Pad wear indicator?

My wife's 96 A4 avant does - you get this very informative kinda grinding noise!

It should do. Mandatory fit, I thought.

Mind you, a lot depends upon how deep that little loop of wire is buried in the material of the front pads.. how did you find out? Metal-on-metal?

Are you still on your original pads, or were they replaced at some point in the past and pads without wear sensors were installed?

Cheers,

Pete

LOL!!!

No pad wear sensors on mine either, 97 Quattro, Don't think it was fitted standard, there is also no wires to plug any into, I checked last time I replaced the pads

Ron

It so happened I took my car to the stealership for routinely inspection last year, before starting my Xmas holiday - which I meant to fit some skiing in. As I started driving up a winding road I could hear some kind of brake noise - even without touching the brake pedal - on left bends. I tried braking hard because I thought a bit of rust might have settled in, and all of this was to no avail.

Since the stealer'd told me everything was fine after inspection, it took an enquiring mind to get a torch and check the rear pads - which funnily enough always wear faster than the fronts in my car, and there the culprit was, I needed new rear pads. I carried on to the skiing resort making use of the shortest gears possible and of as much anticipation as I was capable of, and the next day I had my pads replaced.

When I mentioned this to the stealer and I said how appalled I was at both their service and the fact that no wear indicator light turned on on my board, he said that of course, only S's have that stock - which is not true, either, as my father's A6 does have the little twinkly.

What about B6's? Do they get that stock?

Regards,

JP Roberts

"Hairy One Kenobi" escribió en el mensaje news:M%sBb.560$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfep4-glfd.server.ntli.net...

Ouch.

OTOH, I've not heard of a car with wear indicators at the rear before - only ever on the front.

Very strange that the rear pads wear faster - does the handbrake operate on the same pads and, if so, it is correctly adjusted?

H1K

Well, he was correct. Our cars do not have rear brake pads with wear sensors. Only fronts do. That goes for both B5 and B6 A4, and I'm pretty sure the S4 as well.

As far as why the rears wear out faster, I can think of two reasons:

1. The pads are thinner to begin with.
2. The rear rotors are not vented, which means they don't dissipate heat as efficiently as the fronts do. Higher operating temperatures cause the pads to wear out quicker.

Cheers,

Pete

1. Occasionally driving around with the handbrake on (sometimes people don't notice if it's up one or two clicks).

And the rears have to put up with a lot or rubbish churned up by the front wheels, and they often don't have enough work to do either, causing rust on the discs and excess wear on the pads. The apparent paradox that the rears wear quicker than the fronts is familiar to many Audi (and Golf GTI) drivers.

Regards

Jonathan

Never my case. The only abuse I can think of would come as a result of abrupt starts - thus involving EDS - which is not my case either, and the occasional brief drifting session on a deserted icy car park, but both of these should affect the fronts more than the rear as the brakes will need to counteract a bigger front torque contribution.

I was told by the dealer my B5 doesn't have sensors at the front either, did you check that the wires you see in yours are not just ABS's?

Anyone with a B6 to confirm this?

An excellent explanation, but why the heck are the rears so very thin? On average the fronts will last twice as long as the rears in my car!

Well, my B5 is a 2001 and it definitely has front brake pad wear sensors. As a matter of fact, I had new EBC Green pads put on today, and they had wear sensor wires/connection that had to be plugged in after disconnecting the plugs from the old OEM pads. I am looking at the EBC brake catalog as we speak, and even for 95-99 A4s they have pads with wear sensors, although slightly different connector shape. So, I'm 99% sure your car should have them.

I hear ya. I had pads replaced on all 4 corners today, and the rears were worn out way more than the fronts.

Cheers,

Pete

Ahem. I believe that between 70-98% of the braking force acts on the front wheels only.. don't know specifically for Audis.

Does /that/ help? ;o)

H1K

That's generally true, although I don't know the exact percentages. It still doesn't change the fact that the front pads are thicker and work in less stressful (better heat dissipation) conditions. ;-)

Cheers,

Pete

Ooops! Scratch that idea. A quick search through AudiWorld archives shows that in 1998, the A4 did not even have front brake pad wear sensors. That only started in 1999. Sorry about that.

Cheers,

Pete

Even funnier if he *wasn't* referring to the car ;-)

Thanks Pete, I was beginning to think my A4 was the ugly duckling out there.

JP Roberts

"Pete" escribió en el mensaje news:br8335$dnl$ snipped-for-privacy@news.onet.pl...

My -98 A6 only has pad wear indicators on the front brakes (as these are supposed to wear out first I'm told). If your rear pads always wear out first I'd say your rear calipers are stuck/partly stuck and needs to be moved up/replaced. This is very common here (Norway) due to salting of roads during winter.

Regards Rune