Setup a meeting with the foreman

 

UPDATE

Went on a 15-20 min run with foreman nxt to me. Spirited, fast driving. Came back to dealership made him stand outside while I did rolling 5mph, the noise was even louder this time, like an entirely different noise. He recorded it, said this isn't normal, went to SA and made him listen, so now have two people verify noise. Left the car, came back. Hopefully they'll tell me smtn, I told the foreman u guys are keeping me in the dark, no answers. He agreed, told the SA, this is NOT normal noise.

 

We've been PM-ing behind the scenes, I'm just updating the thread for knowledge reasons.

The popular/smart thing to do is to retrofit from the floating rears to the Brembo setup eventually so you can wean yourself off these expensive rotors with next to no benefits, especially since the rears are so small. This trend has been around since these silly floating/2pc/riveted rotors were made popular over a decade ago.

Brembo 2pc fronts which are a rather reasonable $400 a corner from the right place, and $100 for the retrofitted 1pc rears. The full brake stack for this car with MB Genuine is an eye watering $8200 or so per some extremely lazy math I did before labor is factored which they're going to charge like $1000 for. AMG GTS shares brake parts with these so I'm fairly familiar.

I'm really disappointed that the dealer who was very happy to take your money from the car can't diagnose this thing because they're trying to save $4000 in parts even though they probably made tens of thousands on that sell/buy/sell for your car.

 

UPDATE

Got the car back, same bs as before, squeal still there. So essentially they kept my car for 2 weeks, did absolutely nttn, and said noise is normal. ****en blows my mind at how these businesses stay afloat.

So I'm going to try to do the following at my friends house, he has all the tools. Take apart the rear brake pads and rotors and grease and clean all areas correctly. CAUTION? ARE THESE CALIPER BOLTS 1 TIME USE? IF I REMOVE, GREASE, THEN PUT THEM BACK IN THAT RUBBER SOCKET IS THAT OK? Are torque specs needed in these bolt tightening, if so where can I find?

If the cleaning and greasing dnt make noise disappear, I'll buy the 1 piece brembos and z23 pads and reinstall.

Does this sound like a good plan fellas?

@ChrisHimself
@superpop
@superswiss

 

I would assume the dealer already did this at a minimum. You can try this but you will need to have someone with a basic understanding of brake work there to help. There are also several videos on Youtube of the procedure, including the required step of putting the rear brake calipers in service mode. You will want to pay particular attention to the piston in the caliper and ensure that it can move back and forth. The two primary causes of brake squeal are improperly installed parts with no grease or grease in the wrong spots, and padss that are not properly seated with the rotor. My guess is the dealer installed new pads at some point and did not do the rotors as they were probably still within spec and these new pads are rubbing on something under the right conditions. For that reason I would start with new parts. You can get everything you need for under 500 bucks and you will then be assured that all variables have been removed. You will also solve the problem of massive amounts of brake dust all over your rear wheels and everything else around the wheels. Non of the bolts are one time use but you should use thread lock on all caliper hardware. I also believe that the Z23 Pads come with new boots for the rear bolts. I am not sure where you would get torque spec on the bolts.

 

II wouldn't accuse the MB dealership of shoddy workmanship, we have a lot of good guys there, and sendbacks are pretty well documented and dealt with. What I do think is happening to you is the sales guy wrote a check the techs and foreman (I would elevate the **ck out of this to the service manager, they're losing business) are not willing to cash to take care of you due to the massive expense parts. It was their job to CPO the car and I've seen SO much of this in my time at my particular dealer which I will never mention on this board. You will have 2-3 E300's on the lot with completely wavy front rotors being "CPO" because those are "consumeables"

CALIPER bolts are one-time use per doctrine. They're re-useable for practical sake but I doubt you're trying to save cash here. It's 80ft/lbs for your chassis for the rear. The fronts are 99, I just set to 95ft/lbs and I see my customer cars annually and nothing backs out. You want to treat these like you would treat LUG BOLTS. These affect your safety.

