plugs. Flawless perfection.
The actual part number that I ordered: AKE-EUR1342
When I entered my car information, I entered as 2014, E350, Sedan, Base Model, V6 engine (not flex fuel). That is it.
Looks like AKE-EUR1342 is the correct part number per CaliBenzDriver. After I received the pads, and tried to install them, they didn't fit.
So I called FCPEuro, and the representative asked for the VIN, and after that confirmed the part I ordered was the correct part.
The pads looked identical to the original ones, except about 1.8mm wider in the dimension that my earlier pictures show. I don't know what to make of it.
Maybe the order was correct, and they shipped slightly different pads, who knows. But per my order detail, the part number of what I ordered is AKE-EUR1342.
Agreed, FCP's compatibility guide is usually good, but I double-check everything because I frequently see what I know are the wrong parts on their site listed as fitting my car. I order by part number, and the only problems I have are mine.
I've personally used Permatex Extreme Ceramic lube (the purple goo) on my slide pins a few times years ago and every time they'd be almost completely seized within a few months. I've since used SIL-Glyde from Napa on slide pins and it's worked magnificently. I think it's the same stuff CaliBenzDriver posted.
The actual part number that I ordered: AKE-EUR1342
When I entered my car information, I entered as 2014, E350, Sedan, Base Model, V6 engine (not flex fuel). That is it.
Looks like AKE-EUR1342 is the correct part number per CaliBenzDriver. After I received the pads, and tried to install them, they didn't fit.
So I called FCPEuro, and the representative asked for the VIN, and after that confirmed the part I ordered was the correct part.
The pads looked identical to the original ones, except about 1.8mm wider in the dimension that my earlier pictures show. I don't know what to make of it.
Maybe the order was correct, and they shipped slightly different pads, who knows. But per my order detail, the part number of what I ordered is AKE-EUR1342.
Very strange, I've used the same pads in my 2011 and they fit fine. Maybe it was just the wrong parts in the box or some packaging error on Akebono's part.
I put Akebono brake pads on our lovely W210 sedan, who we loved so much that kept it in family for much longer than we usually do.
At the time of sale, the pads had about 120,000 miles of them, but doing the inspection, I measured them.
120k miles wear out about 30% of them
Can confirm. Had them on my Audi S5 and they are barely worn after 40K miles.
Put them on my W212's front at 95K miles, planning to get rid of the car before replacing the brake pads 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.
