HID lights are the devil's work anyway. The tyre rotational thing is bloody stupid, if they're designed to be directional they should be fitted correctly... that's the only contact with the road and if *that* isn't working correctly then who cares about EGR valves or management lights? Bloody bureaucrats. (pleased my old camper van will be MOT exempt though! )
That brake pad warning light fail is a bit of a pain. On my BMW, when that light came on, I checked and my brake pads were only 50% worn (at 50,000 miles). So even though the light was on i could reasonably expect to get another 50,000 miles out of them. And yet it will be a fail?
Used to just unplug the sensors and effect a break / continuity modification to suit. Am sure on modern cars they're probably designed to work differently. Progress...
I can’t wait for people to have to start removing blindingly poorly fitted HID kits. However, as far back as when I fitted some to an Abarth 500 in around 2011 (with leveling sensor and washers) they have been illegal..... so I’m not holding my breath that all of a sudden these cars that are blinding and distracting me will suddenly dissapear.
I think that the sensors work just the same on modern BMW/MINI cars. Are they actually used by other manufacturers? I don't see the point of the added complexity because, with BMW at least, they come on very early as you point out (meaning that the wear should have been observed when following MoT/service schedule) and in any case are only installed on one wheel at each end of the car. On rear brakes at least, my experience with cars is that you can get quite uneven pad wear due to the nasty designs used (pistons used on only one side of a sliding caliper, pads which corrode and get wedged in place, etc.) so it's quite possible for a pad to wear right down without triggering the warning light. In any case, the MoT test procedure has for years been based on testing the real brake performance as well as visual inspection, using advisories to alert a customer to any work that will soon need doing - the warning lights are a poor relation, perhaps intended for countries where an annual test/inspection is not mandatory?
