Technical What is this Warning Light?

[BarrieAvis]

I have a warning light that is NOT in the handbook. 2007 Ducato 130.

Solid Amber circle surrounded by a complete dashed amber circle. (Between the Fuel and temperature gauges).

The nearest thing I can find is Brake Pad Wear but that warning is a solid amber circle with just 3 dashes on each side, not a complete dashed outer circle.

Only the left front brake pads have a sensor wire but the front pads were changed recently and the rear pads have 5mm of pad left.

Interrogation of the fault log shows NO warnings!

Any ideas what it could be please?

Thanks,

Barrie

 

[FreeSpirit]

Hi Barrie
As you say their does not appear to be a warning light that corresponds to your description, all I can suggest is that it is associated with the brake system as on some vehicles one light does more than one fault but are associated to that system. (ABS light & low brake fluid level etc)
Attached is a Pic of all the warning lights & what they refer to for easy reference.
Cheers

 

[corcai]

Is it the automatic gearbox warning, you'd need an adapter cable to read gearbox as far as I can remember. Your van may not even be automatic... there is a known issue of phantom warning lights with ducato clusters there are plenty of providers offering repair services.. But if its the auto lamp on and yours Is not auto then black tape would be my fix ?

 

[BarrieAvis]

No mine is a MANUAL gearbox!

Oh hell!

But according to the Plc of all the warning lights that was provided by FreeSpirit, the Automatic Gearbox Warning is different to this. And the signal I am getting does not appear at all in FreeSpirit's list.
And there is no associated warning message.

And now, just to add to my misery, this morning I fitted new REAR brake pads. Now the warning lamp has changed to the Check Brake Shoes warning (amber ring with three amber dashes on each side and outside the ring) = plus message "Check Brake Pads".

But new brake pads were fitted less than 200km ago in Morocco.

CAN ANYONE PLEASE CONFIRM THAT ONLY THE LEFT FRONT CALIPER HAS A WORN PAD SENSOR WIRE EMBEDDED IN IT PLEASE?

 

[Crossingkeeper]

CAN ANYONE PLEASE CONFIRM THAT ONLY THE LEFT FRONT CALIPER HAS A WORN PAD SENSOR WIRE EMBEDDED IN IT PLEASE?

Hi Barry,

It's just rained heavily here and I'm not currently dressed for getting down on the ground but I've looked over the top of both tyres and there is an extra wire on the nearside only which I guess is for the wear sensor (my van is a 2010 X250 130 with 15" wheels)

I don't know how the wear sensor works; I've always assumed that the wire grounds to earth via the disc when the pad is sufficiently worn. You could perhaps check this function by disconnecting the sensor wire temporarily to see if this clears the fault light.

 

[Communicator]

Hi Barry,

On my x244 it is only the front LHS inner pad that has the embedded wear sensor wire. This is confirmed by eLearn. Easily disconnected at the wheel, but check that the wire is routed so that nothing rubs against it.

Many years ago, I had a pad wear alarm on a Talbot Express (Peugeot J5). A roadside check confirmed adequate pad thickness. Subsequent pad removal revealed that the wire was not correctly inserted into the pad, with part of the insulated connection being closer to the pad surface, than the intended sensing section. The pads were the makers originals.

 

[BarrieAvis]

Thanks. Yes there is a wire just on the inside front left pad.

There is plenty of pad wear left (they are almost new - well under 2000km. Goodness knows where the pads came from - they were fitted in Morocco. We were south of the Atlas Mountains and on the edge of the Sahara - so well out in the wilds. As beggars we could not be choosers so were just relieved to get some reliable brakes for the return back over the Atlas Mountains. (That's another story - the roads were so terrible the vibration caused a fine split in the outer plastic casing of the fuel filter so we end up with diesel sprayed around the engine compartment - very lucky not to have a fire!)

Disconnecting the wire, gets rid of the warning.

Measuring the resistance from the sensor wire to ground shows it is shorted to ground. There is no sign of wear or anything so I can only assume it must be faulty manufacture when the wire was embedded in the brake pad.

I have therefore cut the wire and taped it up.

I think it has also got rid of the unidentifiable warning light about which I started this thread - but will need a run to confirm that. (Maybe at that time there was a connection to ground but of a higher resistance - who knows? It had been going on ever since the new pads were fitted. Not knowing there was only one sensor I had wondered if it might mean rear pads were worn so I stripped the rear brakes down. There was still 5mm of pad left but since new pads were only 28 Euros it seemed false economy not to change them. I also checked the handbrake shoes - they still had 4mm so I left them alone.)

Thanks to everyone for your help.

Barrie