99 E320 Brakes
 

I discovered that my back brakes need replacing including the rotors, now with 82k miles. The dealer wants $240 for the OEM parts. Fastlane is about $150.

Is OEM necessary?

You can't go wrong with OEM. That being said, if you are going to go with aftermarket parts, either the Balo, Zimmerman or Brembo rotors are good and the Textar, Pagid, or Jurid pads are usually decent. I usually use aftermarket Textar pads and Balo rotors. The stuff you get on fastlane under these brandnames will usually be decent. Only parts I recommend staying away from are the Ate pads or rotors. Ate is an OEM supplier of a lot of the mechanicals of Mercedes brake systems, however, Ate is NOT an OEM supplier of any pads or rotors that I know of and I have not been too impressed by the quality of said items in the past.

I measured the warp on the rear rotors and found them both to have a .005" warp at one point in it. Can they be turned?

Measure the thickness of the rotors. I have found that MB rotors typically last 2 sets of pads before they get worn down below min thickness. Chances are that once you turn them, they will be close to or below min thickess. Best bet is usually to replace them since they are really not that expensive anyway.

ATE pads on my '99 E300TD when I bought it at 35,000 miles. Not sure of the rotor brand, but I thought it was ATE too. I replaced them with ATE rotors and Textar pads - no problems in the 35,000 miles they have been on. I believe the rotors and pads were both were original when I bought the car. I have service records on the car from new and there was no mention of brakes ever being done.

Len