I thought others might like to see one method of safely extracting Brake Pad Sensors that worked for me.
1) You know the drill: Chock wheels, loosen wheel bolts (1/4) turn, jack car up, place a jack stand, and remove the wheel.
2) Remove the brake pads. (See instructions elsewhere on the site.)
3) Use the "Special Sensor Extraction" tool pictured below. I used the tweezers from an old Victorinx Classic SD (Classic Swiss Army Pocket Knife). It can be seen and ordered from their site (
www.swissarmy.com). It is approximately 3" long, and has a model number of 53001.
The knife is on the left. The tweezers are in the center. And, the modified tweezers are on the right. The ruler is there just to show the sizes of the items.
I just bent the tweezers with pliers to make them just a little wider than the Brake Sensor attachment clip. I also bent them so that the ends would be parallel.
This is just a photo of a brake pad with the sensor attached.
4) Insert the modified tweezers (aka "the tool") between the brake pad and the sensor attachment clip (on the side opposite to the wires). It will take a little work (and probably some cussing) to get it into place. I found that if you keep the attachment clip centered in the brake pad slot and put one edge of the tool in just a little way, then you can also get the other edge in place too. Then, just push it in while keeping it perpendicular to the brake pad. The photo below shows it in place.
5) Use the tool as a lever to raise the attachment clip up enough for it to stay in the brake pad but just barely. See the photo below.
6) Finally, carefully remove the tool (without disturbing the attachment clip). Put the tool under the attachment clip and lever it out of the brake pad. See the photo below.
This method worked fine for me every time. There was no damage to the attachment clips. And, I was able to reuse them.
I hope this will help you on your next brake pad change.
Mark
Linear Mode
