I did my rear brakes on my 98 E320 today with 104K miles using Balo rotors and Textar pads.

Overall the brake job was easy, the hardest part was pulling off the old rotors. I used a gear puller to apply a little tension and tapped the rotor hub with a hammer and they popped off.

I was impressed to discover that the rear brake rotors are actually a combination of disk and drum brakes. The normal braking is done with the disks and the emergency brakes consist of brake shoes located in the inter portion of both rear rotors.

The design of my E320 uses only one wear sensor located in the outer right brake pad. The left side did not have a wear sensor and was worn more then the right side. Because I do my own maintenance and inspection of my cars I replaced the rear brakes while the pads still had some "meat" left to them. If I had waited for the pad sensor to come on, the left pad would have been completely gone. I have bleed both rear brakes and will keep track of uneven pad wear during the future inspections.

After a test drive the braking is much improved. Now I have matching Balo rotors and Textar pads since I replaced the front brakes two years ago.

This is the first time I have done a brake job with rear pads. My previous cars used rear drum brakes. Rear pads are much easier to replace than drum brakes - no springs, no scraped knuckles.

Thanks to Mercedesshop for the availability of the parts and free advice I was able to replace my rear brakes.

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Ray
1998 Mercedes E320, 200K Miles
2001 Acura 3.2TL, 178K Miles
1992 Chevy Astro, 205K Miles