Carly and the e-brake

[AndyS]

Hi.
Recently my car flagged that the rear brake pads were getting close to needing changing.
A quote from BMW of £230 and I'm thinking, it's a simple job, I'll do it myself.
I ordered the parts and then read several posts about needing to put the e-brake into maintenance mode to be able to do the job.
I assumed that, with Carly able to reset the wear sensor service interval, I'd also be able to use Carly to sort the e-brake.
When I came to do the job I discovered that E-brake maintenance mode with Carly is not supported on my vehicle. I assume this applies to all E89s and not just mine specifically.
I wondered why the E89 wasn't supported or if maybe I was doing something wrong so I contacted the Carly support team to ask for help. They responded telling me the answer could be found in their improved FAQ. If the answer's there, I can't find it!
I managed to do the job by removing the actuators and winding the pistons back manually but it's a bit of a pain. I was however able to use Carly to reset the wear indicator which is a positive I suppose.
For future reference though, have I done something wrong and Carly is able to put the e-brake into service mode or is this another example of why Carly isn't really worth the money?
Thanks, Andy

 

[R.E92]

You're right, just another example of Carly being deficient.

You can reset the service interval without needing any tools. It's a requirement that all vehicles have the ability to reset service indicators without the need for specialist tools so you can usually do it with a combination of buttons on the stalks or the trip resets on the cluster.

When I replaced my rear brakes I just used ISTA to put the ebrake into service mode. ProTool would also be able to do this task.

 

[Chippie]

Don’t you need to also have the electric handbrake motors adjusted to give the correct clearance on the pads?

 

[AndyS]

Thanks R.E92 Will have to have a look at ProTool. Always been a little put off by the apparent complexity of ISTA!
The electric handbrake motors are automatically retracted by putting it into maintenance mode or manually retracted by removing the actuators (as I did) and winding them in manually.
Afterwards, the motors wind out the pistons for the handbrake and adjust themselves automatically.
All of that is my understanding but I'm happy to be corrected if wrong

 

[tintoverano]

this is a good one to do it manually

[youtube]Ljq4ATPorXM[/youtube]

 

[R.E92]

out the pistons for the handbrake and adjust themselves automatically.
All of that is my understandin

I think the motors that drive the screws just move until a certain resistance is reached. If they needed adjusting then they would need to be done after every drive since the brake pads would be worn down by an indeterminate amount.