AJT123

Yeah, I do now for sure. My LS430 has strong brakes but our old IS350s weren’t anything to write home about. I’ll take some pics soon, the rotors look realllllly good and are easy to see. Like I said, my buddy puts this brand on his 911 so that helped sell me lol.

My initial thought was “well if he did brakes what about other stuff” but it is clear to me that he was actually pretty smart and took care of this quite well. He did all the service at Toyota for starters, which I’m sure saved him some money for the same OEM work.

SW17LS

What brand are they?

I'm about to put aftermarket brakes on the S560. The dust is just horrible.

Shaboom

I certainly hope you’re exaggerating or simply had some bad luck. After paying this much money for a car, I don’t expect brakes to warp and have to replace rotors, etc. soon. In my last Acura, original brakes lasted until over 60,000 miles, Volvo approaching 40,000 and still like new. I’ll be very disappointed if these Lexus ES 350 bakes don’t last a reasonably long time.

AJT123

Stop-tech I believe. But they are now called PowerStop. Like I said, the rotors are easy to see through the rims and they look expensive and proper, and quite handsome.

mmarshall

Don't you get free washes at the dealership? I thought that was part of a deal-package they signed you up for.

One thing that can cause excessive braking and dust is the heavy traffic in this area.....particularly with cruise-control systems that try and maintain a set-following distance. You drive a lot on I-270, the Beltway, and 66, don't you? Particularly during peak traffic periods, people constantly cut in and out in front of you, so the poor computer is constantly speeding the car up and slowing it down to keep it X number of feet from traffic in front of it....which, of course, is difficult or even impossible in some of the traffic here. All that braking, of course, makes dust (and sometimes rotor-warpage from the heat)....particularly on front wheels, which, on front-engined vehicles, usually carry the lion's share of the braking loads. In fairness, though, Mercedes braking systems are usually designed to take heavy use, particularly at Autobahn speeds.

The brakes are one thing that seem really well-done on my Encore GX. At its first 1000 miles, the digital wear-indicator, in the dash, showed 99% left on the front pads and 100% on the rear....even in suburban stop-and-go. In addition, the pedal itself has ZERO free-play and responds instantly...it reminds me of the feel of some of the older German sports-sedans.

Which reminds me....it's time for me to do a write-up on the older BMW 335i, before they converted to electric steering. I was extremely impressed when I did the review, more so than with any other modern RWD coupe/sedan except maybe the 1Gen IS300. If it were not for the (IMO) high price, I almost bought one.

Stroock639

go with the akebono ceramic pads, they take getting a bit of heat in them before they start to really bite but virtually dust free... been running them on the LS for like a decade and a set will be going into the E55 when it's time

SW17LS

Not exaggerating. The only Lexus I have ever had that didnt have warped rotors by 15-20k miles was my GS.

Excellent brakes.

We've talked about this, I would never let a dealer wash the car. I pay for a high quality wash or I wash it myself.

High dust is a german characteristic. The S Class' brakes probably dust 20 times as much as the LS. I washed the car this afternoon, backed it out of my driveway to put the trash can out, and drove around the block never getting above 15 MPH. You can see brake dust on your finger if you wipe it off the wheels after just that. Not kidding. The fronts are worse, but even the rears dust more than the fronts of the Lexus.

Akebono doesn't make pads for the W222 unfortunately. There are several ceramic options people at MBWorld use, I'm going to choose one of them.

patgilm

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It’s not always heavy traffic or the way one brakes, it’s the brake pads. Have you ever owned a high performance car? The Brembos on my GTR and my SRT Durango create so much brake dust it’s ridiculous. You barely use the brakes and there is a ton of dust. After 250 miles in my Durango I replaced them with Powerstop pads and just like that hardly any dust. The trade off is usually the braking performance isn’t as good. I don’t drive my GTR much so I still have the stock Brembo pads but the dust is still unbearable.

mmarshall

Yes, I remember you saying you didn't care for dealer-washes, but not necessarily that you would never use one.



Dust, to some extent, is a characteristic of high-friction, fast-wearing pads. They create a lot of dust because they use up a lot of pad material quickly to get that strong braking-effect that enthusiasts want.

You might get less dust with lower-friction pads, but the braking response probably won't be as good. I agree with you, though, that, at least most of the time, you don't need Autobahn-strength brakes while driving in this area.

You may have to go to an independent shop for that...I don't know if the dealership will put on aftermarket pads.
One consolation, though, is that an aftermarket shop is usually cheaper. Nothing is cheap at a Mercedes shop.


Don't get irked at this, but I couldn't help thinking of a joke........."Steve's already replaced the tires because he didn't like them. Now he's replacing the brakes because he doesn't like them. Next, he'll decide he doesn't like the engine and exchange it for a custom-built AMG mill". LOL.

Stroock639

hmmm look at that akebono only makes them up to the W221 for now... how different are the brakes for the W222 that the same pads no longer fit?

i'm looking forward to installing them in the E class, if i had to guess it has the pagid pads installed now and they're not terrible but way dustier than the LS... i'm pretty good at minimizing brake use since i'll generally never take the E in any kind of traffic situation, and with the 5.4 liters and supercharger there's so much natural engine braking available just from lifting off you can pretty much just coast right to a stop if you have enough time and advanced notice

LSneewb

Hey @AJT123 Im curious to know if you have ever driven a 100 series? If you have, How does your LX570 compare to that in terms of ride quality?

AJT123

I've ridden in one. I can't remember well enough to give you a direct comparison because it was a long time ago but it was properly smooth and plush, I remember that much. The only problem I had with them is they're underpowered, albeit by an excellent powertrain.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

holy sweeping statements.

so do you mean the pads suck or the rotors suck, or the calipers?

pads don't warp, but rotors do. if you're replacing pads and rotors after 15K something is seriously wrong. i can understand not liking pads that are noisy, dusty, or too grabby, etc) but rotors almost never in fact 'warp' they just need 'resurfacing' (another way of saying grinding off any high spots that makes for a wobbling feel when braking.

in all the years i've driven (hundreds of thousands of miles), i think i've only had one set of pads replaced. i guess i must brake gently.

i chose to replace fronts (everything) on one car i put stoptechs on, which were phenomenal.

back to your original point that lexus brakes suck, the ones on my LC500 are amazing and have generally been praised in reviews. i believe they had bad brake dust problems on early LCs but improved that.

so that's replacing just pads?

JDR76

I haven't ever had warped rotors on any of my Lexus or Toyota vehicles thus far. Not a ton of miles on them, but definitely over 15k (my highest was 30k miles) with no issues. Hopefully my luck will continue.

Och

iTrader: (3)

Older Lexus rotors, back in the LS400-LS430 days, used to easily warp, albeit slightly. They were severely undersized for the weight of the cars, and literally after a couple of hard stops they would warp. Visually they would look ok, but you would feel it in the brake pedal.