Brake Pad Set with a Wear Sensor in OE Supplier

A brake part: pads with the sensor included, because the sensor is single use and eight pounds and reusing one is a false economy.

We are an independent parts supplier. We are not BMW AG or MINI, we are not appointed by them, and BMW and MINI are their trademarks. What we sell are parts that fit those cars, described as such. Every listing states the chassis codes and engine codes it fits, the production date range, which quality tier you are buying, the labour time the job actually takes, and whether the part needs coding to the car before it will work. Where a part is only made in plastic by the factory and fails because it is plastic, we say so and we offer the metal one.

Specification and fitment

• Fits: 1 Series E87 F20 F40, 3 Series E90 E91 E92 E93 F30 F31 G20, 4 Series F32 F33 F36, 5 Series E60 F10 G30, X1 X3 X5, Mini R56 F56 R60 F60
• Engine: not engine dependent, but the brake specification is: the same chassis with a six cylinder has larger discs than with a four. These cars change mid production, sometimes twice in a model year, and two cars built four months apart can take different parts. Send us the last seven digits of your VIN with the order and we check the part against the build record before anything is dispatched. It takes us two minutes and it is the difference between a part that fits and a return.
• Production dates: 2004 to 2022 depending on chassis
• Quality: made by the firm that supplies the vehicle manufacturer, in that firm's own box rather than a dealer box. Identical part, identical line, no dealer margin, and this is what we would fit ourselves
• Part number: cross referenced to the original equipment number for your VIN and confirmed before dispatch. We do not publish a single number against a listing that covers several build variants, because that is how people order the wrong part
• The failure this addresses: a long pedal, a judder under braking, a disc past its minimum thickness which is cast into the hub, a wear sensor that has triggered, or an ABS light that is a sixty two pound sensor rather than a module
• Labour time: one to three hours an axle, plus half an hour to bleed properly
• Coding: the electronic parking brake must be put into service position with a diagnostic tool before a rear caliper is opened. Winding it back by hand destroys the actuator, and the actuator is two hundred and forty five pounds
• Also needed: brake fluid, single use carrier bolts, a new wear sensor and copper grease for the sliders
• Torque: caliper carrier bolts are stretch bolts on most of these and are single use. Figures in the instructions
• Weight: approximately 2.4 kilograms
• Warranty: two years or 24,000 miles, whichever comes first
• Cross drilled discs: we do not recommend them on a road car and we will tell you why before selling you a pair. Drilling cast iron creates stress risers and they crack. Grooved gives the same benefit without it
• Bedding in: two hundred miles of moderate use and no sitting on the pedal at a light with a hot disc. Uneven pad transfer onto a hot disc is what a judder is
• Fluid: two years, because it absorbs water and the boiling point falls. On a car with DSC the specification is low viscosity DOT 4 and not ordinary DOT 4
• Track pads: worse than road pads until they are hot. Do not fit them to a car that is not going on circuit

What arrives

• the part or pair as described
• wear sensors where the set includes them
• single use carrier bolts and caliper hardware
• copper grease and a bedding in card

Fitting

One to three hours an axle. On anything with an electronic parking brake, retract the caliper with a diagnostic tool first: winding it back by hand kills the actuator and that is a two hundred and forty five pound mistake made in ten seconds.

Which version to buy

Pads matter more than discs and nobody sells them that way. Match the pad compound to how the car is actually used: a track pad on a cold road car stops worse than the pad it replaced. On discs, grooved rather than cross drilled, and OE supplier rather than the cheapest, because disc metallurgy is where the budget end of this market saves its money.