Cause
Worn brake pads
Friction material worn to or beyond its limit. It is recorded as a cause because modern vehicles detect it in several ways, and the resulting codes do not always mention pads: a wear sensor circuit completing as the material exposes it, or a module inferring wear from caliper travel and fluid level.
Fluid level is the mechanism people miss. As pads wear, the caliper pistons extend and the fluid that fills behind them comes from the reservoir — so a level that falls steadily with no leak is pads wearing, and a low-fluid warning can be the first sign. A brake fluid warning with no leak is worth taking to the pads before the hydraulics.
Electric parking brakes complicate the replacement. The calipers must be retracted electronically in service mode, and winding one back mechanically damages the mechanism. Check both sides and both axles — uneven wear points at a dragging caliper or a seized slider, which is a different fault that will consume the new pads too.
Typically a moderate job.
Some of these codes mean you should stop driving
1 of the 2 codes this can cause indicate a fault where continuing to drive risks damage or is unsafe. Which one you have matters more than the cause does — read the code's own page before deciding.
Codes this can cause (2)
Codes where this is a likely explanation first, rather than merely a possible one.
Information, not instruction
CarGeek is a reference, not a service manual. Its pages are written from public sources and from what other people have found, never from a manufacturer's own service information, so they can be wrong or incomplete for your particular vehicle. Some of what they describe carries real risk: high voltage, fuel under pressure, stored energy, hot and moving parts.
Have anything you intend to act on checked by a trained person against the manufacturer's own procedure for your vehicle. Nothing here replaces that procedure.
Others who found this
Be the first to write this up
Nothing posted about this yet. Whatever you found is worth writing down — even a dead end saves someone the same afternoon.
What makes one worth reading:
- The car — make, model, year and engine. The same fault behaves differently on each.
- What you measured, not only what you replaced.
- What actually fixed it — or that nothing did, which is worth knowing too.
Sign in or create an account to add what you found about Worn brake pads.