HI everyone, My name is Jim ,I live in the windy city Chicago and just bought a 1991 Jag xjs convertible with only 49000 miles on it. I have always loved the styling of this car and finally was able to get my hands on this fairly cheap.I do have a problem though.Everytime that I hit my brake pedal the brake light comes on and the pedal is low, I had my friend who owns a repair shop attempt to bleed the brakes and he just opened up the bleeder's to let gravity do the job.he did not pump the brakes at all and then told me there was no air in the system.He is a good friend of mine and never charges me for repairs but, I think he missed the boat on this one.My question is "should I pump the brakes to bleed or what?"This car was sitting for 10 years so I'm told.It is driveable but with low brakes and an annoying light. There are no leaks in the system.Any help would be greatly appreciated. One last problem I have is that when I use the air conditioning,I can not get the air to come out of the middle vents, it is stuck in the defroster position.Please let me know your thoughts and I thank you in advance.

 

I would suggest that yes, you do need to pump the pedal to squish the fluid through thoroughly. Generally, this is easier with two people, one to run the bleeder valve, and one to pump the pedal (and hold it down until the bleeder valve is closed again, to keep from sucking any air back up into the system).

It's also possible that the light comes on because the fluid level in the reservoir is low. I've had that occasionally. My XJS is 1984, so it may not be the same as yours, but the sensor is in the cap on mine.

About all you can do to clear the centre vent is start taking the dashboard apart until you find where and how the various internal shutters have stuck in the wrong places. Start with the panels in the footwells and see what you can reach from there, before you try removing the dashboard itself.

Jim T