Brake pad issues, pad wear and sensors?

**ZachPDX** · 10-08-2008 12:18 PM

I purchased my car about 5 months ago with 35k on it. The brakes squeaked pretty badly so I took it to my local Audi dealerships service department (sunset Audi) to check it out. The service advisor told me they were super close but they could not replace them under Audi care until the warning light came up on the dash. He told me that it should come on within the next 3k miles. At 45,000 miles I had my oil changed and asked them to check the pads since they were still squeaking and it had been 10k on his 3k guess. He said again that they were super close and that any day now it would come on.

Now at 47k I’m getting a horrible grind or chomp (chomp... chomp... chomp) when slow braking. Yesterday I had my wheels rotated by an independent shop and while they had them off I decided to check the pads..... What pads?!?!
The fronts are so far gone you can barely see them; the shop didn’t even want to let me drive around like that. We checked the sensors to see if someone had taken them out of the loop but best I could tell they were still hooked up fine. Another thing I noticed was uneven wear on the rear pads. On both sides the inside pad was at about 5% and the outside pad was at about 20%. Is this normal?

So is this normal, does the "check brake" light only come on when it’s metal on metal? and are the rear pads wearing different on the inside vs. the outside ok?

Thanks guys!

**Lunker** · 10-08-2008 02:59 PM

I've heard on the RS4 the brake pad sensors flat out don't work. Check the AW forum, I believe someone was able to get Service to replace for free due to faulty sensor though.

I have Audi care, do brake pads and rotors fall under the coverage? I don't think they would since it's a wear and tear item but just want to confirm.

**likewater** · 10-08-2008 04:01 PM

Sounds like a faulty sensor. If you look at these pads, you can clearly see that when the pad gets to a certain wear point, the contact on the sensor will be exposed and should trigger the light. Also, time to change dealers my friend. The determination to replace pads is not done by mileage, but rather what percentage of the pads is left. Mileage means nothing. Some people drive harder than others within the same mileage period. The fact that they didn't want to change your pads because they didn't want to cover it is BS. I would go back with your indy receipt and have them pay for this. BTW, changing the pads on these cars is really easy with even the slightest bit of mechanical ability. Next time I recommend you just change them yourself.

**szinkuti** · 10-08-2008 05:55 PM

once the pads on the inside are worn down below the wires....the wires break...boom light comes on...there really isnt a sensor....its just the pad completing the circuit...i have seen outer pads be 6mm and the inner be 3mm...and vise versa...the different wear in pads is normal....once the pads were below 5mm which is audi spec...the dealer should have replaced them....be sure to let them know to check the history..cause they could try and pull some bs about well u let your pads go metal to metal so we are gonna replace the rotors.....and thats when u say FU....

...good luck with ur brake replacement :)

**ZachPDX** · 10-08-2008 08:14 PM

Thanks for the replys.

I called sunset and told them how low they were, they wanted the car right away and a couple hours later I had new pads all around and new front rotors, the rears were within spec still.

Lunker - I think he told me its something they stopped doing on 06 and up.

The new brakes are super stiff and need some attention so Im gonna go break them in.

Thanks again!