Brake Pad Service Indicator
 

My service indicator says I have 330 miles until I will require front brake pad service. I checked the pads and I have about 7mm of thickness remaining. I only have 43,000 miles on the car and I typically get about 100k until I need brake pad service. I can't find anything in the owner's manual that describes this service. I don't know what type of sensor is on the car that would allow the computer to determine when service will be required. I thought there was a "trip wire" in the pads that would illuminate the BRAKE light when broken. However, according to this, it looks like there may be a sensor on the caliper that measures actual piston extension rather than the typical "trip wire" in-the-pad type of sensor: http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/show...diagId=34_2382

Perhaps my sensor is out of calibration. I tried resetting the service reminder. Although it says, "Reset Possible", when I try to reset it, it says, "Resetting", but then says "Reset Unsuccessful" after it gets to 100%.

Any ideas? Thanks.

So I woke up thinking that I need to check the inner pads too so I pulled the wheels. The inner pads are down to the wear indicators (about 3mm) while the outer pads have about 7mm. It's like that on both front brakes, so I think the front calipers must be dragging on the slides. All four pads on the rear are about 7mm.

Funny, I should have looked here first, and I'll post the picture, but see the post I made here in the CM section related to my wifes CM, I have a 17 Clubman.

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...nts-cheap.html

Does it look like this.. happened with my 17 Clubman. Both around 30 to 35k, inner pad on the passenger side only, rest of the pads all have plenty left.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.nor...8f35dd3858.png

Yes! But my inner pad isn’t quite that thin yet. Since there is only one sensor for the front and one for the back, I assume your photo is of the side w/o the sensor or it never would have gotten that low. Before I posted I did a pretty extensive search and couldn’t find anything. I thought that was strange since car problems are seldom unique. I have since found several posts on BMW forums discussing the problem. There is obviously a manufacturing defect with the front calipers. I hope that Mini has corrected the problem and modified the design so I don’t have this again. Thanks for posting!

Yep, passenger side, sensor is on the drivers side. Time to go troll (not literally) the BMW forums to see what they found out.

Did you replace the caliper, and did that correct the problem? Also, did Mini foot the the bill under warranty?

Nope.

See my post here
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ml#post4476786

The dealer tried, I was there, both the Shop foreman for Mini and BMW reached out to corp, and they came back with BS intended wear. I'm going public, Twitter is not their friend...