Front rotors at minimum
 

I bought some ATE front brake rotors for my 1999 E300D fifteen years ago and they have given me about 160,000 miles - can't beat that. Just measured them today and they are at 24 mm. Minimum is 25.4 mm if my info is accurate. Based on that experience with ATE rotors, I'd like to go that route again if they are still available.

What harm can I do if I try to squeeze a few more miles out of them? I'm lucky to put 2000 miles a year on the car these days. We've got a couple of Smart electrics and probably use them for 98% of our driving. We absolutely love them. Really nice these days to drive past gas stations and just smile, smile, smile.

Kind of sounds like you already did…

That's over .055" thinner than spec based on the #'s supplied...that is a lot. What can happen? They will warp, possibly crack and not handle excess heat well.

Good point Shern. :)

Yeah, I think I know what I need to do.

Rotors are cheap. Congratulations though. I do not think I ever squeezed that kind of millage out of a set of them.

That is some good driving there. I wouldn't worry about which brand to use, just use same brand each side.

Not changing parts you know are bad qualifies as PPM. That stands for poor maintenance. Replace them and repack the wheel bearings, check the hoses, pads and change the brake fluid. You won't have to mess with that system for several more years based on how many miles you're putting on the car.

What does the second "P" stand for? :)

I'm in the middle of a B service and the brakes were about the last thing I had left to do. Will hold off on the brake fluid until the rotors are replaced. At the last B service the rotors were still in spec at 25.8 and 26.0, so getting close, so I'm not too surprised that it's time.

New rotors on order.

Thanks for all the help guys.

I think it's "your in" (because people confuse your with contraction you are) which more accurately becomes "you're in" (deep doo doo because of PPM.)

So installed two new ATE front rotors over the weekend. No particular issues, but more of a job than I want to ever do again. Took the car for a quick drive (maybe five miles) to see if everything was working okay. It wasn't - there was a rubbing when I used the brakes. Couldn't really tell which side it was coming from, but once I removed the wheels to do the brake fluid, it was pretty easy to see. See attached photos. Right rotor has lots of rubbing and scratching on the outside going on. Left side is okay. The old rotors had no marks like that. So any chance the brake fluid service will alleviate this issue? My hope is that it will, but my brain is telling me something else.

So what would the solution be? Remove the offending pad and clean it up? I sure am not looking forward to doing that again, although it should be a little easier, since I sort of know what I'm doing. :) BTW only the outside pad on the right side is giving me issues.

I do have a brand new pad the I can replace the offending one with. The pads on there now have 7000 miles on them. I actually can replace both pads with new on the right side, but I don't have replacement pads for the left side.

I'm sure the rotor will be fine with only five miles on it. That's barely enough time to start scraping the coating off. Maybe I just need to give it more time?

One more thing - the "How to" section did a wonderful job detailing the pads and rotor job. Kudos to them.

Do Not Drive the car! The outer brake pad is in backward.

Oh geez, I see that now. What a freaking idiot I am. :(

Thanks.

Things happen. The only ones that never fail are those that don't try...they also never experience success. Fix it and drive on!!!

'Twas me, I would be taking the time to remove that rotor and take it to a machine shop to get the damaged side turned.