V70 T6 Brake fluid warning light
 

I have a 2010 ex police V70 T6, recently I had the low brake fluid warning light come on. Volvo assured me that it could only be the reservoir causing it. So I bought a new one & replaced it.
However this did not turn the light off, long story short, it turned out that on my car the brake pad warning sensor had been wired into this circuit. It was actually a broken wire from one of the brake pad sensors that caused the issue. I am really posting this so that anybody that experiences the same problem can save loads of time. I could find nothing about it on the net.

One for a FAQ me thinks.

Volvo's do not normally have brake pad wear sensors in my experience and this would be a police spec, a bit like the full sized spare carried vertically in the boot space so unlikely to be general knowlage.

Paul.

Hi Paul
You are right, it is only the Police spec cars that have wear indicators & they are wired into the low brake fluid warning circuit. This is obviously an MOT failure now (Low brake fluid warning light), so of major concern. I searched for days trying to find something about it on the net, but no info, I asked my local Volvo dealership about the problem & they had no idea. The dealership also told me it was not possible for the wear indicator to be wired into this circuit, they were very wrong.
Hopefully the next person who has the problem will find this post & check the brake pad wires.

I have just bought an interior from a 2014 V70 with electric seats, the wiring is already there for them. However the electrics don't currently work, the dealership told me it is not possible to get them working. I will get them working & post what I needed to do.

Bear in mind that when any garage says something can't be done, it can be an alternative way of saying that they know how to do it but they don't want the work and potential hassle that comes with it.
They can't really say that though.

Garages get paid the same hourly rate for whatever work they're doing so why would they want to trace a spurious electrical fault caused by someone in the past bastardising wiring when they could be undoing a sump bolt or swapping some brake pads?

I can understand what you are saying, but all I asked them to do was plug the car in & see if the Electric seat option was turned on in the ECU. They told me it was not possible to take seats out of one Volvo & fit them in another. I believe that this could be why they don't work, but I am 100% sure that I will get them working one way or the other.
The Police spec cars come out of the factory with the wear indicators as a standard feature i believe.

There was information on this forum about the Police spec models and brake pad sensors in the form of a dropbox link with all the technical bulletins. Unfotunately the link has since expired and all the info has been lost.

FYI, they have also use a red light installed on the dash next to the steering wheel as the warning, but at some point changed to/from wiring it into the low fluid warning sensor.

I saved off the police newsletters from that dropbox link.

I'm just uploading them to google drive now.

Here's the link, 56MB Zip file download:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9...kFJTUpscG50U3M

Thanks for the help, its good to share information, saves loads of time & money.