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B4 for trying much more costly hard parts, try a better brake pad choice. Porterfield (and others) make several different brake pads with substantially different characteristics. Braking performance under different conditions is an important consideration for you to get what you want.
For example:
a) mild street use---quick bite with low pedal effort--do not need to be HOT to work, light to no black dust,no squeal, easy on rotors
b)heavy street use-- good initial bite with moderate effort, fade resistant, hard pedal feel, work better HOT, some dusting, moderate pad and rotor life.
c)heavy track use with lots of short maximum effort braking, dust no issue,take heavy pedal when cold, work best HOT, then high stopping power, no fade , not easy on rotors, not long life, linear pedal force vs stopping effort when hot.
d) high speed racing--some hard braking , Must be HOT to work well. Very fade resistant, heavy dusting but high consistent grip with moderate pedal effort. Very firm pedal feel, good pad life but hard on soft rotors.
choose wisely for what you want.and consider different formulations on front and rear to achieve the F/R braking balance you want. Tires and tire pressure as well as road conditions will dramatically alter performance. OEM pads ARE a good COMPROMISE for suburban use.
I ended up going with new Zimmerman front brake rotors and EBC Yellow Stuff pads and it made a considerable difference in braking performance over the old scortched pads and rotors. I have yet to do the rear brakes but will still look into the S55 calipers but after I get 18" wheels at least. I still have new tires on the R350 17" wheels my R500 came with. Thanks for the info!
Basically in a nutshell, if you are seeking just best bang for the buck in a serious upgrade without a lot of hassles then you could use just these front S55 calipers along with an R500 13.8" front rotor and it will bolt on fine and need nothing custom and nothing else. you may need a 5mm washer at the caliper mounts but I don't remember for sure and will check to confirm this. that is really all you'd need to do to upgrade
Can you confirm that the rears (S55 brembo caliper) will work ? Many thanks in advance.
The front 2003-2006 S55 calipers bolt on with just a shim with 350mm rotors based on the info provided. The rears will not bolt on without modifications, but as long as you use a W164 rotor, you will keep the parking brake. The reason OP had to modify the front calipers was because he decided to go with 390 mm front rotors. With the 350 mm rotors, 18" wheels will fit, but you're looking at $800+ for a set of these calipers on ebay.
The most foolproof bolt ons will be R63/ML63 brakes. These require at least 19" wheels. This set runs about $600-$1000 on ebay.
Alternatively, you can upgrade to the 350mm front brakes with the 330mm vented rears. This is the most cost effective upgrade. The calipers are $50-$90 each on RockAuto with $40-$145 core charges (I assume you can just send in your old ones). This option will work with 18" wheels.
Um I'm pretty sure you can't go 350 in the front. It must be 390mm front & 345mm in the rear to hold these massive calipers.
18 inch wheels can fit yes, but the offset must be 56+ or even 54+ but caliper will be 2mm off the front rim unless you get hub centric spacers which I personally wouldn't do.
I don't know if you consider car and driver a magazine, but if you do then this is from a car and driver review of the R500:
"As loaves go, this is a whopper, with length and width dimensions up there with the largest of the minivans, give or take a fraction. Weight outwhops them all at 5225 pounds for our loaded sample."
there are several other examples but I don't even feel the need to entertain this any longer because I know that I'm not the one who is wrong here or way off the mark, but I am curious to see if you will admit that you are wrong, or admit that you are nitpicking for whatever reason you may have to do so
anyway, I came here to add more specifics as to what anyone would need to do to upgrade their own brakes.
basically in a nutshell, if you are seeking just best bang for the buck in a serious upgrade without a lot of hassles then you could use just these front S55 calipers along with an R500 13.8" front rotor and it will bolt on fine and need nothing custom and nothing else. you may need a 5mm washer at the caliper mounts but I don't remember for sure and will check to confirm this. that is really all you'd need to do to upgrade. rears would be optional and NOT necessary to benefit from having much better stopping power, the rears would just be completing the package and making them even that much better, but are NOT mandatory.
~70% of your total stopping power comes from your front brakes and the fluid dynamics of the R class braking system matches the fluid dynamics of the S55 braking system so there are NO incompatibility issues, only that you really should obviously upgrade them in pairs and obviously the most beneficial and effective pair would be the fronts first and foremost, with the rears just being icing on the cake.
if you want to go further and do the rears that is a little trickier and you will have to have some custom machine work done. if you want to do 15.4" front rotors then you will need to have custom spacers machined as well. I will put up templates and specs so you can have a machine shop do these modifications, it's pretty straight forward as long as you have an accurate blueprint which I will provide as soon as I can get it uploaded.
Hi turbocad, Great write up on the conversion/upgrade. I’d like confirmation that the spacer used for the 13.8 set up is 5mm.
Hello, my 06' R500 needs brakes and I have an early model with the small R350 brakes (330mm front rotors and solid disc's in rear). My intention is to go with the 8 piston E55, CLS55, S55 front calipers with 350mm front rotors and the upgrade to the vented rotors in the rear. I have these wheels before so I think I'll be good on the offset since they're larger than 56mm.
Are 5mm caliper mount spacers needed for the larger 8 piston calipers to mount to the R500 anchor plates?
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