I just checked my brakes and they all look clean and bright. I do live in a hilly and mountainous area and even though I drive moderately, most of the time, the brakes must be frequently and firmly applied. Perhaps the design and manufacturing standards require us to wear out, rather than rust out the brakes .
Either way, the brakes are consumables - it seems a case of 'use them or loose them'.
Here are some photos of the brake problem. Both photos were taken after the car had been doing a few hours of city driving with frequent stops and starts. The first photo is a close up of the left rear disk and caliber. You will note that the disk surface is bright and shiny. The second photo is a close up of the right rear disk and caliper. You can see that the bottom portion of the disk is shiny and clean but the upper portion has big rust streaks. Its almost like the pad is not properly engaging the top portion of the disk. I'm wondering if the cylinder is seized, etc? If you look at the photos at the beginning of this thread, it looks like I have the same problem.
Any thoughts?
Jordan.
Hi Jordan and hi to all friends here, happy new year..!
After some days off i am back.. As Jordan's photos shows its EXACTLY the same problem with me...
And yes the solution is to USE the brakes HARD and often... On my BRAND new REPLACED discs started the same thing on the same side! but this time about 1cm from the edge.. I noticed one major point: if the rust starts (hard rust) it starts to wear out the pads because the surface is not shiny anymore.. so i made my brakes into pieces (very easy...) and sanded by hand the disc. After that day my disc remains clear and shiny(!).. Be careful!!! i got seriously injured on my finger because as i was turning the disc i got cut between the steady and moving part... much blood and pain!!!! Damned Mercedes!!!!!! grrr!!! Now i am ok and i have a very clear disc!!! ha ha ha.. but i am trying day from day and make a ride with hard braking...seems that our Mercedes is like a baby... needs to spend some time every day with her(!)
George I wonder if the callipers had been changed whether you would still have got the wearing in the same place. Do you know if they checked the piston was moving freely (and straight) when they changed the disks / rotors.
No i think callipers were not replaced... I was not there because it took them the whole day(!) to make this job... these guys here are EXTREMELY slow!!!
When i removed the pads i noticed that the piston was moving by hand if i applied much pressure.. I think its a matter of rust and only.. and if this rust gets much (because pads are soft as people here mentioned) it works like a sandpaper on this soft pads and continues like this... but if in some way (use or manual polishing(!!!)) discs are kept clear this problem doesn't appear...
As for my finger... i must pay more attention where i put it!!! ha ha
I'm not really too upset by the rust. My issue is that one side has the rust and the other doesn't. This implies that one of the brakes is adjusted or functioning differently than the other. This shouldn't be happening on any car. The brakes should all act the same way. I'm going to call my dealer and see what they say. I will report back once I get an answer.
I'm not really too upset by the rust. My issue is that one side has the rust and the other doesn't. This implies that one of the brakes is adjusted or functioning differently than the other. This shouldn't be happening on any car. The brakes should all act the same way. I'm going to call my dealer and see what they say. I will report back once I get an answer.
Jordan.
hmm this was my first thought also... but MY dealer told me this silly thing: "you know on cars with ESP & ABS all wheels doesn't act the same..." this is right by one side but only when the car gets out of normal conditions... i agree that the brakes before blocking any of the wheels should act exactly the same...because if one of 4 wheels cannot brake the same i think that the overall performance is affected..
Also they measured the braking system before replacing discs but they didn't even tell me if the brakes were working right... they are VERY stupid persons...they try to work all times with secrets and always they tell you by smiling.. "sir, everything is OK on your car!"..
hmm this was my first thought also... but MY dealer told me this silly thing: "you know on cars with ESP & ABS all wheels doesn't act the same..." this is right by one side but only when the car gets out of normal conditions... i
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I would agree with you that under normal driving & road conditions that both sides should roughly act about the same. OK on the 'odd' occasion one wheel may brake more than the other but I can't believe that under normal conditions that one wheel's brakes would not operate enough to remove the rust whereas the brake on the other side does. And over a period of time it is more than likely that the esp & abs actions would even out, after all we are not travelling constantly on exactly the same piece of road. Do these dealers take us for idiots ? I still feel there is more to it than this.
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