AustinGuy

Maybe it's that I just have about 600 miles on my car and the pads/rotors are not broken in, but...... the stopping power is not impressive at all. Add to that, the initial "grab" when you first hit the pedal is not impressive either.

After driving my wife's '06 Lexus GX470, mine feels like a hot knife through butter.... not much traction. Even the LS450 that I test drove before buying the S550 had impressive brakes - stopped on a dime and had amazing grab on the first tap of the pedal.

Anybody else bothered by this? Or am I expecting too much?

Gondon

Lies !

PartyVan

I have an easy solution for you and it will increase your braking performance by a mile, and the best part is it won't cost you anything. If you still have your stock 18" wheels, put it on and go out for a spin then report back and let us know how it goes.

WSH

LOL....

OP seems to have many "issues" w/S550....

Have about 5K mis expce on S550/CL550 in mtn twisties...S/CL550 seem to have solid brakes, better than my expce in any test-drives of any BMW (incl M3/5)/Lexus/Audi, etc if considering subjective sense of pedal feel/stopping dists/fade resist....

If truly a brake fanatic and enjoy stress-testing brakes in challenging public rd settings, get a CL63 030....or simply slap some "S65 AMG" and "V12 Biturbo" badges onto 550 for rather frugal, placebo solutions of likely fundamental issue....

Rider1

You're funny WSH......

AustinGuy

Interesting.... looks like I entered comedy central.



Now where can I get some "AMG" and "V12 BiTurbo" badges?

trumpet1

I know that mine behave strangely when the brakes are wet (driving through heavy rain). They almost have a vibration/pulsation upon stopping. Once dry, they do great. I think BMW has a drying pattern that it goes through to prevent this. Kind of wish the MB had this.

ajm0623

benzo did have a program introduced on their 2003 e-class (and maybe sl-class?) whereby they used "sbc" brakes. the brakes detected the water from rainfall/ or were triggered into action by the windscreen wipers being activated and periodically pumped the brakes to dry them - just as you describe above what bmw does. you couldn't feel the pumping action as it never slowed you down. just enough to dry the otherwise wet brakes. i never had a problem with my 03 e500 - but others (many apparently) had significant issues with these sbc brakes because benzo did away with them. and when they did away with them - i beleive the drying feature went too.

Diesel Benz

I thought the same feature was maintained on the W211 face-lift equally as it should exist on the W221, will have to try and check this. Heavy rain would likely still affect braking.

Considering the original post, MB brakes can not add friction for poor tyres, and the brakes can do just about what good tyres can do, even on the basic models. The big ones can in addition handle continuous braking (and acceleration) better than the small ones.

Red Marko

Very sharp, very sharp...

But some guys may be hurt...

Mark.

Diesel Benz

I did check this now for the W221 and the brake drying function is there even if it does not have SBC brakes. I assume the same for the W211 face lift.

AustinGuy

Mine has the AMG sports pack: 19" AMG wheels & Continental SportContact2 tires. I have since changed to 20" Brabus wheels with the same tires, except that they now have a lower aspect ratio (255/35/20 and 275/35/20). Nontheless, I'm not sure if the aspect ratio affects the braking power...

AustinGuy

ajm0623, Diesel Benz & trumpet1:

Thanks for the feedback.

All I'm saying is that for a car of this caliber, one would expect better brakes. When I, as an average Joe can tell the diff. between the 750iL, LS450 and S550's brakes, something's wrong. As far as I am concerned, the S550's fall FAR short of the other 2 I just mentioned. Infact, the LS450 is incredible as far as stopping power is concerned.

I'm starting to wonder whether MB, as a company in trying to reinvent itself after the W220 disaster... is now cutting more corners...

Diesel Benz

I'm still puzzled about your definition of braking power. Do you mean the pedal pressure for a certain deceleration rate or the actual maximum deceleration that can be achieved with the car?

The attached measurement is from an S500 (equals S550). This is about the maximum deceleration from 100 km/h to 0 km/h. With commercial tyres and typical road surface one cannot get any better (but I'm expecting BMW doing pretty close to the same, probably Lexus being similar too).

The brake pedal force issue is different. Some prefer less brake boost, some more, I don't want to argue on that.

AustinGuy

Deisel, I'm talking about 2 things and the combined result that's obtained from those 2 things happenening. Those 2 things are:

1) Amount of pressure applied by foot on the pedal.

2) The stopping distance, i.e. the amount of distance traveled after slamming the pedal at which the car comes to a stop.

In my S550's case, I have to apply toooooooo much pressure to get the desired stop. Also, when I press the pedal, pretty hard I might add (certainly way harder than the GX) the car does not respond the way I expect it. I guess the only way to know what I'm saying is to go to your Lexus dealer on the weekend and ask them for an LS450 test drive. I'm sure they'll be happy to oblige (esp. if you drive up in an S-class )..... and see what I'm talking about.

dimapb

AustinGuy,
I have an LS460L (i think that's what you are referring to) and not very happy with the brakes on it. I think MB's brakes, based on my test drive of S550, are better. I think you may have issues with your brakes and should probably stop by your dealer and have them checked out. I have had issues with my wifes Toy Sequoia similar to what you are describing. While dealership was washing the car, they over sprayed Tire Shine on the rotors and the brakes have never been the same. I (read dealership) had to replace the pads and the rotors because of it. One other thing to do is to test drive another S550 to see if behaves just like yours.
Good luck.

trumpet1

I know this, the new C class has brakes that are extremely sensitive and stop on a dime. Even though I said a slight negative comment about my brakes in heavy rain , they do well enough for me. I'm not unhappy with them....just noticed a slight strangeness in heavy rain conditions while coming to a complete stop. I don't notice it if I'm just slowing down on the interstate or any other high speeds situations.

carsnob

try not following so closely!
...the S has always been known for good brakes. Fortunately most of us haven't had to experience its emergency sensing/braking system whereby the car recognizes that it is an emergency braking action. I am confident that the S550/600 has excellent brakes. I'd take this car over any Lexus or Bimmer750.
Alternatively, you can drive in a lower gear and appreciate some of the torque thereby requiring less braking action, depending on the circumstances/traffic/speed etc.

Diesel Benz

I agree with this, a test drive would be useful for figure out if the brake boost is lower than it should. I would not want the car to have any more sensitivity than it has now, too sensitive are not good for smooth braking at normal traffic and BAS should solve the emergency type of cases.

gellie

I always felt the brakes on the s were a bit underwhelming. Reminds my of my fathers caddys! The brake systems on the BMW are far better,cant speak of lexus.

Vadim @ FD

AustinGuy:

Iif you do have 20'' Brabus wheels on, most likely they are responsible for the reduction in braking power.

Switch back to stock ones and compare.

Good Luck!

Diesel Benz

Again, please specify what "better" means to you. Otherwise one car truly is better for one person while another one is better for another person.

Diesel Benz

Why would that make any difference (ignoring the difference from the tyre grip, which usually is better on dry roads with wider tyres)? As long as the tyre diameter remains the same, the only (very) marginal difference could come from the wheel weight and inertia difference (depending on the weight distribution).

AustinGuy

Exactly!

Don't know WHY 20" vs. 19" wheels would make a difference in braking power and stopping distance.

gellie

Better meaning more responsive, feeling the care will come to a safer stop at a shorter distance.