Hello,

I just brought my 2002 C230 to the stealer because the SRS indicator light came on. It turned out that one of the sensor in the seatbeltwas malfunctioning. It caused me $410 to replace the seat belt buckle. OUCH! [:-]
Anyway, the stealer also said that my battery is at marginal leveland my front break pad/rotor worn to the sensor.

A couple questions:
1. Battery - I can just bring my car to anyauto repair shopto replace one, right? Stealer wants $225 for the battery. And if I do replace the battery from a repair shop, do I have to bring it back to the dealer to "reset" something?

2. Front brake pad/rotor -my caris ~95K. I did replace the front break pad/rotorwhen my carwas~45K and the rear break pad at ~49K. How come for the front break,I have to replace the rotor and pad, not just the break pad? Do break pad and rotor wear at the same speed? [sm=dontgetit.gif]

Can anyone recommend some places which is cheap and reliable (I live in SF). Thanks in advance. [sm=thanx.gif]

 

It is all a matter of whether the pads have worn down the rotor beyond the specificied thickness that the rotors must be. In the old days you used to be able to "turn" the rotors - basically flatten them out and continue using them. This happens less now then it used to. On my BMW's we always had to replace the rotors and the pads - never just the pads. On my Miata no problem - pads only.

The MBZ braking system is very high performance - you need to maintain to spec. I would not complain about 50k miles on rotors. That is plenty. If you like the rotors that much have them return them to you and you can make a clock out of them?

I assume you may need a code for the radio if/when you disconnect the battery. I am not sure though. That should be it though. Replacing the battery is not much different than running it out. I also think $200+ for a battery is steep. I would look for a Sears Diehard maybe and expect maybe $125.

-Eric