I recently took off the front RH tire to check the brakes an I noticed a wire had been cut. Looked like on purpose ( Clean cut) no warning lights are on and it seems to go right to the brake pad or somewhere around it. It's gray in color. ABS ? Brake wear sensor? Why hasn't a light come on to tell me ? Easy fix?

 

That certainly sounds like the wiring for a brake pad wear sensor. Often, there is a corresponding wire coming from the brake pad itself, with a plug and socket arrangement on each wire, so they just plug together. I'm not sure if we have them as standard on x300's here in Europe, but either way, the pads tend to be a good deal more expensive than standard ones. So, owners sometimes just fit standard pads. I dont see the point in cutting off the plug on the wire, but this wouldn't necessarilly cause any warning lights to come on, as the pad has to wear down sufficiently for the embedded contacts in the pad to make contact, thus completing the circuit that causes the warning light to illuminate. As it is now, the circuit is "open", so no lights. Did you check out the other brake calipers? Might confirm if this has been done.

 

The only thing I can visualize is the ABS wiring. There's the sheathed wires from the wheel speed sesnor and then a separate ground wire. And, yes, I'd expect a warning light to glow and a code to be set if the wires were cut.

Does the ABS light glow when the engine is started? Just wondering if someone pulled the bulb......

As far as brake pad wear sensors go, you can eliminate that as a possibility as none of the X300s were so equipped.

Cheers
DD

 

The ABS light goes on when the car is started..but I think it's the pad wear sensor because I have to lights one is for the emergency brake and one just says "brake" in red. They all work on start up and all go away as they should

 

NOPE.

Doug is spot on, the X300 NEVER had pad wear sensors. I reckon after the fiasco with the XJ40, it went west.

The wire you are seeing IS the earth braid that attaches on the ABS sensor mounting bolt, and the other end at the body bracket where the flexible brake hose attaches to the metal brake pipe (up near the top of the shocker).

It is "only" and earth wire, so make a replacement and attach it with tie straps, to the ABS wiring as the original was. That way it wont get tangled up in the spinning bits in there.

As Doug said, the ABS sometimes lights with its broken, other times it dont, so maybe it is getting enough of an earth track somewhere else.

 

How do I go about changing the wire?

 

OK,

Remove the wheel, do what you need so you dont get hurt doing so.

An 8mm spanner, and undo the bolt that holds the ABS sensor to the hub, and the eyelet of the suspect wire will be in your hand.

The top end, NO IDEA, use the imagination, it wont be that hard.

A piece of wire, some eyelet crimp connectors, make what is needed. Any wire will suffice, it does not need to be the same as the OE one.

Since it is possibly damaged at the ABS sensor end (most are), attach a suitable terminal to one end of the wire, and re-attach that wire with the bolt you removed earlier. track it up the ABS wire (as I said before), and when you get to the break, simply make a rounding of the braid, and attach a suitable crimp joiner to connect the 2 bits as one.

If its broken at the top end, same principle, but I really have no idea how its attached at that bracket.

As long as it supplies an "earth path" from the sensor bolt to the body of the car, and does not get mangled in the spinning items, nothing else matters.