Red service error and ‘BRAKE’ light after Spacers Install, Help!

[BigRussia]

I installed wheel spacers this past Sunday and while the wheels were off I sprayed the brake rotors and calipers with standard brake cleaner and wiped them down, no big deal.
So after the install I go for a test drive and about 10 mins into my drive I get the *GONG* and the CBC shows a red service error light (car on lift) and the handbrake 'BRAKE' light comes on and stays on...with my handbrake down the entire time. These have never happened before so I pull over and pull up CC-ID 71 for the red service error.

Did a quick search on the error 71 code and it seems to involve the rear brake pad sensor. But I saw my rear pads have plenty meat left when installing the spacers. So what’s going on with my car? Did the brake cleaner spray somehow mess up the sensor? Or did I mess it up/trigger it while I was wiping down the rear caliper?

This is all very strange and the red service light and BRAKE light won’t go away. Even stranger every time I’ve turn on the car the red service error is increasing in negative miles. Started with -50 when first came on during test drive and in two days and 60 miles since it first happened its shown -70, -80, -110, this morning -500, and this afternoon -600 miles! Just turned on the car 15 mins ago in my driveway and now it jumped to -700 miles!!

Quick background: I just got my car back from the dealer last Wednesday, they serviced my front brakes replacing the front pads and rotors, flushed the fluid and I’m assuming a new front brake pad sensor. That’s another reason I know my rear pads are fine because the dealer would’ve replaced them last week if they were due, so something during my spacers install caused this.

I really don’t want to go back to the dealer so soon and especially now that I’ve put spacers on all my wheels and they might use that to refuse service under my CPO warranty. Did my rear brake sensor really get prematurely triggered or is something else going on? What should I do? Thanks guys and sorry for all my recent problem posts!

[BigRussia]

Bump, no one can me help me out? the Red service error was now at -800 miles this morning and in the afternoon jumped to -900 miles. Its jumping 100 miles back every time!

[Spectral]

It's unlikely you damaged the sensor, but you may have knocked it loose or moved it slightly and then it's ground against the rotors or other part and been damaged. The only way you'll find out is by taking off the wheel and having a good look. If its loose and undamged, refit it, and then run the brake light reset procedure as detailed elsewhere on this forum by dack.

[6MT_Addict]

+1 ^^. The sensor has a sacrificial 'prong' that wears. It trips the sensor once it wears down. You could replace it, or just cut the cable and connect the two wires, then reset the service light. The sensor is literally a single connection; virtually impossible to short it as there are no computer chips in the sensor

[BigRussia]

Originally Posted by Spectral

It's unlikely you damaged the sensor, but you may have knocked it loose or moved it slightly and then it's ground against the rotors or other part and been damaged. The only way you'll find out is by taking off the wheel and having a good look. If its loose and undamged, refit it, and then run the brake light reset procedure as detailed elsewhere on this forum by dack.

Originally Posted by 1AddictsAnonymous

+1 ^^. The sensor has a sacrificial 'prong' that wears. It trips the sensor once it wears down. You could replace it, or just cut the cable and connect the two wires, then reset the service light. The sensor is literally a single connection; virtually impossible to short it as there are no computer chips in the sensor

Thanks for the responses! Yeah I've been doing alot of googling and learned about the sensor's two wire tripping system. I also saw that a replacement sensor is pretty cheap ~$20, so I am considering just buying a new one and changing it myself instead of dealing with the dealership.
Is the sensor install a simple plug and play or do I have to take apart the caliper? And after installing the new sensor I then do the brake light reset that Spectal mentioned correct? Will the CBC go to the correct remaining miles for the pads after the reset? (I'm assuming the first wire on the new sensor is going to trip and trigger the first stage yellow service light, starting a new miles count for remaining pad life since they're probably around 50%)

I also saw the trick with cutting and tying the wires together but my car is still under CPO and Extended Maintenance coverage so I want the car to correctly count down the miles for my pads so I can get a new rear set from BMW before the coverage expires

PS: just for giggles the red error's miles counter is now at -1,200! lol

[mr.fabulous]

Originally Posted by BigRussia

Is the sensor install a simple plug and play or do I have to take apart the caliper?

