I just purchased a 2000 C230K. The brakes have started squeaking a bit when coming to a stop on the slower end. I asked a dealership and the tech told me that was just pretty much a mercedes thing and they were going to sqeak from time to time possibly intermittently. Anyone heard anything else? Anything you can spray on them or do to reduce the noise? Thanks!

 

No don't take the dealership for gospel. I had the same problem a squeal just before the my C280 would stop, turned out I need new Disc's I had changed the pads a while back and keep the OEM disc, now the disc are worn down and the pads are squeal against the lip. If you can feel around the brake disc if it is below the outer lip, then your disc are about ready to be replaced. Also, see if the disc itself are smooth or rough. If smooth the pads are OK if rough the pads could be the culprit. Benz pads are not noisy until they wear or the disc wear, they are however very dusty, I changed to Mintek composite pads, hardly any dust at all, and they stop the car also, a plus!

 

Same happened with my rear brakes until they were replaced (pads and rotors)

C280 (1998)

 

My breaks are EXTREMLY noisy after a decent ammount of driving in a given day. The guys at my local garage told me its because the breaks in which the previous owner selected, are made of a harder then normal composition, for slower wear. They said MB recomends a medium-soft composition break for little to no squeak and more effective breaking. Is this true?

 

According to my mechanic-yes.

I just had my rear pads replaced yesterday and thought about upgrading my pads. My mechanic said he could do this but I should be prepared for noise. He has upgraded ( not that MB pads are poor, just soft and dusty) customer pads in that past and within a week had to replace them with oem pads as the customer complained of noise.

As far as replaceing the rotors. It is true that you don't turn the rotors, you toss them. However if they are within spec for thickness you reuse them. ( Apparently) Having said that, my breaks squeaked once yesterday. If they continue to squeak, I will go with what Wizard is saying and replace the rotors ( $40 ea.) BTW, I do have the lip at the top that Wizard is talking about but my mech said it wasn't too much so he reused the rotors.

 

I had squeaky brakes on Volvo, where applying silencer worked for couple of month only.
Never had squeaks on Mercedes, but I owned only 5 of them.

 

My rears are squealing like a stuck pig! It's driving me nuts. Guess I need to spring for some new rotors. Oh, well.