'04 E55K - Pagid brakes?

[E55BOF]

My '04 E55K estate needs front discs and pads, and ECP have a very attractive offer on Pagid items at the moment - £190-ish all-in; MB want £400. Does anyone have any thoughts or recent experiences, for or against, of this kit?

 

[Deleted member 37751]

I was quoted £225 from Mercedes for front discs and pads in January of this year for my W211 E55 so they've certainly had a big price hike!

 

[anfieldassasin]

I've used the Pagid break pads from ecp for years for all my cars, from mercs to Honda's and bm5 series. They are decent quality and stop well with not much fade (i usually use the pagid discs as well) never had a problem with fit on of the models I used them for. I did once get one of the cheaper brands from ecp and found they didn't fit exact and had to sand them down a bit so went back to pagid

The only down side I have noticed is that they do have a tendency to produce a lot of brake dust!

They are, along with textar oem suppliers to a lot of major car brands

 

[Del80y]

I would try main dealer
try this 1 in Edinburgh on Ebay
I know not your discs but Email them and they will get back to you

Mercedes Parts Brake Pad & Disc set front E class (sports kit) - new | eBay

 

[dulayj]

£225 sounds like a great deal!
I too have used Pagid on a number of cars including 2.5 ton xc90-no problems

 

[OneForTheRoad]

i fitted pagid discs and pads to the front of my w211 - £ 98 - pads came with full fitting kit - ive had no squeals whatsoever and braking is spot on - dust is prominent on my wheels , but its been 3 weeks since the car was washed .

 

[Mc1]

I used pagid pads from Ecp on my Audi and they did not have quite the initial bit at slow speed, fitted genuine one and perfect. In my opinion I would fit Ecp discs and genuine pages

 

[Will]

I was looking into this just recently (in fact I posted on your thread a month or so back - maybe for your old car where you were asking how to disable the SBC system?)

MB parts are just under £500 retail (discs/pads/sensors etc), you can get them for circa £350 with discount though (25%)

Most people advise against Pagid brakes for AMGs, I know the price is tempting though.

Lee (SPX) - you must remember you asked the same place you bought yours from when I was looking and they quoted you around £350 too - they have gone up.

Worth noting that AFAIK Pagid is a EuroCarParts 'own brand', they control the prices and manufacturing and I wouldn't be surprised if they were made on the cheap in China etc like a lot of the other aftermarket parts these days?

They are not OE to Mercedes obviously and I have heard of fitting issues with aftermarket pads on the aluminium AMG Brembo calipers.

Possibly not worth messing around with aftermarket bits in this area bearing all this in mind?

IMHO of course

 

[Amo]

I have only recently done brake on my cls, i went for textar discs and pads originally (£65 each for disc and £80 for pads = 210 all in)...within 1 week they squeal like mad. It was so unbearable that i took them off and went for original MB Pads (my indie gave me some of his discount so pads came at £180ish + VAT) compared to dealer price of 220+VAT. I still have light squeal when brakes are hot but its bearable and i will probably stick with it. TBH i wish i had gone for original discs as they are only £70 each from merc so not much of a saving from euro.

IF i was you, I would steer clear of Pagid as if you do end up with squeal like i did, you end up paying twice as much labour(even though ECP offered me like for like exchange for pads).

55k has 4 pads each side which is probably why the pads do squeal. I have use ECP parts before and would do again but not for brakes after my £600 ordeal with just fronts!

 

[Deleted member 37751]

Lee (SPX) - you must remember you asked the same place you bought yours from when I was looking and they quoted you around £350 too - they have gone up.

Completely forgot Will, my memory fails me at times!

 

[E55BOF]

Interesting......

Pagid are owned by TMD; their factories also make Textar and Mintex pads, the latter apparently as a budget range and made in a different factory to the Pagid and Textar ones. ECP have the rights to the Pagid name in the UK, but they are not an 'own brand'. Mercedes have in the past used (among others) Pagid and Textar pads as OE; they don't, so far as I can ascertain, make their own discs or pads.

The main complaint about Pagid is that they make a lot of dust, and on some cars seem to produce brake squeal also.

I also found some Ferodo pads at a very good price. Anyone have any thoughts on these?

And some Brembos - a very good name for motorcycle brakes. Any thoughts on these?

 

[hotrodder]

I've got Ferrodo something or other in the front of my s124 at the moment. They're quite dusty although not as bad as some, good initial bite & never heard a squeak out of them
I might be wrong but i reckon pads that are 'less dusty' are maybe more likely to result in the mythical "warped disc" as less dusty = more reliant on adherant friction than abrasive friction i.e. more prone to developing DTV due to uneven pad deposits?

