Hi everyone,

Has anybody changed the the breakpads on their R350 on the front and rear already??? Any ideas where to get good and reasonable priced pads online?? Any special tools you need??

 

I've changed both front and rear. www.rockauto.com has many choices and prices for aftermarket pads not OEM. No special tools needed

 

I am also in the process of buying and replacing all 4 pads. Is that all that needs to be replaced?

 

Depends on how good your rotors look or measure out. You also need 2 sensors for front and if I remember right one for the back.

 

Rotors at 40,000 miles!? wow...

 

I just replaced the rears on the wifes R350. Wish I took some pics for you guys. I guess I will when I do the fronts. Anyhoo...

The rear rotors (and the front for that matter) should not be turned. They are soft and even though it may be in spec now, by the time your new pads wear in to it, it will no longer be. You bought a benz, don't cheap out on the rotors, this is a safety item and you can have adverse effects when using aftermarket pads on a factory rotor. Anyway, there is the safety disclaimer.

When I replaced the rears, I sourced all parts from Amazon. I used Centric e-coat rotors and Bendix ceramic pads. Here is a walkthrough without pictures.

Park on level ground, put the car in park but keep the emergency brake off. Secure the care with 2 wheel chalks, I use both on the opposite side from where I am working. Lift the car at the lift pad, put a jack stand under the suspension arm (just in case). Remove 5 wheel lugs and remove the wheel. (If you do not have an impact gun, loosen the lugs on the ground and remove in the air.

Remove the outer Caliper retaining clip, silver thing holding the end of the caliper to the caliper bracket. Remove the 2 pins holding the calipers on. This is a hex head and I do not remember the size. Secure the caliper to the suspension and do not pull on the hose or twist it.

Remove the caliper bracket. There are 2 bolts on the back side that were an oddball size, I don't remember exactly but it was 16 or 18mm IIRC. Clean the bracket and set it aside.

Pull straight back on the rotor to remove it. I had some light rust on the hub, and since I am not reusing the rotors, I smacked around it with the BFH until it worked loose. I also sprayed a bit of PB Blaster around the hub to help out.

Clean the emergency brake mechanism while you're in there with a bit of brake cleaner. At this point, my e-brake needed no adjustment but if yours does, we'll get to that later.

Clean the new rotor with brake cleaner, including the inner surface for the emergency brake. Get all the oil off of the machined surfaces. (blue shop towel and brake cleaner are your friend here). Slip the new rotor on there.

Replace the caliper bracket using blue locktite on the bolts, and torque to factory spec.

Clean the caliper bolts and caliper at this point. Remove the pads and old sensor. The rear sensor is on the passenger side brake pad. Using whatever means you have, colapse the caliper piston back into the caliper. I was able to do this by hand, you may need the compression tool. Install the new inner pad (the one in the caliper piston) and install the new pad wear sensor and plug in. The outer pad will go into the bracket and the caliper will wrap around it.

Put the caliper back on. Do not use any thread locker on these, just torque to factory spec.

Put the outer caliper spring back on to the assembly.

At this point, you may need to adjust the emergency brake. I did not have to. In order to do it, there is an adjustment hole on the front of the rotor. Align it with the adjustment star and adjust. You should have a manual for this, I will not post the procedure cuz if your car rolls away, don't blame me.

With this complete, remove the rubber inspection hole plug from the old rotor and put it in the new one.

Wipe down any finger prints or grease from the rotor one last time.

Put your wheel back on and torque the bolts to spec. Put a dab of never-seize on your bolts before putting them back in!

Set the car on the ground, start it and pump the brakes until they are firm. This will put the fluid back into the caliper. If you don't do this step, you'll dump brake fluid out when you do the other side!

I believe that's it.

 

Since mercedes has soft metal rotors, who makes a good replacement with harder metal.

Im thinking of getting a different type of rotor with harder metal so they last longer, and stock oem pads. But why does mb use soft rotors?

 

I forgot to replace my placeholder for the rotor brand I used, so I updated it. Amazon pricing is below.

Centric Parts 120.35090 Premium Brake Rotor with E-Coating
Sold by: StockWiseAuto
Condition: new
Quantity: 2
$52.52 each
Item subtotal: $105

I used Amazon because I have prime and the shipping on these heavy rotors was free.

So far, the performance of the rear is better than the fronts. When I have a chance in the next week or so, i'm going to match the fronts to what I have already.

Why does Mercedes use soft rotors and harder pads? Really? $1200 brake sets at <40k miles is why. Alot of manufacturers are doing this these days. I know they have a performance reason for it but I usually replace the rotors at pad time anyway. It's just rediculous that these wear out so quickly without any significant performance gains.

I HIGHLY DISCOURAGE anyone from mixing factory and aftermarket parts. These items were engineered to go together. If you mix a hard pad with a hard rotor, your braking performance will be degraded and its not worth it. For about half the cost, you can run a good ceramic pad on there. Either go all MB or all aftermarket IMHO.

 

I thought the mb pad was soft???? It only lasted 40,000 miles so im fairly sure it is a soft pad. My pads are still very thick on my 06 f350 with 70,000 miles.

 

According to Mercedes, any bolts removed in the process are replaced and not reused.

But, frankly, it's REALLY silly to do brake work without reference to Mercedes WIS procedures.

http://www.startekinfo.com/StarTek/o...tedDocId=11498

 

Probably to hide high corrosion on them

Any car built in USA has problem with corrosion of rotors or bolts ..I have never seen this problem with E-class.

 

No, it's because they feature encapsulated loctite.

 

Remember, always break the bleed screw loose on the caliper so the brake fluid can escape through it instead of back washing into the master cylinder and possibly damaging it. The master cylinder is designed to displace small measurements of fluid at a time, the caliper holds a fair amount of fluid when the piston is out with thin worn out pads so push the fluid out through the bleed screw so not to have a possible failure internally in the master cylinder.