E30 Zone

Coming back from brighton yesterday the break lining wear light came on.

Thats the one with the circle enclosed with 3 dashed lines on either side of the circle. Last night, I was showing the car off to the neighbour and he noticed a little plug hanging down near the rear wheel on the drivers side.

Now I had new discs and pads all checked not long ago, so I cant believe that they have worn down already... Now what I need to know is where this little plug goes into...I had a quick look last night, but it was getting dark

Any ideas?!!

Sounds like the plug for the rear disc pad wear indicator!
Take it back to who ever did the pads and discs and tell them to do the job properly.

Is that what this is?!

I can't find where it goes into..... any ideas guys!??!

Yep, there should be a sensor plugged into the one of the pads, and then plugged into this connector, looks like whoever did the job didn't bother fitting a new wear sensor...poor job!

ah, Cheers Simon, typical, something else that needs sorting, Ill call my mechanic on Tuesday and get him to sort it.

Thanks!

It fits into the little bracket just behind/below the shock absorber mounting bolt in your picture. Should be held by a little rubber strap, but a cable tie will do just as well.
The plug that plugs into it should be on two short wires emerging from the outer edge of the caliper, and the wires should be clipped into the clip on the dust cap for the caliper lower guide pin.
There's another similar arrangement on the front left brake assembly.
What I don't understand is why the light came on in the middle of a journey. If the car had been left as shown, the light would have been on from then.
Either way, your mechanic messed up on a simple job. Get him to sort it, at his own expense, and then start looking for a new mechanic.

The pagid fast road pads currently fitted to my car have no wear sensors attached...that may be the case here

The mechanic should have informed you of that fact (if it is so) but you would have had to supply a new sender

Brianmoooore wrote: What I don't understand is why the light came on in the middle of a journey. If the car had been left as shown, the light would have been on from then.
Either way, your mechanic messed up on a simple job. Get him to sort it, at his own expense, and then start looking for a new mechanic.

Judging by the job, he probably stuck a paper clip in there which fell out!

well...could it not have fallen out mid journey then!? come loose or something?! well either way he can sort it, not my problem he did a piss poor job...

thats just lame if u know it was them who left it in that state, then go round and have Ԛ´em mate, they deserve it!

and get a sensor from bmw, think they cost about a fiver so

Yeah I may just do that, does anyone have a part number? or somewhere I can lok one up?!

I am not suggesting that the mechanic did this, but using a simple piece of wire, the electrical circuit could have closed indicating everything was fine and over a journey, the wire simply fell out.

Again not suggesting anything, but if the mechanic forgot to put the sensor in and had put everything back together, he would probably thought un-doing everything would take too much time.

I have had my brake sensor light on for a couple of years now, ever since I forgot to put the sensor back! Despite taking the wheels off a number of times since, I just have not bothered with the sensor!

Wyldie wrote:Yeah I may just do that, does anyone have a part number? or somewhere I can lok one up?!

ECP and GSF sell them for a couple of quid.

How easy would they be to fit? just thinking of bypassing the monkey mechanic altogether now... something I could do!?

it's only a plug mate! plug it back in!

34 35 1 179 819 if youve got a 318is m8

Occasionally I check over cars for people that are thinking of buying them. Not just BMs, but all makes.
If I see something like a bypassed pad wear sensor, it suggests sloppy/cheapskate maintainence, which could well apply to the rest of any work done on the car as well, so I would be quite likely to advise my client to look elsewhere.