I just did my front brakes... and I don't believe it'd be terribly easy to get the sensor out without pulling the caliper (to get the pad out). Rears are much easier, the caliper stays on the car. See the brake DIY for more information... but my humble opinion is it's best to unbolt the bracket from the carrier than the caliper from the bracket (replace the bolts).

[6MT_Addict]

Originally Posted by mr.fabulous

I just did my front brakes... and I don't believe it'd be terribly easy to get the sensor out without pulling the caliper (to get the pad out). Rears are much easier, the caliper stays on the car. See the brake DIY for more information... but my humble opinion is it's best to unbolt the bracket from the carrier than the caliper from the bracket (replace the bolts).

+1. Just go all the way and remove the caliper. It's easy to do and will give you more room. In other words, less time, less frustration, and less money in the swear jar haha.

Also maybe your spacer had offset the sensor causing it to prematurely wear? I would look into why this happened before just replacing it with a part that may just wear out rapidly like the last one. Fix the cause not just the symptom so to speak.

Originally Posted by BigRussia

PS: just for giggles the red error's miles counter is now at -1,200! lol

[Silenus]

Originally Posted by 1AddictsAnonymous

Also maybe your spacer had offset the sensor causing it to prematurely wear? I would look into why this happened before just replacing it with a part that may just wear out rapidly like the last one. Fix the cause not just the symptom so to speak.

That's not how the sensor works, it sits in between the rotor and the pad. The spacer has zero effect on it.

The sensor has a short to ground caused by two things:

1. When the tech did the brake flush he forgot to put the sensor wire in the brake bleeder cap, causing the wheel to rub the sensor wire down.

2. You did something during the spacer install.

A new sensor will fix the problem. The dealer will look at it and fix it if they did it, but if they determine that they did not cause the problem (this is very easy for them to do) they will put you on the hook. They will perform a CBS correction with the current pad life, but a total reset will work fine as long as you have plenty of life (> ~7mm) on your pads.

[BigRussia]

Originally Posted by 1AddictsAnonymous

Also maybe your spacer had offset the sensor causing it to prematurely wear? I would look into why this happened before just replacing it with a part that may just wear out rapidly like the last one. Fix the cause not just the symptom so to speak.

Originally Posted by Silenus

That's not how the sensor works, it sits in between the rotor and the pad. The spacer has zero effect on it.

The sensor has a short to ground caused by two things:

1. When the tech did the brake flush he forgot to put the sensor wire in the brake bleeder cap, causing the wheel to rub the sensor wire down.

2. You did something during the spacer install.

A new sensor will fix the problem. The dealer will look at it and fix it if they did it, but if they determine that they did not cause the problem (this is very easy for them to do) they will put you on the hook. They will perform a CBS correction with the current pad life, but a total reset will work fine as long as you have plenty of life (> ~7mm) on your pads.

^ Yep exactly what I was going to say about the spacers affecting the sensor, the spacers sit on the hub and are far away from the caliper and sensor which itself is tucked towards the back of the caliper. Also as I mentioned in my first post I was cleaning and wiping down the calipers during the spacers install so Im thinking I may have gotten a little carried away with my wiping and touched the sensor without knowing it def wasnt the tech from my recent dealer visit since they only worked on the front brakes and the problem arised more than a week later from the visit and right after the spacer install during the test drive.

Thanks for confirming the reset, I already decided to replace the sensor myself and already bought a new one (only $21 shipped!). I just need to look up the brake DIY and wanted to know if doing the reset procedure afterwards would put my CBC on the right track afterwards cause I was worried it wont track right afterwards. Ill also make sure to measure the pads while I'm replacing the sensor, thanks for the 7mm info!

