New Brakes, new problems

[ptoro01]

Hey everyone,

So the little break pad wear light has flashed in my 450sel for about a month and half and a few days ago the pedal dropped. Then I stopped the car and the next drive, it dropped like 3 times, I parked it at our dealership and then on my way into the garagebay(100 yards) and pumping the break pedal nonstop, the pedal dropped every 3rd time. So the Master Cylinder was obviously leaking and completely gone. I was gonna change the pads and rotors along with the flexlines but then the MC came along. Now we cracked the wheels off and found the left front caliper to be leaking. The master vw mechanic who has experience with my car told me to get a rebuilt caliper and thats where we could go from. Would a rebuild kit work for like $15 instead of $150. That 0 at the end just starts to add up.

Whats the most youve had to do to an older benz to get it back up to good operating condition?

Peter

[ctaylor738]

www.********.com has much better prices than $150 for rebuilt calipers. They also offer MC's. I have had good experiences with them.

Suggest www.germanstar.net for the rest of the brake stuff.

[Mark DiSilvestro]

Trouble with that $15 rebuild kit is you won't know the condition of the caliper until you get it apart. The bore and/or piston could be hopelessly corroded on a 25-30 year old caliper, so you'd need to replace it anyway.

Happy Motoring, Mark

[Tomguy]

No, the $15 "Rebuild kit" is just the rubber dust seals. You need a rebuilt caliper because it's leaky.

You may not need a MC if the caliper is leaking. You might not even need a caliper - it could be that your brakes are so badly worn that the caliper was overextending, or wore oblong at the very end. Check it with new pads and DONT drive it that long with worn pads, it almost certianly caused this - if the caliper has to push out too far, the piston doesnt have much room left in the cylinder which means it moves back-and-forth easier under braking (and subsequent pedal releasing).

[joshhol]

So take the caliper apart and inspect it before spending any money. It is easy as can be.
Use very light psi compressed air blown into the brake hose fixture to blow the pistons out. Rusty bore or piston, no good. It is possible they are rebuildable.
Tomguy is right about the low pads, also if the rotor is worn down it would compound that problem.
The caliper kit should contain everything you need, I can't imagine why they would sell a partial kit. I bought a rebuild kit for my 115 and did the front calipers. There was a little bit of corrosion, but a very little bit is allowable. (only on the bore) any corrosion on the piston, forget it. You may be able to get a new piston but then it may be better to get a new caliper.

[ptoro01]

Hey guys,

Thanks for all the advice, this morning I went in and called up this place called Metrix in toronto who supplies all parts for mb dealers and anyone else. They didnt have the caliper in stock and told me it would take about 3 weeks. I then talked to the guy, he said, to figure out who we use for the caliper rebuilding process. I called up a guy 6 street corners away. I gave him the caliper 20 minutes later and 2 hours later he called me up and told me that it was fully rebuilt and ready for 85 bucks. He had to change everything inside with the piston and all the seals, he sandblasted it and repainted the whole thing. Looked brand new and then the car is now rolling with the strongest braking power ive ever seen.

The huge car now stops on a dime, no more rattles, shaking, vibrations just a clean stop. Its an awesome feeling. The pedal is even stronger and I only spend $620 with the install and rebuilt caliper and MC.

I know the fact that ive been careless and just let the brake pads go thin on me caused the caliper to blow and the MC was just one of those things I had a bad feeling about.

Thats all done,

whats the most youve spent on a full brake job?

Peter