Mercedes "servicing"

[2skiddy]

Hi, This has probably been covered in the past but here goes. My recently acquired high mileage CLK 55 has terrible brakes. It had when I bought it in December and I was going to address the situation ASAP. Bearing in mind this car has FULL Mercedes dealer history, I was disappointed but not surprised to find that there wasn`t a spot of copper or aluslip anywhere and both front and back pads and pins were all rusted and jammed up in the calipers. I have serviced and overhauled many brakes over the years, but these are about the worst I have seen in ages. Do main dealers not bother with brakes anymore?
Anyway I am going through them carefully and at least the parts department of my local MB dealer are helpful with some discount on parts which I thought were very reasoably priced. The pleasure and pain of owning a car?

[5 wh]

At least your car came away from the mb dealership with all its wheelnuts.A few years ago my brother in law had a M-Class and after picking the car up from a service and new front brake pads he drove it down the road and the steering wheel was vibrating like mad.When he stopped and checked the front wheels he noticed that each front wheel was held on by only 1 wheel nut.

After a heated call to the service department it transpired that his missing wheelnuts were still on the floor in the bay where his car was being worked on and a mechanic was sent in a van to put the other nuts back on the car.

Luckily no harm or damage was done but it could have potentially been a very dangerous situation.

[Parrot of Doom]

Some newer MBs do not use copperslip as it can interfere with the brake sensors. They use another compound.

[2skiddy]

There was no trace of any compound apart from rust and accumulated brake dust. By the way, I am not in favour of over egging it with aluslip or what ever it is now, but a little would have gone a long way! All the wheel bolts were as dry as a bone with a bit of surface rust. The front hubs, where the discs mount on, were very rusty between the two mating surfaces. I suspect they were left untouched when new discs were fitted in the past. The car has done 100,000 miles, so I suspect it has had a few front discs. The rear discs look fairly new and are barely worn on one side due to the inner pads being seized. Now deglazed and ready to go back on. Fortunately all the pistons are nice and free with no damage to the seal boots. Hope you all have better luck with your anchors.

[2skiddy]

Brakes all sorted. They feel soooooooooo much better! Also put some ducting to the fronts to help with the track work(out).