Dealer quotes $3700 CAD before tax for front and rear brake job (pad + rotors). Pads are down to 4mm all around. Original set of pads, almost 120k km. I find this to be excessive. Price does include labor. I want to buy the parts and find an Indy. Where can I get OEM brake kits online that are recommended? Or that are good enough after market, not the cheap stuff. I’m in southern ontario, GTA. I am not going to do the job myself. I have shop close by but would take recommendations. SUV, not the coupe.

 

Try FCP Euro, not sure if they ship to the Great White North.

 

I put Powerstop Part #: K8191 drilled slotted on front and rear. About $500... Had local Pepboys put them on...$300 front and rear...

Upgrade over stock. Looks and stops great

 

I like these. I don’t mind a detroit weekend trip to get these installed at all.

 

If you want german made rotors and pads go with Zimmermann brand rotors then brembo or textar pads. As far as I know textar is the pads MB rebadges. Sensor go with OEM. Here in Vancouver it will usually fetch you $500 per axle for this job. Any indy who knows how to put the brakes to service mode can do the swap for you.

 

For front and rear under $1,600usd. Parts and labor using OEM only. I buy the parts online and take it to an indy shop (friends shop). I don't know much about Canadian pricing since I'm in the USA.

If aftermarket I go with Zimmermann w/Brembo or Akebono euro and OEM sensor. Not much less then OEM.

GLE400/GLE43 uses the same part numbers for the brakes.

 

I get the feeling that 4mm can go at least another year before the sensor comes on. Thoughts? I drive like an 80 year old.

 

if you start hearing screeching noise when the brakes are apply. It's time to start planning to do the brakes.

I got about 3-4 weeks when I was getting the screeching noise till the brake sensor kicked on. It also depends on your braking style.

3-4mm, guessing 20-50k miles left.

 

It’s mileage-based, not time-based. How many miles per month do you drive?

 

There's a wear sensor probe that's inserted into one of the brake pad slots (this sensor will also need to be replaced when you replace the pads). Nominally there's one sensor in front and one in the rear. When the pad wears enough to expose the sensor probe to the rotor, the probe grounds to the rotor and completes the "pad is worn, replacement needed" circuit. Note, of course, that the sensor will provide warning before the pad material is completely gone, so you'll have some driving available before the pad becomes so worn that it damages the rotor.

There may not be even pad wear from wheel to wheel and from inner pad to outer pad, so it's important to inspect all of the pads. As I recall, the wear limit (minimum pad material remaining, not including the backing plate) is 2 mm. So if you're getting a warning message for the rear, the rear pads may have to be changed while the fronts are OK and don't need replacement.

Edit to add: Some will disagree with this but it's not absolutely required to change the rotors when the pads are changed. There is a WIS instruction for checking the rotors that your maintenance people should be executing to determine whether the rotors can be reused. If they're just replacing the rotors as a matter of course "just because", they are probably spending your money for an unnecessary change.


I got the warning for the rear pads and the fronts still had tons of material on them. So I changed the rear pads on mine (rotors were fine - not warped and not scored so I reused them) and it wasn't hard at all (but mine's not an AMG). Remove the wheel, unplug the old wear sensor (right rear only), remove 2 bolts, pop old the pads out and the new pads in, reinstall the 2 bolts, plug the new wear sensor in (right rear only), reinstall the wheel. I didn't even need anything to retract the caliper piston other than my hands.

I looked at different pads and went with EBC Green Stuff pads. Supposed to be equivalent to the stock ones. I've got around 500 miles on them and they seem to be working fine. There's no brake dust on the wheels or anything else weird that I've noticed.

Editing to add: It's not necessary to blindly assume that the brake rotors have to be changed when the pads are changed. There is a WIS document that provides the criteria for inspecting the rotors. If your maintenance/repair people aren't executing the measures in that document to determine the state of the rotor, it's likely that you're paying a load of money for parts that you don't need.

 

I fill the tank from half every two weeks. That’s about a 20 gal tank so round about 200 miles give or take a few.

My rotors are scored and rusted. The pedal has a slight pulsing. Everything needs to changed, first brake job since the car was bought new in 2017.

 

Replaced pads and rotors at 50k miles... so far no trouble 8k miles later.