So I brought my XJS down to a local mechanic to give it a once over and do some work to get it up and running safe since it had not been driven in a couple of years. It turns out the rear calipers are seized. He said they had to be replaced as well as the pads and rotors and probably seized due to corrosion in the calipers. I didn't realize that the rear brakes are inboard brakes. I thought I had read that 93's had outboard brakes, but when he showed me the car up on the lift the rotors were in the middle of the rear end. He is not a Jaguar specialist, but he said he could do the job. He said it would probably be quite a bit of work to drop the rear end out to get access to the brakes. Hes gonna look over the rest of the car and give me a qoute on Monday. A couple of questions:

1) is this something a local mechanic would be familiar doing? I don't think there are too many cars with inboard brakes. I was reading the Kirby Palm manual and was going to print out the section for the rear brakes and giving them to the mechanic. How long should this process take?
2)I was looking online for rear calipers and came across Terrys Jagparts, Coventry West and Motorcars LTD. Prices varied pretty wildly between $165 from Terry's to $400 at Motorcars. I believe they are all re-manufactured. Any comments on any of those parts stores and getting re-manufactured?
3)If he does end up dropping the rear end is there any other bits that I should get done while it's out?
4)Any other suggestions?

Thanks,
Spencer

 

This is a big job. The rear exhaust has to come off, the rear suspension dropped, disassembled, install new rotors and calipers, then reassemble. While out, its possible to check and replace u-joints, and rebuild parking brake mechanism, along with parking brake pads. Parking brake rebuild requires pads, and at a minimum, the tensioners.

 

Check the radius arm bushes too; this would be a good time to replace them.

 

Are you SURE it needs rotors? The calipers can be replaced with the rear end in the car, it is not really a very big job. I rebuilt mine, it cost me about $75-100 in pistons, pads and seal kits. The rotors apparently are OK, braking is smooth, even though it sat 8 years (indoors) before I got the car. Replacing the rotors does require dropping the rear subframe. Lots more labor involved.

 

Replacing the rear Calipers and Brake Pads, is a fairly easy job that you should be able to do yourself but you do need to jack it up Safely and support it in such a way, that no matter what happens, it can't fall on you.

I put gigantic blocks of wood underneath each of the drive shafts, as I don't trust axle stands and certainly not a jack all on its own.

Also replace the rear flexy hose, as it can close up on the inside, so the brakes will go on but may start to bind when you take the brakes off, which is not unusual on an XJS with old pipes.

Inspect and measure the thickness of your Rotors, as providing that they are not scored then they may be ok.

Though if you want to replace the lot and don't want to do it yourself, then you need to be prepared to throw some money at it.

 

this is more labor that parts. You can buy rebuild kits for the calipers and the rear rotors are pretty cheap. Definitely inspect to see if you need rotors because it is a good bit more work, as mentioned, to remove the rotors. If you want to go ahead with it, the extra work offsets everything a bit, because the calipers are otherwise a pain to get out by themselves

 

Thx for all the suggestions and the info. Unfortunately I don't know if I trust my abilities to drop the rear end and be able to put it back correctly! (I'm pretty sure I can take everything apart but would probably end up with extra parts after I put it back haha) I guess my next question is if you would need someone who works with jags or if the local mechanic will do it correctly?

 

That question is tough to answer. Realistically a caliper is a caliper and a rotor is a rotor. The U joint, half shafts, and inboard brakes may not be something a mechanic is "familiar with" but if anyone that already knows about that sort of stuff should have no issue with it.

That is key in finding the right person though. If a shop acts like it is something special or difficult to work on, turn away. It is just a car, and for some reason bad mechanics commonly drop everything they know and it becomes obvious they are parts monkeys.

Most of the time a "european shop" is the best bet. Not many places specialize on just british cars, but the ones that specialize on german cars are usually the best bet to work on jags.

 

Hi All,
Thanks for the suggestions. I ended up taking the car to a local jag mechanic and he was able to work the calipers loose. He said that they are working fine now and the rotors are still good, so that is a little bit of a relief that i won't have to drop the rear end out and have the rotors replaced.
Wile the car is there I was going to have him change all the fluids, but I was wondering about the transmission fluid change. He said he wasn't going to take the transmission oil pan off and change the filter, but instead flush out the fluid using BG PF5 flushing system. Does anyone have any thoughts about using a system to flush the fluid vs dropping the pan and letting the fluid just drain?
Thanks

 

The BG Flushing system works well.

Some worry that 'crud will be knocked loose' as a result of the flush and bring about transmission failure. This is can happen but it is very rare.

If you're a worrier and/or have reason to think that your transmission is especially gunked-up you might wanna use the drop-the-pan method first.

Cheers
DD

 

I wouldn't be entirely comfortable with this, to be honest.

Keep an eye on the situation.


Cheers
DD

 

Thanks for the comments Doug.

 

I agree with Doug, I am not totally comfortable with working the calipers loose. Especially on a car that sits a lot. If your car is a weekender, occasional use car, the calipers probably will seize up again before too long. At the least, I would keep a lookout for brake drag or poor braking from the rear. And, as I said before, if the rotors are smooth, no pulsation or roughness from the rear, you probably can remove the rear calipers only and recondition them, without removing the rear subframe.