Reseting Brake Pad Wear light - help

[1996 328ti]

It is a closed loop. I broke my E30 sensor but could still see the insulated wires. My guess is even if one wire shorts to ground, the circuit will still be considered open.

[Phil Marx]

The brake pad light will illuminate either when the sensor contacts ground (rotor surface or other), or if the circuit is broken (sensor surface worn through, or wires cut). You can easily check to see which sensor is causing the light by taking your old sensor (either front or rear), cutting off the actual sensor, and splicing the wires together. Check it with an ohm-meter to ensure you've made a complete circuit. Then plug this rig into your front or rear sensor wiring harness checking to see if if causes the light to go out. If both of your new sensors are bad (unlikely), you might need to hook up two of these splice testers to see if the light goes out. If that doesn't do it, you may have a break in the wires upstream of the plugs. I'm assuming you did the brake job because the light was on? Did the old sensors look like they'd worn enough to trip the light? Were the pads really worn down? If not, you may have just had a short in the circuit before you put in the new pads.

[Mad-Machine]

that answers the question I had.

My Ti, which I picked up in august, needed brakes BADLY in the front. The Passengerside had the outerpad almost to the metal backing. Since I am in the middle of a brake upgrade (buying the parts still) I just threw on the pads that came in the trunk (previous owner knew the brakes were going) and called it a day.

As mine were almost down to the metal, I can only assume that I should replace the sensors altogther. They do not seem that expensive.