After I did an oil change on my wife's car, I get another warning light of an Exclamation mark and Car in the center.
What does this mean now?

Does it happen to mean that my back brake pads maybe me wearing out?

Thanks for everyone's help in advance.

 

That is correct.

 

No,

It means you are being chased by a 6 legged flying monster!!

DRIVE FASTER!



(Ok, it's rear brakes.. The warning sensor is a cable on the inboard passenger side rear pad..)

 

If under 36k miles or 3 yrs have the dealer do it for free. If not, keep an eye on the service next time. You are already in the negative for service due (it should still be fine, but it warns you as it counts down every time you start the car up).

 

Yes, as others have said...rear brakes are due.

Or overdue, perhaps. It counts down from ~6000 miles or so, a "negative" number means...get after it, sooner vs. later.

This is the first time you've seen this display? Curious.

 

At what point in the service can I remove the brake sensor from the brakes so that it will stop showing the wear and counting down? Once I am out of service warranty and doing brakes my self I see no need to have the service countdown and chance having to buy a sensor to get it to remove the warning. Its simple enough to look at pad thickness and replace as necessary.

 

Check the DIYs, it's easy to bypass the sensor. Personally, I like them.. And the often come with a decent set of pads.. (For free).

 

Once you get the new pads (and likely rotors) as well as the new sensor installed, you can go through the tach menu (kind of hidden, watch a youtube video on it) and reset the counter.

You need to install the sensor for it to see the change in resistance from the old to new, but you can zip tie it out of the way and not put it into the pad. IMO, for the $20 for the sensor and the hassle to rest it all I like having the sensor, but if you swap pads a lot or track the car a lot or actually check your brakes like 2% of the population, you should be fine.

 

when you get the cal' off and are removing the old pads you'll eventually pull the sensor out of the slot on the inner pad -- you'll see that it is just a plastic bit on the end of two wires - actually one wire that forms a loop in the sensor. Here's a GEN2 sensor that's been cut off and dissected


In order to 'bypass' the sensor you need to trick the computer into thinking a good sensor is present because "worn" happens when this loop of wire breaks as the plastic bit wears against the rotor. You can simply splice the two ends together, seal up the splice and then zip-tie the pigtail out of the way. I solder it and seal with heat shrink tube.


THEN you go thru the procedure to reset the computer warning and counter per normal procedures. You are still going to see the counter go down ... if it gets near zero just reset it again or ignore it. You are not going to get the final warning tho because your sensor will never wear ...

Here's a worn sensor in the pad - look carefully at you can see the two bright spots where the wire stubs are in the face of the sensor . .

 

coopercarly, replacing the rear pads is a pretty straightforward project if you'd like to try yourself. Take a look at our install instructions here at least to see what the process is.

If you'd like to shop for rear pads, we carry Genuine MINI as well as Textar & Akebono, details here.

Let us know what questions you have.
Mark/Pelican Parts

 

SoundMessage: Thanks for the direct answer.

danjreed: Funny, h a r - h a r. Thanks answering.

ljmattox: This (red car rear exclamation display light) never came up, only the word "BRAKE" stayed on, that's why I notice something wrong.

Also the ( amber service light of a amber car lifted) came on and I check the oil was dirty so I changed the oil and went to reset the service light and was going through the tach menu when I saw the (red car rear exclamation display light).

I remember the front brake pads was replaced once during warranty so they should be good. I had my dad check the back and front pads, and by looking at them, they look like there is still a lot of life on the back and front?

PelicanParts.com: Thank you for the info link.