Hey there,

Great to be here. Been fortunate enough to be driving a Benz since my first car -- a 1989 300TE wagon in cream. Man I loved that car. She came to me by magical means as well ... one day I'll tell the story.

Now I've got a 2002 C320 wagon (have a thing for wagons, obviously) and I just moved to San Francisco from Los Angeles. The brake wear light has come on, so it's off to the mechanic I go. I had a great mechanic in LA, but he didn't have any recommendations for mechanics up here. I have to do this from scratch.

Someone suggested getting in touch with the SF chapter of the MB Club of America, and I'm going to do that. But since it's just the brakes and I'd like to take care of this sooner rather than later (I've got a busy couple of weeks coming up and I don't want to put this off), I'm thinking I might go to a non-specialized mechanic just to take care of the brakes.

I'm a woman, and a particularly young-looking one at that, and someone already tried to pull a fast one on me when I got my car smog checked in January and they told me the air filter needed to be replaced. Knowing that I had JUST replaced it, I declined, thankyouverymuch. The car has 106408 miles on it and just received B Service in December 2011. I, unfortunately, don't have the service history because my father has it back in LA (it's technically his car), but I just asked him, and he says the rotors shouldn't need to be replaced, should just be pads and sensors. I suppose I am a little worried that someone is going to try to dupe me into replacing the rotors as well.

So ... advice on how to approach this? What should I be looking for in a shop? What have been your experiences?

Thanks for everything.

 

And oooh! Should I just try doing it myself? I'm pretty handy.