Hi All,

So I just had a my major 4 year service at Mercedes.

All fine, save for that they state that I need new brake rotors (discs) and pads all round.

Car was on 20,580 miles when they inspected.

I could say rear pads, perhaps at 20K miles, especially as the Traction Control most likely accelerates where on the rears.

Even then, I would assume the factory MB rear rotors to last longer than the first pad change.

I have ordered a brake rotor width measuring tool so will measure to see for sure when I get it

Fronts new are 36mm width with minimum prescribed width of 33mm

Rears new are 26mm width with minimum prescribed width of 24mm

Meanwhile, photos of the brakes for any comments please :


Rear Left :




Rear Right :






Front Left :




Front Right :





Any comments / opinions are most welcome please.

The more I look at the Rears, the more I am fine with changing the Rotors too and not just the Pads. Looks awfully rusty indeed !

Oh I must say too, I bought the car 10 months ago with 17,130 miles on it from an MB dealer, and have only done about 3,000 miles or so in it, with mainly Central London driving which I am sure doesn't help with wear. No track days at all. For some reason I haven't really driven this car hard yet but will do so at some point shortly.

Love the car really. My previous daily driver was an M6 Gran Coupe and the E63 is a great alternative to it, for a bit of a change for me (long time ///M car fan).

 

Hey there sl500london. That's about the average lifespan on an E63. They are heavy cars that can go really fast so abusing the brakes is part of the program. By the looks of your rotors, I would replace them along with the pads. There are several recent threads on this very subject for you to review. My suggestion is Brembo rotors and CarboTech pads, as seen in this particular thread. https://mbworld.org/forums/w212-amg/...2014-e63s.html
I high recommend the combination and it's about 75% less cost than a MB dealer charges. BTW, all 2010 through 2016 E63 (W212) use the same calipers and spindles so no fitment issues with the Brembo rotors.

 

Thanks !

I am happy to pay to play of course !

So if you are telling me that Rotors and Discs are generally done by 20K miles on an E63 then fair enough. Pads I can understand but rotors too....?

I have read of quite a few members on here who are way past 30K miles on their original rotors....I suppose its about style of usage though.

My last car was a new BMW M6 Gran Coupe, that I had to change the rear pads at 18K Miles. Rotors front and rear were fine and so were the front pads. I ended up selling it at 24K miles again, with just the original rear pads being changed during this mileage. As you know that's an equally heavy and powerful car as the E63.

I will look into the Brembo with Carbo Tech combination thanks.

I just feel that it might be better having receipts in my history folder with Genuine MB items if I end up selling in the near future. Its a little bit different here in the UK with potential new purchasers preferring to see everything MB stamped, including servicing and other parts put onto the car, considering its less than 4 years old and still only on 20K miles.

Thanks for your time !

 

Common for dealers in the US to recommend rotor replacement when the pads are consumed. I normally accept this and count it as a service visit saved. Unless pads and rotors are exchanged at the same time, rotors will in future need replacing when pads have life remaining. I seek to minimize the number of service visits I make to the dealer.

 

Dealers ALWAYS greatly exaggerate need for pads and rotors. Big profit for this work. They tried telling on my old E55 that I needed brakes at 25k. I didn't believe them and when I looked I was right. I actually got 95k miles per set of brakes on that car. On my 2011 E63 I had new brakes installed by previous owner only 5k miles before I bought it and dealer told me I needed new brakes because they didn't know they were replaced already. I put 30k miles on that car with the new brakes and at inspection when I sold it they reported brakes had more than 50% left!

Now I don't drive like a ja*ka*s racing from red light to red light and I do a lot of paddle shifting/engine braking. But I still drive it pretty spirited. I got my latest 2015 E63s with 29k miles on it and my brakes are still good at 41k miles now.

So my point here is don't believe almost anything the dealer says about brakes. Drive the car until the brake warning light comes on, and not based on dealer input, until you worry about replacing them. You are at zero risk of driving it until the yellow brake light comes on. You still have at least another 1k miles after that.

Just looking out man.

 

At 60k kilometres, I changed the pads on all 4 corners. Discs measured front 35.5mm and rear 25.4mm.
I installed EBC yellows.
I highly doubt that you need new rotors. As for the rust, I painted the hats silver. They look like new.

 

I just waited for the low pad indicator to come on. I am sure your rotors are fine unless you feel that at high speed you get vibration on the steering wheel.
49k stock rotors and EBC red now with about 3k on those ..no issues.. Wait for the light to tell you when they need changing and they still had lots of material when I did it..

 

Great advice!

 

Sunil - TOTALLY agree with you on this and my buddy a MB Master Tech recommended the same thing to just wait until the break wear light triggers and then you have like 1000 miles remaining to drive before the rotor/pads are totally shot.

i just did brembo rotors/ebc red pads on all 4 corners which can be done for about 2k total (partts/labor) if you buy your own parts and have a decent indy guy do the job

 

Standard practice for dealers (and many others). Mainly since you avoid any future bedding in issues. Better to charge once for job done with 100% satisfaction that have the customer come back and complain about "grabby brakes" or "squeal" etc.
You can always reuse rotors if they are above spec. At least two set of pads (depending on pad type you may even get three sets of pads...)