hi, my brake pad sensor light came on and control check message. I believe its my rear because when I go into check info and into reset services when I scroll through the services, like oil and so on I see that the rear brake icon is red and show like -7 miles. my front brake icon is yellow and does not have a negative miles. I reset them both but the rear one did not change and still shows -7. light and check control msg is still there. so I'm guessing the sensor is worn through on the rear. can I get to the rear wheel sensor without taking the wheel off and splice the ends together to bypass it? I looked at my pads just with a flashlight from the outside and they look ok. I'm not sure how the sensor went on. it looks like I have plenty of life left. perhaps the side of the pad I cant see is worn more where the sensor is?

 

How many miles on the mini? While the outside pad looks ok, the inside pad might not..

 

opps I forgot about the inside pad. guess I'll have to take the wheel off tomorrow. is the sensor connected to the inside pad? I guess mini assumes they would wear evenly. 59k miles, I bought it a few months ago at 57k.

 

If you do need new sensors check out OEM Bimmer Parts. They were the cheapest that I could find the brake sensors. I did mine about 2 weeks ago and had no problems. You will need to remove the inner wheel cover at the bottom for the front. Shipping is really fast!

http://www.oembimmerparts.com/category_s/2077.htm

 

If you tripped the sensor, you will not be able to reset it without installing a new sensor. With the new sensor you can try the splice trick to prevent future cases of it being tripped.

 

you can splice a worn sensor - you are cutting off the end anyway. Have done it for myself and several others. Once you tie the ends together the car sees a new/unused sensor.





a sensor 'trips' when the end gets worn down so far as to break a wire loop in the end. Look carefully at the below pic' and you can see the two shiney spots that are the wire ends remaining. Pic above is a GEN2 sensor dissected. The face seen below is facing down in the pic above.