Aw, crap.

The great thing about a really knowledgeable, diligent shop, when given a mystery meat car and asked to catalog the failures, is I'll get a very valuable list of problems that I could not have found on my own.

The downside is I'll inevitably get a list of problems the length of my arm which is bound to include some real surprises, and it can be a bit too much to contemplate all at once.

Fortunately, there are many problems found that I did know or suspect, a lot of them aren't super-urgent, and the whole problem space can be broken down and solved in phases.

Phase #1 is making the car safe to drive, which it isn't at the moment. I was expecting bad news on the brakes, and bad news is what I got. Bad brake work and maintenance by previous owners has trashed both front and rear rotors. So the whole brake system basically needs a rebuild. That's not really a surprise. What surprised me was the tires, which I apparently failed to inspect close enough, because I thought they'd be good for a while. Apparently, they are failing badly on the inside tread, and aren't road safe.

So phase one is going to be brakes and tires. I'm going to let the shop start working on the brakes while I source a new set of rubber. The car currently has Nexen N3000 tires on it: 255/35-20 fronts, and 285/30-20 rears.

I've seen a number of good discussions on this topic in the past. In my case, given the amount of work ahead, I'm not looking for my ultimate fall-in-love tires, I'm looking for a very practical and safe stop-gap for Texas, low-mileage driving.

Any suggestions? Thanks heaps for your attention!

 

Not another tire thread . . . .

 

D'oh!

Feel free to link a good reference thread.

 

Is it just rotors and pads? That doesn't seem too bad or suprising-- or are there caliper issues?

 

No, if I recall the phone conversation correctly, there was no mention of the calipers, but the pads and rotor were neglected, mismatched or both. I'm going to try to visit the shop tomorrow and get a tour; they're prepping a parts list for me, so I should have some documentation soon.

 

Start here:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...t-tires-89922/

 

Good rotors and Ceramic pads for front and back can be purchased for $300 and it takes about 2 hour's tops to change them out, also the e-brake has old fashion brake shoes inside the rear rotors, add another $50 for those.

I personally run Michelin A3 Pilot Sports on my cars and love them.

You need to learn to work on the car yourself, most repairs can be done on jack stands. Having a shop handle everything is going to burn a hole in your wallet. These are just car's, nothing all that special after you get through the learning curve and realize they do require more maintenance than most cars.

Good luck!

 

Thanks! There is no way I'm spending the money to have this shop fix everything that is wrong with this car. However, at the moment, I would much rather have professionals fix the faulty mystery-meat brakes and establish a safe baseline. I'm pretty confident of doing regular pad and rotor maintenance myself in the future.

 

By the time a shop has replace all 4 rotors and pads and flushed your brake fluid system you are looking at $1,000. These cars are just cars. You have gotta learn how to maintain a 13 year old car or be prepared to spend a lot of money. That's what this forum is for. We have been there, done that and are willing to talk you through the learning curve.

 

Your point is well taken. There are some complicating factors entirely aside from the car itself that make this a bad time for me to start a car project at home. Temporary, but complicating.

I'm going to go talk to the shop in the morning before they start anything. I'll need to buy myself some time one way or another, either by spending some money now, or putting this car on hold.

Honestly, the tires are the most urgent problem at the moment; there is apparently tread separation occurring on at least one tire, so I may delay the whole brake problem while I work on replacing the tires. Even as bad as the brakes are, they do stop the car. If I can get new rubber on the corners, I can at least limp it short distances without towing it everywhere.

 

Put tires on it. Drive it home. Do the brakes front one day rear the next. Bakes and rotors are almost as easy as changing tires. You can buy all 4 wheels rotors and pads for $300.00 on Ebay.

 

If the car has brembo's you can change the pads in less than 15 minutes/caliper. Super easy. Since the rotors are trashed, and the caliper has to come off, it will take a little longer, but still easier than the single piston calipers. Watch Brembo videos online to learn the secrets.

For pads I recommend the Hawk Performance Ceramics for around $100 in front. HPS+ are better for more money.

Whatever pad you pick you want low dust and ceramic. Any cheap ceramic pad will work in back. Brembos in back are mostly for coolness.

