Hi all:

I have a 2011 XJ 5.0 liter (non-supercharged) with 21,000 miles on it. I have two questions.
1- has anyone replaced the oem brake pads with ceramic pads and if so any gain or loss in using them?
2- do any of you experience blurred vision or double vision looking out your rear windshield using the rear view mirror?

Thanks in advance for any info.

 

In general, ceramic pads will be very noisy, greatly decrease life of your rotors, and be slightly worse at stopping but will not dust.

If you can live with brake dust, OEM pads is a way to go.

 

Blake, I have ceramics on the rear of my car (haven't replaced the fronts yet, but when I do, ceramics are going on). I can't say that I notice any more noise from the ceramics than standard pads other than first thing in the morning. There is a slight noise that comes from where the pad was touching the rotor. But, after a few seconds of light braking, the noise is gone.

As for stopping power, I can't say that I have noticed any difference. I have had ceramics on my X-Type along with aftermarket rotors (cross drilled slotted rotors). Those had a little bit of noise under hard braking, but normal braking was just like any other car. As for stopping power, those rotors and pads were more than adequate to take anything on the seat and put it on the floor of the car. I was always afraid of stepping on the brakes harder than I had for fear of planting the bumper into the road.

So, if you are looking at ceramics, go for it.

As for the rear windshield, I can't say that I have noticed any double vision. I have seen the glass distort what I am seeing as I can see vehicles get stretched/squished at different points of the glass.

 

Ceramics stop as good as semi-metallic. They also do not wear your rotors appreciably more. And they do not have brake dust which by itself is a good enough reason to get them. I don't know anyone that switched that has any complaints at all.

 

On a Supercharged XJ I installed ceramics and they work great. No more noise, lots less dust, and they are wearing very well. The OEM pads ate the front rotors far quicker.

 

OK, XF not XJ, but I put Power Stop ceramic pads on my old XFS and the improvements were massive. Little or no brake dust vs masses with the factory pads, zero graunch just as I came to a stop vs huge graunch, and much smoother operation in stop/go traffic, very progressive vs the OEM pads which were very much like an on/off switch and impossible to drive smoothly.
About the only possible downside was the loss of the immediate bite the OEM pads had but I quickly got used to the reduced bite and got to like it in the end.

Edit - forgot to add - my old XFS had the 355 mm front and 326 mm rear brakes and I believe a 2011 XJ 5.0 NA has the exact same brakes.

 

All brake pads create dust because they are sacrificial by design. Friction between the pads and the rotors causes your car to slow down and stop, and pads are cheaper than rotors. Pads are sacrificial because they give their lives to save the rotors. So, as they wear, they create dust. The dust from ceramic pads is just less apparent because it's not black; it's usually a shade of light tan.

If you have ceramic pads, wipe your wheel with a dark color rag and you'll see the dust.

Jaguar designs hi-performance vehicles and I believe that their engineers would have specified ceramic pads if they were the best choice. I'll continue to use OEM brakes and put up with the brake dust. Just my preference to keep my brakes all OEM.