I’ve never been impressed with the brake feel on my 105k mile XK8. So far as I can see they’ve had no attention other than pad changes in the last 75k miles and over the recent long trip to Spain the feel deteriorated with the pedal pulsing as the car slowed. When we got home and there was a few days of rain forecast, I got the car on stands and removed the brakes.

The rear set looked fine. Lots of life left on the pads and disks, and fairly fresh brake grease. The calipers have a manufacture date of 2021 so all good here. The front brakes were the problem. The caliper rubbers were in a mess, the pistons rusty and the calipers themselves needed cleaning up. The flexi pipes had also seen better days.

I’d have loved to do a proper brake upgrade to Brembos and/or EBC disks and pads but the way I drive this 27 year old car doesn’t justify it. I came up with a compromise and thought I’d post up what I’d done to help anyone with the same decisions to make. I’ve provided immediate impressions but will also give an update once I’ve done a couple of thousands mile on the new setup.

I sent off the calipers to BCS for their standard remanufacture service. I was very pleased with what they did and, if anything, they over-communicated. They had to order in new pistons but from quote to return took a week.

Calipers fresh back from BCS.



What I fitted:

• A pair of MTEC grooved front disks with the black protective coating
• MTEC pads MTECPAD4286 – I’m guessing this is where I might want to do something different in future
• Goodridge Stainless Steel Brake Hose Kit in electric blue.

At the rear I cleaned up the disks, calipers and hangers and swapped in the new brake hoses.

At the front I cleaned everything up and fitted all the new stuff, did some thorough fluid bleeding, got the wheels back on then took it for a one hour drive.

At first it was horrible – lots of judder. I guess this was the pads wiping the black protective surface off.

After about ten miles or so, I could see a very noticeable difference. The brake pedal still isn’t as hard as you might find in a sportier car but the feel is a significant improvement and the car pulls up in a straight line with no judder or pulsating. After about 50 miles I was confident enough to do a couple of emergency stops and it felt just fine – again, a noticeable improvement. After another couple of heavy stops (two feet on the brake with the ABS struggling to cope) there was a strong smell of burning but still no fade.

The front wheels were a bit dirty from the waste protective coating but I'm going to watch out for excess brake dust.

So far so good, then. I’ll provide an update in a couple of months.

 

The ebc redstuff pads made a significant difference in my stopping performance vs. the OEM pads. Not a surprise really, as they have been much better than the stock pads on every car I’ve used them on.

Well worth the money, imho.

Z

 

The problem with the brakes and the soft pedal/travel is insufficient vacuum from the lumpy camshafts. Mine went from a reading of 150 to 300 at the MOT brake test when I fitted a £42 electric brake pump. All written up on here.

In fact the brakes were so good the driver did and emergency stop to avoid a child but the truck behind did not stop fast enough and the rear impact wrote off the Jag .

 

Nightmare. Will seach out the electric brake pump post - at that cost, it feels like a good idea.

 

And its failsafe ..if the pump fails it reverts to the original vacuum supply.

see

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/387917485...2ODWY2GLVS7Y1p

Its called the route to good brakes ..

The route to good brakes. - Jaguar Forums - Jaguar Enthusiasts Forum

 

I was just about to start a new thread about EBC pads, because it's an upgrade I want to do next. My doubts are: how they behave when cold, and are they noisy? The vacuum pump is a great idea, but if the result is the same as fitting performance pads, I prefer to leave the brakes all original with no modifications.

 

You wont double the braking effort with mods to the front brakes only ...the vacuum mod works on all 4

 

Yup. I did the brake lines on all four but didn't touch the disks and calipers on the rear. Spent some time last night working out how I do your mod - will be posting a question in the thread. I think your vacuum mod and the goodridge lines will have most impact - the new disks and caliper remanufacture were more repairs than upgrades.

I'm getting the feeling I'll be upgrading the pads to EBC too...

 

I have read some opinions online about EBC pads and most of them are not good, they says that the initial bite is worst than OEM pads?? Is it true? I'm looking for the opposite effect..

 

I had standard discs Two for £30 and the cheapest ebay pads I could find .....Retarding force 3x the weight of the car up from 1.5 without the vacuum pump ..go figure

 

The ebc redstuff work very well when cold, and with minimal dust. ebc has different pad compounds that are more race oriented which do require a warm up period to be effective, but the redstuff pads do not have that issue. Go on the ebc website to see a nice comparison chart with all the ebc pad compounds listed.

As far as noise goes; I have never noticed any excessive noise when braking. It always pays to break in the pads as per ebc’s instructions if you expect them to work the best.

I have the ebc red stuff pads on all 4 wheels. But as you suggest, they will do nothing to alleviate the stock soft pedal. But once they start working, the improvement over the OEM type pads is genuinely remarkable.


Of course that improvement is to be expected . As one shouldn’t be paying big bucks for premium brake pads without getting a deserved payoff.

Z