New owner with a question, I saw where my vehicle has a brake pad wear warning system. I assume they all do. LS 430's.. My pedal goes further down than I would like and the rotors cause the shimmy at high speeds. I want to make sure the wear indicator isn't something someone could remove and leave off with me having a warning light. So, if I have no lights on the dash should I assume the wear indicator is present and not notifying me the pads are worn? 2001 UL LS 430

 

It's incorrect to assume no idiot lights on = everything is ok.

There are members who've said they've disconnected the (electronic) brake wear sensor from the brake pad and tie-wrapped it up and out of the way, and merely 'jumped out' the electronic circuit (if it had worn to the point that it cause the fault to appear on the dash), so that the warning extinguishes.

In other words, the electronic sensor can be faked out/jumped out with a paperclip or something similar. The sensor could also be removed from the brake pad location, and simply tie-wrapped up and out of the way from the moving rotor.

I don't know about an 01, but the 04-06's have them. There are 2. One on front passenger side and one rear passenger side.

 

I'm pretty sure you have one just remove the wheel and I think it's the passenger side the wire will be right by the brake line one on the front one on the back. Do like I do and change them before they get to the indicator.

 

Thanks guys, I will definitely check- according to the owners manual the indicator is a wear item as well and will need changed at some point.. I'll pull the wheel in the morning and check it out!!

 

As LS430inDE states, there are two brake wear indicators on this car - both on the passenger side (one front, one rear). The wear indicators are basically a loop of wire. They are inserted into a slot on one of the brake pads with a connector. When the pad is worn beyond an acceptable level, it will wear away part of the connector and cut the loop. The computer sees that there is an open circuit and will throw a warning message.

Here's a good picture of one. The pictures shown are for an LS400 but the LS430 model looks very similar:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...fix-ucf20.html

Normally if the system hasn't been bypassed (i.e. someone cut the connector off, soldered the wires together and tied it off), you will get a "Brake Wear" warning message on your dash when this occurs. At this point the sensor needs to be replaced to turn it off.

You can check them out to see if the sensors have been tampered with, but you don't see any evidence of it, there's no need to replace it unless you have the warning message on the dash.

In Quebec where I live, the brake wear indicators themselves are the same price as a set of pads from the Lexus Dealership. Rockauto has several brands that are much cheaper and function just as well. I would look there if you need to replace them.