black-clk500

Hey guys,
I'm bringing my (2011) car in for it's 2 year service, 8000 miles on the clock.
Do I need to change the brake fluid???
Seems a bit early for a car with 8000 miles IMO, but MB recommends it in their maintenance guide (every two years or 20k miles).
I figured it would be fine to wait until next year with 12k miles and three years old.
What did you guys do?
How much should I pay for B1, my dealer said around $600 for the works.
Thanks

BTW is the cabin filter change really needed too?

vdubpower

2 yrs , 8000 miles, dude drive your car

mthis

U fine don't stres it, I had 4xxxx miles when changed the brake fluid and just did cabin filter couple days ago in my drive way.

Cabin filter is very easy an simple to do.

Roswell

I passed on the brake fluid change as well. My dealership looked at my fluid and my low-mileage car (5 000km at the time of service B lol) & told me to wait next year no problem. Some members will say otherwise though, but I'm fine cuz it's only my week-end car.. an extra year wont affect my brake that much.

tfthach13

My independent guy (was lead service adviser at MB dealership for 20 years) says to do the brake fluid flush every 2 years. His rationale is that brake fluid is known for absorbing moisture from the air and over time, enough water will accumulate in the brake lines to cause decreased brake response. Under repeated heavy braking the response from your break will decrease due to the water boiling before the brake fluid does. This is due to water having a lower boiling point than the brake fluid.

Dealerships tends to over estimate the intervals in which the engine fluids needs replacing.

shades

Get yourself a brake tester and check it yourself. It's so much easier, and it's piece of mind when you lose track of when you did it last

cptdaz

$600?! What else is included?

Guilty

lol @ the $600 lol

jvanbrecht

Go buy a $50 pressure bleeder from Amazon, get a few feet of clear rubber pipe (pet store would have it) for the bleeder valve, and go get some brake fluid.. jack your car up.. bleed.. rinse and repeat all 4 wheels, take about an hour, and most of that time is just jacking up the car and taking off the wheels (you can do it without removing the wheels, but its a tight space).

It is a real easy job that I will be doing this weekend when I change my pads as well (not to mention cleaning the calipers and wheel well, and inside of the wheels)

Zeee_Q

I recently just had my brake fluid flush done by the dealership as well and it was only about $100 but the cheaper way is to just buy a mity-vac or some sort of vacuum with different hose sizes and bleed it yourself. The brake fluids aren't that expensive and the vacuum isn't that much either.

black-clk500

Thanks guys for all the responses!
Had my service done this morning, my dealer wanted $600 for the B1 and then another $139 for the brake flush.
I told them to change my engine oil $114, change my cabin filter $146 and flush the brakes $139. The rest of the fluff in B1 is a waste IMO and I don't need new windshield wipers since I only used mine TWICE in two years
BTW the cabin filter is total BS IMO, but I guess I would do it eventually, that won't be changed again as long as I own it

Out the door, my service was $440 for everything (plus the $50 I always tip my AMG Tech)

I asked in the PL last night about the brake fluid and one of the AMG guys said it needs to be changed every two year or less regardless of mileage. Like others have said, its the breakdown of the fluid and water infiltration that requires a brake flush. For $140, I couldn't say no, cheap money for peace of mind and it does the parts good if nothing else.

Jon2007E63P30

You did the right thing by flushing the brake fluid.

Merc-Skycap

Coming from someone that barely drives his C63 I didn't end up doing the break flush till about 3 years in since the car didn't drive much. Cabin filters is a bit bogus too at that point, you can ask them to do a courtesy deodorization of the filters and that takes care of any ac smell till you get some more miles out of the car.

Dealers will tell you, everything has to be re-placed and that's how they make money.

In a year or so wipe the wipers with a white distilled vinegar-soaked cloth which I hear goes a long way in protecting the rubber but wipers are inexpensive. Yet, the new ones that they have are slightly different from the original factory ones the car comes with. I had to replace mine because one of them broke but soon realized all dealers were selling these new wipers which don't match well with the car as the old ones do.

Good to see more ppl out there, not driving this thing as much hahaha.

Higgs Boson

Mine's a daily driver but I didn't buy it new. I'll be doing a brake flush soon enough.

ZephyrAMG

I just had "B1" done, in effect...but skipped out on wipers, brake fluid flush, and in cabin filter. Didn't need them with my mileage and driving habits. Basically and oil change and I deleted the dash code myself with help from this forum. I'll do that stuff in a year.

I agree with you on all your points. Glad they took care of you. Funny you tipped $50 (????!!) and I bought my SM and ST Venti Mochas....lolol. Whose over board or lacking here...me or you??!! LOLOL...

Glad to know the beast is up to date.

black-clk500

Thanks Zephyr! I definitely could have waited on the brake flush and the cabin filter (for sure), but I guess I'm a sucker for overkill

Yes, I always tip my service techs $50, I request the same two guys for everything for the car and I'm a firm believer in building a relationship with the guys who work on my car (or any services for that matter). I usually tip my service advisor a $50 too, but he was on vacation this week, so I got a different SA, and she was mediocre.

My car is pulled up to the window spot for service and I can watch the service up close, I enjoy that very much. I actually went into the shop a couple times and chatted with the tech while my car was up in the air. We were shooting the $h!t for a good 10 mins and we talked about the m156 engine and what he sees in the shop for problems. They've done 7-8 head bolt rebuilds already! He said one head was completely busted off and gone.

My tech asked me if I drive the car hard, I said "yeah, she might only have 8000 miles, but they're all hard miles."

waterbilly

I'm going to do my brake fluid flush can I use any type of brake fluid?

looney100

Check your owners manual MB 331.0 likely

Surge

This is not correct. Because brake fluid absorbs moisture from the air, you want to change it every 2 years, even if you didn’t drive it at all. This is one of those things that is NOT over-estimated.
Moisture in the system not only reduces braking effectiveness (makes the pedal feel more spongy), it accelerates corrosion of the caliper pistons.
You can flush the fluid yourself. It takes 15 min with under $100 in tools.

BLKROKT

Thanks for taking the time to point that out and correct the thread. Cuts down on the search confusion in the future.

Yuille36

I flush my brake calipers every two years regarding of the mileage, but I **** about these things.

Crya

iTrader: (1)

About to do mine solo for the first time. Indy performed for me last year. Could anyone be a gentleman and advise how many liters of 331.0 I should have on hand and about how many to dump into the power bleeder reservoir?

Jasonoff

1L is more than enough.

Yuille36

Basically, your entire brake system holds about 0.63L so a 1 liter can should be sufficient for flushing and then topping off the system.
I purchased two cans, which was way more then I need. But at least I will have some for another brake flush in 2021.

Jasonoff

That fluid will have absorbed water by then. Once it's opened, the shelf life very short.