Front Brake Pad Question
 

I have a 1986 560 SEL. Yesterday I took the car into my indie MB shop for routine service. They called and said that the front brake pads need to be replaced. It had only been 10,440 miles since the last replacement. Prior to this the car was driven 29, 102 miles before the pads needed replacement. And about the same the mileage before that. When I asked him why the pads had not lasted as long he said that at the last replacement they had used "the factory MB soft pads" which should last between 10K and 15K miles. He said that the reason they went to the soft pads over the harder ones they had been using was that the hard pads wore out the rotors about twice as fast and customers said they would rather replace pads more often that rotors. Is the shop manager giving me the real deal here or just jive talkin'?

It is very well possible he is shooting straight with you. There are various pads available and based on city versus highway mileage determines how long they last. Personally, I would go with the pads that last the longest but I do very little city driving.

Sounds fishy to me. My '84 was eating pads every 8-10kmi, but after replacing both front calipers & brake hoses, they look like they're on their way to 30-40kmi per set. 10k sounds really low unless you're hard on brakes and/or drive in city traffic regularly with little highway time. I'd try a set of Textar "Yellow Box" pads, these are the OE pads for European models. Contact Randy at EPS parts http://www.epsparts.com


Good luck,

Let me add that this car is pampered and never driven harshly. Mostly a mix of city and highway and certainly not driven hard. Total mileage is about 600 miles per month. I just can't imagine brake pads that are built to last just 10K to 15K miles. The charge to replace the pads was $60 pads, $40 labor.

It's been said that the brake hoses start delaminating internally, restricting fluid flow when the pedal is released, which would eat the pads faster than normal. The hoses should be replaced at least every 10 years as preventive maintenance, and the fluid must be flushed every 2 years per MB specs. I'd start with 4 new hoses ($9 each) and pressure bleeding with fresh DOT4+ fluid, and pop in the aforementioned Textar pads - I bet that cures it. You probably need to do the fluid flush anyway! :D


Regards,

Jive talking. NO pads should wear out that fast. I drive my S-350 hard and the front pads last about 60,000 miles and go 2-3 sets of pads to the rotor. I prefer ATE pads. Does you model have wear indicators? If so, run the brakes until the indicator light comes on. You still have pad left to schedule a repair.