DIY: Brakepad Wear Indicator removal for on track

Race pads often don't come with the cut out for the brakepad Wear Indicator Sensor.
Racers that do some work on their own cars don't need the sensors anywaz...They suck, and the small metal spring that keeps it in to place gets lost or broken all the time! So let remove em'!

If you follow this DIY you WON'T get a warnin' on the dash that your brakes need service...ever again!

excuse my Iphone picas

It takes 10 to 15 min each corner.

Tools needed:
- Very small screwdriver
- Cutting Pliers
- Shrink sleeves or some electrical tape.
- Soldering unit (Not really needed)

Remove your Wheels to get access.

Front: New carbon composite brakepad without BWIS cutout (Yes, that's short for: Brake Wear Indicator Sensor )
Background: stock pad.


BWIS's


These are the sensor wires you'll be removing from your system.


To get the cable out, Remove the BWIS from your pad by pulling on it. And follow the line to your Shock.



You can push the cable out of the 'clamp'.

Now find this box.


Open it.

Get the cable out of the second clamp.

And pop the White (White on my Euro spec car, It's the top one) connector out of the box.


Pull the connector apart and open the connector (THAT IS STILL ATTACHED TO THE CAR!), and remove the black clip with a flat head screwdriver.

Almost looks like I'm black on the pica, your gonna get dirty with brake dust!

Apply quite some force on the two silver looking points with a really small screwdriver. After applying force the internal connectors are somewhat bent and this enables you to pull out the two wires for the top.


These wires come out.

Out of focus and moved....I'm a natural! But this is how the wires look like.

Cut the connector ends and nice rubber thingies off, twist the two wires that you have now stripped, together and if you have some time solder 'em together.


Tape up the newly soldered wires or use some heat slink sleeves like i did.


Put your new creation back in the box, close it.


DONE!!

Yes you can do this the easy way, by putting a piece of wire in the connector. But this is nice and it can withstand track use, it's reliable.

Good Luck!

Junior -- you have some great DIY's and your effort is certainly appreciated ....
Thank You

... and as a sign of appreciation --- we (@ m3post) want to get you a gift certificate to a 'mastering the digital camera' class, ... near you --- it would only benefit us.


Thanks again

mastek wrote

Junior -- you have some great DIY's and your effort is certainly appreciated ....
Thank You

... and as a sign of appreciation --- we (@ m3post) want to get you a gift certificate to a 'mastering the digital camera' class, ... near you --- it would only benefit us.


Thanks again

Thank you guy's!

I'm on the West Coast Monday! KLM 601 AMS-LAX -> AA 162 LAX-LAS.
I'll take u up on that!

mastek wrote

... and as a sign of appreciation --- we (@ m3post) want to get you a gift certificate to a 'mastering the digital camera' class,

Yeah, should have saved the bandwidth and skip the pics .
Hey, what exactly trips those sensors? Didn't see any metal piece, and you supposedly need to replace them if tripped. Do you actually have to replace all that cable? Just curious.

elp_jc wrote

Yeah, should have saved the bandwidth and skip the pics .
Hey, what exactly trips those sensors? Didn't see any metal piece, and you supposedly need to replace them if tripped. Do you actually have to replace all that cable? Just curious.

If your brakepads wear and you get an service notification on your dash.
it's because one of these sensors is damaged/activated.


You need to replace the entire cable.

Or follow my DIY

Cheers

Thanks!!

I do not get it. Why can't we just remove the sensor from the pad and zip tie it somewhere on the strut? Maybe I need to see it to understand better.

1MORELAP wrote

I do not get it. Why can't we just remove the sensor from the pad and zip tie it somewhere on the strut? Maybe I need to see it to understand better.

That's all you need to do. This seems to be a great solution to a nonexistent problem.

elh0102 wrote

That's all you need to do. This seems to be a great solution to a nonexistent problem.

Ditto. Just make sure you keep the little metal clips in case you want to put the sensors back on.

thats what ive been doin. lets me easily pop it on for stock pads too.

My car has been counting down the kms to brake pad service...Does this remove this altogether or just remove another message saying pads need replacing?

No your car will still keep counting down to the next brake service. The wear sensors are really just for when your pads are so far worn that the wear sensor starts getting it's contact grounded out through the rotor. There's probably a DIY somewhere here to reset the brake service indicator.

Thanks VictorH.

I have researched the procedure for resetting the service intervals, available here:

Service reset DIY

However, for a successful brake wear/service interval reset you must replace the brake wear indicator assembly with a new one or you will get a warning saying the pads must be replaced, regardless of previous pad wear.

Does anyone know if the above procedure results in the same signal to the car as you would get when fitting a new brake wear indicator cable?

what if I have a CANBUS II reader. Can I select and delete the brake sensor light with it, if and when it appears? I'll have my sensors zip-tied off also when I get my BBK installed.

Is this method reversible?

good to know i just put in ds2500s this week and was wondering about the reset on my idrive for the sensor. as it turned out i needed to go in for something else to the dealership so they just reset my indicator. will do this mod next time though.

OzStriker wrote

Thanks VictorH.

I have researched the procedure for resetting the service intervals, available here:

Service reset DIY

However, for a successful brake wear/service interval reset you must replace the brake wear indicator assembly with a new one or you will get a warning saying the pads must be replaced, regardless of previous pad wear.

Does anyone know if the above procedure results in the same signal to the car as you would get when fitting a new brake wear indicator cable?

Anyone know the answer to this?

So if you tie the sensors for bbk you'll still get the count down??

C2VNY wrote

So if you tie the sensors for bbk you'll still get the count down??

to answer your question -> yes

i have tied down my brake sensors because i have a bbk installed. but i still get the count down despite the fact that the brake sensors are no longer connected to my brakes.

How to do the rear one? anyone?

zhouzitao wrote

How to do the rear one? anyone?

There might not even be wear sensors in the rear. They're not as critical to safety as the front brakes.

My A4 had wear sensors in the front, but not rear.

Drifty// wrote

There might not even be wear sensors in the rear. They're not as critical to safety as the front brakes.

My A4 had wear sensors in the front, but not rear.

We have one in the rear.