V70 T6 Brake fluid warning light

[jerryhayling]

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.

[tt82]

One for a FAQ me thinks.

[green van man]

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.

[jerryhayling]

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.

[cheshired5]

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?

[jerryhayling]

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.

[freddystall]

I have a 2009 V70 D5 ex ambulance which is police spec. My low brake fluid level light came on intermittently at first then a few days later stayed on indicating a code of 066 when checked at my local garage (not Volvo). My front wheels also have brake pad wear wires that have been taped up. I also recently had new front tires fitted and noticed these wires. After the light came on i checked these and found that one of the connectors was rubbing on the wheel. I removed the connection, on the other side I noticed that the two sensor wires had been twisted together so I left them as they were as they have been like this for a long time. I will remove the connector to see if this puts the light out. The first time the light came on I was driving in Derbyshire on some hilly steep roads so initially I thought the light was genuine, when checked the fluid tank was full. The steep roads may have caused the sensor float to move more which has alerted the warning lights. Luckily my MOT isn't till July so hopefully will find the problem before then

[Simon Jones]

The manual does not mention a 'low brake fluid level' light. However there is one for 'fault in brake system' which is described as:

Fault in brake system
If this symbol illuminates, the brake fluid level
may be too low. Stop the car in a safe place
and check the level in the brake fluid reservoir,
see page 188.
If the brake and ABS symbols illuminate at
the same time, there may be a fault in the
brake force distribution system.
1. Stop the car in a safe place and turn off
the engine.
2. Restart the engine.
• If both symbols extinguish, continue driving.
• If the symbols remain illuminated, check
the level in the brake fluid reservoir. See
page 188. If the brake fluid level is normal
but the symbols are still illuminated, the
car can be driven, with great care, to an
authorised Volvo workshop to have the
brake system checked.

[Waynev70]

Thanks Jerry, I had the dreaded light come on my ex police t6 and it failed the MOT as I wasn’t aware this was a failure, my local garage told me it was the reservoir or the sensor and they’d replace them both, I had a quick google and found your post, when I first changed the pads I opted for the cheaper non sensor pads and a garage soldered the wires together for me so no Warsi light would be displayed, as if never seen the light I would have never have known it would say low brake fluid, after reading this I asked a mechanic to quickly check these wires and sure enough one had come apart, a quick 5 min (cheap) fix and the car passed its mot, thanks for saving me a lot of cash and grief.

[Tatsfield]

This linking of brake fault warnings to non existant brake fuild low levels is not unique to Volvo. I had a Peugeot which had a notorious fault in that when the flimsy handbrake on/off warning micro switch's contacts began to deteriorate and not make a clean contact and break, the low brake fluid warning appeared intermittantly. Apparently this drove other owners mad but once you knew the reason for the problem the solution was a fiddly £2.50 micro switch replacement. You'd think that with something as vital as braking, car manufacturers would fuilly develop the warning systems but apparently they all seem to have a blind spot in this area!