attn: Brake experts "alarm" questions

Yesterday my brake "alarm" sounded and the brake indicator lit up on my A4 Golf w/85K. Last night we pulled the wheels and the pads/rotors looked good all around. Fluid level good. Brakes work fine.

What else might cause the alarm? There was a squeek in the rear passenger brake since the last brake job about a month ago. Seems we got rid of that last night. I was noticing the manual doesn't list a brake pad wear indicator for the rear brakes--just the front. Is this a mistake in the book? TIA

If you accidentally leave the parking brake on, you will get that alarm, and the light of course (check the manual for details on when the alarm sounds...some minumum speed or something).

If the brake is not applied, perhaps it's a bad switch or wiring for the pking brake??

What type of alarm? Was it the red "BRAKE" light or the amber colored symbol that looks like a circle within parentheses (o)?

Red "BRAKE" light means you left the parking brake on, it only takes a little bit. Or possibly the brake fluid is low.

Yellow " (o) " symbol means the left front inboard pad wear sensor circuit has opened somehow. Since it is my experience on my A4 for the pads to wear unevenly it may be that the pad with the wear sensor has worn down more than than the outboard pad on the same wheel.

Yes it was the red BRAKE light on the control panel and then alarm sounded. Scares the *ell out of a person. It happened yesterday as I was driving and I immediately checked that the handbrake was released--it was.

Drove it about 50 miles today with no brake alarm, no MIL, no squeeky brakes, no hard starts...it was a great day. I think it's fixed.