"Bedding" the brakes. 1976 280C

[Tomas7]

In my S8s the brakes needed to be "bedded" in. There is a procedure by where the car is driven and then stopped abruptly a few times, etc. to bed the pads to the rotors.
Does anybody know if the same is needed to be done on my 1976 280C?
What is the procedure, if any?

[Tony H]

I just read an article about bedding brake pads. I would assume any disc brake car should have it done. You could Google it faster than I could type it here.

[97 SL320]

I've got decades in and around the car business, here is what I do.

Change brake pads, pump the pedal up to get the pistons on the pads.

BE VERY AWARE OF CARS BEHIND YOU ! ! !!

The goal is to gradually build heat in the rotors ( so they don't warp ), heat the pads so a thin layer of the pad has boiled off the binder and transfer some pad material to the rotor.

Drive the car and make 4 to 5 lighter than normal brake applications from say 35 MPH to 25 then normal acceleration back to 35. This gets some heat into the rotors.

Ramp the speed to 45 then normal decel to 30 perhaps 4 times, on the last brake application you can use slightly harder than normal braking. Use normal acceleration to get back up to speed. You need to give some time for the pads to out gas between brake applications otherwise you will get "green fade". This is where the pads "hydroplane" over the rotor surface as the binder is boiling off. Do this long enough ( like on a race track ) the the pad will catch fire. This won't occur with normal driving so no worries there.

Make 2 - 3 pretty hard deceleration's from 45 to 30, not lock wheels or "abrupt" , more of a 80 % of maximum braking. Allow a maybe a minute between brake applications to allow things to cool. After the last brake application, don't touch the brakes for a few miles if you can.

Let car sit and cool, drive normally after that. The brakes will become more effective over the next few hundred miles.

[Tomas7]

Thank you very much guys!