500E & 300E brake upgrades

[dwight hinton]

I am pre-planning some future ideas. If I were to upgrade my 500E to 600SL brakes (or other recommendations), could I put the used 500E brakes on my wife's 300E?

How expensive are the 600SL brakes and how complicated are the conversions on each car.

Dwight

[JCE]

Dwight:

Check out the following posts (there are many more in the archives from people who have done what you are contemplating).

500E brakes

500E brakes

What year is your 500E? From what I have gathered, the eary ones used aluminum caliper 500SL brakes, while the later ones used cast iron caliper 600sl brakes. The used price seemed to run about $1000 for the 600 SL calipers. As to putting the old 500E calipers/rotors on a 300E, some people indicated that there may be hub work needed to do this, and they won't fit under the stock 15" rims. 400E brakes just barely fit under the stock rims.

[Edited by JCE on 02-24-2001 at 01:49 AM]

[Michael]

SL600's came with the same 8-hole 8"X16" rims that all US 500Es, 300SLs, and 500SLs came with (excepting early SLs with 15 hole rims), so those brakes will clear the rims for sure.

As to 600SL upgrades, unless you race A LOT, or want the visually bigger brakes, than don't bother. My early '92 had the aluminum calipers, but they were problematic and were repalced with iron 500SL binders, retaining the original, smallest rotors...which have yet proven to fade.

I can only wonder what you'd have to do to find the originals marginal. But I'll guess I'll find out soon if they're up to the task when I go racing with zruszny!!

As to other 500E owners with solid opinions on this, I went to Lou Nielsen, as he campaigns his.

[Michael]

SL600's came with the same 8-hole 8"X16" rims that all US 500Es, 300SLs, and 500SLs came with (excepting early SLs with 15 hole rims), so those brakes will clear the rims for sure.

As to 600SL upgrades, unless you race A LOT, or want the visually bigger brakes, than don't bother. My early '92 had the aluminum calipers, but they were problematic and were repalced with iron 500SL binders, retaining the original, smallest rotors...which have yet proven to fade.

I can only wonder what you'd have to do to find the originals marginal. But I'll guess I'll find out soon if they're up to the task when I go racing with zruszny!!

As to other 500E owners with solid opinions on this, I went to Lou Nielsen, as he campaigns his.
BTW, I don't think R129 SLs ever came with aluminum calipers, they were a 500E-specific deal.

[dwight hinton]

Thanks for all the input. My only reason was I could use the 500E brakes to upgrade my wife's 300E (for her benefit, of course) and I would incidently get bigger brakes for the 500E. I have as yet experienced no need for bigger brakes, but I like having excess capacity. If they will not adapt to the 300, then I'll just continue to enjoy it like it is.

Thanks again for the input.

Dwight

[Jim Nelson]

I'm not quite in the same camp as Michael on the brake issue. I think the car needs better stoppers. After driving any number of cars with substantially better brakes both on the track and off, I can honestly say that this is an area where MB likely just raided the parts bin. This might also explain things like the much better brakes on the E55.

If you have an interest in larger brakes, try http://www.ultimategarage.com/bbmerced.html

(Note: I have no interest in this product other than being a prospective purchaser.)

As a query to our moderator---Can the E55 brakes be retrofitted to the 500E (i.e., is it a bolt-on)?

[ke6dcj]

500E brakes can be retrofitted to a 300E *correctly* ONLY if the hubs are also replaced with 400E/500E hubs.

I did this with our 1988 300TE, when replacing the springs & struts.

After much research, the 500E brakes are more than adequate, esp. if upgraded with stainless-steel braided brake lines.

Although the rotor is bigger on 600SL brakes, the surface area of pad is the same as the 500E.

Moreover, you will NOT stop in shorter distances unless you also get gripper or wider tires. If you need to shed more heat, have some brake cooling ducts made (NACA ducts), and go with a performance pad for track use and aluminum rotors.

Also, consider the cost of rotors for a 600SL. Expensive!

Good luck,

:-) neil
1988 300TE soon to be with a AMG M104/C36 engine & tranny.