This is my first AWD AMG so I can't say for sure, but I would be surprised if the rears wear faster. And your front pad is almost worn down to the backing plate.

Did they mike your front rotors? There's a significant ridge so I would think they are close to the wear limit. If you don't have enough thickness left on the front rotors, they can't cool properly. The only way to know if they need replacement is to measure the thickness. If they don't tell you what they measure, what the suggested replacement wear limit is and what the mandatory replacement wear limit is they're not doing a proper Mercedes brake job.

Or Vern - ya know what I mean . . . ;-)

Sorry, those old commercials just popped into my head. Shop could use a Vernier caliper instead of a Micrometer screw gauge

You car will tell you when it needs this service.

The brakes on my 2012 212 went 54k miles. Still no light on the cluster but they were pretty well shot and needed pads. The rears were a little bit worse than the fronts. Rotors had no vibration ever. I hope to get 75k miles out of my e450 pads. I’m more easy on this car than I was with the amg.

Did mine at 32K and used ample brake grease on the pad to backing connection.

as you can see by the pictures I posted and the feedback on this forum, I think the car is a bit "late".

My brake squealing has increased which made me look at my pads and realize.... they're pretty much gone. Yet, no service light on the car...

Hmmm, that's true. Have you asked your SA about it? Might be faulty? Maybe a reason for some sort of discount or warranty action?

I hate my service advisor and I got my warranty voided. :)

$130/hr * 2 hours = $260 in labor
$402 for a set of front pads+ $374 for a set of rear pads = $776 in parts

$1,036 brake job (before tax) for front + back was needed at 17.5k miles... Does this mean I drive like an extreme dick?

000-420-99-00 = rear pads = $264 online
000-420-91-00 = front pads = $284 online

Looks like the shop charged me some pretty nice markup on the pads. I could have ordered the parts *from the dealer* for $228 less lol

I wouldn't say you drive like a dick, but that certainly seems to be evidence of lots of romping :)

If you drive aggressively and break hard the brakes go quickly. In my 2016 C63S it used to blink like a christmas tree. by 9,000 miles my rears were shot. I changed the tires from Dunlop MAAX to Michelin AS3+ which fixed my traction issues and 18,000 miles later they still looked new. The fronts still did not to be changed. But that was on the 2WD car. On this AWD car, I don't expect the rears to wear that fast. Fronts wearing faster than the rears would evidence hard braking. Nose heavy pig we have and add weight transfer under heavy braking it's not hard to see how that actually happens. Its an AMG, its expected to be driven hard and is built for it.

You have to change your front pads for sure ASAP. It may damage rotors.

what is so interesting is... the in-dash sensor that tells you "you need brake pads" was not going off

which leads me to believe it was just like my M5/M6s. it is hardcoded at a number of miles and if you drive like a monster, it won't go off. i'm sure somebody else will tell me it visually/digitally checks the brake pad width remaining, but... that wasn't what i saw.

i'm not complaining but i do want to go on record that *WITHOUT* the prepaid maintenance package on my 2014-2016 BMWs (which i believe they have since changed), i got free rotors + brake pads. the rotors started cracking from getting so hot. $8k brake job i believe. also go free clutches on manual car... :) meanwhile, mercedes *with* prepaid maintenance (40% more expensive lease than M5), no free brake pads. not complaining or being cheap, just comparing markets. :P
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...d6ebbaf1e9.png
new brakes for comparison, rear
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...170685b918.png
new brakes for comparison, front

I have a 2017 C7 Corvette and when I bought it I found out the OEM pads dusted a lot. Lurking at a large Corvette forum I found a lot of recommendations for Carbotech pads. I went ahead and swapped the OEMs out for the Carbotech 1521 compound pads. This was when I had about 500 miles on the vehicle. I've put another 2K on and found that braking wasn't affected (driving is urban, no track). I've had no noise. Dusting? It has polished aluminum wheels and dusting is practically nil. Note that the 1521 compound is not for track use. They have other compounds for that.

I went to their site but nothing was listed for the W213. I contacted them and got:
Fronts: CT1291-1521 $325
Rears: CT1450-1521 $236
carbotechadam - at - yahoo.com

I'm taking a trip but after I get back I may be ordering a set. Depends on how much dusting I see with the OEMs.

Im on 15k miles and have replaced front pads twice already. I have squeal noise also , but every time i change pads that is gone.

16k miles here and I have the same situation with front pads, probably a bit more meat left.

I was told we can not visually inspect the rear pads because they wear from the inside, and they are supposed to go before the fronts. So... if your fronts are about to go, maybe your rears are too?

Impossible. Front pads wear faster.

You can inspect them, just make it more acrobatically :))))

I've never seen in my life that rear pads will go out before front pads. I have almost full rear pads right now.

the response here on the thread is traction control/ABS is what makes rear braking heavier

i was surprised at 17k miles i needed rear brakes...

How often does your ESP light flash? I can't imagine a driving style where the system applies rear braking often enough that it will appreciably increase rear brake wear. Unless you do a lot of high speed driving in reverse you should get twice the life from rear pads as fronts. Either you changed them too soon or there's something wrong (like the after-rain drying cycle being stuck on).

How much is the squealing? It hears on every brake?

I had a track day and since then I got a squealing that seems to come from the front but it is only noticeable when the car is almost full stop. In fact the squeal goes exponentially high as close the car is from a full stop. This happens essentially in traffic, when slowly stopping the car in the last few feet. It does not squeal in normal break.

No need for high speed driving in reverse.

600 hp.

Apply an appreciable fraction of this to the drive train while in even the mildest of turns and watch the TC icon light up on the dash. Every time this happens in this scenario some rear brake is being applied to control wheel spin and yaw.

As noted previously, the rear pads on my Jeep wore far faster than the front. It is not what you’d call a high powered vehicle, but I do drive it off road and try to get it to spin when I can. I was surprised at first too, but it made perfect sense once someone mentioned it to me.

I have CCBs but will be keeping an eye out for the rear pads on mine too.

The TC lights on my E63 come on pretty much daily, and that’s with me switching to Race mode in advance of my favorite turns. In Sport+ the TC engages way too early - Sport or Comfort mode, forget about it, on way too much.

Even if your ESP light comes on daily, that's got to be orders of magnitude less than the time you actually are applying your brakes. I just don't see how ESP can cause more rear brake wear than braking causes front wear. A lot of ESP actuation would equal what, 1%, of braking time? Probably more like a small fraction of 1%.