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030 Big Brake Rotor Upgrade To 360mm Now Doable!

15K views 38 replies 11 participants last post by  hwheeler 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Ive been watching the SLKW threads and finally, the aftermarket is now starting to fill out the 340mm and 360mm high performance full floating brake rotors used on the front of the '55.

For those of us with the 6 pot caliper standard (as I have on my '06) and no 030 option, we have been limited to a 340mm brake rotor. While all model year 171's with 030 have the exact same six pot caliper as the early '55's, the 030 gets a larger 360mm rotor.

Later '55's without the 030 got a four pot calipers with a smaller rotor as well so if you've been wondering about an upgrade, you will want to read on.

So the only difference between the 030 six pot caliper and the early '55 six pot caliper is a bracket that moves the caliper out 10mm. That's all it takes to properly space for the larger 030 rotor. Of course Brembo won't offer the bracket by itself and neither does Merc. So unless I buy the complete 030 brake caliper set (ka-ching), I'm stuck.

And for those who would upgrade to the 6 pot calipers, the ones used on the 340mm rotor are more readily available both new and used since they are more common on other models besides the early '55. The caliper that fits the 360mm rotor, not so common.

One suggested machining up a set of 10mm spacers to install between the 340mm caliper bracket and the caliper to space it further out. But using spacers, the caliper bolts could potentially loosen. And if that happens it that could ruin my whole day.

So while my '55 is up in the air for a few other goodies, a buddy of mine is CNC machining me up set of brackets out of 4043 moly steel to duplicate the ones found on the 030. That will move the caliper out with no worries about spacers coming loose.

And with the 360mm Brembo rotors on Amazon for about $600 a pair (instead of the $1400 the stealership wants), this upgrade makes perfect sense. Especially considering my 340mm rotors are toast.

That said, it seems that the OE/Brembo rotors are about 2/3's as hard as the better aftermarket brands.

The Brembo is about 145 on the Brinell hardness scale. The $1000 Stoptech rotors are around 171. The $1300 RacingBrake rotors tested were 196 and 193, so about 34% harder than OE and 14% harder than Stoptech. That explains why my OE rotors were toast at 40k miles.

Harder Brinell translates into longer life, but potentially twice the expense. I'll post more once the brackets are done.
 
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#30 ·
Haven't been on the site since my last post on this. I've been crazy busy with work.

I just got the OE brackets in hand and heading over to the CNC shop next week to confirm they will still make them for me. If not I've got to find another shop that can do it without asking for my first born... Last time I discussed this with them they wanted $400 for the drafting/programming and $240 per piece to make a few sets for me.

The rotors:

2 of Brembo 09.9547.33 Front Disc Brake Rotor

are currently on Amazon for about $305 each if you want to wait until next month for them (look on the right hand corner of the link page). This is how I ordered them. However, sellers have them on Ebay and Amazon for about $410 and up and claim they are in stock for immediate shipment

I'll post back once I know more if the guy it's going to cost me.
 
#31 ·
My 030 caliper brackets are made. Ended up using steel $300 each. Only made one set since there wasn't really any interest.

Amazon direct ultimately cancelled my order for the $305 each 360mm Brembo rotors last week. Man was I unhappy after waiting 6 months for their deal. But after a call to them they honored the price and gave me a $205 credit towards buying them from a third party Amazon vendor selling them for $410 each. Sweet!

In the mean time I turned the rear rotors and tried a set of $115 Porterfield RS4 Carbon Kevlar street pads from LPI Racing. Those pads are so dirty I'm pulling them back off. Talk about excess dust, I could never use them on the front.

I'm replacing them with low dust ceramics. The well respected Akbono EUR984 Ultra Premium's were $95 on Amazon. (thanks Discover cards reward points).

On the fronts I finally found a quality ceramic pad as well. Akbono doesn't make a pad for the SLK 3 piston caliper. But it turns out the CLK63 (non-black) uses the same caliper and Disk Italia's Hyper Ceramic is a direct fit. They don't come cheap and the only place you can get them is from brakeworld.com. But cutting down on the constant wheel cleaning is well worth the $195 per set.

Everything is finally here now and I should have them on in a week or so. With any luck the larger rotors will be noticeable, my steering wont shake any more when I pound on the brakes (thanks to my currently warped 340mm rotors) and dust will be a non issue. I'm really looking forward to this upgrade.
 
#33 ·
I didn't see a casting number on the rotors or the included hats, but then I wasn't really looking for them. I was more concerned that they were really 360mm...

Not that it means much, but they did come in a Brembo box and had the correct part numbers showing. I dropped them at the shop already but pretty good chance I could have a closer look at them again before they're mounted.
 
#35 ·
Update!

Rotors went on fine with the caliper relocation brackets mentioned in earlier posts above machined to match the caliper brackets used on the P30 setup.

This journey is formally over and I'm now finally running the 2006 6 pot non-P30 calipers relocated out to fit the P30 Brembo 360mm rotors. :grin:

Results are fantastic, much more responsive when I pound on the left petal. I ended up with the Disk Italia CLK63 (non-black) pads in the front and the Akbono SLK55 4 pot pads in the rear, both high end ceramic street pads.

Too early to tell yet about the dusting but if others results are any guide this setup should be very low dust. Will post again here once I have more conclusive dusting results.
 
#36 ·
Well, my '55 just turned 60k.

After a couple of weeks of some somewhat aggressive driving with the new ceramic pads and the relocated front calipers, I am really pleased with both the Disk Italia and the Akebono product F & R.

Both are showing minimal signs of dusting and are grippy enough for my street driving needs. I can see why Merc offered the 030 package too. It's nice to be able to stop at a moments notice with all the idiots out there!

Not sure what's next for my '55. But I'll be having a blast driving while I decide.
 
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