E53 - Check brake lining
 

The "brake" light came on and "check brake lining" is also on display. I'm thinking brake sensor wear pad gone bad. Anyone thinks otherwise and how to figure out which one could be faulty?

Pull two wheels, left front and right rear, and inspect them. Nothing is necessarily faulty, just in need of maintenance. If it has been two years since it was done, flush the brake fluid as well.

That happened to me once, wire going to right rear pad sensor was partly severed.

Sure, it can be a sensor. But most of the time one or both sets of pads are worn out. A bad sensor is what you look for only after pulling two wheels and finding that all pads are in good shape. If that is indeed the case.

My 2 cents...

Based on my experience and the parts specs I use to maintain my X
You should check your parts specs also and compare the min/max thresholds

(NEW)
Front Pads Set (14mm thick)
Rear Pads Set (12mm thick)

If you see 3mm (1/8th of an inch) or less pad remaining, you need to replace the pads. The 3mm mark is where the brake pad sensor begins to rub on the rotors and eventually the sensor is destroyed which causes the “low pads” warning light, which is different than the “brake service required” message.

BRAKE Wear Sensor Inspection

The sensor has 2 elements, one wears off when the brake pad is @ half life, the other wears down and sets off a critical brake warning saying your pads are due to be changed NOW!

I always replace Brake Anti-Rattle Spring Rear every 4 years

Rotors

The front rotors started life at 30mm thick. You are allowed 1.6mm of total wear, so the rotors should be replaced when they are 28.4mm thick. The rear rotors started at 12mm thick and should be replaced at 10.4mm.

Thanks gents. Looks like I got to get under the X. Tomorrow should be nice, will try then.

Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using Tapatalk

Yes, OP, JCL is right. I did check and find the sensor only after I did an inspection of the pad thickness front and rear. You should do this first. Just tossed it out there in case you already did check your brakes and did not see anything obviously wrong with them.

You sure about that? I had single stage sensors on my E53, and dual stage on my E60. I would have thought the E53 used the same part numbers all the way through to EOP.

Like I said based from my experience....

Unless you want to come over and see for yourself :popcorn:

I checked the brakes and it turns out the front brake sensor snapped off and was just dangling. It was getting dark so I did not remove the pads to measure their thickness.

A friend of mine had helped me installed the entire brake set about 18 months back so based on my neophyte experience it does not appear to me the pads are worn out. I attached two pictures (dont judge the paint job! lol) hoping that someone can prove me wrong. The pads are Pagid part # 34116761252
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/03/23/a3ugezag.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/03/23/2a4y5e8a.jpg


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03/2003 E53 X5 4.4i SUV M62
03/2006 E90 325i Sedan N52