Did a bunch more looking around regarding various plating... the only ones that I could find that seemed to come "standard" with cadmium plating were the Powerslots. But I didn't want to go with slotted due to concerns about rotor wear and noise.

Looking on eBay I found AllGermanParts.com selling brake kits with cadmium-plated rotors, though not for my car.

But I called them and they have them plated locally and will do it to any of their rotors for $15/rotor. He said they've had excellent results, rust-free for the life of the rotor.

So I'm going with that for all four rotors. I sprung for Zimmerman cross-drilled "vanity" rotors as long as I was paying for plating anyway.

He talked me out of PBR Deluxe pads due to some customers complaining of squealing, particularly on the front pads.

So I'm getting ceramic pads for the front (an extra $35, eek), but as a side-benefit he said the front ceramic pads and rotors should last longer.

On the rear he thought the PBR Deluxe would probably be ok, but since I don't have dust issues there anyway I went with Textar pads to avoid any possible noise issues.

He sounded like he knew what he was talking about, so what the hell... I was sick of researching it.

But if anybody have any input on those pads, like I made a horrible mistake, I could still switch back to PBR Deluxe if that makes sense.

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1992 300E Sedan (Sold)
1999 E320 Wagon (Sold)
1995 E320 Sedan
1995 E320 Wagon

PBR Deluxe have no noise issues. Believe me you would have heard about it by now from the number of people here who are using them especially from me I think he's just a good sales man

I think a lot of people confuse the PBR Deluxe pad with the PBR Metal Master pads. The Metal Masters have a tendency to squeak. If your Textar pads are the "Yellow Box" variety you will probably be satisfied with them on the rear. My experience with them is that they have only moderate issues with dust.

Akebono doesn't seem to make front pads for my cars so I am about to try the PBR Ultimate Ceramic pads. We'll see how those perform very soon.

For the rears, it doesn't appear that PBR makes the ceramics for me yet and I'm not about to pay $80 for Akebono pads for the rear, so I ordered PBR Deluxe. Much to my dismay when I opened the package yesterday I found PBR Deluxe PLUS - Organic pads...

I went back to the web site and there was no reference to the PLUS pad and now I'm wondering if PBR is phasing out the Deluxe and replacing them with Deluxe PLUS... Does anyone know more on this issue?

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02 S500
92 500SL
92 400E (Sold)
87 300E (Sold)
83 300D Turbo (Sold)
75 300D (Sold)
74 240D (Sold after 20 years)

Hmm... could be yal... he wasn't high pressure about it which would have turned me off, so maybe that means he's a REALLY good salesman.

When I pressed him he said he had PBR's on his own car and was getting intermittent squealing, and had some customers who were getting squealing with every braking. But I may get the rear PBR's after all, just to try them out. [Edited: If I can avoid the stinky "plus" issue that speace ran into.]

The front ceramics are Akebono Pro-ACT, which have received favorable mention in this thread. They received NOT so favorable mention at Tire Rack, however.

Nothing's ever simple!

__________________
1992 300E Sedan (Sold)
1999 E320 Wagon (Sold)
1995 E320 Sedan
1995 E320 Wagon