As we know, on the '90-on Teves equipped cars, there are
only two brake pad wear sensors - front left and rear right
wheels.
So, in the course of a ‘major service’ on my '91, I came to
the bit where I remove the front wheels to check the brakes
and re-grease the caliper slider pins (etc.). For
convenience, I started with the front right wheel - no
particular reason except it happened to be the one nearest
to my work bench in the garage. I noticed that both inboard
and outboard pads were worn down evenly, both approaching
the 4 mm minimum.
Oh, well, no point in proceeding further until I get a set
of new pads and then I can complete the service on both
sides - so back on goes the front right wheel and the car is
parked in the garage. I ordered the pads from David Manners
- JLM1829#, genuine OEM Jurid pads in a plain brown wrapper
- but there was a slight delay in them being shipped so only
today were they delivered.
So again, off with the front right wheel, open bleed screw,
push back fully the caliper piston, clean everything up,
copper grease the guide pins and fit the new pads. Sure
enough the old pads measured just about exactly 4 mm each.
On to the front left.
Mmmm! The outboard pad is down to about 2 mm but the inboard
pad is down to 1 mm at the most and the pad wear carbon
‘slug’ is starting to crumble, so much so that I was
surprised that it had not already generated a ‘BRAKE’
warning on the dash because and in trying to remove it, the
wire loop came apart. Not to worry, I’ll get a new sensor
and in the mean time fit the new pads with the wire ends of
the old sensor soldered together to make the circuit so that
I can use the car without a false ‘pad wear’ warning on the
dash. Easy-peasy!
I removed the sensor wire at its connector to the car
harness and took it to the bench to do the soldering job.
Before re-fitting it, out of curiosity I switched on the
ignition, fully expecting the ‘BRAKE’ warning to remain
illuminated on the dash and the VCM to declare ‘PAD’
NOTHING! The lights went through their check cycle and all
of them went out including the ‘BRAKE’ warning icon. How odd
- so I re-fitted the soldered sensor wire and grounded the
bare wires. Still no warning.
I’m not too worried about that because I reckon I inspect
the brake pads at every service so I will see if they are
getting near their wear limit,(or wearing unevenly, left and
right) but I do wonder what would have happened if I had
driven the car another few hundred miles while waiting for
replacement pads.
I’ve no idea why that BRAKE warning doesn’t work for the
front left pad sensor. The warning light is good and comes
on when there is inadequate brake pressure as it should and
then the VCM shows ‘FAIL’ as it should.
The moral of the story for '90-on owners - when checking the
front brakes, always start with the front left!
Oh, and in case you are wondering no brake pull or any other
problems despite the uneven wear left to right sides.
Very strange.–
Bryan N, '91 Sovereign 4.0 L, RHD
Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom
–Posted using Jag-lovers JagFORUM [forums.jag-lovers.org]–
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