I just changed the pads on an 2005 Evo 8 I recently purchased. The car has 67,000 miles and the pads that came off looked nearly new, so they probably aren't original. They say "power stop" on the back and have drilled/slotted rotors that also look very new, so it probably is a PowerStop complete set.

Anyway, for the used pads I removed, one front pad on each side (can't recall whether it was the inboard or outboard pads) had a wire attached to the top of the pad material. It was stranded wire with a red braided insulation cover. When I pulled on it, it was snug but came right out and was about 3/8" deep into a little post hole on top of the pad.

Any idea what this is?

 

I'm pretty confident that's not supposed to be there...

 

I would assume so too, unless its a primitive wear indicator. It is identical on one of each pairs of pads on the left and right front wheel - so it wasn't just a piece of wire that got ran over and jammed in there. Baffling.

 

Possible road debris that was impaled into the pad

Should be a prize for the winner

EDIT: Did a quick search. Maybe some type of pad w/ an embedded sensor

 

Wow, I never knew some pads had embedded heat sensors. Learn something every day!

 

^^^The pic I posted is an electronic wear sensor from what I read. Im not convinced the OP's wire is the same

 

Can't be road debris, It is in an identical place on one of the two pads in each of the front pairs of pads. Here are the Front left and Front right pads side by side, one pad with the wire removed, one pad the wire is still there. In the next picture I pull the wire out without much effort, it is only in about 3/8" and it just dead ends in a post hole, no sensor on the pad or backing plate.

I spoke to the brake technician who removed them for me. He said it was a nearly new complete set of PowerStop pads and rotors the previous owner must have put on. The technician said he did not cut the wire - there was nothing to cut because neither end was attached to anything. What you see is what he saw - about a 1/2 inch of stranded wire with a red braided cover (looks to be 12 or 14 gauge) sticking out of the pad, and the other end of the wire dead-ended about 3/8" into a small hole on the top edge of the pad material. Not connected to anything on either end.

The PowerStop pads and rotors were fine (and I will be selling them cheap if anyone wants them) I just wanted to go with Stop Tech pads and Power Slot non-drilled cyro treated rotors, so I changed them out. So it really doesn't matter at this point, it is more a curiousity that is bugging me...what they heck were those bits of wire for? Why are black helicopters over my house?

 

Temp sensor. Was the car tracked? What brand pad was taken off?

 

I can't believe its a temp sensor - there is no sensor.

I bought the car from the original owner who daily drove the car, never tracked, never modified. He had a local independent mechanic do all the service work; not the dealer, not a high end performance shop. Power Stop brand pads.

If it is a sensor, there must be a nano sensor embedded in the pad material, because the wire pulls easily out of the pad with a slight tug and seems to just be stuck in a hole in the pad. the other end of the wire goes nowhere, it was just sticking up and unattached. There is no plug in sensor wire on the Evo VIII that I know of. Maybe the wrong pad application but they fit so the mechanic just cut the wire and installed? I just think I would see a sensor stuck to the backing plate or somewhere, not a double deadend wire just stuck in a hole.

 

any other ideas?

 

its for wear. many german cars have the exact same thing. pad wears down, it grounds out and throws a light on the dash. the pads must fit multiple applications.

 

Grounding out, now I can understand that with no sensor on the pad end of the wire.