'02 CLK brake questions.
 

I guy I know at work has been told he 'has no rear brakes' by the dealer. He does not know what this means in terms of worn pads to frozen calipers or what. I offered to help him as he has no tools and no knowledge of this car. What can I say. He is a fellow MB owner and I feel bad for the kid.

Any way a few questions as this is a new car than I have worked on before.

- Can I pressure bleed the system like I do on my 87 and 95? I seem to recall something about if it has a traction control you can't or may be I am thinking of something else. I have one of those garden sprayer looking things to pressurize the system and then just pop the bleed screws one at a time.

-the only thing I can think of to test the brakes is to spread the pads a bit and have him step on the brakes. If the pads get pushed back to the disk they work ....right?

If they do not push back I was going to pop the brake line to see if there is pressure or fluid.

- is there anything different on the rear calipers? I know he needs new rotors as they have a good lip on them. I usually spread the pads away from the disk, pull the two bolts in the back, remove the set screw, tap the rotor off with a rubber mallet (make sure parking brake is not set) and then reverse. Any problems with this?

Thanks for your help.

I would start even easier than that, I would put the rear on jack stands, spin one wheel and have him step on the brakes, see if it stops spinning, then try the other one. I wonder if it's the parking brake that isn't working (seized cable or whatever, makes more sense than the service brake).

Yes you can pressure OR vacuum bleed them, but again I wouldn't jump to any conclusion that this would fix or verify anything. I guess if the rear are not applying, I would be tempted to have him step on the brake and just crack a bleeder and see if you have pressure. Seized pads are possible I suppose, what is the history of the car (long term storage in a barn???).

Is there any reason this diagnosis was made at a dealer, does he have some problem stopping the car and brought it in to have it looked at??

I do not know anything of the cars history. I noticed him driving the car one day and asked if he worked on it him self. Told him about this site and about the MBUSA club along with the discounts we get her in TX.

The bleeding was just something I was going to suggest aside from the brake issue as IO doubt the fluid has been changed in quite some time.

He was quite vague with the brake issue. Just said he was told they did not work. Beyond that he was clueless. Young kid so I felt bad and offered to help as much as I could.

I did not even think of the E-brake. Thanks for that idea. It does not look like a barn find or a storage but who knows.

I hope for his sake this does not fall into the 'nothing so expensive as a cheap MB' category.

One more question while I am thinking of it. Does it take DOT 3 or 4 or does it matter?