Probably already aware of this but on the off chance places like Brakes front for Mercedes 211.276 (E55 AMG) list both MB part # as well as other brands which sometimes makes life easier/cheaper than filling car details on various sites only to find poor choice of brands you've never heard of. Dunno how prices compare but pretty good choice of brands including ATE, Jurid & Bembo here Spare Part 2304210712

Pagid being a TMD friction brand has already been done but FWIW...

Pagid, Textar, Mintex and several others are brand names of TMD friction http://www.tmdfriction.com/sites/co...es/Factsheet_TMD_Friction_Group_July_2014.pdf
There are also various theories/claims/rumours scattered about the internetz from something along the lines of eurocraparts bought the rights to the Pagid brand name in the UK and they're actually reboxed Mintex pads from one of TMDs second tier/non OEM manufacturing plants at one extreme to Pagid and Textar only being made in one of TMDs OEM factories at the other

Eurocraparts say (quoted from Euro Car Parts Heritage | Quality Car Parts| 180+ Branches Nationwide April 2014)...

Martin Gray, chief executive officer at Euro Car Parts, said: “We are very excited to be launching these Textar brake pads and discs in partnership with TMD Friction. Stocking both Textar and TMD’s Pagid brand is an offering unique to Euro Car Parts in the UK. They are both OE, but each with their own formulation and characteristics.

 

[Will]

Mercedes have in the past used (among others) Pagid and Textar pads as OE; they don't, so far as I can ascertain, make their own discs or pads.

They may have used Textar, I've never seen Pagid personally though. Can I ask your source please and when this refers to?

I'm pretty sure that Pagid were a reasonable brand in general a few years back but am sceptical nowadays. I don't think they'd make dangerous parts, but is it not feasible that a parent company can manufacture parts for various markets, made to different spec or quality and in different factories/plants worldwide?

At the end of the day, the cheapest of anything is seldom the best. TMD might be okay and I seem to remember Textar having a decent rep in the past, but times change. A quick Google seems to suggest that they sold out and aren't the 'OE German parts company' they once were?

Trading on a name then, which then comes back to Euros, who sell Pagid and 'Eicher', which sounds a bit OE/German/European quality but is also an own-brand - made by TMD

 

[anfieldassasin]

I would definitely steer clear of eicher!! They have poor fitment for the pads and the discs rust like crazy. Its interesting to hear others views on pagid I thought I read somewhere (not online) that they were OE including for Porsche also whether that's in the past or more recent I don't know....other than brake dust I had no issues of squealing poor fitment, rust, warping etc. The initial bite has always been good as has the longevity. I've only had the one episode of fade which was driver induced by trying to stop 1994 civic from 75mph too suddenly and too hard

If you can source the brakes for 225£ like spx did then it's a no brainer especially for peace of mind.

Clearly mercedes doesn't make its own discs and pads do out of interest anyone know who makes them on their behalf currently?

 

[anfieldassasin]

Nb: interesting read from ecp on another forum

Mintex vs Pagid - Whats Better? - Mercedes-Benz Owners' Forums

 

[hotrodder]

Clearly mercedes doesn't make its own discs and pads do out of interest anyone know who makes them on their behalf currently?

They'll have several suppliers as with most parts

Pretty good explaination of the differences between genuine/OE, OEM, aftermarket etc here... Definition of OE Original Equipment, OEM Original Equipment Manufacturer, Genuine, Aftermarket Parts :: epsparts.com - European Parts Specialists, Ltd.
OEM can be identical except for packaging and price (i've bought Lemforder suspension bits several times which had an MB part # cast into them but the MB star had been sanded off) and no doubt they can also be different in some cases, anti corrosion coatings on brake discs is maybe one example?

 

[E55BOF]

Very interesting, and thank you all for your inputs.

Hello from out in left field... I ended up going with none of the above! Hotrodder's second link in post #12 took me to

Spare Part 2304210712

(Berlin company with a UK presence online), and I've bought ATE discs (coated, alloyed/high-carbon) and Bosch pads. They both get good reviews on line in various forums, and (bonus) the Bosch pads come with the wear sensors already installed. With a 5% introductory discount, the grand total including delivery came to a fraction under £240.

 

[anfieldassasin]

They'll have several suppliers as with most parts

Pretty good explaination of the differences between genuine/OE, OEM, aftermarket etc here... Definition of OE Original Equipment, OEM Original Equipment Manufacturer, Genuine, Aftermarket Parts :: epsparts.com - European Parts Specialists, Ltd.
OEM can be identical except for packaging and price (i've bought Lemforder suspension bits several times which had an MB part # cast into them but the MB star had been sanded off) and no doubt they can also be different in some cases, anti corrosion coatings on brake discs is maybe one example?

Yeah just did a front suspension rebuild and my control arms from lemforder came with the Mercedes part number on them and the mb logo sanded off. The Mercedes front springs came with the MB number and markings in addition to a Sachs logo!