Robert Schrader

A few days ago, my dash display started showing "BRAKE PAD WEAR. VISIT WORKSHOP". I have a rather busy schedule for the next several weeks, and I'd like to know how serious a warning this is. Can I ignore it for a while? How long? Is there a different warning if it gets crucial?

The ideal answer would be something like: " You have about X miles to spare before you really need to have the pads replaced. If it starts making noise A, then you are down to Y miles. But if it makes noise B then you must do something immediately."

Thanks

mleskovar

About 1000 miles....depending on your driving style (can't remember where I read that). Grinding noise means it's too late to save the rotors but usually rotors are replaced anyway. The wear sensors are not on all four wheels so hope the wheels without any are OK as well. You should learn what to look for with pad wear so you'll know how much life is left in them.

kompressorc230

I would guesstimate that you have 1-2k miles left if your not an aggressive driver. Male sure you replace it asap since your a busy guy and might forget to squeeze it in you schedule.

No different warning. It's just one sensor on your front wheel. You can ignore it for a while but I suggest you don't. Check your rotors as well to see if they're almost worn out.

Easy to replace pads of you have time. There might be a DIY in the forum somewhere.

GL!

Glyn M Ruck

Have a look at the pad thickness that is left. You can see them. This has come up before but I wonder why American spec Cs only have one sensor. South African built cars like mine have on both front wheels - don't know about the back because I'm still on original rear pads.

mleskovar

It depends on the model and the year. My car has sensors on both front wheels and the right rear wheel.

Glyn M Ruck

Interesting - I suspect our cars are the same.

Robert Schrader

Thanks, everyone.

XenonBenz

Actually, the brake pad still has 25% of the pad left once the warning light comes on. You have plenty of time before you cause damage to your brakes.

This is per my local MB master certified parts manager.

WaveyKat

i was Getting the "Brake Lining Wear" Error on my cluster so i was going to install new brake pads.. my car came Factory with three Sensor two in the Front one in the Rear... so i started from the rear took the pads out came to notice the pads still have tons of life and the sensor didnt touch the rotor yet. ok so i went to the Front and same crap.. pads has lots of life none of the sensors are touching the Rotors.. so called up my friend at MB and he told me too come by.. we hooked up the DAS computer to check out the Problem.. the computer cant find anything Wrong.. but i still have the "Brake (-) Lining Wear" in the cluster.. what should i do? can anyone help? i was thinking just to replace all the Sensor for now and see if that will do anything..

LinDenKid

how about unplug the sensors and plug them back

Glyn M Ruck

Wavey - most likely cause is dud sensor or connection.

WaveyKat

well in the morning i will be putting all new sensors in and see if that works.....Glyn whats the "DUD sensor"?

Glyn M Ruck

Sorry - the English language - A sensor that has failed

mleskovar

You can bypass the sensors to see if that's the problem by shorting each wheels' two pins together at the connector and starting the car. If the failure message doesn't pop up then that's the bad/open sensor.

Glyn M Ruck

Great advice!

WaveyKat

well it was a sensor all three of them was acting up so i changed all thanks guys next fix is my M2/19 AC Flap thingy

Glyn M Ruck

Great - The sensors seldom give trouble but ther operate in a hostile environment. Think of the number of heat/cool cycles they go through.

WaveyKat

yea i figured.. man i probably jack up and take the wheels off like over 15 times for the weekend.. what a work out!.. thank but alot for the advice!..

Cintoman

I'm wondering if I'm having a similar issue with a bad sensor too. My "brake wear visit workshop" message came up on my car last week. Happened right after my wife was driving it and had to panic stop on the highway. Normally, I would think the panic stop was enough to wear enough brake pad to push it to the level where they would need to be replaced and the sensor would be tripped. I have 39,000 miles on the car, and I believe they are the original pads (unless they were replaced prior to me buying the car at 13,000 miles).

