Product Details
Electronic Pad Wear Sensor by PowerStop®. Replace your brake pad Electronic wear sensors with every brake pad replacement to avoid issues with your brake pad wear indicator on the dashboard. These replacements are a direct bolt-on replacement for the factory sensor.
Features
- Withstands heat stress up to 500 degrees
- Super conductive electrodes
- Direct ''Plug and Play'' replacement for electronic pad wear sensors
- Sensors are recommended for replacement with every brake job
- Sensor replacement is necessary to make the on-dash pad wear indicator function properly once pad wear has reached 50%, even if you replace the pads
- Make that brake pad wear indicator on the dash go off for good
- Easy install
Modern car manufacturers have added a very convenient feature to their instrument panels: a brake pad wear indicator that lights up when the pads are due for replacement. This sensor isn't particularly sophisticated; it's just a wire, and sometimes a resistor, that is worn away as the pads wear down. When the wire is worn through and breaks the circuit, the light is turned on, letting you know the pads are worn. Needless to say, to get that light to stay out when you replace the pads, the sensor has to be replaced too!
Okay, it's a little more complicated than that: some higher-end cars have a wire that wears through at about 50% pad wear. The onboard computer then looks at the mileage since the pads were replaced, and estimates how much pad life remains and displays that for your perusal in the Driver Information Center on the instrument panel. The pad wear sensor also has a resistor inside that maintains continuity across the sensor circuit, although no longer as a direct short like before the wire wears away. When the resistor eventually wears away, leaving the circuit completely open, the mileage displayed goes to nearly nothing. That resistor generally is finished at about 25% pad thickness remaining. You may need to use a factory scan tool (read: Go To The Dealer) to reset the whole system after replacing the pads and sensors. Otherwise, you'll constantly get either a worn pad indication or an error message.
Bottom line: once the sensor is worn down far enough, there's no way to avoid replacing it to keep from getting either a warning that your pads are nearly gone, or an out-and-out error message. Well, there's one way: you could simply replace the brake pads before they reach that 50% wear: we sell brake pads and sensors, so we don't care!
Founded in 1997 in Southern California, PowerStop® began with the goal of bringing the benefits of superior brake components at a reasonable cost to street performance and backyard performance enthusiasts everywhere. Company management and engineers believed then, as they do today, that better brakes make driving more enjoyable and safer for any vehicle, terrain, and driving style – not just street performance. They developed a philosophy that while brake components cannot be superior without the most advanced materials, they also cannot perform in a superior fashion without matching the exact tolerances of each and every individual vehicle they are created for. Relentless development and testing led to brake pads, rotors, drum shoes, and other related components that delivered uncompromising fit and operation, and PowerStop’s customer base grew exponentially from positive word of mouth. The company still has its original passion for creating the best products at the best possible prices, so when it comes to replacement brake components for your vehicle, PowerStop is the only name you need to know.