I have a 1988 XJS that has been sitting in my garage for about a year. I took it out for a drive and noticed that the brake pedal was soft and the brake fluid was a little low I took it into the shop to have the brakes checked and the mechanic filled the chamber with fluid and attempted to bleed the brakes. The rear brakes wouldn't bleeding and no fluid would come out after several attempts so he tried to bleed the front brakes and that was OK. Has anyone experienced this problem or knows why the rear brake brakes would not bleed and no brake fluid would come out.
Thanks

 

Probably the rear brake hose. They tend to expand and cut off the fluid supply...

 

That would be my conclusion. Test by cracking the upstream hard line to soft line and applying pedal. Fluid here, so far so good. Repeat upstream of hose to hard line. I suspect no stream.


Fix, new hose. Not all that bad a job.


Unclear as to why "mechanic" did not test that way. Or, as present, guess and install a new hose???


Carl

 

reisa911,

I'm assuming that the "88" car has ABS brakes? If so, did your mechanic understand the XJS ABS system fully? You really need to bleed these systems the proper way. The rear brakes have their fluid driven by the pump not by the foot pedal. The foot pedal is being used to activate pump pressure. You need to bleed the rear brakes as follows:

START AT REAR LEFT, THEN REAR RIGHT (UNLESS JUST ONE REAR BRAKE NIPPLE).
ONE PERSON IN THE CAR, ENSURE BRAKE FLUID LEVEL IS FULLY TOPPED UP.
TURN ON IGNITION AND WAIT UNTIL BOTH ABS AND LOW PRESSURE LIGHTS HAVE EXTINGUISHED AND ALSO THE MOTOR PUMP HAS CUT OUT.
THEN, OPEN REAR LEFT BLEED NIPPLE AND HOLD BRAKE PEDAL DOWN, WITH IGNITION ON FOR 15 SECONDS – NO MORE
TIGHTEN BLEED NIPPLE, TURN OFF IGNITION, RELEASE BRAKE PEDAL
WAIT ONE MINUTE AND REPEAT FROM RESTORING SYSTEM PRESSURE AS ABOVE FOR OTHER NIPPLE IF FITTED.

Hope that helps.

Good luck

Paul