For about a year, I had intermittent simple "Brake Pads!" message on the DIS followed by an awful shrill beep and a picture of a yellow brake disc - all very 1990s for a £59,000 car. It mainly came on when on full lock, and then a month ago became permanent, so I thought the brake pads were worn. I think this message only related to front pads as rear EPB set a error code in the EPB controller (there is no error) and the pads and discs are not that old. So I concentrate on the front as it started to come on when steering. Last week, I cut both pad sensor wires to a pig tail and soldered them together and put adhesive heat shrink on. This did not get rid of the warning. One of the cables to the sensor looked dodgy, so today I cut it off and soldered on a new connector and shorted it out with a jumper wire.
The error remained, so I double checked the otehr side for damage and it is perfect and nothing seems dodgy, it is in a rubber tube with the ABS sensor cable and has metal rings crimped at each end to make it water tight. I went back to the other side and cut back the loom to near the metal ring and soldered again, thus replacing as much wiring as I can without a big hack. Still no joy.
I looked up the part (T shaped cable) and it is over £100!
[18] in this picture
Does anyone know how to get to the inboard end of this cable as it disappears through a hole, or how o disable the front brake pad warning with VCDS?
Many thanks.