New to me 1996 XJS 2+2. Looks like the emergency brake cable has broken. When I pull up on the lever, I get no resistance. I noticed that the emergency brake dash light is also on. The left rear wheel is very hot. When I jack up the car on that side and put the shift in neutral, I cannot spin the wheel. It has a little bit of play but seems to be locked - cannot turn it by hand.

I would have though that if the cable broke the emergency brake would disengage. Is there a way to disengage it so I can drive it to get the cable replaced?

 

Hi Knomad. I'm not sure about the later models and I see no reason why they would have changed it but it seems to me that your handbrake is actually on.
To set the hand (emergency, parking or whatever) brake you have to pull up the lever and then just drop it again; that way you don't keep tripping over the lever everytime you get in and out.
To release it, pull up the lever, push in the button and drop the lever down again; the light should go out and the brake should come off.
Steve

 

If the light is ON then so is the brake!!!!!!!!!!!
I worked at a shop back in the 80s when a red XJ-S was towed in for fire damage.
Seems he lent the car to a buddy and the guy put the handbrake ON.
The owner never used the brake so did not know what the BRAKE light meant.
The owner was driving 80 MPH on the highway when a BMW pulled up along side and was motioning something!!
He thought the guy wanted to RACE so he pulled it up to over 100 MPH and then he saw smoke in the mirrors.
He pulled over and the inboard brakes were on fire and burnt the rear end of the car before someone with a fire extinguisher put it out.
The guy in the BMW told him he did not want to race but he saw SMOKE!!

The car was TOTALED!!!

bob gauff

 

Thanks! That was it. As a newbie, I learned something about the operation of the emergency brake.

 

Just a thought, if only one hub was hot, then the other side needs loooking at to find out why it was not braking as well. Always a job on a jaguar!

Godd luck with the car

greg

 

ive learned to never operate the E brake on a vehicle that i havent owned for years.

99.9999999999% of people never touch the damn things, so as soon as you yank on that lever, the rust cable gets wedged and sticks on.

 

I agree. Don't operate for the first time anyhwere except your own garage :-). I always advise friends and family to use the parking brake regularly if for no other reason than to prevent the mechanism from seizing up. Nobody listens, of course....and then when the day comes where they DO need it, it doesn't work or it breaks.

Personally I use my hand brake everytime I park. Regular routine: handbrake on, shift to park, turn off engine, remove key.

Cheers
DD

 

Back over here in Blighty we are taught to use the 'handbrake' all the time and most people would not consider parking a car without applying it. This probably stems from the vast majority of cars at one time being manual (stick) shift so there was no 'P' facililty on the gearbox (other than leaving it in gear) and doing a hill start without using the handbrake burns out the clutch very quickly!
Worst and most pointless invention for a car? (other than automatic headlights - how damn lazy can you get?) - electronic parking brake. They are so much fun when they go wrong or if the battery is not at 100%.
Steve.

 

Most convertibles are going to have regular use of the parking break since we can't raise or lower the hood/roof without it being engaged

 

Hi all,

I have a 90 convertible. In order to get the top (hood) up or down one has to apply the hand (e) brake. My brake however isn't working right as it seems to do nothing to holdd the car in place when applied.

My 79 Lincoln Town Coupe, however, has a neat system that releases the e brake when it is put in drive. Too bad Jaguar didn't come up with something like that.

Tony