Service brake lights ON, then off
 

I Had the brake service warning ON, for a couple of days , now off.
Car has 10,000 miles (steep Mountain twisty driving).
How many more miles can I drive after the warning light is on?

Why does it comes off?

If you drive one more mile then you wil die....

The sensor that sets off the light is a simple loope of wire covered in plastic. As the brake pad friction material wears away over time the sensor moves closer to the rotor. Ultimately the rotor starts grinding away at the plastic and then the wire. When the then exposed wire touches the rotor there is a ground so the warning light goes on. If the rotor moves away from the wire then the light goes off.

At least that is the way it was explained to me.

This is a picture of a pad I replaced on someones car. You can see the rotor has started to grind down the black plastic that covers the wire loope, but not enough to expose the wires. So that car had no light on.

You can also see that there is still friction material left on the pad even when you get down to the sensor. How many more miles depends on how hard you use the brakes.

I found a picture of my car.

You can see the hole in the friction material that the sensor sits in. You can see the hole on the top picture is exposed on the side due to normal wear of the pad. The rotor would be rubbing against the senor on the exposed side. You can also see how much friction material is left even with the exposed hole.

Not that it matters, but I had removed the sensors years earlier and tied them out of the way.