Thank all of you who posted to this thread!

I changed my rotors and pads in my 2005 530. I used Hawk HPS plus pads which came with new sensors. However when I changed the pads and reset the mileage the mileage for the rear went to -15000 and the front went to -9000 miles, and the service light occured. After reading this thread, I became convinced that the Hawk sensors did not come with the 470 ohm resistor shorted out (when brand new)as required by BMW for reseting the brake pad mileage. Using the old sensor had the same result as they were now used and the shorting wire was gone. I disconected the sensor and used a paper clip as a temporary short and then I was able to reset the mileage to 0000. It took a couple of tries to get the mileage to stay reset to 0000, for both the front and back brakes.

Thanks Again,

Wayne

 

I am using Hawk HPS front and rear pads on my E60. The pad wear sensors front and back are BMW (not aftermarket).

The first reset for rear brakes worked: 3200 -> 32000 miles.

The first reset for front brakes did not work: 2400 -> -9000 miles. It took a couple of tries to get the front reset to 25000 miles. I know I can remove the wheel to check the pad wear sensor fitment, but has anyone found a loosely connected / poorly snapped-in sensor to be the cause for the first negative number readout? Is the negative readout a logic test and therefore normal behaviour?

 

Just did the front and rear brake pads (Hawk HPS pads) and front BMW rotors replacement along with new BMW sensors. I reset the front sensor with 1 try and rear sensor with 1 try too. Could it be the sensor issue which causes some members to reset with more than 1 try ?

 

I spoke with a BMW Center tech. Even they have to perform multiple reset attempts sometime. He said not to worry as long as the reset works eventually.

 

Okay, I was lucky then