Hi...

Was out driving the other night, when the brake warning light for brake pads came on. Was out and had a look, brake pads looked ok. Started up again and all was well.

Had it happen again tonight. Have read that it might be the brake fluid level causing this. Couldn`t find the Min/Max mark - is there a secret to this. Took the cap of and had a look - could see brake fluid.

If it was the pads, it would light up first time i touched the brakes - correct? The brakes feel perfectly fine, and haven`t noticed any fluids where i have parked.

The car is 2 years old and at 80K km / 50K miles on orginal brakes all round and brake fluid.

Thanks in advance.

my light came on the other day - pads are fine, turned out to be the wire for the sensor on the pad had broken. i just shorted the two together with a resistor, all is fine

Hmm, will have a look at that. Don`t need to spend more money than necessary on this side of christmas.

Thanks

Can someone confirm the Fabia does come with brake pad sensors to tell you when the pads are getting low. I thought I read this in the manual, and I have a vRS, but when I mentioned this to the service rep at my local Skoda dealer, he said the Fabia doesn't have the sensors and only the higher level Octavia (I think) and Superb have brake pad sensors. I'd be interested to know if he knew what he was talking about and whether the pad level sensors are there or not. Cheers.

Will have a look at the brake pad sensor and wire today after work - if there is one. My old Xantia from 1995 had wear sensors for the brakes, so it would seem odd that the Fabia didn`t.

Read some old threads yesterday, and iirc Lummox mentioned something about that the function of the handbrake could trigger the brakepad symbol?

My Fabia vRS did not have wear sensors.

The brake symbol comes if the handbrake is applied, the pads are worn or fluid level is low. I had this warning light come on flashing with the buzzer, when the fluid was low on my Octy when I was going down a steep hill, soon sussed that it was the fluid level (loose connection on the front caliper). If the fluid level is Ok, the pads are good & the brakes work Ok then there's not too much too worry about.

Apart fom the wire in the pads (if there is one) the handbrake switch as you mentioned the float unit / connection in the fluid reservoir could have a fault.

The brake symbol comes if the handbrake is applied, the pads are worn or fluid level is low.

The symbol for applied handbrake is different to the brakepad symbol - atleast on my Fabia.

If the fluid level is Ok, the pads are good & the brakes work Ok then there's not too much too worry about.

Apart fom the wire in the pads (if there is one) the handbrake switch as you mentioned the float unit / connection in the fluid reservoir could have a fault.

Will have a look after work. Don`t like warning symbols even tough the car feels fine.

Have had all 4 wheels off today. Theres a brake pad sensor on the front drivers side (UK Passenger side).

The brakes are worn but theres another 5000 - 10000km in them i estimate. Fluid level - can`t find min/max, but got an old mechanic to take a look - looks fine.

Regarding wires - don`t know. Tried wigling a bit, no change. Will change pads all round anyhow, so hopefully that is the solution.

I assume that when the pads wear down enought the wire is exposed and 'earths' to the disc to create a closed circuit. If this is the case then you should be able to test the to see if the wire is making a circuit to ground with a meter.

I assume that when the pads wear down enought the wire is exposed and 'earths' to the disc to create a closed circuit. If this is the case then you should be able to test the to see if the wire is making a circuit to ground with a meter.

Will try that if new pads doesn`t cure it.

Tried disconnecting the sensor - but still got a warning. Don`t really know how the system works.

I didn't know any fabias ever came with pad wear sensors?

I don't think that you can generalise about what features are built into Fabias or any other car in different markets really. I seem to remember that if you check a new disc pad you get a short circuit "through" it - so I'd guess you end up making this link open circuit when the wear warning limit is reached. This has been maybe backed up by the fact that when you disconnected the front lefthand side pad the light stayed on. By the way, I think that you might find that one of the rear pads has a wear sensor fitted as well. The really silly thing is that while a function might be fitted in one market, it might not be enabled, I suppose it makes sense if the actual car built for a few markets can be identical parts wise and the "tuning" for each market is then taken care of via option enabling using the dealer tool.

Ford used to be smarter in that if the wear cable was disconnected, a fault (flashing wear light) used to come on instead of a steady wear light if the pads were worn - that was a three wire system.