Hi,

Just replaced my front brakes with new pads on my 2000 A8L. Now the Low Pad Indicator comes on every time I drive the car. Connections look good. Any ideas? Thanks!

Scott

 

Hi Scott,

That same problem occured to my '01 A8 last year. It was still under warranty so the dealer told me I needed new brakes which I didn't. He then cleaned the brake sensors and said they'd take a week or so for the warning light to go out. It didn't. I brought it back to the dealer for sensor replacement and that solved the problem. They were too badly corroded to clean I suppose.

 

might be your back brakes, do the rears have sensors on the A8?

 

Brake sensors can go bad after a few years, everyone I know who's had any braking system components replaced, including myself, then had to deal with sensors doing whatever the hell they wanted.

 

No sensors on the rears. +1 for what HansBlix said. Try cleaaning them with sone brake-cleaner. Spray both sides, and dab the excess with a CLEAN (i.e. NEVER before used) cloth. See if that works, it did for me.

 

Yeah what AWD said. Cleaning them is gonna be the only cure besides replacing the front pads again, the rear pads won't throw a light until 04 or newer which the electronic parking brakes calculate.

 

For your onw personal edification, your brake sensor is fundamentally a simple circuit. As long as it's "open" you don't get an indicator lite. When the pads wear down enough to get to a metal "wear-bar" buried in the pad, the circuit closes and your dash light comes on. Foreign material in the "cup" of the sensor connector can give a false positive. Or, a short in the wiring, usually out by the wheel, somewhere, can also throw a false +. If cleaning the connectors doesn't solve your prob you may hafta resort to tracing wires, to find where they're crossing...

Good luck. Let us know how it goes, OK?

 

Thanks for all the help! I will try cleaning them as soon as I get a break in the weather here in NY. You guys are the best!