jvgarnett

Hi
Has anyone had problems with poor brakes.
I have my car (2003 model) for three and a half years now and it has been in out of the dealers about ten times. It took three attemps to get all the air out of the calipers. When you go off the throttle on to the brake it you really have to push hard on the pedal to make it stop. I have two other Mercs a E320 cdi and a ML420 cdi, the brakes feel far better on these two cars compared to the SL 55. With the size of calipers on the SL it should be far better than the other cars. I just have the impression that the engine is trying to push the car on when braking. If try an emergency stop at say 40 mph it will slide the front wheels and the rear brakes seem to do very little.
Can anyone help please?
John

Karl G

Sounds like your SBC isn't working. Have a dealer check the SBC unit for failure.

sjcsl55

Ya, something sounds wrong with your SBC... I love the brakes on this car... I have heard they are tough to bleed.

sprins

The 2002/2003/2004 SL and S AMG brakes on the S55 and SL55 are notoriously bad. And by bad I mean really bad. I had my 2003 SL55 brakes replaced by the 030 ones: World of difference. My 2003 S55 still has original brakes and they SUCK.

sjcsl55

What are the 030 ones that you refer to?

sikhkd

My SL55 brakes have been squealing for a while now.. weird

jvgarnett

Thanks for that.
The dealer has checked the SBC on two occasions. A month ago was the last time and there was a software update installed and the pressures were increased. (I was informed?).
The car is back there at the moment but I don't expect anything to improve, I'm afraid.

jmf003

Here's hoping the dealer has more success than you fear might be the case.

FWIW the brakes on my 2003 are dialed-in perfectly. I just had to do an emergency stop on Tuesday to avoid hitting a car a car head-on. The other driver was heading toward me and wanted to turn left in front of me. She remembered to look left and right but forgot to look straight. Fortunately the SL stopped straight, true, and short.

sprins

030 is the sports package from AMG. Bigger (and more importantly better) brakes are one of the components. I go them via www.mbenznl.com

Anyway, apparently there are people that are satisfied with the brakes on the 2003 cars, but I heard plenty of people that aren't. Don't know if it has to do with wear or proper 'dial-in' or pads or whatever. As said my 2003 S55 and SL55 both suffered, and I've heard of 2003 E55 with the same 'problem'.

The problem wasn't SBC in my case as the new 030 brakes on my SL55 do the job perfectly compared to the original brakes.

sound 8

You don't realise how bad the SL55 brakes are until you drive a SL63.

jmf003

LOL. Sound, you are definitely feeling the SL63 love!

sound 8

And some!!!

Quadcammer

Didn't you leave because you got owned about 600 times.

now you're back at this bs.

you're a joke, plain and simple.

go drive your sl63 and stop trying to convince everyone (and yourself) that its better than the Sl55, because its not.

sound 8

I have have been to busy driving my 63 .
But it's ignoramious people like you that spoil it with your

My car is better than yours .....attitude.
And try to speak English, then I'll understand.

Quadcammer

Wow thats rich. I have a "my car is better than yours attitude?" Lets see:

https://mbworld.org/forums/sl55-amg-...g-morning.html

Oh, and by the way, if you intend to insult someone's speaking (did you mean typing?) of the English language, perhaps you should properly edit your own posts (have have huh?).

I guess that makes it 601 times you've been owned.

jvgarnett

Please guys cut out the feud.

Update my SL55 has been in the dealers and they think that I am dreaming the fault on the brakes. I am seeing them tomorrow (Monday).

IngenereAMG

My '03 has great brakes. Don't let them get away without figuring out the problem.

sound 8

All True!!

But 601 !!!

I have told you a million times NOT to exagerate!! lol

jvgarnett

SL55 Brakes update
The car has now been back to the Merc dealers and the there is no air in the system.
After further testing by me the findings are as follows:
If you come off the throttle onto the brakes for an emergency stop, there is a delay between pressing the pedal and the brakes actually working. This is the case if the car is in nuetral or in drive. If you slightly press the brake pedal before you go for the emergency stop the brakes work fine as they should do. It appears that the brakes are a little lazy and need waking up first. Makes the passengers hair stand up at times!
Can anyone help??

GFEAR

i know in my 04 i panic stopped form 60 theother day and was laughin gmy *** off how well the car stopped, and my other car is a c6

GFEAR

i know in my 04 i panic stopped form 60 theother day and was laughing my *** off how well the car stopped, and my other car is a c6

GFEAR

i know in my 04 i panic stopped form 60 theother day and was laughing my *** off how well the car stopped, and my other car is a c6

jmf003

There's a "pedal value sensor" that communicates the brake pedal position to the SBC controller. Maybe a fault in one of those two components?

It sounds like once the controller gets the idea that you want to stop, the system engages properly.

Hope you get to the root cause without too much more hassle!

mf1

After reading all this, can someone tell me what the best available upgrade for the brakes could be ? Complete new system or not ? And where to get those parts ? (because europe is not like the States ! We have nothing compared to you guys overthere) Thanks !

jvgarnett

Hi thanks for that.
I have now been in touch with MB uk customer service and I believe that a MB AMG technician from MB UK is going to look into it and possibly test the car. One of the problems I have is the local MB garage doesn't believe there is a fault (..........).
I will keep you posted, thank you for help.