Jake, I would tell you to first pull of a wheel in the front and in the back and do a quick brake inspection. That will tell you a lot of things. First check the pad thickness. If you are down around 1/8" of pad (at the thinnest point), then new pads are required. Look at the surface of the rotors and see if you have any grooves that your fingernail catches on when you run your finger nail across the rotor from the outside edge to the center. If you nail catches, probably need the rotors turned. As for the pulsating, on a street where there are no other vehicles, get the Jag up to about 30 mph and then step on the brakes with a light grip on the steering wheel. Does the steering wheel wobble back and forth? If yes, then you have a warped rotor and new rotors for the front are required. Unfortunately, for the rear wheels, without the use of a depth mic, it will be hard to tell if you have a warped rotor. A warped rotor in the rear can cause a slight pulsing sensation in the brakes, which could lead one to think the ABS is kicking in. Another way to get a feel for whether it is a problem with the ABS or a warped rear rotor is to do a long brake covering a wide speed range (say from 60 mph to 10 mph on a country road) and see if the speed of the pulses changes with the speed. If the pulses don't change, then the ABS is kicking in (more than likely a bad speed sensor ring on one of the rear hubs), if the pulses do change, warped rotor.

Hopefully this will give you an idea of what to look forward to. If you have any sort of mechanical ability, you can do the brakes on this car no problem. Hell, for about $250, you can replace all 4 rotors (cross drilled and slotted) and ceramic pads and get better stopping too. Probably take you about 2 hours to do this whole job. A local shop is going to soak you for atleast $400 more than likely to just replace pads and turn the rotors.

If you need any more info, just hollar.

 

Jake, as for your check engine light, I would first try putting a new gas cap on your car. In a lot of cases, that will fix your check engine light as it is most likely going to come up with an emissions fault stating something to the effect of "unable to establish vacuum in gas tank". If you can, the next time the code comes in, stop by an auto parts store and get the code read for free. THen let us know. This will help us garantee that we get you going on down the right road.

If you are in the Southern MD area, I would tell you to stop by. We can get the whole brake job done in an afternoon easy.

 

check out R1 concepts for the rotors..they have fair prices and good quality products..i have them on my CTS and they seem to be the cadillacforum favorite.

just got EBC Green stuff pads on the Jag x-type today and they seem to be gripping really well after seating them. they were recomended by other forum members...but they arent cheap.

 

Hey there Jake....looks like you got some great advice from Thermo there to be going on with.
If you do decide to change the discs / pads check out EBC Redstuff or greenstuff if you prefer for much improved braking performance. If you do need new discs you could consider installing the slotted / drilled type.
I'd say that Thermo seems spot on with his analysis of the possibility of warped discs.

Good luck and let us know how you get on