eki912

My bad, should have explained better:
The front ones, the whole lot, was replaced in June, due to a really bad shake and vibration. Even at slow speeds and also was felt heavily on steering wheel. Big time. I think had about 15000 miles on the car, all done that time under warranty.

But now it was the rears, the whole lot, rotors & pads. Driven less than 1000 from replacement of fronts. Still under 16000 miles on this car.
And yes, it wasn't as bad as last time, but still when I slowed down from higher speeds on highway the car was shaking and juddering, maybe not so much on steeringwheel. The whole car was shaking and juddering, but only when slowing from high speeds and using some stopping power from your foot. At slower speeds and really gentle braking, I could barely feel it. Which also did point towards the rears. When I drove it in through Manhattan to get to service at slow speeds, I actually thought the problem has gone away...as I didn't feel it at all. But that was only because of slow speed and gentle braking.

Anyways, the car is under 16000 miles, fronts replaced under warranty, but the rears not ? Why is that ?
Of course they can always say I am braking the wrong way, using too much brakes, driving the wrong way, not driving enough or driving too much, having too much load on our car, towing heavy loads, washing it too often, washing the brakes too often, washing the wrong way, storing it wrongly, keeping it in too humid places, parking it in wrong garage and so on...
But is it going to be normal thing then in the future to replace all your brake parts every 20k miles ? I was not expecting this on a MB.

eki912

And this is nothing new, I found out :

https://mbworld.org/forums/glk-class...or-issues.html

MBKLUE

I'm wondering if the sensor or circuitry used to detect wet brakes after driving through standing water, for example, is misbehaving. It's supposed to gently apply the brakes to help dry them off. Maybe it's applying some braking power when it should not. I imagine if it was causing any significant amount of braking for some period of time your wheels would feel hot to the touch and your fuel mileage would go down.

Diabolis

That would be my suspicion as well, or perhaps a sticky caliper that's not always fully releasing.


P.S. Just out of curiosity - where was your GLK built? Germany, Egypt, China or Vietnam (look at the black sticker on the driver's side door jamb)?

eki912

I will have a look, when I go to my garage next time. Maybe later on today. Were these assembled also in ALL those places ? I hope they still used the same parts everywhere, not locally sourced ones...
And it wasn't too cheap either, total was 750$..... to renew everything at the rear. Pads & rotors and some small bits and pieces.
If I would have the place and tools ( and time ) , I would have purchased and installed better (?) aftermarket rotors instead of these rediccilously priced MB ones, that seems to be crappy anyway.
Out of curiosity, should I now make a complaint to MB USA about this ? And how to do it, where to send it ? As I still think at this mileage (15650 yesterday when picked her up ) and knowing how we treat and use our GLK, I still strongly feel one shouldn't replace all brakeparts.
I can sort of understand the front pads wearing out even at this low mileage because of the weight of this tank, but all pads and all rotors !!! On a high quality, premium car...

MBKLUE

Front and rear pads are designed to wear out at roughly the same time so they can be changed together/at the same time. Rear pads pretty much always do less "work" and are therefore thinner. That should lead to them needing replacement around the same time.

Diabolis

Yes, the GLK was made in all four places, and no, the parts themselves that each plant uses are not all coming from the same place or even made by the same supplier. Just wondering if perhaps one of them used recycled steel for example. A few years ago there was an interesting discussion about how and why some Mazdas used to rust out, and after many, many hours (years, actually) of analysis it turned out that the cars made from recycled steel - completely remelted, cleaned from all impurities, with the right carbon content, etc. - still contained some amount of oxygen within the metal itself and started rusting from the inside out after a couple of years (as in with no damaged paint and/or external exposure to oxygen). Cars that were made from new steel didn't have the rusting issue. When I was ordering my GLK, I specifically arranged with my SA to get me a car made at the Bremen plant in Germany alongside my AMGs, for fear that production in any one of the other three places may be of inferior quality. Then again, it's very possible that the German plant uses brake rotors made from recycled steel whereas the Vietnam one uses new steel, so my presumption about perceived quality may be totally skewed.

