Late w126 brakes on w123
The late W126 brakes (300mm) would require switching to 15" wheels, early W126 brakes (278mm) do not.

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CENSORED due to not family friendly words

This is another case for using OEM parts.

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'83 300D, 126K miles.

100% not true, if overheated the rotor would be blue and warped. Plus, the pads would be blistered on the edges.


Low quality steel rusts faster and can cause the issue. Also, in some areas of the USA ( not sure about Canada ) Brine from gas well drilling is used for liquid deicing, this stuff is awful...

Done that and just paid a lot more for rotors that still rusted and destroyed the pads.

If salt gets trapped against rotor, and car sits for a while, that will do it. With my E320 (it had OE discs and pads) it must have been salt air and hot asphalt during outdoor parking in Daytona. I have read about others who have had similar experiences in otherwise salt free areas. Not talking about light rust, but rather raised rust nodules and pitting. My 350SL has never had this problem, but then it has never seen salt.

I wish I knew of a solution to corrosion of rotors during storage. I know it will happen again, because 3 of our our cars don't get driven for months on end, but do see some salt before we head South. It is a much discussed subject amongst owners of cars that get stored for winter. No real good solutions that I have seen.

Apparently there has been some work on composite rotors, but we will never see those for our old Benzes.

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Graham
85 300D,72 350SL, 98 E320, Outback 2.5

The pads will have a groove on the top and bottom due to the rust. Look at the pad 90* to the picture / pull the pad out.

The pads will sand out just fine based on the chipped out rust thickness.

Poor quality steel / brine on the roads can cause this.

Metallic brake pads have steel fibers as well as brass chips. The super fine steel rusts rapidly and gets the rotor started in rusting.


Salt absorbs moisture and it takes a lot of water to wash it off. There is a product found in boat shops called " Salt Away " that treats salt on a chemical level. At some point I'll give it a try however I wonder what chemical the salt changes to.

Has anyone heard of or know of Stainless steel rotors? I Imagine there needs to be a degree of friction in a rotor which will wear it down for it to be an effective braking disc.

But I thought of just machining a piece of Stainless steel. Or even better, titanium... (kidding), Actually titanium conducts heat in funny ways I believe. But it would be durable and rust-free...

From what I could see, "Salt Away" doesn't convert the salt. Basically, you use it with a large amount of water to flush the salt out (on say an outboard motor). The Salt Away contains surfactants that make the salt less "sticky" so it comes away from surfaces. It also contains corrosion inhibitors, some of which hopefully stay on the metal surface. They even say that regular application is required for the inhibitors to work. Sounds like a reasonable product for it's intended uses. Hard to see how we could use it on our brakes. Partly because it's freezing cold in our area at the time we park our cars!

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Graham
85 300D,72 350SL, 98 E320, Outback 2.5

Stainless Steel has poor thermal conductivity (Titanium is worse, i think), so would have difficulty dissipating the heat. However, I believe S/S is used on motor cycles. Race cars use carbon composite disks and pads.

Brake disc materials have to meet an SAE standard. This makes it hard to see how aftermarket disks would be inferior to OE discs, unless the OE discs in some way exceed the SAE standard.:

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Graham
85 300D,72 350SL, 98 E320, Outback 2.5