Jaguar XJS Brake Job: Forum Members to the Rescue!
Doing the rear brakes and shocks on an old XJS can be tricky — but Jaguar Forums is here to help!
Last week, I wrote about a 1989 XJS that was for sale on Bring a Trailer. While it wasn’t perfect, it had just 6,000 miles on the clock, a cool color combo, and a V12 under the hood. In an indication that classic Jaguar prices might be headed north, it went for a respectable $21,250. This week, however, I got a reminder about just how complicated it can be to keep a vintage kitty like this on the road, thanks to a post from mwwmurphy about replacing the rear brakes and shocks.
Now here’s where I need this forum’s candid advice. I don’t have a lot of time, but for $4,000 I can make some time. I daily this XJS in Washington, DC (and can walk to work). Although my home garage & tools are in Alabama, I have access to Fort Meade’s base MWR shop that comes replete with multiple lifts, tools, and even a few experienced volunteers to help. If this were my 1966 Cadillac Fleetwood, I wouldn’t give changing the rear brakes and shocks a second thought, but being my somewhat abusive XJS, I’m nervous.
Now, while the XJS I mentioned above went for over 20k, there are still plenty of these cars available for half that or less, so I can understand the hesitation in wanting to drop $4,000 on a job that would cost 1/10 of that on many makes. To be honest, I was always scared of needing rear brakes on my old XJ6, because I was broke when I bought it — and didn’t know how notoriously tricky those inboard stoppers could be until after I’d been driving the car for a year. Oops!
As luck would have it, mwwmurphy posted in the right place, as loads of Jaguar Forums members chimed in with advice. As he explained, he’s turned a wrench or two in his day, and access to that well-equipped shop meant that a lot of folks here thought this job was well within his skillset. But in reading through the comments, he found a real kindred spirit in member orangeblossom, who had recently done the exact same job on his XJS. Better still, he’d exhaustively documented the process in a thread, so mwwmurphy could see exactly what he was getting into!
At this point, it sounds like this project is a go, as mwwmurphy now has a step-by-step plan, complete with a timeline. And while orangeblossom described that plan as “ambitious,” I have a high degree of confidence that this big cat will be buttoned up soon. I’ll be following this thread to check on the progress, but keep your fingers crossed there aren’t too many rusty fasteners or busted bolts involved — we all know how those can make a project go sideways!
Photos: mwwmurphy, orangeblossom