Well today I sprung into action thinking I'd finally have the wheels back on my XJR only to find I can't get my new calipers and pads over the new rotors. Not sure if anyone's run into this before, it's a first for me. The rotors have a minimum thickness marked but not a max, no surprise there. I have no idea what too thick is for the rotors. The new calipers measure the same as the old ones and the pistons seem to be pushed in all the way so they don't seem to be the trouble. I honestly think the pads are just a little too fat.
I'd buy another set and use those instead but if it turns out to be the rotors that are fat I'll have an extra set of pads and still need to lighten up something.
Has anyone shaved brake pads before? Is there a recommended method for losing say 1/16" from the friction surfaces?
I was thinking I could take a belt sander to them but am worried I'll make a mess of a true surface. I'll end up spending more having them milled than a new set is worth so I'm reluctant to take them to a machine shop for that but it's certainly better than turning the rotors to lose thickness.
Let me know what you think.
Thanks.

 

Hahaha, sorry, but this is exactly what I ran into when I purchased my pads from Autozone. I had to go to a place I hate to buy any parts from, but they had them...Advanced Auto Parts. I don't know the brands you have around you, but take one of the pads you have now with you and measure the other ones from a competitor.

 

Hate to tell you but I've run into this as well. The problem lies with the manufacturer of the aftermarket pads saying they'll work on X particular vehicle. Well they don't have the exact true specs for every vehicle when they think they do. Go with a high quality pad and you shouldn't have any problems. The cheaper the stuff, the more likely it won't work. China made crap only sometimes works.

 

Please list the brand and part numbers of the ones
known to be too thick ... help others to avoid the
same fate.

 

Buy decent pads....Akebono Euro Ceramics....perfect ;o))

 

Wait: be sure that you do not have TWO shims on the pads. Some new pads come with shims attached, others you need to use your old shims; so if you try to put the old shims on new pads that already have shims you will be too thick. Someone on this forum had this problem about a year ago; and I watched my son have the same issue with installing new pads on his Toyota Sequoia.

 

Well, I took High Horse's rec and went to Advance. Their platinum pads were in stock and they looked thinner even in the shrink wrap so I brought them home. Sure enough they fit. The brand is Wearever and they're a ceramic compound.
The ones I purchased thru amazon were Spektrum 3000 Advanced, model 11-03941 semi-metalics. They came as a kit for all 4 wheels with rotors (drilled, slotted, & zinc plated. The rotors look nice, machined well with a cross hatch pattern on the friction surface. Initially they sent me the wrong fronts, not even close to fitting my calipers. They corrected that quickly and customer service was very responsive but these pads, although the correct profile are too thick to work, even without the shims (yes I only had one set of shims in place). The Wearevers measured 0.400" thick and the Spektrums were 0.498"(!) thick, not even close to being 0.2" more space in this setup.
Now for the engineers joke, How many engineers does it take to screw a flex hose into a Jaguar caliper? What knuckle head decided both ends of the flex hose have no rotational freedom?! I've got to spin the caliper to get the hose on, almost like holding the light bulb and spinning the ladder, quite creative!
Now I get to drip brake fluid while I try to line the hose up and spin the caliper onto it, brilliant!

 

Well chalk one (more) up to that hot Texas sun. After my tirade here I went out to the driveway to swap the new calipers with the old, ready to see how much fluid I could lose while trying to spin the caliper onto the end of the flex hose when I noticed cracks in the rubber sheath of each flex hose.
One more delay but new hoses means I can attach them to the calipers and then thread on the coupler at the end of the hard line, much better,
Texas treated the steel parts of my XJR very nicely but the rubber parts? Fu-ged-about-it. Maybe that's the cause of all the brittle plastic failures on the interior as well, although plenty of other people here seem to have trouble with that. As another engineer I worked at GM with always said, "there's two states of plastic, cracked and about to crack". Wise man indeed.

 

Just wondering -- why are you replacing all the calipers?

FYI -- I always replace the hoses when doing calipers. Can't think of a car I have replaced without static ends?

 

When I pulled the calipers off the pads I found both outer piston dust seals were attached to the pistons but detached from the calipers, allowing whatever could get in to get in between the two. Curious to me that both had the same issue. I'm not sure how that happened but rather than get a rebuild kit and hope not too much corrosion had taken place I elected to get rebuilt calipers for the fronts. The rears looked fine, although now that I'm typing this I should probably get underneath and double check the flex hoses back there as well.
I've dealt with plenty of calipers where the flex hose ended in a block that a banjo bolt passed thru to attach to the caliper. The rears on the XJR use that approach. I know it's another sealing surface and several more parts but the interfaces are flat, copper washers are cheap, and it allows for a much more serviceable design. Must be one engineer had the back brakes and one had the fronts on this car. Could be the guy who did the rack was different from the guy who spec'd the lower, rear wishbone pivot too. I just can't picture why there are so many parts that get in the way of something else for no apparent reason. The XJR isn't the only car I've run into that was more difficult to service than necessary but it has offered more than its fair share of frustrations, IMHO.

 

I purchased pads from Autozone. No issues at all. They fit like a glove. So far wear and braking haso been terrific too. Just my experience.

 

It's been a while since I replaced any of the Jags .. I did two of my MB's all around last year and they just use straight hose. I can't remember the last Jaguar caliper I had issues with -- maybe my 1982! I do change my fluid.

How expensive for the rebuilt calipers? I was pleasantly surprised at the cost of my Mercedes wagon last year -- under $50 each w/shipping.

 

The rebuilt calipers were actually $45 each from FCP Euro, shipping was extra. The cores are $50 each(!). I usually don't have to change calipers on my vehicles but did recently have one seize on my Caddy Seville. Fluid doesn't seem to give things as much trouble as road salt which is why the Jag will never see a winter while I own her, the underside was almost brand new when she came off the truck from Texas.

 

Were yours the XJ or XJR pads....its the XJR ones I had an issue with (also the OP, but I don't know his purchase source).