freezone

Does anyone have a procedure or a document to deactivate the SBC system without using Star Diagnostics in order to change brake pads for a 2007 s550 Rear wheel drive (not 4Matic)?

Planning to replace pads over the weekend.

thanks in advance.

Diesel Benz

I don't think you can disable SBC from a W221 because it does not have it.

irieblue

The W221 (S550) does *NOT* have SBC. (Sensotronic Brake Control), or Brake by Wire. See my other thread here about the upgrade I did recently. I would suggest you use this as an opportunity to change the brakes completely, it's utterly disgusting that Mercedes has such under powered brakes on a car weighing 4600 lbs. Do you realise the rear brakes are about on par with that of a Honda accord. I mean WTF mercedes, a solid rotor with a single piston sliding caliper and an 11.7 rear rotor on a $100K car?

jagata

100% agreed, standard S-Class brakes are so crappy. mercedes get thumbs down for sure on that design.

RajwanyS550

sorry to disappoint. but the brakes on my 2010 S550 is fantastic. stops on a dime. maybe ypur cars r early builts..

skrontz

+1

irieblue

Mercedes hasn't changed the brakes on the 2010 S550. Here's a photo of what you implicitly rely on to stop 4600 lbs of steel. I suppose If you don't drive above 65 Mph, and live in a region where everything is flat the stock brakes are great, but here in Northern CA, home to some wonderful twisty roads that get you to even more wonderful twisty roads I *NEVER* enjoyed driving down the mountains at 65 MPH. I suspect much of this is greatly amplified since my car has Active Body Control, and I know what fantastic brakes are like after owning a Yamaha R1 for 3 years, but seriously go test drive one of Mercedes other cars with Fixed piston calipers and then tell me if you think the S550 has fantastic brakes. This board is littered with comments of S550 owners who have never been happy with the brakes. It's one of the weak spots for an otherwise fantastic car.

skrontz

I drive at highway speeds in Nor Cal all the time, and my S550 has ABC. I'm still calling BS on the whole "underpowered brakes" whining.

I never realized that we're supposed to rely on a photo to assess the quality and performance of the brakes. Let me guess, a glued on rear spoiler is supposed to instantly add 150HP of power to the engine as well?

[Stopping into a wall is even quicker, but it doesn't mean that I necessarily want to do that.]

irieblue

What is your frame of reference? As compared to what? I am curious to know what other cars you have driven that you consider the S550 to have "fantastic brakes". I would think there is no comparison to your 750Li's brakes

skrontz

First of all, "fantastic brakes" are not my words, so please don't attribute this quote to me. The brakes are perfectly adequate for the job, i.e. I feel no immediate discomfort and/or safety concerns when using them.

For starters, you can look at the list of cars I currently own in the box on the left. Some of the past MB driving experiences include Brabus S73 (W140), S600 (W140,W220,W221), G500 (W463), and even the so much overhyped here S65 (W221). While the S550 brakes by all means can be made better (including the optionally attached braking parachutes), they do the job just fine now.

skrontz

Indeed, the S550 brakes slightly better. Since you're probably not going to take my word for it, here is a third-party opinion (I presume that the brakes on a 2009 750Li are not much worse than mine):

http://blogs.insideline.com/straight...benz-s550.html

60-0 (ft) : 111 (750Li) vs 108 (S550)

You may also want to check the "Braking Comments."

irieblue

Regarding the Mercedes S550 Braking Comments: "Crazy powerful brakes that don't fade a bit. Very little dive, but pedal is always a little soft."

The dive factor is due to the Active Body Control, I suspect that's why it edges out this BMW in this particular case, however his comment about the pedals always feeling soft, is bang on regarding what I don't like about the stock brakes. It's a completely different dynamic having to drop from 60 to zero as quickly as possible and hoping the ABS saves your bacon vs scrubbing off some speed from 60 to 45 to make the next turn. The soft brakes as this reviewer correctly nailed it (I referred to it as a dead spot) makes it tedious for me to drive the car down the mountains.

jagata

My comment is based on my own experience and no one else's. So I can't say for anyone else. I compare the braking to my other cars 2007 Tahoe, 2006 bmw 525 and 2009 accord. They all brake and feel the same as in confidence wise but you would think for a $100K car you would get more than the same from a $20k or even a $40K SUV I would want excellent. I drive and brake to an intersection and use same amount of brake pressure on all my cars and never go into the cross walks except when I'm in the S. And brake dust, thats a whole other topic on it's own.

skrontz

It's the "soft" pedal feel, not the brakes. Again, it appears to be a matter of preference as I like it more this way (why always apply more braking power than the situation calls for?). Try driving an LS460 where the pedal grabs like no tomorrow, yet it still takes forever to stop.

skrontz

That's weird. I barely get any brake dust on the S550. After the 750Li (which turns the rims black instantly), this was a huge relief for me. I'm wondering if there were some subtle changes in the brakes somewhere in between the MYs.

