Looking at the threads I have not seen anyone with this yet. Today my brake pad warning light came on with only 5000 on the car. It went off when I shut down the car and restarted but came back later. I will take it in tommorow or the next day but I was wondering if anybody else has seen this?
HARD driving could wear out your front pads in 5,000 miles. The pads have holes drill ento the top and a wire sensor is inserted. When the pad wears down enough to expose the sensor, your rotors break through the protective covering on the sensor wires and close the circuit...which turns on your warning light. (Electronically, of course.)
Don't be surprised if the dealership says, "We always replace rotors when we replace pads." Unless you have a defective car, your rotors don't need to be replaced yet.
If you can take a wheel off your car, you can change your own pads and sensors. The sensors are $40 a piece...you can reuse them if they are still intact...in other words you probably only need to replace one or two...not all four.
With heavy track use (20 days or so in 8k miles) I am on my third fronts and second rears. The fronts wear out twice as fast. Basically a 2:1 ratio. The first fronts replaced at 4k or so. Rears and fronts just replaced.
So? You've driven the car hard? If not. Something is wrong.
When the light comes on you have plenty of pad to drive around NORMALLY without damaging anything for a while. But I wouldn't do a track day.
I would guess, unless you've driven the heck out of the car for 5k miles, there's probably something wrong with the circuit or one of the sensors.
I've got 20k miles (most on the highway) more than 15 autocrosses, five advanced group track days, and I still have about 75% of my stock pads left according to the the 20k mile service report I just had done this week.
Have the dealer check it out. If you
have
used up the pads in 5k miles, then you very well might need new rotors too, if you're driving style is that hard on the brakes.
brad
Same for me, 18k on the clock and lots of track days. Sounds like there's something wrong going on with your brakes.
G.
Do you have a tiptronic? I'm wondering, because if you do, is it also possible that you brake with your left foot, resting your foot on the brake pedal.
Maybe you have a faulty sensor. Are you sure the pads are worn. They are fairly easy to inspect for wear.
Could it be brake fluid level?
On my A4 I once had the brake light come on when my pads were somewhat used. It turns out that the brake fluid needed to compensate for the amount of pad used up brought the overall fluid level down to a point where it caused the light to come on.
Before you make an appointment, I'd check the fluid level.
This is incorrect. In fact, the opposite is true. The sensor is simply a wire loop inserted into the pad. When the pad wears down enough the rotor cuts through the loop breaking the circuit and lighting the warning light. It is a normally closed circuit.
