brake pad wear sensors

[poloag]

Hello,

Do our Polo's have sensors?

Thanks

[PoloGTInoob]

No one has answered but I don't know either. I've done 22k miles in my Polo GTI and the brake pads are only half worn according to VW during its service

[poloag]

they don't have a sensor at the front, had them changed recently. thanks

[Johntheo1]

they don't have a sensor at the front, had them changed recently. thanks

My 2019 Polo has one on the offside front, all my previous VWs ones were on the nearside front.

[Johntheo1]

they don't have a sensor at the front, had them changed recently. thanks

My 2019 Polo has one on the offside front, all my previous VWs ones were on the nearside front.

Apoligies to all, there is NO wear indicator on either the nearside or offside, I removed both front wheels to recheck.

[poloag]

thanks for confirming.

[RUM4MO]

I think that this would always have been "an importer option" and one that VW UK did not request, my wife has a 2015 6C VW Polo 1.2TSI 110PS SEL, and it does not have any brake wear sensor either - her previous car, a 2002 9N VW Polo 1.4 16V SE did have though.

I remember looking for new front pads way before her 2015 VW Polo needed them, but could not find any being sold without wear sensors included in a single pad - then I re-read the official parts listing and it indicated that for most PR codes, you had to cut off the wear sensor lead!

Seems like a silly small omission when, I'm sure, Skoda Fabia does tend to have brake wear sensors, I'm quite capable of keeping at eye on brake pad friction material thickness, even on my old S4 I do that as the plan needs to be to change the front pads BEFORE the brake wear sensor makes contact with the disc as it is a clip on item to a standard "no wear sensor" brake pad, so let it get worn and you need to replace it - okay not a big expense, but no point in letting it getting worn.

[Johntheo1]

I never let my pads wear down to the "limit" but I replaced them in my daughters Passat after the wear indicator did flag a warning, I measured the warning pad with a vernier calipers and there was I think about 25% of the lining remaining. My car still has the brake wear warning display and it does the functional check when I switch on the ignition, my manual describes in detail the details of this phantom wear indicator. Never mind, I still can't get a proper fuse layout despite my main dealer giving me about 20 different printouts.

[RUM4MO]

The fuse layout issue has been a nonsense for many years, probably linked to changes/updates on cars and handbooks.

It does seem crazy that any model that does not have "brake wear sensors" still has that function checked at ignition switch on, not necessary at all, though if that function can not be deactivated in coding, it just shows how basic VW Group has made its controllers, it almost sounds like a link has been made in the cable form to simulate the brake wear sensor - instead of not coding that function in.

Edit:- at least 25 years ago, VWs officially imported for sale in Southern Ireland, had many options left out, as demanded by the importer, one of them was sunroofs, which was why doing the usual "personal importing" via Southern Irish dealers tended not to be a very clever idea, and yes I did look into doing that, then changed to doing the same from Holland were there was a willingness to order what I wanted which was UK official spec plus some UK official factory fitted options.

Curiously, maybe relevant to this thread, my personally imported VW Passat 4Motion, ordered in via Intercar in Brunssum in Holland, came without the brake wear sensor coded in but everything fitted, also the washer fluid level warning was also not coded in but physically fitted - that car had HIDs so headlight washers. I only discovered the missing washer level warning AFTER running out of washer fluid on a long North>South trip in winter - and that meant buying VCDS as local VW dealership would only sort this by buying a new instrument pod and charging extra to code it to suit the car - and while doing the coding I discovered that the brake wear sensor was also not coded in, so sorted that out at the same time.