[07bmw335iguy]

Just got off the phone with the dealer about it, he told me if replacing the brakes and sensors didnt work then they would have to reprogram the whole car, said it would cost $800. Just great, think I'll just do the quick sensor fix and order some new ones.

[raiderUM]

^^^Has anyone else came to the same conclusion? I too have replaced pads and sensor cable and am still unable to reset "BRAKE" light on dash

[juice13]

Originally Posted by raiderUM

^^^Has anyone else came to the same conclusion? I too have replaced pads and sensor cable and am still unable to reset "BRAKE" light on dash

I replaced sensors and pads and rotors all around and was able to reset the BRAKE light for several months and several thousand miles.

Then the service light (little red car on lift) came on and the BRAKE light showed back up at the same time.

I bit the bullet and spent the 2.5 hours labor on the dealer "inspection" and "code download". This was my last service within the CPO warranty most likely so I wanted them to give it a good look. Little red car on lift is gone and so is the BRAKE light. All they did was reset that inspection light; no brake work or reset was done.

At least I had a 20% coupon.

Now all is good.

[crypticc]

Originally Posted by raiderUM

^^^Has anyone else came to the same conclusion? I too have replaced pads and sensor cable and am still unable to reset "BRAKE" light on dash

You must do rear first sometimes.

[07bmw335iguy]

What worked for me was to just strip the sensors and connect the wires together. Immediately after that I used the bc to reset it and it finally let me do it. No brake light on or red car on lift, best part is that it didnt cost me anything.

[allknight]

Trying the reset after an early pad replacement put me as service required in minus 9000 miles with a permanent brake light. Attempting to reset again wouldn't put me in the service menu until I read another thread which added a step of pressing and holding BC before hitting the odometer reset, as in 2a below...
1)Insert key (car doors closed) 2)Press start/stop without clutch/brake 2a)when panel lights stabilize, press/hold BC until clock appears in panel 3)then press and hold the odometer reset for 3 secs, etc, etc. Armed with that, I could now perform the reset repeatedly with the same -9000 mile result. Then I read here that shorting out the wear sensor can work, so I took off the drivers side wheel (no sensor on the passengers side) and opened the door to the plastic box holding the wear sensor plug. I pulled out the plug going to the sensor and inserted a short loop of bare 24-guage wire into the holes in the white connector (a paper clip is too thick). I then got back in the car and did the reset and it worked. I removed the jumper, put everything back together, and all's well, so far.

[nyc3r]

Originally Posted by allknight

Trying the reset after an early pad replacement put me as service required in minus 9000 miles with a permanent brake light. Attempting to reset again wouldn't put me in the service menu until I read another thread which added a step of pressing and holding BC before hitting the odometer reset, as in 2a below...
1)Insert key (car doors closed) 2)Press start/stop without clutch/brake 2a)when panel lights stabilize, press/hold BC until clock appears in panel 3)then press and hold the odometer reset for 3 secs, etc, etc. Armed with that, I could now perform the reset repeatedly with the same -9000 mile result. Then I read here that shorting out the wear sensor can work, so I took off the drivers side wheel (no sensor on the passengers side) and opened the door to the plastic box holding the wear sensor plug. I pulled out the plug going to the sensor and inserted a short loop of bare 24-guage wire into the holes in the white connector (a paper clip is too thick). I then got back in the car and did the reset and it worked. I removed the jumper, put everything back together, and all's well, so far.

Got any picture of the loop fix you did? I replace my pads, sensors didn't trip off, still says 5000 miles.. then I did a reset and now it says -15000 miles.

[MarkTTU]

Originally Posted by allknight

Trying the reset after an early pad replacement put me as service required in minus 9000 miles with a permanent brake light. Attempting to reset again wouldn't put me in the service menu until I read another thread which added a step of pressing and holding BC before hitting the odometer reset, as in 2a below...
1)Insert key (car doors closed) 2)Press start/stop without clutch/brake 2a)when panel lights stabilize, press/hold BC until clock appears in panel 3)then press and hold the odometer reset for 3 secs, etc, etc. Armed with that, I could now perform the reset repeatedly with the same -9000 mile result. Then I read here that shorting out the wear sensor can work, so I took off the drivers side wheel (no sensor on the passengers side) and opened the door to the plastic box holding the wear sensor plug. I pulled out the plug going to the sensor and inserted a short loop of bare 24-guage wire into the holes in the white connector (a paper clip is too thick). I then got back in the car and did the reset and it worked. I removed the jumper, put everything back together, and all's well, so far.

Worked perfectly for me. Used a wire out of a cat5 cable (solid core cat5 is 24awg). Thanks for the tip!!

[neoduffer]

Originally Posted by bradford

I recently replaced my rear brake pads at the track and didn't have a spare pad level sensor handy, so I've been rolling with the brake light service required lamp lit.

I took the car to the dealer for some other issues and the SA told me that the code associated with the brake light will cause the DME to take speed-prevention countermeasures such as cutting the throttle because "it doesn't want you going fast without brakes".

Normally, I would completely discount such a story as pure BS, but this SA (and the tech that worked on my car) is respected in the local BMW club, and they're both racers as well. Coupled with the fact that nanny-features are becoming so prevalent in today's cars, I'm actually considering believing it.

Has anyone heard of anything like this?

Answering an old question...

My front brake sensor tripped during a HPDE weekend and the DME did intervene for about the first mile of each session while not corrected.

[baron62]

Originally Posted by issabmw

Put the key in, press start without brake to enable accessory mode, wait until the service reminders go away to the normal screen, hold the odometer reset button until a yellow triangle pops up, scroll to whatever service reminder you would like to clear, press BC until reset option comes up, hold BC to reset, and youre all set

If you follow it exactly..Thanks

[deeepsix]

hopefully this will help some people...i had the same issue, reset brake linings by mistake, had the red car on a lift, red brake light, front/rear warnings, etc. tried jumping, didn't work. tried new sensors and it didn't work UNTIL i changed the back and front. however, i simply unplugged the existing, plugged in the new ones (still in the bag), did the cluster reset procedure, powered down and plugged the "old ones" back in and re assembled. fixed. **it seems the back sensor must be done as well if they are both on due to this issue, cannot reset the front without the rear sensor being "changed" as well

[crypticc]

Originally Posted by deeepsix

hopefully this will help some people...i had the same issue, reset brake linings by mistake, had the red car on a lift, red brake light, front/rear warnings, etc. tried jumping, didn't work. tried new sensors and it didn't work UNTIL i changed the back and front. however, i simply unplugged the existing, plugged in the new ones (still in the bag), did the cluster reset procedure, powered down and plugged the "old ones" back in and re assembled. fixed. **it seems the back sensor must be done as well if they are both on due to this issue, cannot reset the front without the rear sensor being "changed" as well

Yep. I had same even though no change to sensor itself (mine was tripped early to minus 100k when I had car new). Wouldn't let me set front until doing the back first in the same session. Was repeatable but if you try front without back it won't work.