With those wheels and Brembos, you are going to want Drilled rotors (again for coolness). The Centric Drilled and/or Drilled and slotted are very nice pieces, are directional and are not expensive. Rockauto or Amazon generally have the best prices for name brands, Ebay can be cheaper but can also have off brands and non directional rotors. Ceramic pads are a must with drilled/slotted rotors.

If the tires are wearing on the insides, the Suspension likely needs new upper shock mounts front/rear. Welsh Ent on Ebay is the best source for front shock mounts.

 

For Tires, I would recommend the Sumitomo HTR for only about $600/set.

For the amount of driving you are talking about, a 300 treadwear will last for years, and the reviews are excellent. Nobody is going to prorate warranty non rotate-able tires so there's no sense in spending more for a tire with a higher tread warranty.

 

Hey folks,

I let the shop do the brake job today. I have to pick my battles sometimes, and this will be far from the worst overspending I've ever done. I gave that a lot of thought, though, and I appreciate the advice. I'm going to look hard for projects on the car where I can use my time and skill to my advantage.

That is an awesome suggestion that gets right to my use-case. I was going to post something today about how I must have been completely manic last night asking about tire recommendations, when clearly (after reading too many threads on the topic) there is no coherent community consensus because there are simply too many variables.

I've been a regular customer of an awesome local Discount Tire store for a decade or more, and I put in a special order with them for Hankooks this morning just to get something in the pipe. However, the Sumitomos from tirerack.com just make better sense on this car for my driving patterns. That saved me about $300 right there.

Muchas gracias!

For the record:

255/35ZR-20 SUMITOMO HTR Z III XL Qty:2 In Stock $119.62 $239.24
285/30ZR-20 SUMITOMO HTR Z III XL Qty:2 In Stock $163.66 $327.32

Shipping: $77.70
Order Total: $644.26

 

Shop for tires that have free shipping. Check TireBuyer.com. They are on-line unit of a national tire distributer that serves all the US therefore will have to charge local sales tax everywhere.

I just got a local Ford dealer Quick Lane agree to match on-line tire prices from a supplier that was not going to charge tax and I was going to have them mount and balance the on-line tires anyway.

Total savings about $250 from a couple local Michelin quotes. YMMV

 

We are lucky in DFW that the Tire rack warehouse is only 3 hours away, but in LA. Shipping is usually only 1 day with no sales tax.

Then you just have to find a tire guy to put them on. Tire rack recommends NTB, but I haven't had much luck with NTB. I'm sure there is a good one out there, I just haven't run across it. I have 8 cars and last time I checked they all had tires so one would think not being a **** to me would be in their best interest.

 

I have a tire I think everyone can get behind. Having said that I'm sure there will be some dissent. Whenever I need tires, or tyres. I buy the round black ones...

 

If you go through the "wizard" for tire delivery on Tirerack, it will suggests local installers. This wizard also lists the mounting and balancing charges for each installer. There can be significant differences, especially when multiplied by 4. My local guy (national chain) charges $13 for mounting and balancing, no charge for valve stem. Word to the wise: PRINT the page with what the local installer is supposed to charge before you get there. And that low price is supposed to apply to a Tirerack order, irrespective of where the tires are shipped (home or to the installer directly).

Best of luck, from another Sumitomo/Tirerack customer.

 

If you've been around here awhile, then you know that the
upper tensioners are a must check item very early into
ownership of the 4.0L.

Don't know if you have the 4.0 or 4.2

Seems fmertz has 4.2 in his sig so this may be irrelevant.

 

Yep! I did catch that. The variation in mounting charges was significant. Fortunately, the closest NTB was also one on the low end of the range ($17 in this area for 35 and shorter profiles), and they had a really good customer rating from the tirerack.com website. So we'll see how that turns out tomorrow.

Thanks! My car has a 4.2 (2003), but I did do quite a bit of reading about the 4.0 as well.

Apropo of nothing, if you want to watch a nice XK8 video with a guy talking about Nikasil cylinder bores in Dutch (I think), here is 11 minutes of time killing car video: