Front Brake Pad Wear
 

My 94 E-420 seems to go through front pads very quickly, every 12000 to 14000 miles. Is that usual or is my wife riding the brakes?? By the way, is there an advantage using OEM pads rather than aftermarket?

It is usual when the wife drives the MB, they are always braking, haha.

Mercedes can wear brakes quickly when they are used often in stop and go traffic. I prefer to stick with OEM pads, they perform better than a lot of aftermarket pads and are quiet.

45000 miles on my front pads now. -Still plenty of pad left.
But a lot of it is highway miles = not that much breaking.

I'd be pretty annoyed if my pads only lasted 12-14000 miles. Ask your wife if she found the footrest yet. ;)

Freestyler

The front air dam of the 124 cars has blocked brake air vents.

This is so the air dam is aerodynamically effective at high speeds. But since ultra high speeds are seldom achieved here in the U.S. I have removed the vent blocks on my 124 cars.

It is easy to do: Looking carefully from inside the front wheel wells, the air blocks are seen. They are held in by metal caps over small plastic studs attached to the front bumper cover.

Of course it is hard to measure, but I seem to have great brake pad life generally speaking.

To just be sure to remind yourself that you will experience a slight increase in front-end areo drag at say 135 MPH..... from the minor reduction in air management ..... in exchange for increased amounts of air going into the front wheel area.

Haasman

I had this same concern not long ago...

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?threadid=22867


Since I've started doing my own, I'm averaging 15K between front sets on the W124. And my daily commute is a mix of city/hwy...