Can someone look at these pictures and tell me whether the pads are actually worn down to 2mm or whether I have a loose/malfunctioning sensor. Thanks.
Actually, I believe the pad sensors will activate at something more than 2mm of pad remaining - you might be confusing the 2mm of wear on the rotors when the rotors need to be replaced.
It's a little difficult to tell from the angle of your pics, but I suspect that your pad is probably worn down to the sensor. It also looks like you have a pretty good lip on the rotor as well, so it may be nearing replacement too. How many miles do you have on them?
The "sensor" is just a wire that wears away when the pad gets thin (at least it was on my 993). When the wire is just starting to wear away, it's quite possible to get intermittent readings, e.g. the Brake Pad warning light comes on for a while, goes off for a while, etc. You're probably right at that point.
I'm on about 27000 miles of city driving on a 2006 Cayman S. Thanks for the evaluation. I'll get the pads changed
For some reason I can't see you pics, but guess they are without the wheel removed and only of the outer pad. If you see reasonable wear of the pads and the warning comes on intermittently then you need to probably change them because sometimes the inner pad could be more worn and if the rotor is OK lead to damaging it.
Porsche now says that some of the wear is due to two pistons sticking on BOTH front calipers and they want to replace the calipers! This sounds expensive
Yeah, hard to tell from that angle. You almost need to be directly on top to see the pads themselves.
I just did mine last week and here's how mine compared to the new ones. I have about 25K miles on mine.
Fronts
Rears
Hope this helps.
I wonder if you could make the argument that sticking calipers should be covered under warranty. They are not supposed to stick, and I can't think of any reason they could blame the sticking on you.
Comparison of pads before and after replacement
Those were interesting photos. Shows how much the front wears faster than the rears. Did you change your discs as well? The tech told me that Porsche recommends changing the disc with the pads because although the disc is typically within spec during the first pad change, it is typically out of spec by the second pad change. According to them, if you don't change the disc at the first pad change, then for some time you will be running out of spec before the second pad. Could be some bull, but I went for the disc change.
It only does 6,000 miles a year, but I have been bringing it back to the Porsche dealer for annual maintenance.
