W126 Front Brakes
 

Time to replace the front brakes, pads and rotors on my 380 SE. To do the job, I will likely need new front wheel bearings as I understand that the bearings are sunk into the rotors. I guess I can't reuse them

Any special tricks or tools required?

Cheers,

John

You can replace the pads and rotors without touching the bearings. I'm not sure what you mean by "sunk into the rotors".

w 126 brakes
 

Is the 400 SE a w126 car? Maybe I am not up on my nomenclature, but I will take another look at the diagrams. I just thought the wheel bearing races were stuck into the back of the rotors, and were sold seperately with the wheel bearing kit. I may be wrong, I have not yet taken it apart.

Just did mine a couple months ago. Wasn't too bad a job to do.
The bearings are pressed into the hub, which the rotor is bolted to. Take off the rotor assembly, being careful not to damage the rear seal. Then hold the assy in a sturdy vise and take off the bolts and it comes apart. Seems to me the bolts were allen head style, so you'll need a metric allen wrench. I think they were 8 or 10 mm, but can't remember for sure now. Anyhow, as long as you keep things clean, ect, you shouldn't need to touch the bearings as long as they are in good shape and well greased. Check the rear seal to make sure it's not worn and leaking. Check your calipers for any leaking of fluid. Check the brake lines for kinks or cracks.
Hardest part I had was getting the caliper pistons pushed back in far enough to get the caliper back on over the new rotors with new pads. Was almost as if something was to thick, either the rotors or the pads. But finally got 'em back on. Once they wore in, they work great!
Good luck!:)

funny you mention this piston issue rick...I just did the pads on mine and I actually ended up HAVING to get out the electric hand sander and shave off about 1/16" pad material just to get that #$%#$ in there.
Glad to hear it isn't just me :p

Ya! I thot I did something wrong, or had the wrong parts. I've done LOTS of brake jobs, but never had that hard a time getting them back together. My brother was helping me, and he'd been a ASE certified mechanic back in the 80's. He helped me get them back on, and had me just drive around the block slowly and hit the brakes off and on. Then we pulled back to the garage and felt everything to see if it was hot. Things were warm, but not hot. I kept an eye on them for a day or two, and they wore in and loosened up. Been a couple thousand miles since, and everything works great. No sign of re-warped brake rotors.

w126 brakes
 

Thanks to all for the suggestions. The CD rom manual suggests that the bolts which hold the rotor on the hub should be replaced as they are self tapping. Did you reuse them? Likewise there are some caliper bolts which they suggest replacing. We shall see.

Re: w126 brakes
 

Hmmmm..... don't recall noticing that the rotor bolts were self-tapping. They were pretty much a standard bolt. They were in fine shape when I took them out, so just cleaned them up and re-loctited them and put 'em back in. Same with the caliper bolts. Only thing I could figure from that is maybe they changed the assembly from my '84 SD to your '85 SE. Can't imagine they would do that, but I've seen stranger things! You'll have to see what you see when you get it apart maybe. Or maybe someone else here has a different light on this. Anybody?? How about yours, Chris?