W124 300CE Calipers

[glenmore]

The pads on my right brake were making a hi-pitched squeal so I pulled them to re-apply some anti-squeal paste. I noticed that one pad was much more worn than the other. A search of threads suggested sticky pistons. A less common fault would be a brake line pinched by old age. Since it was time for a fluid flush I did that along with changing out the brake lines which probably were original. On one of the front lines there was a little bit of corrosion at the caliper end of the brake line. I understand that rebuilding calipers is extremely easy...if there is no corrosion. Someone posted brakewarehouse.com as a source of rebuilt calipers and that the low cost of rebuilts makes rebuilding them yourself a waste of time. Is this accurate? Any other suggestions?

glenmore
1991 300CE 138M

[t walgamuth]

now that is the front caliper? iirc those are floating calipers? if so then it could be binding on the sliding part of the floating caliper. so that might not be a rebuildable offense.

someone more familiar with that model will chime in and help out.

tom w

[glenmore]

Tom,

It is the right front caliper and they are the fixed kind, 4 pistons in the fronts and 2 pistons in the rears.

Rebuilts are about $84 + $85 core, not too bad.

glenmore
1991 300CE
2000 C280
1990 LS400

[Ferdman]

glenmore, the front outer pads wear faster on our 300CE's ... not sure if that is common to all fixed calipers or not.

[t walgamuth]

with fixed calipers the pads should wear evenly.

now you could have a slight misalignment on the caliper mount that would cause uneven wear and appears to be more on one side looking from the point of view that you have.

tom w

[glenmore]

Originally Posted by Ferdman

glenmore, the front outer pads wear faster on our 300CE's ... not sure if that is common to all fixed calipers or not.

Fred,

Well at least they wear the same right versus the left! So I originally pulled the right side and found the uneven wear and reinstalled the same pads but just flipped the less worn inside one with the more worn outside pad. Braking was just fine but I'll have to monitor them closely. Sure enough now my pad blinkee comes on and an occassional noise from the left side. Pulled those pads and wow, the outside pad worn to the sensor and the inside pad not even close. So I flipped them also and cut the worn sensor and just plugged off the connection. Is it probable that both calipers became sticky at the same time because of old age? Or is it just the nature of the beast? The pads have a little over 18m on them.

I bought a caliper rebuild kit and may attempt this with the next pad change.

glenmore
1991 300CE

[Ferdman]

glenmore, that's correct the outboard brake pad on each side wears down quicker than the inboard brake pad on our 300CE's with fixed calipers.

[t walgamuth]

i defer to superior model specific experience.

i have never heard of a car with fixed calipers that cause uneven wear as a normal function before.

tom w

[glenmore]

I just checked what little history I had from the PO.

The PO always took the car to the dealer so the brake pad changes may sometimes have been premature.

New front pads and rotors @ 94,000.

New front pads @ 104,000.

I installed new rotors and pads @ 119,000 and now the car has 138,000, so i'm doing a bit better but it if they wore more evenly I'd get a lot more miles per set.

Thanks all,

glenmore
1991 300CE