2019 UK X260 25t Sportbrake.
Been very pleased with my XF which I've had for nearly 12 months, having covered 10,500 miles.However, for the last couple of thousand miles I have been experiencing a very loud brake squeal for the first couple of miles after moving off when coming to a stop. It stops once there's some heat in the brakes, but a drive to the shops and back around our estate, slowing for junctions and then parking the car is a truly embarrassing experience, the car certainly turns heads, but for all the wrong reasons. I've now resorted to feathering the brake pedal with my left foot for the first couple of hundred yards to build some heat up, but I shouldn't have to be doing this.

I had it booked into the dealer a few weeks ago for a couple of minor warranty issues and mentioned it to them. 'Ah, the famous brake squeal!' they exclaimed, and showed me a TSB which said it was entirely normal, due to 'modern materials and manufacturing techniques' (and other similar bullsh*t), and JLR would not allow it to be dealt with as a warranty issue.

To my mind this is ridiculous, the noise is very loud and it's truly embarrassing to drive what purports to be a premium car with this noise. Above all it's an extremely poor advertisement for the Jaguar brand, particularly as my situation is obviously not unique. Given the situation, I would have thought that JLR would be taking every possible step to prevent damage to the reputation of the brand.

I emailed JLR customer service with my complaint (I've no issue with the dealer, who so far have been very helpful and sympathetic, but they'd charge for cleaning the brakes), and I've just had a response in a phone call from one of their reps. 'As it resolves itself within a couple of miles it's not an issue or manufacturing defect and we will not entertain warranty claims'. I disagreed, very strongly - it's clearly a design fault! They won't have it though.

I love Jaguars, and the XF, (my son was on the development team for the original model and wrote the software) and I also own an XK8. However unless JLR start to accept responsibility my next new car will not be a Jag. Next stop - Trading Standards I think.

 

First complaint I've read for X260 brake squeal. Long thread in the X250 forum about judder and it applies to squeal and the X260/any car as well. Common problem for all makes of cars with driving style or environment being the culprits. Pad and rotor breaking in suggested but it's too late for you to do that without getting new ones first. The rotors can be cross hatched with coarse wet/dry sand paper and it may or may not come back. Just curious, how are your pads wearing? Any wear after 10.5K miles noticed? The fact that riding the brakes for a bit makes it stop sounds to me like you have more than just the normal pad deposit problem and I agree that you shouldn't have to be using a work around to solve the problem. Have you taken it to the dealer and let it sit/cool first so you can show the service writer how bad the problem is?

 

The fact that there's a TSB indicates that it's an issue, plus the use of the word 'famous' by the dealer! There's a TSB for 17"brakes with an identical issue which tells the dealers to replace the brake pads, but this isn't applicable to the 12" brakes apparently despite the similarity in symptoms.

Agree that driving style and environment can be issues but I haven't had this problem with any other car that I've owned in the last 20 years, and there have been a few.

Car was safety checked at the last visit to the dealer and pads were only 10% worn - quite impressive if they didn't make such a noise! Dealers have been most helpful and acknowledge the issue with my car and several other customers; problem for them is that any work they do will not reimbursed for by JLR. At the moment I'm doing my best to be an absolute pain in the @rse with JLR customer service until they start behaving themselves and actually serve their customer.

 

Several things you can try:
1. Bed the pads/rotors again - find a nice quiet stretch of road, get the car up to 60 mph, brake hard down to 10 mph, accelerate back up to 60 mph, brake hard again down to 10 mph, repeat 7, 8, 10 times until you can smell very hot brakes and/or see some smoke coming from them. Once you get to this stage DO NOT stop and DO NOT apply the EPB otherwise you risk imprinting pad material on the rotors, just gently cruise back home to allow the brakes to cool down. I have used this method every time I have fitted new pads and/or rotors and I have never had brake judder or squeal.
2. Get of can of CRC DeSqueak and follow the directions on it - spray both sides of all rotors then follow step 1. Has worked great for me in the past on my pre-Jag cars.
3. De-glaze the brakes pads - remove them from the car and rub them hard on some emery paper or even a concrete floor. Again has worked for me in the past.
4. Buy and fit new ceramic brake pads - not only should this cure the squeal, you will have much less brake dust and a smoother more progressive brake feel.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^
What he said but I agree JLR should be doing this for you and I support your effort... even though it's a PIA for you. My '17 has almost no brake dust and the brakes work to my satisfaction. I doubt I'll ever replace the pads with how little they are wearing but if I do I'll use Jaguar pads.

 

Thanks Oz. No 1 is an option, but finding a quiet stretch of road in the UK Midlands isn't as easy as in Oz - I spent a month in NSW and Queensland in 2018 and envy you your nice quiet roads! I've done it before on other cars so will give it a go soon.
No2, never heard of DeSqueak, seems it isn't available in the UK at the moment - I can get it from abroad but it will cost.
No 3 would have been an option a few years ago,I used to do all my own servicing. Now I'm in my mid-60s with creaky bodywork it just isn't possible!
Same really with No 4, but I don't see why I should spend my own money sorting out a 12 month old car that's still under manufacturers warranty.
Cheers.