W126 brake hose replacement

I’ve been meaning to change the brake hoses on the 300SE for a while. I have no history for the car, so I don’t know how old they are. As I also wanted to change the brake fluid, I thought it made sense to do both jobs at the same time. I had noticed a slight pull to one side on hard breaking. It may not have anything to do with the hoses, but they are a good place to start. Brake fluid really should be changed ever two years. Most people don’t do it that frequently, but regular changes […]

450SLC Dragging rear brakes – part 2

A couple of weeks ago I started investigating the dragging brakes on my SLC. I found both of my rear calipers had been overheated and were in poor condition. I ordered a set of rear calipers, and decided to change the rotors too. Mine were still in spec, but on the lower end. The hoses I had purchased last time were also not right. I needed hoses with two female ends but the other hoses were male/female.

The first thing I found was that it was quite hard to remove the old rotors. Not only were the rotors rusted […]

450SLC Dragging rear brakes – part 1

For the last couple of years I have noticed a noise from the rear of the 450SLC while driving. At first I thought it might be a wheel bearing or some kind of bushing. I mentioned it to my mechanic and he took and look and it wasn’t any of those things.

Last time I took the car on a longer drive, the noise was getting worse, and I noticed after I returned the rear wheels were hot to the touch. Too hot to touch. I realized that my noise had been dragging rear brakes all along.

Both sides were […]

280CE major service continued

The 280CE came over to the garage to continue the items on the major service, namely:

New Spark plugs Transmission fluid and filter Rear end fluid change Brake fluid flush

We used NGK spark plugs as they offer non-resistor plugs that are easy to find. The original spec for these cars called for non-resistor spark plugs, which are much harder to find now. The plugs that were already in there were Beru and in reasonably good condition.

For the transmission, we changed the fluid, filter and pan gasket, but didn’t drain the torque converter. When doing this it is important […]