My SL 55 has been suffering from squeaking breaks at low speed, like many others. This has been made worse by the dry weather of the last two months. Yesterday my dealer called to let me know that new beak pads have been developed my AMG that are beter than the previous one, and that should not squeak. They will be installed for free next week: MB Switzerland is doing this on all AMG SLs sold thus far.

As soon as I get them, I will report their part number, and how they work.

 

that would be interesting. I had the same problem, however it went away/got a lot better once I really warmed up the brakes on a track excursion.

I would be interested in whatever service bulletin you are able to find.

thanks

DB1

 

Well, AMG exchanged the brake pads about a year ago on every SL 55. So, unless your car was build in 2001, you already have the 'new' brake pads.

AMG just confirmed that there are no other brake pads planned.

Ronald

 

my car was built in September 2002, and has had squeaking breaks everytime the weather is extremelly dry, like now

 

I'm assuming it's not break dust / dirt that settled on the disc. Most people I know who have this problem parked their car while the brakes were still very hot. If you don't give your breakes a chance to cool down before parking, brake dust settles / burns onto the disc and / or the calipers. Furthermore many people don't break in their new braking systems properly. Never do full brakings with new discs!

-> Try braking very softly for 20-30 secons at ~ 50mph multiple times

If the brakes where extremely hot, then you might have damaged your calipers and shortly afterwards your discs. This happened to mine after 2 days on the Nuerburgring because I was sometimes just too lazy to let the brakes cool down properly. I had to replace the brake discs.

However, according to AMG race engineers, the squeaking is simply a 'cosmetical' problem. You should still have full break performance.

Ronald

 

Ronald,

Do you know if there are any brake upgrades available from AMG. I took my SL on a track for around 30min and at the end the warning light came on telling me the brakes were hot. I then cruised around another 2 laps and then on a straight using minimal braking to let everything cool down. After that, parked up with no footbrake. I haven't noticed any squeaking since then.

However this car is heavy and it seems to me the one weakness (admittedly under extreme conditions) are the brakes. We need an option for ceramic or at least upgraded AMG certified pads.

Any advice welcomed here.

thanks

DB1

 

No. There was / is a bigger braking system for the SL 55 safety car, but it required special 19" wheels and isn't certified for public use. AMG won't sell it.


There is no better braking system out there. Don't forget that you have to break down a 2.2 ton heavy car.

Ceramic brakes offer worse braking power, but therefore last longer (also see http://www.movit.de/rahmen/ceramic.htm). AMG offered ceramic brakes once on the CL 55 F1 edition, but almost all customers traded their cermacic brakes in for normal brakes. Too loud and too expensive.

The same advice that was given to me by the AMG safety car developing engineer: Learn how to brake properly on a race track!

Ronald

 

I am also VERY interested in the part number for those pads!

 

The part # for the standard SL 55 brake pads?

Ronald

 

Ronald,

Interesting...in terms of learning how to brake - if you are going from a long 1km straight into a 180 degree hairpin multiple times I am not sure how many different ways there are to brake

I agree 100% that this is a heavy car, however I was surprised how quickly the warning light came on and hence my question about other enhanced brakes. There are some aftermarket ones from Brembo (marketed by Brabus, Kleeman and Renntech) that they say provides better braking. I am not sure if that is true, but I would prefer to stick with AMG ones.

It is somewhat ironic that the safety car can have better brakes but we aren't allowed to have them!

BTW: On a separate note, do you have any views on the SL65 AMG. I am considering getting one of those but have not seen any write ups or anything. My concerns are mostly around the weight of the engine and the dynamics and torque of the engine. The 55 is great, I would be interested in what differences there are. Do your AMG contacts have any views on this? Is this just a car to say "we have the most powerful" or does it really make a difference?

thanks

DB1

 

I'm throwing in my bet that says the SL65 will be a "I have it" kind of car and for the serious dragger. Not racer however, wouldn't the V12 give a awkward distribution of weight?

 

The biggest mistake AMG has made for SL55 brake design is the rotor rotation direction. The left side rotors are also installed to the right side, these are directionally rotating curved vane rotors acting as a centrifugal air pump cooling effect, so the right side discs are wrong mounted and this is why the right side brakes are over heated after few laps on racing track. Not a theory, just the laws of physics.

Ok, on normal use this is not a problem. Well, what about 500hp sports cars status, all people involved in motor racing can tell you, you have the wrong discs on the right side of your car.!!!

 

Right side disc

 

Right side disc ll

 

If you want big brake for your SL 55 amg go for the Brabus high performance brake system:
If I remember well it's 12 pistons 375 mm in the front and 6 pistons 355 mm in the back..... !

 

I've been racing the Hockenheim Grand-Prix Circuit with the SL 55 about 3 weeks ago (see pictures in the AMG Owners Club Gallery). The track also has a 180 degree hairpin turn where you have to break down from ~140 mph to ~15mph every 3 miles.

