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Please dont blast me.....not familiar with brakes.......but do these look like they are bad?.....should I change them out? Benz wants 1000 plus to change them......I feel like they are trying to dupe me.
Getting close. Typical rule of thumb is pad thickness less then backing plate, replace. Or to be more exact, 5mm of pad left. You can push your luck and on the rears go farther, most braking occurs on front rotors, what thickness are they? If there are any rivets in the pads to hold par to backing plate, you do not want to expose those to the rotor surfaces as they will groove the rotor and likely squeal while doing it. Braking systems are well over engineered for daily commute type driving. They become critical when emergency, towing, and other heavy duty braking needs come into play. Savings vs risk. An easy DIY job for those are handy or non-dealer job, parts are well below $1000. That is dealer labor pricing.
Hi Paul,
I also just had my rear brakes and rotors changed out at about 60,000 miles. My mechanic said that the measurement was just about "in the red"
I gave him the go ahead. it was about $800.00.
It is strange, but the front pads are still ok- so, for some reason---- our gle350's brake a little differently than the conventional wisdom which says the fronts should wear first. Are there any mechanics out there can shed some light on this seemingly quirky phenomenon?
I just looked at rotors and disk prices and they are about $400.00 for the rears.
Sent the Gle350 to the dealership because of slight grinding in the rear.......I thought there was a rock stuck or something......they said rear brakes needed changing due to metal to metal contact......asking near 1000 for parts and labor for rear alone. Rotors looked ok to me.....unfortunately I didn't take pics of them. Yes and it looks like I may be able to change them myself if need be.
In many late model vehicles, stability control systems can over use (compare to front and historical norms) the rear pads sooner (wear faster) to control car/SUV rotation in high speed turns. This could be a root cause to rear wear sooner.
Active cruise control (Distronic), standard cruise control (when decelerating to target speed), and active lane keeping systems use the rear brakes. This results in higher wear on rear brakes compared with vehicles without those assist systems.
Also I believe the brake HOLD feature also uses the rear brakes. Brake pad consumption can be reduced when using HOLD by pressing the brake pedal to deactivate the feature before accelerating from a stop.
Maybe it's just the images but the pads look like they have over 50% of life remaining. I wouldn't have changed those pads. Within 5-10 mils of the back plate sure, but 5-10 mils if you use a measuring device is a super small amount.
Also I believe the PARK HOLD feature also uses the rear brakes. Brake pad consumption can be reduced when using PARK HOLD by pressing the brake pedal to deactivate the feature before accelerating from a stop.
I checked mine to see if there is more than 1 way to release the brake hold, but the brake pedal sets the hold function, and the accelerator pedal releases it.
If you go to page 205 of the owners manual it states that if you press the brake pedal, it will disengage the HOLD feature.Deactivating the HOLD function The HOLD function is deactivated automatically
if:
you accelerate and the transmission is in
position D or R.
you shift the transmission to position P.
you depress the brake pedal again with a certain
amount of pressure until HOLD disappears
from the multifunction display.
you secure the vehicle using the electric parking
brake.
you activate DISTRONIC PLUS.
Sorry, I called it "park hold". It is simply the "HOLD" function as Chefcct noted.
For my part, I am sorry I did an internet search and called it "brake hold" as Mercedes-Benz USA did in their video. It was not meant to "slight" anyone by using a different term.
My dealer's concierge showed me the method of just stepping on the accelerator pedal to start moving from hold, so clearly there is more than one way and that it "takes a certain amount of pressure until HOLD disappears" and that I had not done that before.
Chassis is correct. You press on the brake pedal again and it will unset the hold feature...
If your isn't doing this, you have a malfunction.
It seems I get to be correct along with Chassis. You can drive off ,and the HOLD function is "deactivated automatically" (when in D), by pressing the accelerator pedal, and there is no "malfunction" as you stated.
It's all good when everyone picks up a little knowledge along the way--- that's what many of us are here for by asking questions. I can say I appreciate being made aware of more than 1 way to do something.
Wow.. my colleague had to change the brakes just because the dealer suggested him to at 35k miles .. the whole rotors and brakes for both the axles at 3000$ On his GLE350