That light was a real pain in the ass, even with both sensors changed on my bmw it was still on. Comp. Diagnostic said that there’s no break related issues, my break pads were also in good condition. So after watching this I just did what I had to do myself and the light went off. I didn’t touch the front sensor, only the rear one. That’s all, I’ll check my break pads every once in a while and forget about the damn (!) light. Thank you!
Wtf are people talking about? You can literally see the pad and rotor by standing in front of the wheel. You don't need to jack it up or anything. Literally bend down and look at if it has good pad life. You can even feel the rotor to see if it has grooves. Takes literally zero mechanical knowledge. So for people saying it isn't safe and the sensor is necessary....what's even less safe is being so clueless about your car that you can't even bring yourself once a month to stop in front of each wheel and spend 10 seconds to look at your brakes. Who knows, you may find a nail in your tire you were unware of in the process. Mind boggling how dependent people are on technology! Even more mind boggling how they try to pass being dependent off as the "intelligent" thing to do! For those that aren't aware about BMW's, they are known to have an issue with the brake sensor (imagine that, a BMW with electrical glitches) . Even if you buy brand new factory sensors they don't always work. So then you are stuck with a car that claims it needs brakes via the warning on the dash, that indeed does NOT need brakes. There are literally tons of pages of people complaining about not being able to reset the low brake pad light even with brand new factory sensors...So this guy is showing you how to bypass this. So many a$$hurt people that have to come on here and whine about how they are offended. Thanks for the video Mark.
For those who might not be aware, when the brake pad light on your dash is orange, you can apparently reset it through the in car menus. I've been told the pad wear light turns red, and when it does then you need to have BMW themselves reset the light
FYI, for some models, there are two sensors not one, front left and rear right. and you have to wait 15 seconds with the (key on engine off) to turn off the lamp after hacking the sensor
This looks like a lot of work, I found that if you cut a tiny piece of electrical tap and put it on the dash over the warning light it will make disappear the problem
100% worked on my 2001 E39 530d rear sensor was brand new but still had the dreaded light ( ! ) so i cut the front sensor out and did as described and reset the light using the brake pedal method and the lights gone!! cheers!
Turn the key to 'on' but do not start the car,press the brake pedal till the brake warning light (!) goes off or Turn the key to 'on' but do not start the car the light will reset itself in about 45 seconds without pressing the brake pedal
I can confirm this wonderful video has worked for me. I have a BMW E60 2004. Front left brake wear sensor was bad. I cut the wire like in this video and twisted them together. If you don't have heat shrink just use the good old black electrical tape. Worked perfectly. All you gotta do then is go back into the car and reset the brake pads warning light. There are tons of videos on how to do this on RU-vid for BMW. Thank you to the poster for this saving me some cash for a new brake wear sensor and who knows even if I bought the brake wear sensor will that even solve the problem.
Yes, quite right - the indicator is actually redundant - you check easily the condition of pads as you change tyres, typically twice a year. Cheers from Finland! Thank you.
Don’t understand why these nerds are complaining about a great vid, why would you want to pay for something that’s completely pointless & isn’t even accurate. JUST LOOK AT YOUR BRAKE PADS
great video... when one gets fed up of BMW electrical faults... just cut the dam thing and join the wires... some garages.. no need to mention, will charge you for their services to rectify this fault. good on you mate for making this video. just ensure you check your brake pads on a regular intervals
It will come on anyway because the computer will calculate how many miles it could drive with new pads. The computer will notice when you disconnect the sensor and start counting up again like to 25k and give you a warning anyway. It even sets a code if you don’t open the circuit ones. And you can’t reset the brake wear if the circuit wasn’t open.
I still have light on after doing this I’m glad it worked for so many others. I had no lights before I changed all 4 wheel bearings. Now I have traction control light flat tire indicator and brake light very frustrating
My wheels have bigger tires in back and they are directional I’ve changed the brake pressure switches, I purchased new traction control monitor, still the same, what else could it possibly be? I will figure it eventually but I’ll always listen to others do to correct
I’d like to buy a vowel, I’ve been thinking about what to check car drives normally at 120 in 4 th it’s 6 speed cold air intake m3. Haven’t had time too much going on lately. You have any suggestions for me?
My light came on, after my front pads wore far enough. My theory is that the sensor gets worn into, cutting the connection. Following your video, fixed my light, after installing the new pads. The real fix, however, is to buy a new sensor. They're fairly cheap, on Rockauto; around $5 I'm okay with this fix, but whenever I need more parts, I'll just throw the sensor, in my shopping cart. Thank you for the helpful video though. I hate seeing the light
That ish is coming off tomorrow. many thanks ...Effing annoying when an bought new pads only for garage to tell me my rear brakes are fine. wished i had seen this
A lot of those sensors go off when you have like 25% left on the pads left.Cars rotors now have aprox 2mm over minimum thickness new. So you cant really turn the rotors with out being at min thickness or under when your done. So its pads and rotors. Every time I pad slapped ( just putting pads in ) there is allways a problem, squeeking, shuddering or pulling to one side. So my advice use them to metal to metal and get pads and rotors.
