Hey folks,

Just changing the front pads on my newly acquired W123 230e. Having a little trouble getting the inside brake pads out!

The outside ones (closest to the wheel) slid out without a problem. Unfortunately, the other side seems to be well and truly wedged in! Any ideas?

Just bought the car a couple of weeks ago - pads are extremely worn down.

Any suggestions would be great I'm no mechanic but I've done pads before without a problem

Thanks!

Edit: I might add that I'm doing the job with the calipers still on the car...!

Normally you should be able to do this job with the caliper on the vehicle


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The piston might be stuck.

Try prying the piston back into the caliper - wedge between back of pad and the piston if you can see it / gain access.

If it really won't come out then remove the caliper from the car and then attack it.

This is a good time to consider the condition of the flexible hose and the brake fluid - may be they could do with a change?

If the piston is stuck then you are best off rebuilding the caliper rather than thinking "oh I've freed it up now" - in my experience the piston will re-stick quite quickly...

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

Thanks! I'll see what I can do.

Managed to get the passenger side one out. The more I work on this car, the more I'm shocked by how negligent the previous owner was. Take a look at the old pad. I'm lucky I survived the drive home from picking it up!

i'm surprised the rotors survived the trip home.....as cheap as they are i might think about pads and rotors; then you can have a reason to remove the caliper from the backing plate

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James 4:8

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Centrally located in North East Central Pa.

The rotors are surprisingly in great shape. I was expecting them to be totally screwed but they have plenty of life left in them. I'll probably drop the calipers off regardless and give them a clean up at least and then see about rebuilding them

did both pads look like that i.e. were they wearing at a similar rate? if so the cal probably isn't "needing" to be rebuilt......i'm sure you know that but it never hurts to state the obvious

__________________
0o==o0

James 4:8

"...let us put aside the blindness of mind of those who can conceive of nothing higher than what is known through the senses"
-Saint Gregory Palamas, ---Discourse on the Holy Transfiguration of Our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ


Centrally located in North East Central Pa.

Yeah they all look pretty even/thoroughly illegal!

Run out of time for today sadly. Have to work this afternoon but hopefully tomorrow I'll be back on the road

rear brakes on my coupe. Slide hammer popped them right out. Make sure you suck a little brake fluid from reservoir so you can press pistons back in. Replacement of new pads went smoothly after that.

Pads are out! Woohoo! Anyone got any suggestions to get the pistons to move those final few MM for the clearance?

Using a large "C" clamp and an old brake pad you can compress the brake piston back into the caliper bore. Position the C clamp around the caliper so that when you turn the screw on the C clamp the old brake pad pushes on the piston.

Ah ha, great suggestion - I'll try that one, thanks

Its better to open the bleeder bolt and connect a bleed bottle to the caliper, you never want nasty brake fluid going backwards in the system.

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2012 BMW X5 (Beef + Granite suspension model)

1995 E300D - The original humming machine (consumed by Flood 2017)
2000 E320 - The evolution (consumed by flood 2017)

Looks like I've got a couple of seized pistons. Not sure on the next move, but this simple job is growing fast it seems!

Bit of an update. I gave up with the old calipers. They were clearly dead, and time to be scrapped or kept to rebuild one day.

Now, finding old Benz parts in Vancouver doesn't seem easy, so I thought out of the box and checked Craiglist south of the border. Fortunately, I found a guy in Ferndale, WA - the first town after Blaine, WA, who had what I needed. A pair of unseized ATE calipers, and as a bonus he had a front grill which didn't have a gaping hole chopped in it. Sold.

After being congratulated by the US Border guards upon beating Canada in the Women's World Cup (I'm British), I drove down to Ferndale, picked up the calipers - still with pads that are worth keeping as spares, marveled at my new front grill, ate the hugest chicken Burrito I'd seen in a long time, and headed back home to Canada.

New calipers are all cleaned up, new pads are in, just now to fit the darn things and bleed the system. A job I'm not relishing.

Anyone know the brake fluid capacity for the W123? How much should I buy?

Thanks!

Since you should be flushing all the fluid in the system, I'd start with a quart/liter.

Don't use the silicone stuff.

DOT-3 or 4 regular fluid. The DOT-3 would be the preferred but 4 is perfectly acceptable. The difference between the two has to do with absorption of moisture. Not enough of a difference to matter in your car.

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