SLK55 r171 - advice please

SLK55 r171 - advice please

Author
Discussion

rgv250ads

434 posts

113 months

Thursday 6th November 2014
quotequote all
DaveMcC1967 said:
leaning more towards the slk due to some of the horror stories of engine and gearbox reliability on the Boxsters.
Little soundclip for you Dave !
You can have an x-pipe fitted in place of the resonator in the UK for about £200 to £300.

Apolls for the serious thread hijack on the brake discussion, as you dive deeper into SLK research you will see this is an issue on the cars with 6pot front calipers...

Clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhdCP_CjAgs


buzzer

3,533 posts

239 months

Thursday 6th November 2014
quotequote all
rgv250ads said:
Little soundclip for you Dave !
You can have an x-pipe fitted in place of the resonator in the UK for about £200 to £300.

Apolls for the serious thread hijack on the brake discussion, as you dive deeper into SLK research you will see this is an issue on the cars with 6pot front calipers...

Clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhdCP_CjAgs
Its hard.... but I just cant click on that link... its just going to cost me money... resist resist...biggrin

DaveMcC1967

Original Poster:

38 posts

173 months

Thursday 6th November 2014
quotequote all
Cheers - I'll play that later when I'm not in the middle of our open plan office!!

Coming from an RS4 I know all about the cost of brakes! Front disks and pads on that were c.£1k from a main dealer, and there aren't any aftermarket disks available.

The performance pack refers to the front disks being "composite" - is that the same as ceramics? If so I assume these last a long time so shouldn't be such an issue?

This will be my everyday car through the summer, but I've got an X-Trail (which I'm currently using) for winter / bad weather. I've also got a Caterham 7 as a toy, which I mainly use for track days - hence the main car doesn't need to be an out and out sports car. A half-decent stereo with an ability to easily access a reasonable selection of music is a must though. I looked at that website you linked to but the cost of upgrading the older Command quickly gets quite large, so aftermarket with an adaptor kit may be the way to go.

Cheers
Dave

buzzer

3,533 posts

239 months

Thursday 6th November 2014
quotequote all
I would not worry about the brakes too much. If you get a 2005 to 2007 car, these have 6 pot callipers and the original discs are £1200 a pair from Mercedes... they are not ceramic, just 2 piece and floating, as in the picture I posted above. However, there is an alternative for as RGV250 has pointed out, plus there is another alternative for £450 for a pair.

cars 2007 onwards with 4 pot callipers, the discs are cheap, around £50 each, pads for early and late cars are also cheap at around £30-£50 a set.

I looked at the Porker option... the bills scared mebiggrin

slk 32

1,486 posts

192 months

Friday 7th November 2014
quotequote all
rgv250ads said:
buzzer said:
RGV250 ads,

I am also interested to hear about the gearbox software upgrade and if there is any way mine can be checked to see if its been done, do you have anymore details?
Nope have no details hence asking previous poster
Sorry for delay in posting. I think I initially read about it on here as someone was claiming that the gearbox upgrade made a massive difference and it was less 'jerky'.

I'd not had a problem but as it was in for a service the next week I enquired and the MBTech just looked it up and applied it. I guess if you go to an indy with all the STAR gear should be easy enough to do. There was no special wording .. just gearbox software upgrade.

Hope that helps!

rgv250ads

434 posts

113 months

Friday 7th November 2014
quotequote all
[quote=buzzer]

how do you get over the fact the overall height is 4.5mm less, coupled with the additional 2mm less thickness? do you have any pictures of the discs mounted on the car and how they sit in the callipers? I would be interested to see them on a car.

quote]

See below. If i was being really picky the caliper could do with moving out toward the wheel by about 1.5mm to make it sit square on the disc and give the pistons equal outward travel. This can be easily done with shims between the caliper and caliper mounting bracket and slightly longer caliper mount bolts. There is about 20mm until the caliper strikes the wheel.
The piston cup depth is quite big, checked this, so having three on the 'inner side' poking out 1.5mm more than the 'outer side' is fine. I also fitted this up with the old worn out pads, and they were VERY worn, down to the sensors, and the pistons are very safe and well in the calipers.



Edited by rgv250ads on Friday 7th November 11:49

rgv250ads

434 posts

113 months

Friday 7th November 2014
quotequote all
Pics








buzzer

3,533 posts

239 months

Friday 7th November 2014
quotequote all
IF those discs were on my car....

I would be happy biggrin

rgv250ads

434 posts

113 months

Friday 7th November 2014
quotequote all
Cheers.
However after your posting above it did get me thinking to measure everything triple time and check using old pads on the one front corner i'd yet to do.

So, i think this thread is useful for future & Current R151 SLK55 AMG owners as there are clearly two alternatives to the £1.5k+ merc front replacements:
1) Later SLK55 R171 345mm Discs machined down to 340mm and re-balanced (£50 disc, £30 machine costs)
2) 'Buzzers' mod which is to acquire like for like part but non floating, then re-locate the hole for the securing grub screw (Buzzer to add costs)


wadsy

369 posts

255 months

Thursday 10th September 2015
quotequote all
Is 'buzzer' about?..sent an email through PH, but not sure if it works!?

I'd like to know where he got the discs he used from if poss.

Cheers

buzzer

3,533 posts

239 months

Thursday 10th September 2015
quotequote all
wadsy said:
Is 'buzzer' about?..sent an email through PH, but not sure if it works!?

I'd like to know where he got the discs he used from if poss.

Cheers
Still about! Not had an email thoug?

CaptainRAVE

360 posts

111 months

Friday 11th September 2015
quotequote all
Well can't be more expensive than the originals - my new set a few weeks ago cost £2000 all round. They are incredible brakes though!