Early brake pad wear warning

[relative4]

6 months ago I bought my wife an '02 A4 1.8T quattro. When I bought it, the brake pads looked almost new. A "replacement needed" note I found suggested they were replaced during the trade-in and resale process. 5000 miles later, the brake pad warning light has come on. The outer pads look pretty medium, like 6mm just eyeballing. I haven't yet pulled the wheels to inspect inner pads, sensor wiring, etc. Any words of wisdom re common problems before I get in there? Thanks!

Also, if it turns out I have prematurely worn inner pads due to poorly greased caliper pins, or my eyeballing is totally off and the pads really are old, or I end up replacing them for whatever reason, any recommendations on replacement pads? This is just a commuter car, no plans to throw a 2.7T in it, autocross it, or see much WOT.

[jacobsen]

The rotors calipers and pads are small. Simply put it's a heavy car with the brakes of a lighter car. Most of us here have had our car and done a brake job ourselves have upgraded to the B7 S4 brakes. With stainless steel lines this is a bullet proof setup and the breaking is much more durable. Your brakes should last a couple of years so yes you either stopped really fast and that car at some point and cooked the pads and fluid or the caliper is are old and sticking. The inner pads always wear more than the outer pads. If I were you I would go to rockauto.com and order a set of B7 S4 Centric rotors, calipers, pads and stainless steel lines. Then go to eBay and get a couple of bottles motul RBF 660, it's 10 bucks a bottle but it has the highest temperature of any non silicone brake fluid.

I would get Centric drilled rotors or non drilled it's up to you. The drilled get rid of brake gases and water better.

The calipers will be about the same price or even less as in my case then the stock calipers.

For the pads I I've been running the power stop carbon fiber pads for the past year. These are the best brake pads I've ever had, they don't cover your wheels in black carbon. The stopping power is excellent and the wear is also excellent.

The stainless steel lines are power stop and there is cheap as you'll find them.

All of this you'll find in the drop-down menus on RockAuto under the B7 S4. The motul brake fluid you'll have to find on eBay. Lubricate everything with Permatex purple ceramic brake Grease. It lasts forever. Even on a stock setup with no planned mods it's a really good idea to upgrade your brakes. They're inadequate

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[jacobsen]

You should also get a schwaben power bleeder. It attaches to the top of your brake reservoir and forces the fluid through the lines without having to pump the brake pedal. Brake pedal bleeding can cause wear and tear and failure of the master cylinder seal which normally doesn't get pushed in as far when there is fluid pressure in the system. It's a good way to wear out your master cylinder seal. You might also get a bushing kit for the calipers. They're fairly cheap about 8 bucks. Also you have to remember if you need to cycle the ABS pump when you do the bleeding. It being winter time you can bleed the brakes until you get the air out and then find a slippery Road and stop fast on it a bunch of times to cycle the air and old fluid out of the pump. You'll notice better braking if you do it.
But you have to rebleed after you cycle the ABS pump. Ticket the remainder of the old fluid and air out.
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[Charles.waite]

Pads *could* be worn, but its more likely the wear sensor failed, if they really are new.

If you need replacements, I would look into Akebono Euro Ceramics or Posi-Quiet Ceramics. Both will be super low dust (which is nice on a DD) and even after 3 months on my old b6, the wheels were barely dusty at all. Stopping power was same as stock, though they required a tad more pedal effort since they don't bite nearly as hard.

Just put some Akebonos on the wife's Q5 and she likes them. The best part is the wheels are squeaky clean after 2k miles of city and highway driving. I'm going back and forth between Akebonos and Posi-Quiet Ceramics for my b7 though. The Posi-Quiets win on price, but I have hands on experience with the akebonos...

[audi-owner]

the infamous brake pad warning light....

just went thru this exercise of an intermittent break pad warning light.

the FRONT pads have a wire attached to them that BREAKS when the pads get worn to a certain point causing the brake pad warning light to turn on.

the sensor is on the INSIDE pad only.

yes, you SHOULD do a quick visual check of the inside pad thickness to confirm that it is O.K.
If the inside pad is damaged or severely worn, disregard the remainder of this post.


However, I suspect that the pad warning light is due to a break in the wiring harness.

The sensor warning light harness is combined with the front ABS sensor.

If you have a multimeter, you can check the continuity of the sensor portion of this harness easily.

If you look inside the wheel well, where the sensor enters the wheel well there is a rubber grommet.

pull that grommet and gently start to remove the wire from the opening.

after about 2 inches of the wire are removed, there should be a connector.

It should be a 5 pin connector.

I think Pin 1 and Pin 2 of that connector go to the brake pad.

disconnect the wire between the brake pad and the harness.

check continuity between pin 1 and the connector to the brake pad

check continuity between pin 2 and the connector to the brake pad.

there should be continuity between pin 1 and ONLY 1 of the pins for the brake pad connector
there should be continuity between pin 2 and ONLLY 1 of the pins for the brake pad connector.

perform this test for BOTH left & right front harness.

If you need to replace this portion of the harness, do a search for "2002 audi Quattro abs sensor".
this cable replaces BOTH the abs sensor and the wiring harness to the brake pad.

make sure you get the replacement with the correct 5-pin connector.

[Chemmie]

If you'd like to eliminate the pad warning light and simply check the thickness periodically like any other normal car, follow this: http://www.audizine.com/forum/showth...irect-solution

I just did it on mine and it worked great. Grounds the sensor harness at the source- no messing with the wiring on the outside of the car.

[MacFady]

Before you do anything and potentially needlessly waste a bunch of time delving into a broken sensors and/or wires, new pads etc., try just topping off your fluid. About 4 times in the last 5-6 years I've had a "brake pad" light come on, each and every time it was resolved by adding a miniscule amount (couple ml's) of brake fluid to the reservoir. Give it a try even if it looks to be at a normal level, just add a little more. Just my experience.