Mini R56 brake pad wear sensor woes

Published on 24 June 2023 at 18:05

This week I have mainly been driven mad by brake pad wear sensor issues, it has been a serious test of patience. The story goes that when I was messing about chasing down a brake warning light on the dash I had replaced a front sensor but not tied it up properly and the wire had rubbed on the tyre, destroying the new sensor. I replaced it but still had an error coming up on the dash. I had been hoodwinked by the fact that the same light is used to show that the handbrake is on but the abs warning only comes up with the ignition on. This meant I kept thinking I had fixed it as when I put the key in and let off the handbrake the light went out but as soon as I started the engine it would come back on again.

I had read on the interweb that it was not required to do any sort of reset when replacing the sensors, this is actually true but not the whole story. I also discovered that there are only two sensors -- one front nearside and one rear offside, which would explain why I couldn't find the other two.

The mini has a thing called CBS - condition based servicing, there is a menu that allows you to set when things like major services and oil changes have to happen, it also has a brake service, which can be set individually for front and rear. It turned out my front service was due 190 miles ago so there was no problem with the sensors, just a warning that they needed checking. Very annoying but also a bid feeling of relief that at last my light is now out.

The button presses needed to get at this are absolutely ridiculous with a combination of long and short presses on both the bc button and the clock reset button being required. I am going to get a proper diag box to make my life easier in the future.

 

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