Cambo hasn't poked his head into this thread (yet!), it was Stohlen who commented about the proportioning valve, see post #4.

 

Time for a shout out to Britcar, not just the cheapest prices going for the parts I needed, but they arrived this arvo very well packed and only three days after the order was confirmed, all the way from Blighty and two of those three days were a weekend!
By far the quickest postage I have ever had from Blighty.

 

You could just go to your local parts counter with your vin and the vin of a car with the brakes you are adding. However, I went from the black brakes to Carbon Ceramic and proportioning, master cylinder etc all the same. Functionality is perfect.

 

Not when there is only one JLR dealer in town, with the next closest one over 700 km away! Because they have a monopoly they can and do charge like a wounded bull, and then they add an "F-type tax" on top for good measure.
I didn't bother to price the parts from them, but I can safely say they would have cost me at least three times and possibly four times as much as I paid.

 

Sorry, I meant use parts desk to see if there is a different proportioning valve. If I get a few minutes, I will research.

 

Had a real fun day!
The brake pads rolled up yesterday, the final piece of the puzzle (well maybe not quite!), so I decided to tackle the job (upgrade the rear brakes to 376 mm ones) today, with the occasional help of my son.
The good news is that this upgrade "works", I had all the right parts and they bolt right up to the hubs no problems.
Except for two little issues.
The splash shields are riveted on in two of the three fixing spots, thanks JLR, so I had no choice but to bust the rivets off with a hammer and screwdriver. At least I had just enough nuts, bolts and washers of the right size to MacGyver the new splash shields on, although it was very fiddly as there is very little room to move behind to get the nuts on the bolts. First problem solvered.
Next, and the main problem - it didn't matter how long my son or I pumped the brake pedal I could not get any brake fluid at the bleed nipples, so I could not bleed the air out of the new calipers. We tried everything, ignition off, ignition on, engine on, fluid reservoir cap off, cap on but not tight, cap on tight, nothing worked.
This problem may or may not be related to the fact that the brakes lines are bolted to the calipers with a bolt that has a small copper crush washer on each side.
These washers are supposed to be discarded and new ones used, but I didn't get any new ones with the kit so I reused the old ones. However even when done up nice and tight the brake lines still leaked/dripped fluid, not much, just a drop every 3 or 4 seconds. But of course even a small leak is no good.
So I tried another MacGyver fix, I had some spare 1 mm thick high tensile washers of the right size, so I stuck one on the base of each brake line bolt. This solved the leaks, no more drips.
But I still couldn't get any brake fluid through to the bleed nipples!
So I tried a little experiment, I took the extra washer off on one side and refitted the brake line with just the used crush washers then had my son pump the brake pedal, and immediately a big squirt of fluid came out of the brake line bolt area. Well at least this proved that fluid is getting to the caliper, but not necessarily into it.
I think the problem is air locks inside the calipers, and no amount of brake pedal pumping is going to get rid of those air locks.
My plan now is to call in a mobile mechanic to see if he can fix the problem, unless one of you good people can tell me exactly what I need to do. I would prefer not to have to muck about with removing the calipers, but I suspect I may have to so I can somehow pump them full of fresh fluid then refit them. If so, how do I pump the fluid into the calipers, would a turkey baster do the trick?

 

Pre-fill the calliper with fluid by removing the bleed nipple and using a funnel to pour the fluid in?

Although, the difficulty with the hose fixings sounds a bit suspicious...

 

Yep, I thought of something like that, but I didn't have anything to get fluid into/through the bleed nipple hole. It's on the side of the caliper so you can't just pour it in. But that gives me an idea, I might me able to poke the piece of plastic tube I use for brake bleeding (squeezes over the bleed nipple) into the bleed nipple hole and somehow pour fluid in through the tube, I just have to figure out a way to get plenty of fluid into the other end of the tube. A syringe might do it but I can't find one!

 

Problem solvered! (I think).
After trying various ways to get brake fluid into the caliper nothing was working, so as a last resort I removed a caliper and compared the brake line holes on the old and the new calipers.
Lo and behold, the new caliper had a metal blanking plug screwed deep down into the thread of the brake line hole, very difficult to see. No wonder I couldn't get any fluid through it! The plug appeared to have a 3/8" hex hole in the top of it, so I got my trusty hex drivers out but no go, the plug simply would not budge. It was so tight I ended up rounding the hex hole. What to do? So I had to call on MacGyver yet again, and drill a hole straight through the blanking plug. Cleaned out, reassembled, refitted, bingo the brake line now bled properly! So I did the same on the other side. Now for a test drive!

 

Success!
Brakes working perfectly, been for a test run and bedded the new rear pads in.
Also, no more "graunch" as I come to a stop even though I haven't swapped out the front pads yet, that's a job for tomorrow as my aged bones are aching too much right now.
Does anyone know what gives with those blanking plugs inside the brake line holes on the calipers? I've never seen or heard of them before and nothing comes up when I search t'interwebz. If they are just to keep dust etc out of the caliper innards then it's a strange way to seal those holes.

