I have a light identical to the one shown below. There are no break pad wear sensors on my car as it is a May 2002 build. The pads have plenty of meat left on them, I checked all 4. Any ideas? Tried resetting the light with the ignition as advised but nothing happens. Even reset the ECU with the battery discharge trick, light comes back immediately. Brake fluid is OK

 

Pull the wheels off and check both sides of the rotors, all 8 pads. The light goes off when there is about 3mm left of pad, so, in theory, 30% of the pad remains. When you say "plenty of meat" it may look that way but there may not be as much as you think.

IIRC - The wear senors are on the front left and rear right and connect directly into the pad on the inside pad. I had the light go off on my car on a track day on the third of four sessions. I was still able to drive the last session. Even after that, the sensor was not broken and reusable. I had about 1mm left on the front pads at the end of the day.

 

I’ve checked every pad. there aren’t any sensors. i’m actually thinking i might have the wrong instrument cluster as some older ones had a traction control light where my pad light is

 

I was unaware that some didn't have the brake pad wear sensors; I thought all Gen1's had them.

If someone didn't replace the worn out sensor and your car is supposed to have them, the light would remain on until the sensor is installed. It doesn't have to be in the brake pad just tied up out of the way as to not get caught in the wheels and torn off. This happened to me one time. I did not push the sensor far enough into the pad and it vibrated out, got caught in the wheel spokes and was torn off which triggered the light.

Look for a connector that doesn't have something plugged into it.

If your car truly doesn't have them, the next thing I'd look for is the wheel speed sensor wires. The wires to those sometimes rub against things and if the circuit is broke; it can trigger warning lights. Though normally it's the brake pad, DSC and parking brake lights that all come one; known sometimes as the brake light trifecta.

 

The brake pad wear light is on on my car right now as well, even though I know my pads are fine. about 6 years ago I zip tied new sensor up to the wiring harness and didn't connect them to the pads. I think the sensor just shorted out over time. if I were you and your pads really are fine, I'd just replace the sensors and that should fix the problem. I bought mine off amazon, I think it was like $10 for 2 of them. you have one on the front left and one on the rear right.