Al forgot to mention in his M3 post which is totally misguided an interesting difference of opinion, that a little warning lamp appeared on the dashboard yesterday. I couldn't get a decent photo of it, but it looks something like (O) that. The owner's manual says only to have the brake pads checked out, but we've suspected the brakes have been close to the end of their useful life since we drove the tar out of it in Josh's brilliant comparison test against a current 135i and 335i.
It turns out it's the brake pad wear warning lamp that is connected at the other end to that little sensor you see pictured above...
I didn't take that photo either (I pulled it from the Interwebs), and it's apparently from an E36 M3, but they all have similar systems in place to keep you from marring otherwise smooth rotors. According to our own Maintenance Guide, "Inspection II" doesn't require a pad replacement, but only an inspection of the brake system.
We'll hope for the best but suspect this may cost a few dollars. According to several BMW enthusiast sites, there's a chance we'll need to replace the sensor(s) as well as the pads, depending on how much wear has occurred to the sensor(s).
We'll keep you informed.
Chris Walton, Chief Road Test Editor @ 56,770 miles
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