MBKLUE's post above about different front and rear rotor / pad wear and thickness is 100% correct. They are designed so that they all wear out at the same time. It could simply be a matter of you having used them up, without a malfunction of some sort or inferior quality parts being the culprit. I would agree that rotor life of 16K miles (~26K km) is a tad on the short side for an average passenger vehicle, but then again, it really depends on the driving conditions and style so I wouldn't necessarily chalk it up as a defect. If all four wore out it could mean that they just reached the end of their useful life.

Every time you take the car in for scheduled service, one of the things they will do is measure the rotor and pad thickness. What were they at at your scheduled service intervals and at what mileage?

eki912

finally made it to garage, checked from the door jamb, Made in Germany.

Is there a place or person in MB USA that I should write to ? Just to tell my disappointment of the quality of MBs brakes ( on our car ) which we purchased mainly because of the quality ! Or so we thought....

Diabolis

Well, it seems that you just wore out all four rotors, which makes it hard to point the finger at "quality issues". I mean, while I agree that replacing rotors at 25K km seems a tad early for most street-driven cars, if all four wore out at the same time, it wasn't a stuck caliper, car washes, rusting or anything of the sort - it's just wear and tear, plain and simple. Some peope are gentler on their brakers than others, some carry higher loads in their cars, some drive on mountainous terrain where they end up using the brakes a lot more during steep descents, so in good consicence I couldn't call it a manufacturing defect if all four rotors wore out at the same time.


You could certianly make your displeasure known to MB HQ, but I suspect that their reply is going to be along the lines of "Thank you for taking the time to write... we take customer satisfaction and quality very seriuously... we are sorry to hear you're not satisfied with your MB product... BUT your brakes are wear and tear items and they're past the warranty range", so you'd likely be wasting your time. And, for what it's worth, there is some truth in that statement - they are wear-and-tear items, and not EVERYONE's brake rotors wear out in 25K km, so it's likely something specific to your environment / conditions / driving style or combination thereof as opposed to a bad batch of rotors. Sorry.

eki912

Too much other things to do, haven't driven much lately.
But still this bothers me a bit.
I understand all the points in brakes wearing out, thats how they are designed. And nothing wrong with that. And even that maybe I am driving or braking wrongly to wear them out this fast, or driving at the wrong time, in wrong place, in wrong weather and even store it at the wrong place to wear the brakes out so fast.
But it still doesn't make sense that they were warped. They were not worn out. All was replaced because of the warping in rotors.
And that's the thing that bothers me. The car was at official MB service ( 10k miles) done by the first owner because I asked that to be done before I buy it from her. and they did check all brakes and it passed, naturally. No mentioning that brakes ( pads or rotors ) are soon due to be replaced. And now I have driven 5k miles, and everything was replaced. NYC weather eating my brakes ?

bop11

No reason to go to MB for brakes. Although I do my own normally, I have found that you can buy aftermarket brakes and have them installed almost anywhere. There is nothing special about Mercedes designs. I have also found, having owned 6 Mercedes over the past 35 years, that I have had at least twice the mileage from aftermarket rotors and pads. (also true on Range Rovers) There are so many good brands with compounds for every type of driver plus there are pads that keep your wheels from turning black and that don't squeal. Next time, I would suggest for brakes go somewhere else.

Diabolis

Wow - hold on a sec. You never mentioned that you bought the car used. How do you know that the previous owner wasn't riding the brakes a lot (driving using both feet for example) and wore them out? When you take the car in for service, they check whether the brakes are below the minimum thickness and in your case they weren't, but they could have been just 1/10th of a mm above the minimum, which would qualify as a pass. I am afraid you can't blame MB for this one.

VentoGT

The brakes on the GLK are hot steaming piles of pony loaf. About to get a second set in 11K miles, and my wife is not a racecar driver. Ridiculous

cottager777

My 2013 GLK is having it's first brake job. 73km. 50/50 city/highway. I guess I am one of the lucky ones? I am thinking of going with Brembo rotors and Akebono pads to lesson the brake dust.

Hugo L.

Dunno if my car has had its brakes changed, but I'm now at 110k kms, bought it at roughly 83, so I put 27k miles on it, and I'm sure they have some life left. I just want more bite AND not to have to change them during winter, so I'm doing this now.

gpcruiser

I wouldn't really consider that lucky. 73km is roughly 45k miles? I have owned several vehicles weighing more than the GLK which OE equipment has lasted over 70k miles. I'm getting a little scared of these brake stories.