Hi everyone,

So I recently got my front pads and rotors changed (last Friday) on my 2013 XF V6 supercharged at a local mechanic here since I was getting a wobble when I braked. The mechanic installed Meyle premium rotors and pads (He initially wanted to go with Akebono but said he couldn't source them so he got these). Since then I hear this groaning noise whenever I come to a halt. There's no noise when braking (while driving), it's only when I come to a complete stop that this noise comes on. And it's not like it stays there, it's just when the car stops and after that nothing. I used to hear this on my old OEM pads and rotors as well but that was only when I was parallel parking and had to move my car a couple of inches forward or backward. But it never used to come on when I braked to a stop. After the pads change, I hear this everytime I come to a stop and it's driving me nuts. I tried looking for this info in the forums but there's nothing like this anywhere. Google did come up with a post on a different forum but the OP never posted if the problem got resolved or not.

https://www.jaginfo.org/archive/index.php/t-5151.html

I'm planning to take this to the shop again tomorrow to talk to the mechanic but I'm not positive I will come out a happy man. So just wanted to see if anyone had any ideas about this.

Thank you!

 

On all three of my Jags (2010 XFS, 2010 XFR and 2014 F-Type) I had the exact same "groaning" you talk about with the stock rotors and pads on. It was especially bad when ranking or doing a three point turn, embarrassingly loud.
On the XFS (355 mm front and 326 mm rear brakes) I installed Power Stop ceramic brake pads and instantly all groaning and noise was banished forever with the added bonuses of smooth progressive braking and very low brake dust.
On the XFR I installed Centric semi-metallic brake pads on fairly worn stock rotors and the groan was not so bad but still there. I would have gone for Power Stop pads again but unfortunately they don't make them for the XFR brakes (380 mm front and 376 mm rear).
I then installed new slotted and drilled brake rotors with what I thought were new ceramic brake pads, but it turned out the new brake pads had been mis-advertised as ceramic when they were in fact the exact same Centric semi-metallic pads I already had.
Again a slight lessening of the groan but it was still there.
On the F-Type I swapped the slotted and drilled rotors over from the XFR (although I swapped the rears some time after I swapped the fronts as part of a DIY project of upgrading the rear brakes from 326 mm to 376 mm) and installed Porterfield R4-S "carbon kevlar" brake pads.
Same story again - still some groan but a lot less than before and it disappears completely if/when I get the brakes reasonably hot. Also, like the Power Stop pads, very low dust.

I have never heard of Meyle rotors or pads but I would guess the pads are semi-metallic and if so that is the source of your problem.
To cure the groan (and greatly reduce brake dust) you need ceramic pads like Power Stop (or maybe EBC Redstuff) or carbon kevlar like Porterfield R4-S.
Power Stop make ceramic brake pads for a 2013 XF V6 supercharged and they are quite cheap, see this Rock Auto page: https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/...brake+pad,1684
I am fairly sure you want the 16-1240 for the front and the 16-1095 for the rear.
It is vaguely possible you need the 16-1241 for the front, they look the same as the 1240 but the pad backing plate shape is slightly different and they are not interchangeable.

 

The rotors on my XF are sliding rotors. Very good chance your mechanic is lazy like most of them, and didn't clean and regrease the sliding pins.

That can make a big difference on the performance of the brakes and also cause that groaning noise.

 

Thank you for the reply OzXFR, you really have been a great source for information here for me! Meyle's are used more on the BMWs and VWs, the reviews on BMWs forums also said they were good. And I think they are semi metallic, but not sure. I tried searching for it but couldn't find anything concrete other than some listings that described it as semi metallic. I will probably have to bring this up to the mechanic tomorrow, not sure how he's going to respond to this and if he would be willing to change this. I kinda felt misinformed in the first place because he said he would go with Akebono but when I came in for the repair on the day of the appointment, he said he had Meyle's since he couldn't get the Akebonos for the 355 mm on my car. I didn't want to delay the repair any further, so I asked him if it was reputable and he said it was. So I just went with it then. Didn't realize this was going to be such a pain. Do you think this is a problem in the long run? If it's just an annoyance and is not effecting anything, I can probably live with it but if it's otherwise, I would definitely want it checked or replaced.

Thank you!

 

Thank you for the reply lotusespritse. I can definitely ask him about this and see what he has to say about it. Hoping he did it. I think I do like the brakes though. They don't have the initial bite like the OEM ones but like someone put in one of the posts, the braking is more linear than logarithmic.

 

Not something the mechanic will admit to not doing. If he/she does admit that, they just made a bunch of extra free work for themselves when they were trying to make a little less work for themselves.

 

Okay, so i noticed another thing when driving the car yesterday. There's is a light continuous vibration throughout the car now when I'm driving. I wanted to test this more so I took it on the highway and noticed that there is also a very slight wobble when I press the brake at higher speeds. This doesn't always happen though, just once in a while. And get this, when I went back to the inroads, the groaning noise kinda disappeared. Like it's still there but it's on the same level as the OEM pads now. Would this be because of heat and all? Like the pads become more effective after some heat? I can still hear the brake release and all when I let go of it at a traffic light. Not sure if I could hear it before when the OEM pads were installed.

But this vibration when the car is cruising is kinda driving me nuts now. I went to the mechanic after this test drive to tell him about these issues and he said the vibration would not be brake related but might be something related to the tires. He said these should last atleast 50,000 miles but he's seen them go bad on Audis around 20,000. But he said he would be happy to take a look at it tomorrow. What I don't get is, if it was tire related, how come this started happening right after the brake install. Was pretty depressed today because of this, had to go wash my car to get my spirits up. It definitely is therapeutic.