Hello,

As the title states, just wondering if I remove the brake wear sensors completely (unplug) will the light stay on?

Or would it just be best to remove the sensors from the pads and zip tie them to something to prevent them from breaking to keep the light from coming on?

 

I believe the light will come on when the connection is "open". So if you unplug the sensor the light will stay on. You can either close the circuit or like you said, zip tie them.

 

if you pull it at the wheel you can be OK ..... just zip tie the sensor in a safe place

if you disconnect the sensor (so you can hold in your hand) then the system sees an open circuit just like the broken wire fault of the sensor .... aka BAD

 

The sensor is only smart enough to know if the circuit is complete, ie no light, or open, ie, a light. So you can even cut 90% of the sensor off, all but the plug, twist the two ends togeather, ziptie the end away...no light.

 

Thanks, figured as much that it needed to sense the circuit. Stupid brake sensors.... what ever happened with just looking at the pads?

Guess it is for people who just don't care enough to check their car over every now and then.

 

Is there some reason you felt it necessary to insult all the MINI owners/drivers who, for whatever reason, don't wrench on their own MINIs in a way to be able to visually check their brake pads on a regular basis?

But to answer the question, you can still just look at the pads to assess their condition.

 

Tried that, it doesn't work on an r56.

 

That is an insult how?
I worked in an Infiniti dealership, customers who care about their cars and are not mechanically inclined still have their vehicles regularly serviced, dealership or where ever. It's those customers that come in 6k miles overdue for an oil change and complaining about brakes grinding because they are metal to metal. If they got their car regularly serviced, even though they are not mechanically inclined, the techs would tell them the condition of the other parts.
I am just saying the sensors are for those type of people, to hopefully get them in a shop before everything gets too damaged due to laziness on maintenance. I personally will run mine metal to metal since the rotors are below specs already, might as well get all the life from them.

Here, I'll edit it just for you:

"Guess it is for people who just don't care enough to check, or have someone else check, their car over every now and then."

 

I'm surprised. You did try a brake service reset after you fitted the shorted cable?

The sensor is just a short when its whole, so shorting the plug really should work. I've been thinking of trying it myself.

 

I guess i should have mentioned gen1 too!!
Since the sensor is thw same basic thing in both gens, i wonder if there is an extra step on a gen2...it does give you a computer estimated countdown to needing brake pads too i believe ....sure somebody wil chime in!!

 

My pads were replaced with new ones at an independent shop. The computer countdown continued and told me a few weeks later that I needed brakes. The dealer reset it after trying to sell me new brakes.

Is this something that I could have reset myself?

 

It is definitely something you can do yourself. It takes about 2 minutes on an r56. It involves holding down the two buttons on your tach and seeing a cool 'light show' too If you do a search for r56 service reset I bet a how-to will show up. A first gen is slightly different but a similar process using the speedometer instead.

 

Yep reset it and taped it up so that it wouldn't fall apart and it didn't work.