W124 Front Brake Pads? Preference? (300D 2.5)
 

Hey everyone,

Its coming time to replace my front brakes on my 300D. I've got some rotor warp so I'm lining up parts for the replacement.

I've selected ATE PremiumOne Rotors as I've always had good luck with them in the past.

I am not sure on pads. Currently the car has pads that the previous owner bought directly from Mercedes-Benz. They're got a good feel to them and seem to be very low dust. I can get them for $80-100 a set but that's nearly double what I can get from any where else!

I see the following brands:
Textar
Jurid
Pagid
ATE
Bendix
Mercedes
Akebono
a few other non-familiar names too..


What's your preference?

Also this is the first Mercedes that I've owned/worked on that is single piston front brakes. All my 126's are dual, my 190E is quad...I never thought MB used single piston fronts.. interesting for sure.

When I did the brakes on our Sienna, I went with "Wearever Platinum Ceramic" brake pads from that Auto store where you buy stuff online in Advance and get 20% off. Hmmm, I wonder who could that be? ;) The pads are supposed to have a long life -- a reviewer on the site of the aforementioned store said that he had 70% left at 40,000 miles, or something impressive like that. We've since done a couple of hard stops and many softer stops, and pads feel sweeeeeet :cool:.

hard pad material eats discs, I would suggest to stick to the OE Mercedes pads or textars/Jurid etc.

They provide the best brake performance and the best brake disc life. You have to clean the wheels every week though.

Use whatever you can find that will fit and is Ceramic. No noise, no dust, last a long time, disk ware the same for the same mileage.

Above from experience, not hear-say.

Paul

Centrix Ceramic.

I put Akebono EUR423 ceramic pads in the front of my '95 E300 (W124) and Akebono EUR710 ceramic pads in the front of my wife's '96 E300 (W210). The '95 has about 7,000 miles on those pads and the '96 about 5,000 miles. I thought at first that braking took slightly greater pedal pressure but that may just have been as the pads bedded into the rotors. Today we notice no difference (or maybe we just got used to the new pads). The amount of dust left on the wheels by the Akebono pads is much less than the factory pads making us very happy. The wheels are much, much easier to keep clean now.

I don't have enough miles on the Akebono pads to determine whether rotor wear has increased. Given the few miles we drive, I may never know. In any case, disk rotors aren't that expensive -- in April I put Zimmermann rotors on the front of the '96 for a total of $113 (parts) with me doing the work.

Jeremy

I've settled into the pattern of Balo rotors and Pagid pads....have had great success.

Brake squeaking, which used to be the bane of my existence, hasn't been a problem in a LONG time.

No comparison...Australian Organics made by PBR.

Between August of 2005 and May of 2013, I got 88,000 out of the rotors and PBR pads on my 1978 300SD before needing replacement.

I've never had a better pad, and I've used Pagid and others....FWIW

I've never had a problem with Textar pads, or Pagid or Jurid. Just dusty.

I had PBR Rotors on the 190. They were absolute crap.

Balo Rotors and PBR pads...No dust and 88,000 miles of life, better than any other rotor/pad combo I ever used....

The PBR pads are just PBR not another brand made by PBR?

I think these
AXXIS BRAKES - ULT Semi Metallic

are made by PBR? They were on my 190E when I bought it..I liked them.

Ill chime in on the genuine MB pads. After a few thousand miles I say they stop well but dusty as hell

PBR Organics, for a W116 they are PN D254DP....

If you bed in the Akebonos properly, they will BITE just as good as OE pads.

I have Akebono pads in my 300D (w123) and Textar pads in my 190E. Both cars brake just as good.

The front Akebono pads in my 300D were installed in 2009 and still remain pretty thick today. The rotors appear to have no observable wear (they were replaced at the same time, with new ATE along with new bearings).

After each drive, I need to clean the 190E's wheels to keep it as clean as my 300D with the Akebonos. Same route, same distance, same braking. Sure the 300D is a heavier car, but those Textars are dusty!

Two notes, depending on your local autozone most offer a lifetime warranty on their gold pads and get this it covers wear. So in other words you can bring in worn out pads and swap them as long as they were duralast golds. I'm on my second set of "free" pads. You can change the single piston fronts four the fours, awesome upgrade and not too expensive if your good at parts hunting.