Installed Pagid pads on rear yesterday. For some reason the visible outer pads don"t rest close enough to the rotors. The emergency brake will stop the car but the outer pads don't seem to make contact with the rotors. What did I do wrong? The original warn pads were right on the rotors. 54 K miles on the vehicle. Help! Thanks, Danny

first of all.. the rotors on the ML are changed every second brake change usually.. and there maybe air in your brake line on that wheel.. I suggest you check the mininum thickness of your rotor with a dial caliper (metric) and do a brake fluid flush. If that doesn't work, you probably have a faulty floating caliper that you have to change....

Does it seem like the truck is stopping OK with the "regular" service brake or not? I'd stop using the parking brake to stop the truck, this will only work for a limited time period before you rip the linings out of the parking brake shoes. The parking brake is meant as a supplement to the locking pawl in the transmission, it is NOT meant as an auxillary service brake.

Does the brake pedal (not the parking brake, I'm THROUGH talking about your parking brake)feel mushy at all? That's how you tell if there is air in the lines. I'm assuming you didn't remove any brake hoses or in some other way damaged the brake hydraulic system.
Possibly the anti-rattle spring was installed incorrectly or something else is blocking the movement of the pad on that side.
If you can't find anything wrong I'd get it into a shop pretty quick, brakes are nothing to fool with.

Gilly

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On checking the pedal it does go fairly low to the floor. Upon stepping down once or twice it seems to rise up. Does that indicate air in the lines? If so , do I bleed all 4 or just the rear? I once went to the dealer a few years back to test the pedal and they said all MLs had this kind low pedal. I did not remove any hoses and the old pads rested perfectly near the rotors as normal. Thank you Tabo and Gilly for your quick responses.
Danny

bring it to a certified mechanic asap, this is something you shouldn't play around with.. you're talking about the safety of you and your family here. just to save a couple $$$ isn't worth it

Update. Brought ML to a certified mechanic to check rear brakes.It seems that the new rear pads are beviled at the ends.When the tires were pulled and you looked at the caliper closely you could see they were making proper contact past the bevil. He said the pedal was fine.

Danny