Brake pad warning light

[doublem_1]

I have a 52 reg A3 TDI quattro. The brake pad warning light is on. From a quick look neither the fronts or rear look that low. Whats the best way to diagnose which pads need replacing, or could it be a problem with the sensor?

[NickPicks]

The warning light should only be on the front pads.

By a quick look, do you mean glancing through the spokes of the wheel? This won't tell you how much is left of the inner pad, which is the one with the indicator.

The easiest way to tell is to whip the wheel off, and look at the pads from the edge of the brake disk. That should tell you how much is left of each one.

If none of them look very thin, then you may have a break in the wire. The sensor is jsut a small loop of wire in one pad - when it wears on the disk, is breaks, so the circuit is open, which sets off the pad warning light.

Changing the front ones took me about 40 minutes on my front drive the other day.

[doublem_1]

The warning light should only be on the front pads.

By a quick look, do you mean glancing through the spokes of the wheel? This won't tell you how much is left of the inner pad, which is the one with the indicator.

The easiest way to tell is to whip the wheel off, and look at the pads from the edge of the brake disk. That should tell you how much is left of each one.

If none of them look very thin, then you may have a break in the wire. The sensor is jsut a small loop of wire in one pad - when it wears on the disk, is breaks, so the circuit is open, which sets off the pad warning light.

Changing the front ones took me about 40 minutes on my front drive the other day.

Brilliant, thanks for the help. I shall have a looksie tomorrow.

Oh, by the way, how can you tell if it needs new discs? Or will it be ok to put new pads on the current ones.

[NickPicks]

Unless the discs are particularly lipped, or have grooves around them, or are very thin, I'd put new pads on old discs.