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While I had the rear tires off today I checked the wear on the rear rotors and pads at 21600 miles. The rotor thickness is at 25.84mm (26mm when new) so they should easily make it to 100K miles. The friction material on the rear pads measures 9mm thick. I keep Lane Keep Assist toggled off which helps to extend the life of the rear brake components. I will try to get measurements for the front brakes in the next few days.
Measuring rear rotor thickness. 25.84mm after 21600 miles. Note that new rotor dimensions (360mm diameter, 26mm thickness) are cast into the caliper body.
Keeping a safety feature off for theoretically extending service life of brakes is an odd choice.
Here’s my rationale…
Most of my driving is done with Distronic cruise control engaged along with steering assist which does not use rear brakes to stay centered in between the lines. Lane Keep Assist is redundant.
I heard ESP off or Sport also helps with conserving rear brakes, not that I recommend it if you don't feel comfortable. Not using distronic as well also helps, again if it makes sense for your use case. Obviously not a good idea to pay for distronic and don't use it.
My W212 lasted me 130k miles on the original pads and rotors. I only replaced the rotors because I felt bad only replacing pads and already bought them. And that wasn't even a hybrid with regen braking. I fully expect to get at least the same out of this one.
Oh, and I never turned off the lane keep assist on that thing and I don't expect to do so on the new one either. Buying 100k+ cars only to skimp on pads and rotors seem like penny wise dollar stupid to me.
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.
