W126 Front rotor thickness-what I learned

[Gary Ganaway]

This may help others regarding front rotor minimum thickness. I checked on the cd for my 1985 380SE and it showed new=28mm, minimum service limit 25.4mm. I checked mine before changing pads and they measured 21.5mm.!!Being in shock I checed the cd again and found another number for minimum thickness of 19.4. The cd was not specific on what 126 models these applied. I had new rotors to put on and they were 22mm and the parts place said this is what shows for my year and that he believed later years used the thicker rotors. Thsi made sense because service records on my car showed new rotors at 90,000 miles and I now have 113,000 miles. What a relief as I could not believe I wore them down to 21.5 from 28mm. So I just had to do a simple pad change and can save the rotors for next time.

[lee polowczuk]

The numbers are similar for a w124 (28 new 25.4 minimum)..... yet the mininum service number stamped on my front rotors is 21mm.

I am changing pads this weekend on the CE.. i spent 20 bucks to have a slivver taken off..(one pass, he said) they were at 27.2... he said he barely touched them.. i just wanted piece of mind that the runout was ok.

[Gary Ganaway]

Yeah, I think the cd actually shows 3 sets of numbers for rotors...new, wear limit and minimum service limit. Boy I had a little difficulty getting in the new pads with these rotors, worn as little as they were. I can imagine the tight fit with new rotors and new pads.

[Hatterasguy]

Yeah the brakes were changed during the face lift for the 1986 model year. The rear rotors are slightly different as well.

[Ben12345]

Would I notice a significant difference in braking if I swapped the brakes from my W126 '88 560 parts car to my '85 500? The brakes on the 500 are already very good, with the ABS system.