Yo dude I did this on my 116 f21 , reset the dash warning and yeah it works, just wrapped the wires with some tape instead of the heat shrink thanks from Ireland
I own a bmw x5 e70, while playing around with the carly obd I tried to reset the brake pad sensor . I had not been getting any error and brake pads are fine. My intention of doing the reset was to try and increase the time before the warning shows up. Anyways long story short as soon as I tried to reset it, the brake pad error started to flash. It says replace brake pads as they are worn out. I took it to the bmw service station and they told me that the brake pads are fine but there is no way to get rid of the error. I will need to replace the brake pads and sensor if I want the error to go. Or I can continue to drive it with the error message. The message comes on everytime I start the car and it bothers me. Would the fix that you showed work in my case.?
The alarm goes off when the circuit is broken (the brake disk wears the sensor and breaks the circuit) , not when the wires touch the rotor. If the circuit is bridged back again then the alarm can be resseted.
I have BMW 320i 2012 and brakes and disks have been replaced with BMW genuine parts and i tried this for both front and back sensors and even did software reset still the red light is on pls help
I have paid $100 twice just for them to do a test and tell me its a software issue -.-, but thanks for video it has helped alot of people and i will do same after its fixed and not keep buying the sensors
Okay if I'll do this, will my screen shows brake pads are worn to the minimum thickness. Have the pads replaced by the nearest BMW center? Or it will not after I reset it again??? Because my sensors was good but I reset it twice after 1st change pads and now it doesn't reset and says: front or rear brake pads service due soon??
I can't believe I sat 5 minutes watching this video on African technology for a BMW brake light warning sensor. Well it's true you don't need the light to tell you when to replace your brake pads, the sound of grinding metal will tell you that it's too late and you should have done it miles ago. Hey while we're at it why don't we just splice the wires for the SRS system and the seatbelts you can short it out so it doesn't keep being if you don't have yours on...... it's all about safety.
Pit Bull Lover If your a car guy , you will be inspecting your brake pads as you work on your car. If your a guy that can’t even change his tire , then leave the sensor on. Check your brakes every now and then , common sense.
@@reza_dc2 well dude if you know prople that drive and own BMW's , not all of them are tech-savvy and they do just rely on an idiot light. So when you cross /cut your wires just to shut off a light what does that do for the safety of everybody else driving around them? I'm just saying you know the lights there for a reason. I guess when you think about it if we took off all the things that we don't need on a BMW hey maybe we could have saved a few thousand dollars and bought a base model T. so I guess the bottom line here is instead of correcting the problem to see what's doing what we use our African technology, I didn't want to say Mickey mouse knowledge because that's a Disney registered trademark.
Pit Bull Lover I hear ya , It’s good for people like me that plan on keeping the car for long term. I did my brake and rotors yesterday and the connector for the sensor broke , the white plug connector. So if it gives me a problem , I’m going to do this trick to remove the light. Definitely not the best idea if non-car people plan to use the car. People hardly even check Their own oil and water levels these days.
It still gives an 'Idiot' warning every 15000 so if you dont get it checked then your own hard luck if the brakes go... Its not hard to see whats on the pads through the wheel unless your a dunce...
@@barisbzirra8883 No, I think the two wires are connected together in the sensor and separate when the pads becomes worn. So you are just tricking it into thinking the pads are full
Hello Carquestion i have a 1990 Bmw 535i and is been almost over 3 months i get this messages (1 brake light + and F/ fog light ) i checked the fuse no 1 is good i even changed the brake light switch ,the messages still on on the instrument cluster everytime i turn the key on the ignition the brake light comes on and stay on.
Going to try this tomorrow as I’ve changed these front and rear and it still won’t go off!! But...you mention the light still comes on on mileage!? What does this mean. Will I never be able to get rid of it because my car has done a certain number of miles? (99k) regardless if I have brand new pads and discs?
when you do a reset of the breaks on odometer it will reset it for 15000 KM and it will start counting down once it reaches 1000 km the warning will come back , this will happen in both scenarios with the sensor or without.
I guess this doesn't work for all models and years? I clipped mine and capped it but now my light is on nonstop. Gonna have to buy a replacement sensor now. Good thing they're cheap or I wouldn't have attempted it.
Sir, i owned a 2007 320i with 140K on it. Suddenly my car started to jerking/kicking while in D position When i'm at a corner and pressed the brake in the car is jerking/kicking. I've also noticed that the gears P,R,N,D indicator on the dash jumps on and off. Do you have a solution for this issue?
I have a 2008 128i and will definitely try this - no one has demos on how to replace damn thing anyway. Now if I could only find the instruction set for the new rotors lol.
Does not work on two-stage sensor, F22/F30 chassis. What is the solution on F22? New sensor x2 doesn’t work. Short method doesn’t work. Cannot reset CBS pad thickness either.