GUIDE PINS are always re-useable, they go in snug, or 25ft/lb you treat these like you treat WATER PUMP bolts since its aluminum. Gently and don't exceed torque you can't generate with one hand is my practical advice if you don't have a torque wrench. You will have brand new hardware, boots, on the Z23 setup. These cannot hurt you.

Yes you're going to need the Brembos one way or another, either right now or in six months when those rotors are cooked 100% so I'd just order the kit. There isn't much you can do with new pads on uneven rotors they never really quite "match up", the pad will always be adjusting to the new wear pattern of the rotor as it goes down. You can try really getting it nice and hot and brake hard to get them to meet up, but thats just theorycraft and nothing I've ever seen work.

You can use a mobile-mechanic service like Yourmechanic and supervise if you'd like, they usually send a Mercedes-guy who specializes in what he's doing to sort you out. Just pay labor-only option on the job and he'll do it on your driveway. I'm assuming you own, and live in a house with an S63 so this might be the option I'd like to see since you're owed convenience for once on this car.

Please don't let this sour your experience with Mercedes. They're truly special cars for special people who love themselves and want the best for themselves. I think moving forward I'd like to help you out with any issues over the dealer, who we've caught pants-down for the last two weeks already. I can help you write a complaint to MB-USA about your experience as well. This is completely tacky, uncivilized treatment of a customer playing dumb and using band-aid sprays on a $4000 rear brake setup to get you to go away so they can go back to making money.

 

Interesting.

 

Appreciate the info

To OP: good luck hopefully you figure it out soon, baffles me the dealership confirmed it is not normal then apparently they couldn't figure it out and therefore claim it is normal again.

 

UPDATE

No fix, emailed client relationship, sales, etc. Told them about the issue, no response back, nothing. Absolute bull**** lmfao. Anyways, noise still there and day by day irritates me more. Soon will just give in and order aftermarket and fix it. Thank you all for your help and comments. Will update thread when fixed and reply back with the results.

 

Sorry to read that, but this is what I was getting to with my initial reply.

Spend $500 at a high end auto shop where they'll put it up on a lift, use chassis ears, etc. and still have labor time to spare. Even though you shouldn't have to spend anything, that $500 would be worth it considering all the time and frustration that is going wasted with the dealer.

Hope you get it sorted out somehow.

 

Ill help you with whatever you need when the time comes

 

Ty bro, been nttn but helpful this entire time.

 

Do your future self a favor, spend a few hundred bucks and put on a set of Power Stop Z23's. No dust and no noise.

 

Second chassis ears, that will help a lot pinpointing the exact location of weird noises (like rattles)

 

Thanks will too consider those.

 

rotors are worn pretty good, they have lips. But the problem is probably the pads. I have never had any squeal with oem pads, but they are dirty.

 

OP's car?

 

Hey man, can you send me the pdf document that has these numbers? I know dealers have the exact specs and the pdf file for it.

 

 

Ty so much, can you give me the torque for the rotor single bolt on the rotor face, is it 10nm?

 

 

UPDATE. Swapped the rear rotors and pads over to brembo and powerstop as suggested in the chat and the noise is gone. Thank you to everyone who helped me, truly appreciate it.

Prices below have shipping + tax costs.

Single use caliper bolt to hub (threadlocked) - $38 for 4 bolts - LOCAL MERCEDES DEALERSHIP
Single use slider pin bolts (threadlocked) - $25 for 4 bolts - https://www.fcpeuro.com/Mercedes~Ben...b=5&d=15498&v=
Two brembo rotors - $160 - https://eeuroparts.com/product/brembo/09B87911
Two powerstop pads - $56 - https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo...sn=979&jsn=979
Total ~ $280 vs $4,000 dealership estimate
Took 4.5h to complete

 

I wish I had seen this thread earlier. I'm 90% sure you had that problem because someone drove the car in sand. I could be wrong, but everything you described in the first few post, including the audio, reminded me of this from almost 20 years ago when I drove my brother's new Acura on the beach. The brakes worked fine, but that annoying sound didn;t go away until we changed pads and rotors.

 

did the car have any other issues?

 

pads were changed 1k miles ago by dealer. didnt notice sand on rotors