 

Last update, I promise! (famous last words).
Just finished swapping out the front brake pads as well, all good. New Porterfield R4S brake pads front & rear now.
Another test drive to check out the front pads and bed them in, everything now working as it should.
In two ways the new brakes are a big improvement over the stock brakes (other than the vastly improved look of the 376 mm drilled & slotted rear rotors), although I had previously swapped out the stock pads for Centric Posiquiet semi-metallic pads.
The brakes are now more progressive and smoother, but still with plenty of stopping power. And the annoying "graunch" as I come to stop has completely gone. The only possible downside is that the pedal is a bit soft for the first 1/2 inch of travel, no immediate bite at all, I suspect there is still a little bit of air in one of the rear lines. But it's OK, it just means I have to learn to adapt to a slightly squishy initial pedal, and anyway the brake fluid is due to be renewed at the next service in 5 months time so it will then be fixed.
The only thing to test now is the quantity of brake dust but I expect it will be low.
As an added bonus, I finally figured out how to fairly quickly and easily refit the front brake anti-rattle clips (380 mm front brakes), after previously spending many many hours and lots of expletives on trying to refit them on both my XFR and F-Type (hint - you need a helper, either that or grow a third hand!).
So after all that the moral of the story is yes, you can DIY upgrade the rear brakes from the 326 mm ones to the 376 mm ones without it costing a fortune in parts and with only a couple of tricks and traps to watch out for.

 

How much did it cost in total?
Do you also have a list o parts you used?

I am planing to change my rear brakes too.

 

I'm heading off out now so I will reply properly in the morning, but all the needed parts are listed in previous posts in this thread with JLR part numbers, and the whole kit and caboodle cost me around $1,100 AU (about $850 US I guess).
But I got the calipers dirt cheap, around 1/3 of the normal price, and I already had the rotors.

 

Are there any useful " tricks" for changing the rear brake pads ?
Alan

 

Diplomat,
The full list of parts needed is:

Calipers (red) - TRW BHS 1351 and TRW BHS 1352.
Worth checking to see if they come with (as they should) the little copper crush washers that go either side of the brake line bolts, two for each caliper.

Rotors - I couldn't find the official JLR part number, but you are much better off getting the identical 2010 XFR 376 mm rear brake rotors as they will be almost certainly a lot cheaper than the F-Type rotors. Believe me, they are absolutely the identical rotors.
Centric sell standard ones quite cheap, SKU 121.20031, see here: Jaguar XFR Brake Rotors - Brake Disc - Centric ATE - 2010 10 - PartsGeek.com

Caliper brackets and splash shields - I got them from Britcars, definitely the cheapest out there:
T2R7694 - right side red caliper bracket
T2R7698 - left side red caliper bracket
C2P12704 - right side splash shield
C2P12705 - left side splash shield

Brake pads - there aren't many for the 376 mm rear brakes, one is EBC, but I used Porterfield R4S part # AP1753.

That's it for parts, all other bits and pieces are carried over from the stock 326 mm brakes.

One last tip - it helps to have a way to plug the brake line(s) while you mount the new calipers, you need to insert a plug into the hole in the brake line "block" that the mounting bolt goes through, I used a 9 mm vacuum cap but an ordinary earplug will probably work.

 

Alan,
It's pretty straightforward, the main thing to remember is NOT to apply the EPB before you start, make sure it is "off".
I just checked the caliper piston wind back on one of the old calipers, and it went back in by pushing (with a G-clamp), no need to wind.
But it only needed to go back in about 1 mm as the previous pads were barely worn, so maybe it does need to be wound in to start with but I suspect not.
Also, refitting the brake pad wear sensor (RHS inner pad) might be a little tricky, it was on my old XFS and XFR, but I'm not so sure about the F-Type as the bloke who did the previous pad change stuffed up the sensor and it's been zip-tied up out of the way for months now, and I never saw how it was connected. If it's the same as the XFR then the wear sensor plugs into a spring which fits into the hole on the top of the pad, and the trick is to remove the spring (pulls out with pliers), insert the sensor end into the spring, then refit the spring. Problem is, the new rear brake pads on the XFR came with these springs attached but the new Porterfield pads for the F-Type didn't come with any springs, although they all had the slot for inserting the spring and/or sensor. So either it's a different method or you re-use the spring from the old pad.

 

Thank you
Alan

 

In my experience ceramic pads do lack that initial bite compared to OEM pads, so what you experience may be quite normal.

 

I've had ceramic pads before, Power Stop ceramics on my old XFS, and yes the initial bite was a fair bit less than the stock pads and overall the feel was softer.
But these new Porterfield R4S pads are not ceramic, they are "carbon kevlar" (whatever that means!), but that said I'm liking the feel and smoothness more and more every day so maybe you are right and I don't have any air left in the brake lines.

 

Do you have to do anything special to the ABS system to bleed the brakes? Or do you just assume that air shouldn't have gotten into it? A friend with a Boxster indicated that the ABS had to be factored in when bleeding the brakes.