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BMW: 1986 325ES, brake pad, instrument cluster


Question
Hi,
My son's car has a Brake Lining light on.  How can we turn the light off on his dashboard?  We had his brakes done 2 months ago.  The car is running fine

Answer
Laura,
 There is a small sensor that plugs into the brake pad and as the brakes pads wear down, this sensor will come in contact with the rotor.  This metal-to-metal contact will activate the brake lining light.  Its just a warning to tell you that the brakes are getting low and you should get them checked.  
 To get rid of the light there are a few solutions:

(1.) Get the brake pad sensor wire that is missing (should be found on the internet).  It just slides into the back of the brake pad and plugs into the existing harness.  All you would have to do is remove the wheel to do this, no brake work needs to be done.

(2.)  Find a way to ground the system so the light will go off.

(3.) Pull the instrument cluster out and remove the light bulb from the back of the cluster.

 I would choose #1, this puts the vehicle back in working order and will tell your son when he needs to put brake pads back on the car.  

 Good luck,
 Josh