Car was services this week, where it was noted the rear brakes were had about 25% left and would probably be okay for another 10k miles (ish) as most of the braking is done on the front.

Two days later (and not 10k miles later...) the rear brake pad wear indicator flagged on the maxidot.

 

Are the indicators overly cautious in terms of triggering, or is it wise to follow them?

 

I'm not familiar with what to look at physically on the brakes to see what wear level they're at

How many miles has been done on the pads?

Pretty sure they're the original pads, so 66k miles

My car is at 58k miles and still on its original pads with loads of life left in them, so quite normal for a diesel that will use engine to do a lot of its braking (for most people)

There is no rear pad wear indicator I'm aware of. The only sensor for pad wear is in one of the front brake pads. You'll see a wire going to the brake pads on one of the front calipers. It's possible the ABS pump is doing something fancy to track the position of the rear pistons, but I've never heard anyone mention this.

You're right psycholist, no wear indicator in the rear pads - gave the garage who did the servicing a call and they took a look this afternoon

 

Inner front of the pads has worn through unevenly due to scoring on the discs straight into the wear sensor

 

Plenty of pad left either side, but ideally need new front pads/discs - thanks all!