[BigRussia]

Ok I finally got around to replacing the rear pad sensor and resetting the CBC yesterday, but more fun ensued (and by fun I mean more problems and confusion of course)

I first snipped off the factory 'defective' rear pad sensor and tied the wires together to use as a dummy for resettting the CBC before installing the new replacement sensor (as alot of other people did in threads of this topic).

But when I went into reset menu (using Dackelone's helpful DIY here) it wasn’t the rear sensor icon throwing code but the front brake symbol it seemed! Since the front icon was in red and rear's in yellow (remember my front brakes were recently serviced by BMW about a month ago new pads and rotors).

So I figured ok let me just reset the fronts and problem would be solved, wrong, it reset not just the fronts but the rear too and both show a blank _____ mileage counter in yellow.
Turned off the car and *GONG* the damn red car on lift error is still there and again when I turn the car back on!

I go back in the reset menu and see now that the service icon is in red and at (-220 miles) so I reset that, but the red lift error and BRAKE light still come on!!

Went for drive to see if lift error clears on own, it has not and 'BRAKE' is still on too, both front and rear pad mileages are still blank showing _______.

So what's the deal? This is extremely frustrating! How and why am I still getting the red car on lift and 'BRAKE' light when I turn the car on and off and had the wires tied together on the rear sensor?? And did I end up cutting up my rear brake pad sensor for nothing? The red car on lift error still returns code CC-ID 71, but I'm starting to think it's not even my pad sensors that are the problem (even though the BRAKE light is on alongside it), so confusing!

Please help, I don't think I can go to the dealership and be covered under CPO now that I reset both my brake pad and service counters and messed with the rear sensor!

[BigRussia]

Originally Posted by BigRussia

Ok I finally got around to replacing the rear pad sensor and resetting the CBC yesterday, but more fun ensued (and by fun I mean more problems and confusion of course)

I first snipped off the factory 'defective' rear pad sensor and tied the wires together to use as a dummy for resettting the CBC before installing the new replacement sensor (as alot of other people did in threads of this topic).

But when I went into reset menu (using Dackelone's helpful DIY here) it wasn’t the rear sensor icon throwing code but the front brake symbol it seemed! Since the front icon was in red and rear's in yellow (remember my front brakes were recently serviced by BMW about a month ago new pads and rotors).

So I figured ok let me just reset the fronts and problem would be solved, wrong, it reset not just the fronts but the rear too and both show a blank _____ mileage counter in yellow.
Turned off the car and *GONG* the damn red car on lift error is still there and again when I turn the car back on!

I go back in the reset menu and see now that the service icon is in red and at (-220 miles) so I reset that, but the red lift error and BRAKE light still come on!!

Went for drive to see if lift error clears on own, it has not and 'BRAKE' is still on too, both front and rear pad mileages are still blank showing _______.

So what's the deal? This is extremely frustrating! How and why am I still getting the red car on lift and 'BRAKE' light when I turn the car on and off and had the wires tied together on the rear sensor?? And did I end up cutting up my rear brake pad sensor for nothing? The red car on lift error still returns code CC-ID 71, but I'm starting to think it's not even my pad sensors that are the problem (even though the BRAKE light is on alongside it), so confusing!

Please help, I don't think I can go to the dealership and be covered under CPO now that I reset both my brake pad and service counters and messed with the rear sensor!

Bump, anyone can help or give some advice?
I attached some pics. First two pics are the brake pads in the reset menu showing a blank ______ no matter how many times I try RESET. And the third pic is the red car on lift error I am seeing every time I turn the car on and off and is slowing driving me insane along with the BRAKE light being always on.

[Spectral]

In that brake indicator reset procedure thread, I had a similar issue.
Try this ;

* Plug sensor in
* Start car and reset front brakes (and get the ------- km message and still get inspection warnings)
* Turn off car
* Unplug sensor and short out the vehicle side of the sensor with a wire like above
* Start car and reset front brakes (got 110000km message and still got inspection warnings (as the car knew something wasn't right)
* Turn off car
* Plug sensor back in
* Start car and reset front brakes (got 62000km on the display which sounds better)
* Turn off car - still got the red car on the lift error/warning
* Start car and reset the inspection setting.
* Turn off car - all messages and warnings cleared.