2003 525i BMW 140,000 miles. The brake sensor light and warning triangle continue to come on after having new brakes and pads. Was told sensors were fine. Soon the ABS brake light started lighting along with the brake sensor. Told the module was the likely problem. After searching found a used module and had it completely checked out by a company in Colorado with a 5 year guarantee. Received and had the module installed. ABS red warning is gone but the yellow brake sensor and warning triangle problem continues. Told the brake light sensors could be the problem. Had the brake light sensors replaced. Problem continued. Light goes off each time with ignition and takes about 5 to ten minutes of driving before the yellow brake light returns. At least the ABS red warning light no longer comes on. Recently called BMW. They told me to replace/ flush brake fluid. Had the brake fluid flushed and replace. The yellow brake light sensor and warning triangle continues to come on after a short drive. Looking for solutions.
Don - Stop going to mechanics - you are paying them to fix it not TRY and fix it. It's obvious that this problem is turning into a money pit - try the solution and let me know if it works. Cheers from Canada!
the newer bmw sensor is a scam, the sensor circuit gets tripped after around 2000km then it starts counting down the km and when it reaches 0 the warning light will come on regardless of how much brake pads you actually have left
I have an aftermarket big brake kit, and my sensor doesn't reach!! should I cut it? Also, is this process reversable ? lets say I wanna sell the car, and the buyer starts asking why is there a brake light on the dash?
Dumb people do dumb stuff. Instead of getting new pads for 30 40 bucks... that ass is cutting the cables... and people thumbing up like hes einstein... amazing.
@Omar Hayes Literally a $10 fix. Unplug and replace cable. Buy the part from FCP, turner, ECS, RockAuto you name it... $10 part per side. Just as much work to cut the wire.
@Omar Hayes stop listening to the dam dealer 😒 and start listening to your wallet look man this car is like a really big toy 😳 alot of plastic parts but most things on the whole car are simple plug and play plugs 🔌 😑 and they would charge you 600 to take off a tire and unplug and unhook a couple plastic holdings.....thats why I became a mechanic 🔧
Can I splice the wires before the “ white connector “ ? My connector with the release tab became so brittle, it shattered when trying to disconnect the two..
@UCn1--EVqoVU99lvVSHAfbSQ My car BMW X6 E71 2008 has the same problem and red message for rear and back brake pad worn for rear and back pads.Trying different soft and way in many well know garages. It can fix in this way the red light on BMW X6 E71?
Because that would literally do nothing to solve the problem of having the warning light on despite good pads. You have to join the two wires in order to complete the circuit and "fool" the sensor wire into thinking it is making contact with pads.
I never comment on RU-vid videos but I could not resist. Let me start off by saying that German auto engineering is similar to Apple in the tech world. They aim to design user friendly products for lazy people. The majority of BMW owners, especially original owners have no interest in working on their own vehicles. They buy a luxury vehicle because the extra features appeal to them. This video was created to share the owners experience and knowledge. If you are watching then you went down the rabbit hole of RU-vid and found this video. This implies one of two things... 1. You have the same issue and want the light or message fixed and could care less about the annoying feature that hitlers grandchildren created. 2. You want the issue fixed properly but was quoted a ridiculous price to repair and want to do some research before paying out the ass. BMW does not design vehicles with mechanics in mind, more so the driver. More than likely he owns the vehicle and is not making obnoxious monthly payments on a car that is 25% of his income. Everyone siding with the argument that it is a safety feature is correct but it is not a safety feature required by law. Those comments are hypocritical because whether the sensor is manually fixed or you continue to drive that way your result will be the same. Either it’s always on or it’s never on and that doesn’t tell you the condition of your brake pads. Chock your vehicle, jack up the car and remove the tire is how you check the pads. It takes 5 minutes people, your stock portfolio will still be there tomorrow. If reading this has lit a fire inside you then I achieved what I set out to do. Convince some people to try “adulting” and not consider DIY work beneath them. Sincerely, -Adam
BMW:s are still 20 years ahead of American cars, and the engineers of modern American cars are the grandchildren of people who bombed 100 000 unaware Japanese civilians with the first nukes, if you wanted to go down that road.
Sale them BMW's... I babied my 7 series and the first issue was a huge money bag. 2nd issue was a huge money bag! 3rd issue was not as huge, but it has been breaking consistently since. I started to think the BMW was jealous of the other cars I own so it was out to get me. Sale them BMW's!
i did just that, but after i try resetting the error on the dash, holding the odometer peg and getting to the brake option, i hold to confirm reset, it blanks then returns to -9000. the error remains on the dash, i cant get rid of the stupid message, i have a 2004 525i, if anyone can please guide me id really appreciate it
@@jrtoner638 did you figure it out? I just did both of mine (1988 325i) and the light still coming on. I read somewhere that it comes on via senor or MILES. If I rigged the sensor, how would I reset the miles portion?
The problem is not having to replace the sensor but that it says the pads are worn out when there is still like 20,000 left on them. My sensor in my 335i was tripped well over a year ago and I still have plenty of pad left.
If they are "finished", your ears will warn you. But as regular maintenance, you should inspect them every time you change a tire. And even easier, you can see the brake pad edges when you look thru your wheel slots to view the remaining thickness periodically.
