W205 C63 - is there a brake sensor warning light?

[Iggu]

The sensor trips when there's a few mm left so even with uneven wear it's very rare not to trip the sensor before the pads are unsafe.

Yeah. There seems to be a lot of unnecessary anxiety over these sensors! The car is designed to alert you, with a light, when the pads need changing. If there was a major risk of the car crashing by only having one sensor then (because the sensors cost less than a pint of lager) Mercedes’ would eliminate that risk by putting two sensors on there.
Much ado about nothing here.

 

[Petrol Pete]

The wear pad sensors on SWMBO Zafira are bits of bent metal welded to the pad , when the pads are worn down enough the bit of metal touches the rotating disc and makes a 'singing' noise that is impossible to ignore.

The only way to fool them or 'bridge' them out would be to cut them off the new pads when installing !

 

[ToeKnee]

The wear pad sensors on SWMBO Zafira are bits of bent metal welded to the pad , when the pads are worn down enough the bit of metal touches the rotating disc and makes a 'singing' noise that is impossible to ignore.

The only way to fool them or 'bridge' them out would be to cut them off the new pads when installing !

Strangely the same is on my insignia brakes and they are telling me it's time to change them, I'll do them tomorrow and a service too while it's on the ramp.

 

[aden]

Relying on the wear indicator illuminating is not without risk.
It only monitors one pad across the rear axle instead of all four pads. You have to hope the three other pads don’t wear out before the one with the sensor.
It could mean the difference between new pads, or new discs and pads.

If that's the case, then it's worse than useless!!

 

[Jamsxr]

I’m mechanically inept, but nonetheless, when my bikes suffered from brake squeal, a little bit of copper grease behind the pads would do the trick.

 

[BJC]

Just an update as my car is in for a service right now (nearly three years old at just under 19k miles).

The front brakes are fine and the rear pads are at 60% wear, so nothing for me to worry about. I'm not sure why the same dealership said last year I'd need to change the pads in the near future, which is why I started this thread in the first place. A few issues did crop up though:

1. One of the rear wheel plastic liners has come free and rubbing the rear tire (£201 to replace the plastic liner)
2. The inner edge of the front tyres are both shot and need replacing (the passenger side is horrific)
3. The driver side front spring joint has excessive play and it's been advised I get that replaced (£750)

The condition of the front tyres has caught me off guard - I check the tyre treads when cleaning the car, but clearly, I'm not doing it well enough or need longer arms. It's both embarrassing and dangerous - I'd be the first to flag it to somebody else - but the main thing is nothing untoward happened and it is getting rectified. Moving forwards I'll be checking those more on the inner edge (lesson learnt).

The spring joint is hopefully getting done under warranty, regardless, I'd be getting it done anyway.

Next up is a decent 1,200 trip to France, that I can't wait for!

 

[Jobsworth]

They are heavy on the inner edge of the front tyres. It’s because they run quite a lot of negative camber on the front. That’s why the turn in and steering feel is so nice
To adjust the camber requires new arms with offset bushes, and the downside, apart from the expense, is that the front end won’t feel so crisp. I live with it, and just keep an eye on them.

 

[Spider10]

^Beat me to it

 

[BJC]

I'm not planning on changing it, I was just surprised at how bad the tyres were.

 

[ALFAitalia]

It's could be that.....but excess camber has only a marginal effect on tyre wear.....toe angle being incorrect will have a much bigger effect. Might be worth getting the alignment checked.

 

[Jobsworth]

It's could be that.....but excess camber has only a marginal effect on tyre wear.....toe angle being incorrect will have a much bigger effect. Might be worth getting the alignment checked.

That’s a fair comment, but it’s well known on the W205 C63 that the negative camber eats the inner edge. They all do it.

 

[BJC]

All sorted and the car is back home where it belongs. The alignment was also done as part of the spring warranty work