Brake Pad Warning Light

redrob0108

Active Member
May 8, 2010
147
0
Hastings.East Sussex
Had warning light come on through the week handbook says low brake pads so went to my local garage and pads fine so am i right in thinking possible faulty sensor,found only one connection on front passenger wheel and seemed fine(connected) No fault codes on reader so how many sensors on lc and where,any help guys
 

adiohead

Active Member
Mar 24, 2005
296
0
england
www.zetecs.com
There's only that one sensor.

You can disable the warning light using vagcom, or you can just bridge the two pins inside the sensor with something metal (I used to use a picture hook until I got rid of it with vagcom).
 

Muttley

Catch that diesel!
Mar 17, 2006
4,987
31
North Kent
Brake fluid level indication is different to the brake pad wear indication:

Dash.png


19 is the handbrake on/brake fluid level warning
20 is the brake pad wear warning
18 is the ABS indicator/warning and
26 is the TCS/ESP indicator/warning.

19 lights up when the handbrake is engaged and also comes on if the brake/clutch fluid level drops too low.

20 lights up when the brake pad wear sensor strip gets worn through in the pads. This happens well before the pads are worn out, and is an indicator that you should arrange to get them changed as soon as you can. There is the minimum of friction material left on the pads, 2-3mm I think?

What did your local garage say about the pads? "Fine" covers a multitude of possibilities.
 

Muttley

Catch that diesel!
Mar 17, 2006
4,987
31
North Kent
If you can repair the broken wire then you will get the proper brake wear indication back i.e. the dash light will go out until the pads wear down :) Strip back the insulation, slide some heatshrink over the outer and also the wires you're going to join, solder the wires together, protect with heatshrink. The larger bit of heatshrink over the whole join will improve its rigidity and hopefully stop it breaking again.

The sensor cable should be clipped to the suspension to stop it getting worn, but a cable tie could be useful to secure it out of the way. Make sure there is no stress on the cable at full lock.
 

Muttley

Catch that diesel!
Mar 17, 2006
4,987
31
North Kent
To answer your original question, the wire connects directly to the brake pad, where the wear sensor is just a wire link embedded a few mm above the backplate. Here's what my new pads looked like:

Frontpadoblique.jpg


Frontpadedgeon.jpg


Frontpadbackplate.jpg


When the pads wear down to the wire link it gets worn through and the indicator on the dashboard lights up.
 

Gnollins

Bosh!
Jul 24, 2006
406
0
Yarnton, Oxfordshire
There's only that one sensor.

You can disable the warning light using vagcom, or you can just bridge the two pins inside the sensor with something metal (I used to use a picture hook until I got rid of it with vagcom).

Reviving this old thread. Had my front disks/pads changed yesterday and the wear indicator warning lit up on the dash this morning.

I can't be bothered to take it back to the garage. I have access to VagCom: can someone give me a guide on how to turn off the warning?

Cheers,

Mark
 

Gnollins

Bosh!
Jul 24, 2006
406
0
Yarnton, Oxfordshire
Reviving this old thread. Had my front disks/pads changed yesterday and the wear indicator warning lit up on the dash this morning.

I can't be bothered to take it back to the garage. I have access to VagCom: can someone give me a guide on how to turn off the warning?

Cheers,

Mark

OK, found it!

***********
Recode for warning lamps:


[Select]
[17 - Instruments]
[Recode - 07]

Write down the existing coding for future reference. It is shown in the top half of the main screen and will read something like "23412". The first two digits will need to be adjusted to disable the brake pad warning light.

Change the code by subtracting 01 from the first two digits. In this example, 23412 would become 22412

[Do It!]

The brake pad indicator should now be disabled.
***********
 

Bigjohn84

Intagram / johnyoung84
May 5, 2015
2,330
1
To answer your original question, the wire connects directly to the brake pad, where the wear sensor is just a wire link embedded a few mm above the backplate. Here's what my new pads looked like:

Frontpadoblique.jpg


Frontpadedgeon.jpg


Frontpadbackplate.jpg


When the pads wear down to the wire link it gets worn through and the indicator on the dashboard lights up.

How do u stop the light from coming on, I've just opened a new thread about it?
 

Bigjohn84

Intagram / johnyoung84
May 5, 2015
2,330
1
How do you bridge the connection in the plug? Cause I can't be arsed taking everything apart again?
 

Bigjohn84

Intagram / johnyoung84
May 5, 2015
2,330
1
There's only that one sensor.

You can disable the warning light using vagcom, or you can just bridge the two pins inside the sensor with something metal (I used to use a picture hook until I got rid of it with vagcom).

I want to bridge mine together what else can I use to do that?
 

Bigjohn84

Intagram / johnyoung84
May 5, 2015
2,330
1
Sorted it just now just cut the wire of the old pad and conected it to the car the spliced the wires together, done no more light on.
 

Muttley

Catch that diesel!
Mar 17, 2006
4,987
31
North Kent
That's what I was just about to say :) If the new pads don't have a wear sensor, keep the wire and plug from the old pad and solder the two ends together.
 
Progressive Parts, performance parts and tuning specialists