I've never been on this track, so I overheated my brakes after about 8 laps. The second time it took about 12 and at last I drove about 15 laps non-stop.

A race driver watched me and partially was sitting besides me. When I asked him about the overheating brakes, he just said that I was breaking a little bit too early, so that I would have to soften the breaking power a little bit to the end. But a break doesn't overheat by breaking very hard, but from breaking too long. Many other racers had the same problem: You have to break as late as possible and as hard as you can without the ABS going of.

Anyway, the SL 55 was never made to race such break-intensive race tracks as the Hockenheim-circuit for a longer period. In comparison: I was racing the Nuerburgring 10 laps non stop. That's more than one hour and about 150 miles without the brakes giving me any warning!

The Brabus brakes aren't made by Brembo but by Alcon and cost about 20k. Kleemann sells Mov'it brakes and RennTech offers modified Brembos. However, I don't think any aftermarket brake can compete with the standard AMG brakes. You would be better off spending your money for some professional race driving instructions on how to break down your car correctly.


Well, like I said before in another thread: The safety car brakes simply have a little bit bigger discs and harder brake pads. However, you would need special 19" wheels and spacers (not to mention a tunnel for cooling). The demand isn't there to offer these kinds of brakes. But if you are willing to pay ~50k for an individual ultra-high-performace braking system, give AMG a call. Everything is possible.

The SL 65 will be announced later this year. You'll then have enough information.

But basically, it really depends what you want to do with it. It won't be much faster from 0-60 mph since the biggest problem is getting the power on the street and not the engine delivering it. On many race tracks, it will probably understeer a little bit more since it is a little bit heavier on the front. But if the race track performance is very important to you, get a Porsche GT 2/3 clubsport.

The SL 65 is about ultimate power, dynamic and souvereignity. Fly over here and test drive one (or the CL 65). We'll have a beer afterwards

Ronald

 

That's not the case: The discs can be mounted from either side (unless your dealer f***s up).

Ronald

 

But they will overheat the disc even faster. Furhtermore, 12 pistons simply don't make sense. It's just a figure to show-off (quoting a Brabus center).

Ronald

 

This picture shows how the right side discs must be mounted, SL55 has the discs mounted on opposite way that's why cooling effect is not perfect.

 

Ronald,

Fly over here and test drive one (or the CL 65). We'll have a beer afterwards

Actually I am planning to come to Affalterbach in May. Maybe we can hook up then.. :-)

If you mail me with contact details, I will let you know nearer the time...

BTW: Where are the pics of Nuerbuergring? What is the URL?

thanks

DB1

 

Well, AMG says this is the right way because the hot air is being pushed out due to a turbine-like effect. If you would mount the disc the other way, cold air would be pushed into the center of the disc where it would be trapped and heat up the disc even more.

Ronald

 

www.amg-owners-club.org -> (your language) -> Multimedia Gallery

then
a) -> Clubevents -> Nuerburging
b) -> Videoclips

just send me an e-mail once you know when you'll be visiting Affalterbach: mail@ronald-rumm.de

Ronald

 

It's great to hear that AMG "really knows" how to mount discs. Ok, could you please go to look at the right side discs of your car and reply me how yours are mounted, because on my car and some other cars I have seen discs are wrong mounted, as you wrote cold air would be pushed into the center of the disc...., I hope you find this case more serious when you have checked your discs.
Owners of five spoke wheels it's easy to see or use fingers to findout direction of discs cooling vanes.

 

Roland, your technical skills really scares me .

You simply eat everything AMG tell you raw.

It's a fact that all MB / AMG ventilated discs are cheap crap, you buy such an expensive car, and they will not even invest in a left and right disc.
Matoy are 110% right here, look at the ventilation holes on your own car, the holes point to the front on one side and to the rear at the other side. Only 1 disc is working the right way, the holes have to point to the rear on both sides to work right.

Next time you see a Porsche 996 TT or something like it ( maybe a KLEEMANN car ) you can see how real brake discs should look like.

The fantastic AMG engineers have worked hard on the new brakes on all the new 55 kompressor cars, they simply took the brakes from MB 600 bi-turbo and changed the sticker from " MERCEDES-BENZ " to " AMG ".

AMG brakes are not made for track use. PERIOD.

 

Well, this seems to be a very easy thing to resolve without throwing a lot of brickbats at each other.

Somebody with 5-spoke wheels (I have turbines) has to get down on their knees and check the disks on both sides. If one side has vents facing forward, and the other has them facing aft, then we know that one of them MUST be wrong, and somebody is probably trying to pinch pennies.

If the vents on both sides point forward or both point aft, then either

1. We are in goood shape, and eveything is designed and installed as it should be, or

2. Each rotor should be switched to the other side of the car (not all that hard, I would think), at which point see 1. above.

So would somebody (with 5 spoke wheels) please go outside and look?