rich07

Guys,my brake pad sensors were disconnected years ago on my gt, now all of a sudden I am getting 'service brake pads'??? Rather than remove each wheel how do I loop the circuit at the main fuse board??
Thanks rich 89gt

928autobahndreamer

I would love the answer to this. I have had the brake pad warning on my dash for years. I have tried connecting the cut ends of the wires of the sensor at each wheel with no solution to my dask warning. If there is a more central solution this may do the trick.

Ducman82

sounds like you have shoddy jumpers or wire splices. the connectors at the warning control box would have to be jumped as well. so either you bust out the box and follow the wires and go to town, or do the jumps in a way that wont come apart at the wheels. i have a simple wire with 2 spade terminals on each wheel/sensor area. no issues for years.

SeanR

Easiest way would be to pull the instrument cluster and located the two brown/black wires. One is on Plug 4, pin 9 and the other is on plug 3 pin 1. If you jumper those two together at the cluster you are taking all the sensors out of the loop and making the cluster think that there is not a break.

I would start at all 4 corners looking at the barrel connectors and seeing if any of them are toast and either fixing the issues there or just tying them together at each end

dr bob

There's always the option of restoring the wiring and installing the pad sensors. Then you'd only get the warnings when the pads wear out.

For those playing at home, the pad sensors fit in the backing plate of the pads in a keyed slot. The keyed slot is probably close to the correct size and shape right up to the point where it gets painted and has the friction material bonded to it. I make a point to use small files to open the slot back up so the sensor can be installed correctly, but more importantly it can be removed again when I change pads next time. So long as I clean the accumulated brake dust out of the slot with a small brush and some water, the old sensors come out easily for reuse. I can't see a reason for pulling the sensors and shorting the wires to disable the warnings. It can't be cost if you can so easily reuse the sensors.

depami

What are the sensors? Just a wire? Resistor wire? Or something else?

auzivision

Sensors are basically a wire that when rubbed create an open circuit.

Sean mentioned the "connector barrels". At least for the front there is a set on the spindle and another set under the hood on the fenders. These things have a tendency to break if you stare at them too long.

If would be interesting to take these out of the equation at the CE if possible. It should just be a matter of jumping/shorting the correct wires.

I've had this issue since purchase, which was about 10 years ago. Surprised the central warning light hasn't quit working, since it requires acknowledgment after every start.

Bill Ball

The warning system is a continuous loop of wire to all the wheels. Usually one of the sensors or wiring to that sensor has broken continuity and trips the warning. It can be hard to determine which one is the culprit if you work at the wheel sensors themselves (jacking up the car, removing the wheels, etc.). Fortunately, there are readily accessible junctions blocks for each wheel, as Sean and Kurt mentioned. You can open each junction block and test there for the continuity of each sensor. Note that these blocks include the wires for the ABS wheel speed sensors as well. The brake pad warning wires are always brown with a black stripe whereas the ABS wires are either brown or brown with a stripe other than black.

For the front wheels, the blocks are located in the engine compartment on the inner fender wall just aft of the shock tower top. The rear blocks are located in the spare tire/battery well under a black wire junction cover in front of the spare tire.

This is common to all models, but the wire routing through the CE panel and to the instrument cluster varies year-to-year. Sean noted the instrument cluster plug/pin assignments for 89+. Earlier cars route through the "black box" central informer and connections from that are obscure.

Anyway, you can pop open the individual junction blocks for each wheel at the more convenient locations noted. That should help you isolate which wheel/s is/are involved. Then you can take a look at the pads, sensor and junction block behind the brake caliper at that wheel. If you don't have time at the moment to get down and dirty at the wheels, you can insert a temporary jumper wire in the more proximal harness plug end at the more convenient junction blocks.. That should eliminate the warning until you have time to troubleshoot further unless the problem is upstream somewhere. It's almost always a wheel sensor or wheel sensor connection, so this process can be effective for the time being.

This picture shows the block on the right side front behind the shock tower. The black cover is popped open in the pic. As Kurt noted these blocks, plugs and wiring are often brittle, so be careful. The proximal brake pad warning wire plug in this pic had broken to bits and was replaced with a plug cut from a worn brake pad sensor. Hence the second sheath covering the splice. So, save one or two worn sensors when you replace them just in case you might need one of the plugs.

Leon Speed

Guilty

Tom in Austin

I connected the two wires behind the cluster the last time I had the pod off. Don't know about others, but I think anyone who doesn't know the condition of their brake pads shouldn't own any type of high-performance car ...

Bertrand Daoust

Totally agree.

depami

I know the condition of my pads:

If the car stops properly without pulling or abnormal noises, and the light isn’t on, the pads are fine.

When the light comes on, the pads should be checked as soon as possible.

One would almost think it was designed that way. Go figure.