[e90Jeet]

Hi,

Quick question on break pads warning. As the title says I own a 2011 335xi and there was a warning to replace rear break pads in April. I replaced the pads, rotors and censor myself (with my friend's help) and without doing anything warning light disappeared.

Now recently (a week ago, Wednesday) I took the car to indy shop to replace xenon light bulbs. All look good until second day, Thursday, when I was driving up to finger lakes, the warning for break pads started showing up again.

I visually checked the pads and they looked fine. What could be the cause here? something wrong with censor? why did it wait until now since I replaced pads etc to show warning?

Any help will be appreciated a lot. Car has ~62k miles if it matters

[matt@ZNMPerformance]

Originally Posted by e90Jeet

Hi,

Quick question on break pads warning. As the title says I own a 2011 335xi and there was a warning to replace rear break pads in April. I replaced the pads, rotors and censor myself (with my friend's help) and without doing anything warning light disappeared.

Now recently (a week ago, Wednesday) I took the car to indy shop to replace xenon light bulbs. All look good until second day, Thursday, when I was driving up to finger lakes, the warning for break pads started showing up again.

I visually checked the pads and they looked fine. What could be the cause here? something wrong with censor? why did it wait until now since I replaced pads etc to show warning?

Any help will be appreciated a lot. Car has ~62k miles if it matters

Check the CBS data and check to see if there is a mileage interval remaining for the rear brakes. If you are getting "---", check to make sure its properly connected at the pad and the connector.

Did you use an OEM sensor?

[e90Jeet]

Originally Posted by matt@ZNMPerformance

Check the CBS data and check to see if there is a mileage interval remaining for the rear brakes. If you are getting "---", check to make sure its properly connected at the pad and the connector.

Did you use an OEM sensor?

Thanks Matt. Yes I used OEM sensor.

And I looked at the data just now. Kind of confused though.

Inside the center screen it does show since 13000 miles.But the gauge cluster screen shows nothing wrong. It says 27,000 miles more to go (if my understanding is correct).

[ken335AZ]

That's not the right image that you would see for your brakes on the gauge cluster, keep scrolling through. You'll see the front half of the car with a circled exclamation for the front brakes and the rear half with circled exclamation for the rear.
Try this:
- Put key in ignition and keep foot off brake
- Turn ignition on and don't start
- if you have any warnings like tire pressure or service warnings press the button on the stalk on the left of the steering wheel to disregard them
- Now press and hold the trip reset button that sticks out of your guages until a new menu comes up
- now you can use the left stalk on your steering wheel to scroll through all your service counters and select the brakes that you replaced and press reset with the button on the stalk then press and hold to confirm.
This should reset your mileage/time counter and get rid of your warning.

[e90Jeet]

Originally Posted by ken335AZ

That's not the right image that you would see for your brakes on the gauge cluster, keep scrolling through. You'll see the front half of the car with a circled exclamation for the front brakes and the rear half with circled exclamation for the rear.
Try this:
- Put key in ignition and keep foot off brake
- Turn ignition on and don't start
- if you have any warnings like tire pressure or service warnings press the button on the stalk on the left of the steering wheel to disregard them
- Now press and hold the trip reset button that sticks out of your guages until a new menu comes up
- now you can use the left stalk on your steering wheel to scroll through all your service counters and select the brakes that you replaced and press reset with the button on the stalk then press and hold to confirm.
This should reset your mileage/time counter and get rid of your warning.

thanks ken335AZ,

You were right, I was looking at the wrong screen. I performed the steps you put out here. I could see the clock running to reset but reset didn't happen. It still says -13,000 miles. I tried multiple times no luck.

I read few other forums, seems like I will have to further diagnose this by replacing front sensor or remove rear sensor and install again or don't know what else.

it's frustrating why did it disappear automatically when I changed the pads, rotors and sensor couple of months back and reappear now

[ken335AZ]

Something could have tripped it, like if it wasn't secure on the pad and it got knocked loose a little. Unfortunately once the warning comes on it usually means you have to swap out the sensor again if it does not reset after multiple attempts and then driving around for several miles.

If you're going to replace the sensor, ensure your negative cable is disconnected before you start. Then replace and verify the sensor is on the pad nice before hooking your negative back up and then try to reset. I learned the hard way several years ago when doing the brakes and suspension all at once and I had my ignition on to play music while I worked. I tripped my rears and had to replace the sensor with the neg disconnected. Have always disconnected it anytime I'm going to be messing with the brakes just in case since then.