Hi Sorry its not a great Photo but its very hard to focus when you're laying on your back under a Jag, as I keep getting flash backs of an incident I had when trying to remove a Radiator.

So all I really want is your opinion, as to whether or not you think these Rear Wheel Brake Discs on my V12 XJS would be able to pass an MOT.

To be completely honest, I have seen a lot better than these and as such got the job of replacing them penciled in for October.

So please take a look at the Photo and let me know what you think.

Its only rusty on the edge, the faces look ok so its more about the Thickness of the Discs than anything else.

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I suspect they'll pass fine. XJSs seem to put almost nothing through their rear brakes. I had an MoTadvisory about rusty edges on the rear discs 6 years ago and I'm still on the same discs! The tester won't care about the thickness, he'll just check the efficiency reading and possibly remark on rust on unworn face. I bet you'll be ok. Let us know how you do!

Good luck

Paul

 

Hi Paul

You have really Cheered me up a lot by saying that!

So lets hope the Tester agrees, as I would expect you already know you cannot play against the Referee!

Needless to say I've put the Wire Brush round the edges but the actual face plates, show no signs of scoring or wear!

The only problem being, that I don't know what they looked like when they were New!

But on a previous XJS one of those perimeter hoops, actually came away from the Disc, and fell onto the Drive Shaft.

Making the kind of a Tinkling sound just like you get when someone tries to call you on the phone!

How were your Discs compared to mine, were they better of worse?

Thanks for your help!

 

OB, I don't know what mine are supposed to look like either, never having; a)owned a British car before, and; b)seen rear brake discs before. The car has well over 175 000 miles on, but the discs are not scored or burned, in fact, to my untrained eye they look new. They seem to be about as thick as yours, not at all like Mercan front brake discs I'm accustomed to seeing.

I reported the visual condition of my rear brakes to another forum, and got positive responses concerning them.

Considering all the examples you have just sitting around, you should be able to look at some of them for a rough sampling and get an idea. I can almost see the story of that now.
(';')

 

orangeblossom,

mine are certainly no better than yours! On the rear of these outboard XJSs, the pads never seem to contact on the outer edge of the disc. Also, it just seems to put most of its braking weight on the front, so rear discs and pads last for ages. I even asked my MoT tester if the rears were actually doing anything, but he assured me that it was meeting the efficiency %. Clean up the x-sectional outer edge with a screwdriver whilst turning the disc so it looks as presentable as possible and I reckon you'll be fine!

Good luck

Paul

 

As said here, the MOT tester only tests the brake efficiency, so if it passes it passes ! However maintenance is a different matter, and thickness of disc should be measured. Your photo only shows the edge of the disc, not the faces. What do these look like ? The rear brake that fails MOT most often is the handbrake. When this happens most people overhaul the whole shebang at the rear and either remove the calipers, or drop the subframe and remove them, as it is very difficult to work on the handbrake in-situ.

 

idk but your camera skills won't pass MOT.

just kidding, regardless of image quality this tells us NOTHING. the edges are going to have rust, no issue. The discs will probably have some scoring.

what matters is actual thickness and manufactures specified minimum thickness. We can't tell you anything without sticking a micrometer through the screen

 

New is .500 inch
Minimum is .450 inch

Cheers
DD

 

I agree!

I've been under lots of old Jags where the rear brakes were borderline at best. Just because they pass the test *today* doesn't mean they're in tip-top shape, or that they can be ignored for another 10-15-20 years

Cheers
DD

 

Hi Elinor

Please don't lead me into that kind of Temptation! If I never crawl under another jag, then it won't be a day too soon!

But having said that its a Brilliant idea! Why didn't I think of that!

If only I could Free up my hydraulic ramp, which is overburdened by another 'non running XJS' all such things would be simple!

But getting the Hydraulic Ramp home, was a different ball game altogether!

Its a Full Size hydraulic ramp the same as garages use, the only difference being, that you can Wheel it around, providing of course you've had your Weetabix (Energy Giving UK Breakfast Cereal)

I bought it off a Lady who runs a Circus, who even has a 'Big Top' in her garden 'Like you do!' and as I was a long way from home and didn't really want to go back for a Trailer.

She summoned up a dozen Clowns to lift it on the Back of my Land Rover, where once having done so, it was overhanging on all sides, as well as being well overweight for the vehicle!

So after a little test drive round her garden, I decided that it was too dangerous and wanted to lift it off again to go back for my Trailer.

The only problem being, that the Clowns had disappeared!, so though their job was to make people laugh, they were almost making me Cry!

Just in case you were wondering, they didn't have their Clown Costumes on at the time, which was probably just as well as none of this was funny!

So as I love to live life on the edge, I decided to risk it! (big mistake!) as anything more that 10mph had the Landrover swaying all over the place, much to the annoyance of everyone else on the road.

It was nearly Midnight, by the time that I got home but then I couldn't get it through the Driveway, so I had to cut the Hedge down in the middle of the night, as I didn't want to leave it in the road!

This was in the Suburbs and not the wide open spaces of the USA so I'm sure my neighbors would confirm that a Chain Saw makes one hell of a noise at that time in the morning.

But you know what they Say 'needs must when the devil rides' so I do not think I really had much choice.

 

Cheers Paul!

Thank You for that, in fact I am feeling a whole lot better already and sort of looking forward to the MOT which will be at a garage quite a long way from me, so pass or fail at least I'll get one Trip!

