"applicatrion engineered" brake pads???
 

picked up my brake pads for my 300SD(rear) tonight from napa. What i got is their "application engineered" premium disc brake pads, o.e.m speck, abestos free pads. They cost 27 bucks( i know it's more than fastlane but i got them tonight from napa, and i need to do the brakes tomarrow). They came with shims, are the shims necessary? the pads look good if you can judge anything from looks. Did i get a decent set of pads here? Thanks for your help, if no one comes back with anything negative i'm installing them tomarrow. BTW, i do not need to replace the rotors(this time) as there is only a very small lip at the edge of the rotor.
thanks
Ryan

new pads installed, and all is well. It took me a little while to figure out how to work the OEM jack(good floor jack is being borrowed). Finally figured out it goes in those little holes on the side, i was having a heck of a time trying to get it to press up agains the rubber "mats" on the bottom! Oddly enough, for all the noise they were making, my old pads had alot of life left in them. They were probably 1/4 inch thick! I can actually notice a differance in pedal feel and braking with the new pads though. I can't remember if i did econo pads on the front, and i think i did. IF i can actually remember or find the receipt that tells me i did econo on the front i'm going to redo those with good pads. Next thing on my list is to replace the brake hoses, there are cracks in them, but they arent leaking-yet. Had a heck of a time getting the caliper bolts out though, someone had lock-tite'd them in!!
thanks for the help bill
Ryan

I was interested in your comment that you had a hard time getting the caliper bolts out. I have not owned a car like yours but I have done many brake jobs on MBZ and have never removed the calipers bolts except to change out rotors. There are two pins that hold the calipers in place and you drive them out with a punch and slide out the pads after you compress the pistons. The calipers bolts always have and should have loctite installed. Can you check and see if the pins are there? They are located to match the oval holes on the pads.

yes, i completely forgot untill you guys mentioned it that i didn't need to remove the caliper to replace the pads........oops. Oh well, it wasn't THAT hard to do, and yes, i do have the retaining spring with the two pins. Odd though, on the way home both rear brakes(it appeared) were realeasing after the front brakes on hard stops(like panic almost), it went away after two or three panic stops, but it still had me a little worried. could have been air in the line still, i hadn't driven the car much at all before that. All seems good now, good pedal feel etc. I seem to lose power brakes rather quickly though, quicker than i would presume is normal. Car still shuts off fine, and all a/c components work right, trans shifts ok etc, so maybe it is normal. I figure if i had a big enough leak to cause my brakes to not work right those other systems would have problems as well correct? If it is the brake booster i'll have to live with it, those blastid things are expensive!
Ryan

Glad you found the pins. I had a friend who did a brake job and instead of using the pins or the caliper bolts, he took the whole caliper apart, he finally called me when it was to late. Anyway, you booster could leak and all the other components could still be working. I know that on my car they are separate circuits so that you could loose vacuum for you door locks and the brakes would still work. I hope it is just brake fade. Try changing out all your brake fluid and door a good bleed job.
Henry

just took it out to the local late night taco bell for some grub, and did some all out panic type stops on the way there(back roads, late at night). All seemed perfect, i then did a couple medium stops, and then a light stop, and then a really hard panic type stop again. All seemed fine, much better than in the past! I may wait till this summer and redo the front pads with some good pads, and replace the rotors and brake lines all the way around at the same time. If i did that i would know i had solid brakes, as i just replaced the master cylinder summertime last year. thanks for all your help!
Ryan