Rapido Brake Pad Wear Indicator

[stevec176]

Help!!! My van had its 3 year service carried out in March and now I am near John O Groates and my brake pad wear warning light has come on. I've done nearly 15000 miles in the 3 years. Does anyone know if I need to worry or is there likely to be enough meat for another 1000 miles.

Can anyone recommend anyone in the Wick / John O Groates area to get the brakes checked please.

I'm going up the East coast.

 

[Steve928]

At that mileage I would be very surprised if it were a genuine warning but appreciate that you need to check..

 

On my 3500kg chassis I changed the front pads + discs at 40,000 miles mainly due to disc corrosion and the pads were perhaps half worn.

The rears have done 48,000 miles and the pads are less than 1/3 worn. The discs are wearing more rapidly than the pads so I will change both after our next trip at c. 55,000 miles.

 

This after plenty of Alpine and Pyrenean touring.

 

Sorry, I can't help with a garage in that area that could check for you.

[Cattwg]

The advice in my Fiat handbook is non-comital; “Have them replaced as soon as possible”. So it would seem that immediate replacement is not crucial.

At 22000 miles, my pad warning light came on whilst on holiday in the UK. I noticed no difference in the braking efficiency so continued with the holiday and covered about 800 miles.

Whilst replacing them the owner of my local garage remarked “There’s usually a couple of thousand miles on them after the light comes on”.

I had a similar scenario many years ago with a car.

Cattwg :-D

[stevec176]

Thanks, I've contacted the dealer who did the service to see if the pads were checked during the service. I know when my car is serviced they take off the wheels and check the brakes so hope they do with the van.

[Derek Uzzell]

My 2015 Rapido 640F had covered about 13000 miles when it was serviced in April this year.

 

Prior to each service I remove the motorhome’s wheels, clean the wheels, carefully check the tyres for damage/wear and check the condition of the brake pads and discs. Wear of the rear discs and pads was minimal: the front discs had a slight ‘lip’ and the pads had retained about 60% of their original thickness.

 

Disc/pad wear will directly relate to how and where a vehicle is operated - gently ‘cruising’ a motorhome on a motorway will not require much braking, whereas Steve’s mountain-touring would be expected to result in a higher wear rate. And some drivers are harder on the brakes than others.

 

As Steve says above, unless there’s something actually wrong with the Rapido’s brakes (eg. a sticking calliper - that would probably be noticed by the driver) it’s unlikely that the pad-wear warning is genuine.

 

Any reputable garage should be able to confirm the thickness of a Ducato’s brake-pads visually (and cheaply) without removing the road wheels. On-line directories indicate that there are several garages in the John O’groats/Wick area including this one in Wick itself

 

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[Alanb]

Many tears ago I had a similar experience to the OP. A quick roadside check revealed that one of the sensor wires was rubbing against the disc. There was plenty of pad thickness remaining.

 

Alan

[witzend]

Just take off the n/s front wheel and look thats the side the sensor is mine came on last year in Loire I checked it and have come home twice since an still ok I disconnected the sensor to stop lite

[stevec176]

Have spoken with the dealers and they've assured me the brakes were checked on its service so unless anything doesn't feel right or I start to hear horrible sounds when braking I'll leave alone and carry on.

Many thanks