S500 Mercedes Front Brake Pads & Rotor replacement 

Wow, thanks!

Hello my friend I have repair on mine w220 PSE Cheapest repair

Oem is always preferred but as the car ages I prefer refurbished. With the discs tho I just couldn’t do cross Drilled anymore. There just isn’t a benefit to them other than looks. I actually just came back from a spirited drive with my son and they perform very well. I think I may have to do the rear now too to match the performance. Total cost of the front set with coupons was $226 for the premium stuff.

Lol. I totally forgot I did that. No one ever makes it to the end. Thank you!

Thanks but with the coated rotors you apparently don’t need that anti seize. I tried it without the paste, which I usually don’t, but I haven’t had a squeak yet. I’m about to do a review on my brakes. I think I have about 8k miles on them.

Oh snap. I just realized that’s the wrong video. I thought I was responding to the ebc brakes I did on my car. Check out that video. But on that style brakes no anti squeak is necessary. Only on the floating type calipers. Either way, none of my cars squeak.

Thank you. I really appreciate that!

Yeah unfortunately they can’t. I don’t understand why as a shop in Europe did it for me once. The aftermarket parts come with a 2 year warranty and I had good luck with that brand. If the car was newer, I would have bought it from fcpeuro because they are oem and come with a lifetime warranty. Thanks for your comment and for watching :)

Thanks. Yeah it’s been a while. Life got in the way. I’ll try to make more videos. I’m more motivated as well. That damn car just doesn’t wanna break! Not sure I wanna do mods to this one yet. After all, my kid is driving it. Gotta be safe. Thanks for following. It’s much appreciated. ;)

@@Turbo_Snail I'm here as you drop vids. Not on Facebook hardly. They spanked my hand and I got pissed off. Miss the pent group. 👍👋

Lol. Yeah I should be more active on the group as well but I use fb less and less. Maybe I’m just too old. Even my turbo snail Facebook page is very neglected. Now that I passed 1000 subs a lot more features opened up and I try to figure things out. Many people complain about YT but I actually like it. Lots to learn. I really hope to be making more videos. I get tons of views not many subs. I’m happy nonetheless. And the nice comments of you and people here makes me want to get up and do another video.

@@Turbo_Snail Thank you. I like the group for mods. I wish Brian would put important info, test results on the web page. Take care Daniel.

Yes. We were planning to do the coil shoot out. I had ticket and planned it all. Then the shutdown happened. I will be traveling to Detroit as soon as possible so we can shoot that episode. I’m looking forward to it as I want to get coils as well for my 200. Thanks again. Warm greetings and stay safe!

Interesting. Never seen it on the pads. I’ll look for it on my next project next week.

@@Turbo_Snail it looks like a sideways funnel. The inboard pads are supposed to point in the direction of rotation, because the brake wear sensor is supposed to mount on that pad. Some models/regions use 2 brake wear sensors, one per hub. Others only use 1. Let me see if it allows me to post a link...

Ah, I know what you’re talking about. Yes. The sensor has to be on the inside on the Mercedes.

Thanks for watching!

Thanks for watching. :)

Thank you. That means a lot to me. Mercedes has very obvious jack points, not all manufacturers are that clear. Most Mercedes will have similar hack points, look for those rubber blocks, you can also find them in the user manual for each individual model. I did not deactivate the system. You need the MBII for that, it can be found on Amazon for about $150. Preferably you want to do that but you also can just disconnect the battery and wait 20 minutes. If you have a car with 2 batteries, I’d disconnect them both. I talked to mechanics and they say it’s ok either way.

Turbo Snail Thanks for your response. I was referring to the “midsection” jacking point to roll in the floor jack to raise the car so I can put two jack stands under, not the jack points behind each wheel. I didn’t see anywhere under the engine nor do I see the rear axle for the rear of my 20004 SL500. As for deactivate the SBC, some says to close all doors and let the system go to sleep and DONT open the door or lock/unlock remote key fob during brake replacement. I was wondering what did you do?

Yes, I’m talking about the midsection point, big piece of rubber behind the oil pan. I love that most Mercedes have these. All cars should have them but they don’t. None of my other non-Mercedes cars have it. In regards to the brake system. I wasn’t aware to let the car go to sleep. The correct way would be to disable the system with the MBII computer. Techs at the dealer disable the system with a computer. In my case, just pulling the negative cable on the battery will disable it too.

Turbo Snail thanks again for sharing this valuable information and video

No SBC to deactive

Thank you. Much appreciated.

