B Class Common Problems and Their Solutions - Page 3 - Benzworld.org

kdbcom · 03-03-2008, 01:12 AM

I cannot believe that a motor manufacturer that has been in the business as long as Mercedes is making and selling a car with brakes that are defective, by not putting sufficient pad pressure on the Disks / rotors. If this were the case you would have many issues, apart from, the car not stopping in a straight line,generally unstable braking, long stopping distances etc etc, the car certainly would not pass UK construction & use regulations or our yearly (on 3rd anniversary) ministry of transport test (& the German or other countries equivalents of it) where the individual wheel/braking forces are tested.

The problem is more than likely as previously mentioned an inferior quality metal (for the job) in the disks / rotors and I would suggest that if you are really serious in improving your braking that you look towards getting a set of drilled & grooved disks / rotors and use them in combination with a set of harder or 'fast road pads' as they are sometimes called. You will be astonished at the difference and will not get the problems you are having. This disk problem is not unique to the B class.

Mike Tee · 03-03-2008, 08:03 AM

The rear brakes on the B hardly do anything....it's down to weight distribution and all.....drums would have been better IMO. But yeah once the car is out of warranty, aftermarket, here I come!

Derek Lecours · 03-03-2008, 08:58 AM

Keith, Mike, you're both right in all the above.
I'm so frustrated with these rear discs. But the B still stops very well and as you both have said we can change them for better materials, and not a huge cost in due course.
It makes you think "what else?" when they cheap it down like that.

The cover that holds the pollen filter is another soon to be failure on our B's.
It's so cheap!!

They could have used a small hinge on the black plastic cover.
In time, when bending that cover, it has to crack and we'll be taping the back to keep the fit.
This penny-pinching scares me away from a great car.... if these observations continue.

Cheers, Derek

kdbcom · 03-03-2008, 09:15 AM

Mike it might be worth bookmarking this for future reference

5-02we.jpg

They are suppliers of the Rossini Disks / rotors

They give a number to ring for overseas customers. Although you may have a company locally that deals direct with Rossini.

They have got good press reports over here & I can recommend them personally having fitted them previously to my Scenic. Price was not much more than the standard Renaults disks / rotors so I imagine that they should compare favourably with Mercs prices.

Mike Tee · 03-03-2008, 01:03 PM

Thanks Keith!

Derek Lecours · 03-03-2008, 01:32 PM

Yes indeed !! Thanks, Keith

BeeClass · 03-03-2008, 03:55 PM

Keith, thanks for the link and I have bookmarked it for future reference. We have just returned from three weeks in Hawaii

where there was not a snow tire, nor a B Class in sight.
What a delight today to start up the B and enjoy its great combination of space, comfort and utility. We had two rental cars in Hawaii, a small Chevrolet which was a piece of junk and a new Mustang convertible, which was also a piece of junk. The difference between the two ( aside from the convertible top) was the small Chev could easily hold our luggage in the trunk - while the larger Mustang could not!

We took a taxi from the Airport in Vancouver - a Toyota Corolla, with 350,000 km on the clock and it not only took all of our luggage, but was rattle and squeak free - and the only unexpected repairs were recently replaced battery and radiator.

Now, I will try to catch up on all of the new posts on the forum, while my tan fades away.