Keep in mind it might be the front giving you the warnings if you reset that service reminder without actually changing the sensor. So short that sensor out as well. I use a staple bent into a 'U' shape and push it gently into the car side of the sensor plug with some needle nose pliers.

[BigRussia]

Originally Posted by Spectral

In that brake indicator reset procedure thread, I had a similar issue.
Try this ;

* Plug sensor in
* Start car and reset front brakes (and get the ------- km message and still get inspection warnings)
* Turn off car
* Unplug sensor and short out the vehicle side of the sensor with a wire like above
* Start car and reset front brakes (got 110000km message and still got inspection warnings (as the car knew something wasn't right)
* Turn off car
* Plug sensor back in
* Start car and reset front brakes (got 62000km on the display which sounds better)
* Turn off car - still got the red car on the lift error/warning
* Start car and reset the inspection setting.
* Turn off car - all messages and warnings cleared.

Keep in mind it might be the front giving you the warnings if you reset that service reminder without actually changing the sensor. So short that sensor out as well. I use a staple bent into a 'U' shape and push it gently into the car side of the sensor plug with some needle nose pliers.

Thanks for the reply and info! I was getting worried no one was going to help me lol.

Dont know why I didnt think of the wire/staple bridging trick instead of cutting up my current factory sensor into a dummy plug lol. I'm gonna try that but in case i don't have thin enough wire to bridge the car side harness do you think the rear sensor dummy plug can be used to also dupe the front sensor harness, since they're basically the same physically?

Also in the second to last point:

Originally Posted by Spectral

* Start car and reset the inspection setting

^ Can you clarify if you mean the front pad sensor setting or the service due setting (car on lift icon)?

Thanks again

[Spectral]

Hi again,

EDIT: sorry, I mean reset the service due indication (car on lift) at that last step

[BigRussia]

Ok received the correct replacement sensor for the rear and got back in the dungeon today. Did Spectrals reset procedure with the rear but still no success and still getting ______ mls, figured no big deal lets try resetting the front now to see if that fixes everything. Take off the front wheel and BAM! Culprit found!



So it was the front pad sensor this whole time...

No idea how it could've broke like this and it looks fairly new, so safe to say BMW indeed did replace it when I got my front brake pads and rotors replaced less than 2 months ago.

So in summary I had cut up my rear pad sensor, had the wrong replacement sensor, waited for the correct replacement to arrive, installed the rear replacement and all for nothing lol what a fail. If only I had looked at both the front and rear sensors before doing anything or checked the reset menu beforehand... but in my defense the car is throwing the wrong CC-ID code, CC-ID 71, which is for the rear

[BigRussia]

Dont think anyones really following this but figured i post the conclusion to my brake sensor saga/fiasco...

After getting the proper replacement rear pad sensor and installing it, i took the car to the BMW dealer with the broken front pad sensor. Got a text from my SA later in the day saying the sensor is broken (which I knew) and because the car has aftermarket spacers they blamed them (which i was afraid they would) even though I explained to the SA that the spacers don't affect the brakes in anyway let alone the pad sensor that's tucked behind the caliper, and that the error came on after the spacer install.

So I ended up having to pay out of pocket for everything including the CBS correction to get all the service indicators i had tried to reset back to the proper readings...all in all I paid $200 for this. Total was $520 to also fix my persistent light bulb error which turned out to be a faulty right cornering light which they charged $200 to 'program' also out of CPO warranty...CPO seeming pretty useless right now.

well....at least the damn gongs are gone

[inFamousKicks]

Sucks, but tbh, I would've removed the spacers before going.

[BigRussia]

Originally Posted by inFamousKicks

Sucks, but tbh, I would've removed the spacers before going.

Yeah I really wanted to but man I had to mallet them onto the hubs when I installed them lol, so I knew they were gonna be a major pain to take back off.