Is it illegal to drive with the brake pad warning light lit?

[kentishman]

Is it illegal to drive with the brake pad warning light lit?

The reason I ask is about 3 months ago my Ford Galaxy was serviced and in addition to replacing the front pads, the garage advised checking the rear pads in approx 6000 miles time. Last week, 900 miles since the service, the brake pad warning light came on. The garage ( a respectable Ford Main Dealer) said the rear pads needed replacing, and although there was still about 5000 miles of wear left in them, it is illegal to drive with the pad warning light on and they had to be replaced.

Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated, thanks.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Err do you expect a policeman to be driving your car anytime soon?

 

[nstreet]

I'm not not sure its illegal, although it may be an mot failure if you have one anytime soon. I would say its probably more a question of responsibility rather than legality. If you were to have an accident an the insurance company demmed the brakes to be defective because of the wear they probably wouldn't pay out and that could land you in hot water should any claims be made against you for personal injury.

 

[^neo^]

Nope, not illegal and not part of the mot.

The brake pad warning light is probably one of the most unreliable lights on the whole car

 

[Ron Gamma]

don't mess with brakes - if in the slightest doubt then change them as soon as practicably possible.

I agree with the line on the insurance company - if they put the car in for assessment after an accident then you will get slaughtered. It usually says in the handbook to stop and have the vehicle towed to garage for repair or at least drive slowly to nearest repair point.

If you do get pulled for some reason by a VOSA check and the light is up then they will probably instruct you to have it towed immediately. you won't be allowed to move it further as they will then be culpable for allowing a potentially defective vehcile through their check point.

explanation if pulled will have to be that it came on earlier in the journey and you are completing journey home/to garage for estimate of repair

conscience versus common sense.

 

[kentishman]

Thanks for your quick replies and sensible advice.

The brake pads were worn down to the sensors, it's just the garage mechanic said that there was a lot more mileage left in them. Can't complain really as I got 40,000 miles out of them, and the Garage knocked 10% off the bill as well. I guess the brake pad manufacturer has to err on the side of caution when it comes to sensor activation to avoid litigation.

 

[Fluffster]

Driving a vehicle knowing it has a potential fault is only a problem if you are involved in an incident relating to the fault in terms of liability, and yes you can be prosecuted if a defect is found. Note I did not say accident because if you know in advance it cannot be deemed an accident.
Pete

 

[JamesHughes]

Brake pad warning lights sensors activate a long long time before the pad will be anywhere near worn enough to cause a problem. The brake will still work with a tiny amount of friction material on them (unless it cracked or damaged and even then they probably work well enough to stop the car quickly in all but the most emergency of stops) - you need to be down to the rivet or bare metal before they really start to fail. Many cars dont even have pad warning lights - just a metal strip that squeaks when pad is worn down enough for strip to touch the disc. Even then I bend the strip back a bit further to use a bit more of the pad before replacement (stops the noise!)

On the other hand, brake pads are easy to change, and cost very little in relationship to other parts on the car. Just did the front pads on a civic in 1/2hr for £30. One pad had 2mm left the rest 6 or 7 which proved to be a jammed pad in the calliper, so worth checking pads anyway for that sort of thing (which probably wont even show up as a pad fault light anyway). The brakes were still working fine....

James