CL500Wizard
Senior Member
- Joined
- Feb 6, 2009
- Messages
- 72
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- Location
- West London
- Your Mercedes
- CL500, 2 x Honda Prelude 2.2VTEC, Honda VFR400 (Bike) ... that's about enough, need to skim
I'm trying to get some views from the MB owners what they thought of the different types and makes of the discs, if they have tried them. From what I've read on the forum, generally people either go for MB supplied or oem equivalent (zimmerman etc) replacement brakes and it would also be very interesting to read opinions of those who have gone for a non-oem setup (discs specifically).
As for my view of the different types of brake discs (all are vented):
Blanks: My usual choice for most cars (other than my track car) with a good set of fast road pads such as Frodo DS2500. No issues with warpage unless the disks are cheap ebay no-well-known brand type, people bedding in wrong &/or abusing them by not letting them cool down after spirited braking - usual suspects are the ones who brake hard coming to a traffic light and then leave their foot on the brake transferring more pad material on to the hot brakes and less heat dissipation causing either warpage or quicker pad disintegration. However this can and does happen to all disks due to user error!
Drilled: Personally I hate these discs and something I would avoid unless no choice. My CL500 standard brakes are Drilled on the fronts and I will not be replacing them with alike. These are the worst for the spirited driver (and track use), and have seen plenty develop cracks (including a fully bedded in set developing cracks and badly pad glazed on my track car during just 1 day on track, same make Grooved lasted many more track days and quite a few pad changes) - several makes have been tested against just the same make Blanks and proved to have a much shorter life, and this is why suppliers to motorsports do not supply these - bling is some describe these to be!! These disks have poor integrity due to drilling and not as cooling efficient claimed to be in addition to not help reduce pad glazing. I don't know why Merc decided to put these on a £60K+ car
Combination Drilled and Grooved: These are usually the best brakes (dependant on material), and a lot of fast production cars (Porsche, DB's) come standard with these. However if you source a cheaper make which is made of poor quality materials, these can be as bad as Drilled.
Grooved: These are my favourites for upgrading discs. They allow better pad bite better than all of the above, and additional grooves (compared to combi) help release the heat very well too and substantially reduce pad glazing.
2 makes that I always use are EBC for Blanks and BlackDiamond (black in colour as well) for Grooved. EBC only do blanks for my car versus ATE (from EPC who say ATE are oem for MB) which are drilled. BlackDiamond lists discs on their website but doesn't say if they are Blanks, Combi or Grooved - still looking for a supplier who can get the Grooved ones for the CL. May just slap on EBC blanks (which are more expensive than ATE drilled!) with Frodo DS2500 or EBC RedStuff pads and see how things progress.
What are you thoughts and experiences?
As for my view of the different types of brake discs (all are vented):
Blanks: My usual choice for most cars (other than my track car) with a good set of fast road pads such as Frodo DS2500. No issues with warpage unless the disks are cheap ebay no-well-known brand type, people bedding in wrong &/or abusing them by not letting them cool down after spirited braking - usual suspects are the ones who brake hard coming to a traffic light and then leave their foot on the brake transferring more pad material on to the hot brakes and less heat dissipation causing either warpage or quicker pad disintegration. However this can and does happen to all disks due to user error!
Drilled: Personally I hate these discs and something I would avoid unless no choice. My CL500 standard brakes are Drilled on the fronts and I will not be replacing them with alike. These are the worst for the spirited driver (and track use), and have seen plenty develop cracks (including a fully bedded in set developing cracks and badly pad glazed on my track car during just 1 day on track, same make Grooved lasted many more track days and quite a few pad changes) - several makes have been tested against just the same make Blanks and proved to have a much shorter life, and this is why suppliers to motorsports do not supply these - bling is some describe these to be!! These disks have poor integrity due to drilling and not as cooling efficient claimed to be in addition to not help reduce pad glazing. I don't know why Merc decided to put these on a £60K+ car
Combination Drilled and Grooved: These are usually the best brakes (dependant on material), and a lot of fast production cars (Porsche, DB's) come standard with these. However if you source a cheaper make which is made of poor quality materials, these can be as bad as Drilled.
Grooved: These are my favourites for upgrading discs. They allow better pad bite better than all of the above, and additional grooves (compared to combi) help release the heat very well too and substantially reduce pad glazing.
2 makes that I always use are EBC for Blanks and BlackDiamond (black in colour as well) for Grooved. EBC only do blanks for my car versus ATE (from EPC who say ATE are oem for MB) which are drilled. BlackDiamond lists discs on their website but doesn't say if they are Blanks, Combi or Grooved - still looking for a supplier who can get the Grooved ones for the CL. May just slap on EBC blanks (which are more expensive than ATE drilled!) with Frodo DS2500 or EBC RedStuff pads and see how things progress.
What are you thoughts and experiences?