Technical Brake pad warning light

[RUI]

I had my brake pad warning light come on last week the car has done 19,000 miles so I went and got a new set of pads to put in this weekend.

I got the car up on the ramp and took the wheels off had a quick look at the discs to see if they were OK (I have a new set of discs ready to go on when they are called for sitting in the garage) but they looked good with no lip or grooves. I had read that some people have needed discs and pads after the same sort of mileage.

The pads then came out only to find that they were only half worn...

It turns out that the wire for the brake wear sensor had a cut in it..so 5 mins later this was fixed and wrapped in some insulating tape and the car was put back together.

It looks like if these pads wear at the same rate as they have been I will get another 18,000 miles out of them! 37,000 miles between break pads is not bad.
I have now put the pads back on the shelf until they need changing.

 

[alexGS]

Nice heads-up there, thanks

Reminds me of pad sensor wires on my Alfa 164; the early versions had a fairly adventurous system where there was a loop embedded in the pad and the connection had two terminals. If the pad wore down and the loop was grounded against the disc, one warning light would come on, but if the pad continued to wear until the loop was worn through (or, more likely, one of the two wires came adrift) then three warning lights would come on...

As I recall my Tipo surprised me in that the pad wear wire was only attached on the right-front, and the 156 continues that approach. Half the chance of a false warning, I guess!

-Alex

 

[306maxi]

Those pads aren't even half worn!

 

[RUI]

Those pads aren't even half worn!

I bet if it went in to Fiat they would say that they needed replacing and that I needed new discs.

 

[ahmett]

I bet if it went in to Fiat they would say that they needed replacing and that I needed new discs.

Shows you how useless those sensors are mine were fully working when my pads were 100% worn!

 

[jrkitching]

Shows you how useless those sensors are mine were fully working when my pads were 100% worn!

Agree completely. If you're maintaining your own car, you'll have a pretty good idea of when the pads will need changing.

I'm seriously tempted to just put in a set of Panda pads when mine finally need replacing (they're cheaper but exactly the same, except they don't have a wear sensor).