 

The faces of the discs look almost perfect, with no signs of scoring or grooving and I put new pads in the handbrake, without dropping the cage!

Don't ask me how I managed that, as you can't see a thing!

 

What's a Micrometer? (lol)

Let's hope the MOT Tester hasn't got one either!

 

I think I'm going to need Sidescollings Thermometer!

 

With the number of things that keep going wrong! I may well not live long enough to find out!

 

OB, I'm full of good ideas. I have ideas for issues that haven't even come up yet!


Why don't you simply unload your ramp/lift?? I mean, after all the trouble you went to getting it home, it seems a bit silly that you can't use it. And speaking of the ramp, Whatever possessed you to put it on the Land Rover and not the trailer that was sitting right there???!

You do lead a charmed life, don't you.

I'm sorry you said the Clowns weren't in costume at the time, because as I was reading that part the mental images of a bunch of clowns loading the ramp on a Land Rover while a trailer is easily available, well, it simply screamed "CIRCUS!!"

In this part of the world you would have been in Serious trouble pulling that stunt. Actually, Serious Trouble wouldn't even Begin to cover it. The CHP would not only have stopped you, they would have impounded your vehicle and written you up a citation for reckless driving, over width, over height, over weight, over length, and any other over thing they could come up with. I don't imagine you had proper lights on the cargo so they would have added that to your list of infractions. The fines alone would have bought you a properly working XJ-S.

I know what a chain-saw sounds like in the wee hours. If you managed to avoid the state troopers, the local constabulary would have had even more fun writing up all your local violations regarding blocking the street, even for a few minutes, disturbing the peace, noise at off hours, and any number of other code violations until you were sorry you got out of bed that morning.

Contrary to opinion, all of the USA is not wide open spaces. Even in my "rural" location, off the beaten track, people expect quiet after dark and take a dim view of someone cutting down their hedge with a chain saw to bring in a hydraulic ramp. You would have had to hold an open house and invite all your neighbors for "refreshments" and promise to share your ramp with them. In return they might not call the County Sheriff. Basically we are a forgiving lot -- mostly.
(';')

 

 

Hi Elinor

I'd left the Trailer behind at home because in the photo She sent me, the Ramp didn't look all that big, except that when I saw it, in the flesh so to speak it looked 'Ginourmous'!

The best part was meeting the Lady herself, who was very wealthy and rich beyond MY (my wildest dreams!) who invited me into her lounge, where the '**** Pile Carpets' were so deep it was hard not tripping over!

And there were pictures of famous Celebrities all over the Walls, so I spent literally ages, listening to the Stories of what they all got up to behind closed doors!

Then She went and told me that She had her own big top set up in the Garden! I thought She was having 'a Giraffe' (rhyming slang for laugh!) but she was not!

When She opened the French windows, suddenly there is was, bang right there in front of me, with all the Animal Cages and Expensive Silver Caravans all over the place!

The way that She conducted herself She seemed to think it was normal and 'like how come I hadn't got one of my own!'

And didn't seem very impressed by the fact, that the closest I could get to that was a Garden Gazebo. That you couldn't swing a Cat in, let alone a Lion!

The Clowns were a really miserable bunch who didn't really want the job of lifting the Ramp onto my Land Rover.

So not so surprising they made themselves scarce when I wanted it lifting off as it was too heavy.

But I really wish you could have seen her Kitchen, It was absolutely awesome, especially the sink, where I naively made a comment that I didn't know that they made sinks out of Copper.

To which She gave me a withering look and told me it was Gold Plated!
OMG! 'I would never dare wash up in something as expensive as that!'

To which She replied 'I don't my dear' I have someone to do that for me!
Alright for some or What!

So after one more Cup of Lapsang Souchong (China Tea) It was already getting so dark that I thought that I might as well risk it and if I got stopped was going to say.

'I always carry this with me in case I get a puncture!'
You never know the powers that be may have even had a sense of humor!

Not so with my Neighbors though who couldn't understand why I couldn't have left the Chainsawing until the morning.

I just don't know what's wrong with them, they have no sense of Adventure! But after I'd done all the 'Donkey Work' they all wanted to borrow the lifter!

We have (correction used to have!) a Lamppost outside our house, that I once used as a makeshift Crane to unload a big diesel Compressor that I wanted to Shot Blast my Boat with (don't ask don't even go there!)

But unfortunate the Arm that had the light on just snapped off and very nearly killed me when the 'Block and Tackle' came down but I'm still here to tell the Tale unlike the Council's Lamp Post!

Which was very obviously made from sub standard materials! but glad to see the back of it, as it kept shining through my Bedroom Window.

But not anymore!

When you mentioned Welding in a previous post, it reminded me of how I met my Girlfriend, as her Father did some Welding on my boat!

So think it would be fair to say, because of that we already had a lot of 'Sparks' between us.

Maybe I should run away and go and join the Circus!

 

MGTF Now that's what I call a very nice car! Why not put up a Photo for us to all drool over!

 

Hi Orangeblossom

I don't think its the TF you'd expect to see. Its a 2010 MG TF as designed by MG Rover in 2002 and when they went bust, built by MG Motor in very late 2009. MG Motor is the UK subisidiary of SAIC of China.

Here is a pic taken in the Staffordshire Moorlands the day I picked the car up. The curlews were calling as I took the photo on an absolutely perfect Spring day.