However, the reason I'm thinking it might be a sensor issue, is that when I swapped out my winter tires to my summer ones back in early June (yeah..winter ends around April here, but I had no time to swap them out), I looked at the brakes and it seemed there was plenty left. Even though I can see the brakes thru my wheels, I'm going to see if I can take the wheels off this weekend to really get a good look at them.

I just have to see which wheels have sensors on my car. Looking quickly, I can see the copper wires on the front right wheel. Can't really tell on the rears.

Cintoman

WaveyKat

could be the Sensors... i read somewhere Due to the Weather rain/sun/snow the Sensor sometimes go Bad Causing the Visit Workshop Light to Come on.. now is just to figure out which one is bad. i have Three of them on my car so i replaced all!..

Cintoman

Thanks Wavey,

Do you remember how much they were? Did you get them at the stealership? I thought I read somewhere that these can be purchased online far cheaper. My car is still under warranty, so I'm also wondering if they are bad, if the stealership would replace them on their dime.

Cintoman

Glyn M Ruck

Paul - inspect pads for wear - if still have life you probably tripped a sensor in the emergency stop. Pad life is so driving condition dependant but you are in the window for fronts.

e1000

They should absolutely replace them if they are malfunctioning. They're really cheap though, should be >$10 ea from the dealership and about $5 ea from various online retailers.

PA_Pete

Weird. I had my C320 at the dealership for an issue I and an independent shop could not resolve, but the dealership did. That's beside the point. Two weeks after getting the car back, I get the same message "Brake Lining Wear Visit Workshop" message followed by "Display Faulty ESP", "Display Faulty ABS", and "Display Faulty BAS". As soon as they appeared, my speedometer stopped working, and the car wouldn't shift out of first gear, and had a high idle?! WTF! Again, this has happened three times now, once on the highway! So here is my questions, when the transmission goes into "Limp Mode", does it normally idle high and inconsistant along with the speedometer not working? Second, should I call the dealership and ***** about this or at least bring it up? My car has never done this before I had it at the dealership. BTW, my pads are good yet.

Cintoman

Well I had a chance to remove the front-right wheel over the weekend to inspect the brakes. I first unplugged the sensor to see if the message would then come up on the MFD. No message. I plugged the sensor back in, and the message came up again.

I then took a look at the pad via the opening in the caliper. Looks like it's time to have them replaced, as you implied Glyn. I did a quick measurement, and I have slightly less than 1/8 inch on the inner pad, and about 1/8 inch remaining on the outer pad. That's about 3mm left on the pads.

With that said, I'm going to be replacing the pads with new ceramic ones. Reading tons of threads on this, I was planning on going with Akebono ceramics, but it seems there's a bunch of confusion on whether Akebono makes front pads for my model car (US-Spec 2005 C230 Kompressor Sport with the 2 pot calipers).

And online, I too am seeing some confusion as to which ones to get. I checked out RockAuto and they list 3 types for my car: EUR873, EUR872, and EUR1121. All 3 are fronts and ceramics. Anyone have any ideas? I'm thinking I need the EUR1121, because, when going into the detail on each type, they all list my year/model car. The 873 and 872 also list all the US variety of C-Classes as well (320 Luxury, 320 4-Matic, 280, 230, etc). Whereas the EUR1121 lists only the following: 2005 C230K (mine), 06-07 C230Sport, 05 C320, 05 C320 4Matic, 08-09 CLK350, 06-09 SLK350. Still, it doesn't seem right that a C320 4Matic would use the same pads as a C230K Sport.

I'm also planning on replacing my rotors with Zimmerman ones. Despite this being my first pad replacement, and the recommendation that the rotors be replaced after every other pad replacement, I noticed that I have a pretty good raised lip on the very outer and very inner part of the rotor where the pads don't touch. My rotors only have some minor grooving, but it seems that they're showing evidence of significant wearing. And, being that I've read that Akebono's last quite longer than the OEM Pagid pads, I think it would be wise to replace the rotors now.

So, anyone have any ideas on the Akebono pads to get?

Thanks,
Cintoman