RajwanyS550

mostly S550, LS460, Lx570. I drive 70 to 80 mph highway. I am very pleased with the whole S550 pkg. the brakes and all. like I said before guys, no offence, but this is my opinion. I always buy new cars and drive it for 10k miles and then trade up. Maybe after few thousands milkes the brakesget bad I would not know.
As far as BMW's I dont like them and this is a MB forum. MB quality is far superior than than any BMW's. lots of my friends have those and they r always complaining.

QuadBenz

That review shouldn't be used for ANY comparisons. In that review, the cars have a $20,000+ price difference. They compared a fully loaded S550 against a bone stock 750Li; it didn't even have the sport package.

Give the 750Li performance tires like the S550 (along with the sport package) and then do the braking test again.

Also, I do agree with most of you, the S550 brakes stop just fine, but they do not look like they belong on a $100k car.

Diesel Benz

A funny thread, I quoted this because I've noticed if one drives the W212 some time and the W221 after that, he or she feels like there was an issue with the W221 brakes while that isn't the case.

To me the point is that the W212 (some W204 also) in my opinion have heavily over-boosted brakes. You don't have to press the pedal a lot and the brakes already work hard. The outcome is that it is difficult, if not impossible to brake smoothly, not getting passengers annoyed.

The 221 has the same braking power (roughly, I'm not a race track driver, speaking in terms of normal traffic but including cases where heavy braking is needed) in terms of car deceleration but the brakes need to be used harder, at least when only aiming at light deceleration. I'm afraid some drivers judge the car braking power from this illusion.

emilner

I find the brakes to be just fine. They are powerful when they need to be, but are very easy to modulate for normal driving as DB just said. Coming from my 211 they are world's better than either the 211 or 212 I had. I for one would prefer MB not spend my money making the brakes look better, I would prefer they spend it making them work better. If that means they look small underpowered or whatever- fine. As long as they are easy to modulate in normal traffic and stop hard when needed- and do it a few times in a row, I am happy. I would love to upgrade to the S600 brakes, but I can't see spending the $.

At the end of the day you are far more limited by the available traction of the tires than by the brakes. Upgrading to massive pizza pan sized monsters will not make the car stop much faster, frankly things could actually get worse due to the extra unsprung weight. What it will do is make you able to do it over and over at max force without fade (which is NOT what the S550 was designed to do)...

Quadcammer

its a luxury car, not a sports car.

if you want a rock hard pedal and huge brakes, get yourselves a porsche.

the brakes are fine.

RajwanyS550

thank U!

13pauls

Hey, Rajwany..what happened to your issue with the car vibrating..is it solved? I noticed your post disappeared?! Let me know as I have also recently got a MY10 s550 4matic....no issue yet!

RajwanyS550

changed tires and rebalanced using road force. works perfect now.
love the ride. how r u enjoying the car

irieblue

Mercedes offers better brakes on the European S600, than the US S600 why? The US S600 brakes are also better than the S550 brakes again why? Many S class owners on this board have done brakes on the S550 between 15K and 20K, that's too frequent imho, and there is an S600 owner on this list who was replacing his brakes every 8K (before he went to Brembo).

As long as North American S class owners think the brakes are adequate, Mercedes will continue to provide "good enough" while the Europeans who seem to be more demanding get the better Brakes. The feel is not rock hard (Mercedes offers the same brakes on their AMG cars), and *definitely not grabby* . It's exactly what I felt they should be on a $100K car, and I attribute this to the Fixed Calipers vs a sliding caliper.

This has nothing to do with driving an S550 like a porsche, for me it's about driving the car with more confidence in whatever terrain I find myself in.

The Mods I have chosen for my car, are all about making it better in everyday driving - 20" AMG forged wheels, AMG Flappy paddle steering wheel, AMG pedals, S600 brakes. "Good Enough" is not something I subscribe to..

skrontz

What constitutes "better?" Better looking? Any performance comparison tests done between the two?

Again, better how? I would expect them to be different due to the extra 300 lb of weight they have to stop.

OK, I'm lost. Weren't the S600 brakes supposed to be "better" than S550? It's all about individual driving patterns. Some people love gunning it just to brake into the floor at the next red light in 500 feet. It's not the brakes' fault.

Oh yeah, all these make it so much better for the "everyday driving." Especially the 20" rims over Nor Cal potholes. Nobody here is to judge you about modding your car. It's your ride, your money, and your preference. But don't expect common approval for some mods that the majority does find questionable. The brakes seem to be one of those by consensus.