[beanbaguk]

My dealership has been packed these past months and I've not been able to fit the car in for pad replacements.

I'm now down to the last 70km. How much wear do I actually have left as my appointment isn't for another 2 weeks and I have another 500km between now and then….should I be ok? (Fyi, it's hard to tell by looking at the pads with the wheels on).

[Opie55]

Do not go by that counter. Unless BMW has somehow installed a very sophisticated system that I am unaware of since my 2015 650, the counter in iDrive is totally "dumb." It's not measuring anything other than miles driven since the system was last reset. It can be utterly unrelated to remaining pad thickness. If you cannot do it yourself, or just use your eyes, have a shop measure your actual pad thickness. You might have 15,000 km left on them.

[Opie55]

As for your worry, don't. You actually do have a second system that directly measures your pads. Your brake wear sensors physically contact the disc when the pads are thin and give a warning in your cluster. Until that happens (and for a while after) you are safe to drive. But seriously, have somebody look at your pads asap and cancel your appointment if necessary. It's just a way BMW makes money off of people who think these cars are way more sophisticated than they really are. My dead grandmother has just as good an idea how much pad life you have left as iDrive does.

[LogicalApex]

Originally Posted by Opie55

As for your worry, don't. You actually do have a second system that directly measures your pads. Your brake wear sensors physically contact the disc when the pads are thin and give a warning in your cluster. Until that happens (and for a while after) you are safe to drive. But seriously, have somebody look at your pads asap and cancel your appointment if necessary. It's just a way BMW makes money off of people who think these cars are way more sophisticated than they really are. My dead grandmother has just as good an idea how much pad life you have left as iDrive does.

On the G30 iDrive no longer shows the brake service indicator until the wear sensor has been tripped. I would check the pad thickness to get an idea of how much is left. It may not be right in its estimate, but the breaks are definitely worn enough to trip the sensor.

[AddyDaddy]

2 months ago my pads at service had 5+mm left and showed good(green check mark). And month later I got the warning countdown with 1300 miles warning. It's now down to 200 miles. Trying to find low dust replacements for front and rear pads and rotors. My lease ends in 1.5 months on my M550 and if I'm buying brakes, I'm buying the car.

[Opie55]

Originally Posted by LogicalApex

On the G30 iDrive no longer shows the brake service indicator until the wear sensor has been tripped. I would check the pad thickness to get an idea of how much is left. It may not be right in its estimate, but the breaks are definitely worn enough to trip the sensor.

That's interesting, although the post below yours would seem to indicate its' still very conservative unless that poster drives a lot or brakes hard. Maybe they have made the wear sensors contact much sooner than previously.

[mercidar]

On the day mine was booked in for pad replacement, this counter went past zero and became a "red" warning stating that the vehicle could only be driven a short distance. The independent shop I took it to said there was 2.5mm of front pads remaining.

The first warning came with 2000km left to go before pad replacement but I did notice the countdown was dynamic and not just set at 2000km from the moment it came on.