I just purchased a nice 2006 XJ8. Drove the car 300 miles with no issue. Yesterday the car was running shaky and pulled over to smell the brakes burning. All rear brakes were just replaced by dealer prior to my purchasing. The parking brake appears to be working correctly but not sure since I am use to the old fashion parking brakes. Drove today and it seemed ok but then going to grocery store it did the same thing. I turn off, make sure the brake light goes out and then it seems to work again. help

 

Take it back - they caused & should fix it.

 

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If the brakes were done at a Jaguar dealership then it should have been done properly as JagV8 says, take it back & get them to fix it.

The official procedure for replacing the park brake pads requires the use of the IDS/SDD dealer level diagnostic system because of the electric park brake. There is a function called "park brake service position" which drives the park brake to the fully open position and resets the end stops, then after changing the pads/shoes the park brake is re-calibrated with the park brake button.

But...some people will try to take a short cut & manually adjust the postion of the park brake when the new pads/shoes go in. 9 times out of 10 they can get away with this, but it sounds to me that they didn't get it right & the park brake needs to be reset with the IDS/SDD...

Take it back to the dealership.

 

Unless you have Brembo brakes, there are only the 2 standard rear pads on the rear calipers, no separate parking brake pads. To change pads, the pistons must be wound back in their hole with a special tool that both rotates and presses in to prevent locking up the mechanism in the caliper that causes the pads to ratchet out as they wear. This tool is not unique to Jaguar, it is available in most disk brake tool kits. It sounds to me like the guy that changed the pads did not retract the pistons right and they are dragging. When I did mine, there was a lot of rotational resistance and it took some real force to rotate and retract the pistons. It is possible that if this was not done right and that the calipers are jammed, so be careful what you say at the dealer about this.

 

I will take to a Jag dealer and get them to reset the parking brake and make sure it is right this time. The original place that did the work agreed to pay for the repair as they think it will be a simple fix. Hopefully so.

 

Gene, Sorry I did not get back to you sooner, I was out of town. Regarding the parking brake issue. On the XJ the parking brake is actually the rear brake that activated by an electric motor that draws a cable up that pulls a lever on the back of the caliper. What I would try first is to "reset" the parking brake, which is in my How To. I think you may have to disconnect the battery for a minute to clear the memory. Then when the brakes are cool, take a short ride around the block. Then carefully check to see if there is a considerable difference in temperature between left and right rotors. If it is overly hot to the touch compared to the right, then remove the wheel. Follow my procedure for doing rear brakes. Have someone activate and deactivate the parking brake and see of the cable is moving in and out. If the electric motor isn't obviously working that's an issue. If it seems the cable is free then I remove the cable from the lever on the caliper and see if it moves freely, if not, I would remove the caliper. I have this happen to me. You will need to purchase a rebuilt caliper and follow my procedural completely including the special instructions for bleeding the rear calipers and resetting the parking brake. You will need the special tool for rotating the piston back in the bore of the caliper, that you can borrow for free at Autozone. Whenever you work on the brakes its almost required to bleed the entire system. Good Luck.