Hello everyone I was curious if any body could give me any information on about how long I could drive my 2016 E63 AMGs with the brake pad wear sensor light on. I've only driven 150 miles or so since the light came on but my parts have not come in yet and I need to drive my car on a trip that will be a little less than 400 miles round trip. Do y'all think this is a bad idea? Any info would be appreciated.

 

I think you could probably get a couple thousand miles…

 

You have 5-6 mm thickness of brake pad left when the light comes on so you have a few thousand miles on them to drive. For well less than 1000 miles should be no problems. I would think, depending on where you drive, you have 3000-5000 miles left on them.

BUT, there is only one wear sensor on each axle on passenger side and Mercedes obviously assumes pads wear evenly between left and right sides. This is not always true. You can have a caliper little sticky on one side causing less wear than on the other so you should look at the pads around the car to verify you have enough pads left on them all. To be safe you need I would think 3 mm (1/8”) of pad material.

 

On my car, based on new brake pad thickness ( friction material + metal frame ) of 17.35mm
Alarm trigger is set at 9.1mm.
Metal frame/base thickness of pad is at 6.22mm
So pad friction material left when alarm is triggered = 9.1 - 6.2 = 2.9mm

1st PAD, front.
My normal driving is 4,600KM per mm friction pad consumed. Based on 20,100 KM served.
Of which 10,000KM is from a very mild 1st owner driver's driving style and the rest by me.


2n PAD, front. 100% me.
My 2nd pad due to 20 laps at a race track , not racing, just spirited driving, 1mm pad serves only 3,400KM based on 9,000KM served.

NOTE :
The method of how pad friction material is attached to the metal frame, I do not know. It may use small spikes...maybe.
So 2.9mm pad balance after alarm triggered, could only be worth...to be safe, 1.5mm.

So, safe to say at least you are good to 5,000 - 7,000 KM normal driving for your pad balance.

 

I seem to recall reading that those sensors went off when you had 25% brake pads left. I think when it went on mine, it happened on the side with the least brake pad material left but that was just luck I guess.