True, but it’s not in the rotors, it’s in the pads. Check out my other video about brakes. I learned a lot talking to EBC about that. Drilled tends to crack, I went slotted for cooling performance. If you like the drilled look go dimpled like in our Miata. But you pick performance in your pads. I drive red stuff in my 200, yellow on the Miata, green on all other cars. Also by getting rid of the holes you increase surface area, so there is more contact with the pads.

@Turbo_Snail yes, the cracking I've noticed on the drilled as well. For slotted, yes better cooling if it's a split pad from my experience, but with that I've also noticed decreased longevity from the pads, they tend to wear faster oddly from daily use on daily driver.

@alvinbaez2006 actually. Because you have less surface area, people (like me) pair them with more aggressive pads. If you would get less aggressive pads it would last just as long in exchange for less bite. So it’s always a trade off. My red stuff pads with the slotted rotors were down 75% after 36k miles. They are also a bit more dusty than the oem stuff. The cars I drive more aggressive with, have heavier duty, “dirtier” pads. The dailies have just basic stuff. Our journey is on smooth rotors with green pads. I can barely even measure any wear after 30k miles. They look like new. Also, newer cars are so obese that we find people going through pads every 25k miles and tires as little as 15k miles. My neighbor has a Tesla model S and he gets new tires 10-12k miles. It’s insane.

Thanks for watching. :)

No scanner necessary if you just do rotors and pads.

The fronts are very easy because they are not floating calipers. If you decide and are able to push the caliper pistons back like I did you don’t need any special tools. However, just in case it doesn’t work, all you need is a piston retraction tool. amzn.to/3MYlWa5 or something like this amzn.to/3QpMLar. I’ve had one in my garage for a decade bits always good to have one. I would consider a brake bleed while you’re in there. Check out my other video and links in the description for parts/things I used. Good luck!

@@Turbo_Snail You Ate So Kind! I appreciate you muchas!😘

I'm going to take my son to the dealer. First dealer experience for him, but hey, if they give stuff away for free...

Thanks 😆

Daniel, I will be at the Old Town cruise in Saturday night. Maybe I'll see you there. Contacting another car buff in that area hopefully he'll be there.

Hi. Yes. It’s the same. However, this video is a few years old. In the meanwhile we have discovered that the quality of pads/rotors matters a lot. I know we are sponsored (in kind) by EBC brakes. But I would urge you to get some high quality brakes and pads. I love the slotted ones from EBC and the red stuff pads would work great in your car. All drilled rotors we ever had, had grooves and were cracked. We never had that problem with non drilled rotors. The big S500 was a bit too heavy for the solid rotors when I drove it “sporty”. Look at my brakes video I did for the Chrysler 200 and the Miata where we put in slotted and slotted/dimpled rotors. It’s worth the upgrade. Great car by the way. I always wanted the SL55 but with the prices right now….. maybe some day. Good luck.

Hope it helped!

Not yet. We’re trying to perfect the tune and then we’ll move on to a larger throttle body and coils. I hope it’ll be happening soon.

Let me know any questions. I’ll be happy to answer as far as I can.

I forgot to mention I had larger injectors installed. Now we are tuning to make ethanol work. That’s why it’s been taking so long.

Do you have an Instagram or another way I can message you ?

Email at turbo_snail@aol.com

Here too. However I went for solid. No more cracks, no ridges. If you go slotted it’s actually an upgrade. I think they look good but that’s about it.

I just looked at my roadster and they are perforated too.

Same process. And yes, you need to spray brake cleaner if you have unpainted rotors. There is an oil on it from the factory you do not want to get in touch with your pads. Good luck!

@@Turbo_Snail Thank you!

Yes I do. I like the gel thread locker. I think I put a link in the description of everything I use. Anything that rattles or moves is a suspect for bolts coming loose. A thread locker is preferred but I know many people don’t use it. There is no risk to using it.

If you have an uncoated rotor use brake clean to get all the oils off. If you get the pads oily they won’t bite.

Yes as far as I could make out.

Get some EBC pads. That car really benefits from the red stuff pads. They are aggressive and can handle the weight. Check my EBC video on my 200. All my cars now run EBC.

@@Turbo_Snail i going to change my front pads tomorrow however is it necessary that i turn or buy new rotors??

@greglopez7768 it is recommended. I just put new pads without turning the rotors on my Chrysler 200. It took 600 miles for them to quiet down. But that’s also about the break in period for my EBC brakes. That being said, I would recommend EBC yellow stuff or even more aggressive the red stuff for the S500. They have more bite than the garbage I bought in the video.

I never had any issues doing it that way. Maybe I just got lucky, a lot!

It’s worth if it’s an expensive restoration. For a daily driver on the other hand, some parts can cost more than the insurance would pay you when totaled.