I've only seen and driven a couple of the 06 models so far and I've noticed that a lot of times the rotors looked pretty chewed up. It's as though the oem pads are too agressive? The Akebono pads that some people have mentioned don't seem to make a distinction between these two ranges of productions.

Are the pads the same? I thought not.

Are there any friendlier pads for the later series cars?

How about the performance of the later series brakes, anything big differences?

I like the look of the earlier brakes (kind of pointless) but it's looking like I may end up with an 06 or newer car.

Thanks.

Bob S.

 

06 to 08 were Brembo brakes caliper and front driving lights delete cars. Yes, 03 to 05 STR's will stop better than 06 to 08, in fact the 03 to 05 STR's were leaders in their class in brake stopping distance. IMHO, the 03 to 05 STR's look nastier... If you check DRAGTIMES.com it was a completely stock 03 STR that pulled the best 1/4 mile time (13.1 seconds at 105 mph).

 

Other way around on the Brembos (03-05).
I agree about the front end look. But the best condition cars coming on the market now are 06 & 07. Plus they have bluetooth and some have sat radio included but it's the bluetooth that's important to me.

I hadn't bothered to lookup the stopping distances. Good idea!

Still wondering about the rest though.

Bob S.

 

with the brembo brakes there was ,and are lots of good points but some bad ones,yes they are very good at stopping from speed but they can be a bit grabby at low speed ,they also warp easy the standed brakes 2006my are teves ,these are now fitted to xf,xk models so there will be lots of after market brands available soon,later xkr are now fitted with ap racing brakes.

 

Staatsof, I was correct. I wrote "06 to 08 were Brembo brake caliper and front driving light "delete" cars". "Delete" as in "taken away and no longer provided".

 

It doesn't logically read that way to me but no matter. It's what you meant that counts.

I'd like to hear about whether the 06-08 brakes were any worse or had improved feel or whatever. One reads a lot of "stuff" about braking issues.
I'm not going to drive the car all that hard but it will get mostly urban use.

Thanks.

Bob S.

 

the brakes for the 06/08 str are excellent ,no fading in my experience,good at high and low speeds , the disc rust up quickly when you wash the car and the calipers could do with a paint after a few years

 

I read the same...Jaguar thought the Brembos overkill and perhaps to cut production costs too; nixed the Brembos. The 06 on STR's recieved an excellent brake system nontheless.

 

What I'm not clear on is if the Brembo calipers are aluminum whereas the Tevees or whomever makes the later ones are cast iron and quite large. That would be a really big change in unsprung weight at all 4 corners.

Yes, many of the later examples I've seen here in the NE have rusty looking calipers so I guess they didn't get well finished. The salt on roads here is very tough even after the roads have been cleared and it's safe to drive cars like this again. The salt dust is just brutal.

 

If you do a quick google search, it seems as though Jeep has used Teves calipers in their Grand Cherokees for years. JEEP pops up all over the place in a "Teves Caliper" google search. May be able to find some more in depth information on one of those forums, seems to be alot. Probably not the same size as the Jag but they may only have one "model" of calipers. Not sure.

Anyways I can attest to the fact that the Brembos are VERY touchy at low speed and rolling. I expect the Akebono ceramics will help with this. The stock pads are just TOO soft. The stopping power is incredible though and I have been lucky having coming from two outstanding braking systems on my previous two vehicles, one of them being Brembos.

As for the finish, Brembos seem to have a VERY hard outer shell with a gloss sheen, unlike most calipers I have seen. The ones pictured above dont seem to have the same type of finish and sheen that the Brembos have, nothing a little G2 caliper paint cant take care of though. I have no rust on mine whatsoever, just "stains", maybe from brake dust, fluid, who knows.

Are these Teves single or dual piston?

Wish I had some more information on the actual stopping performance but thats all I got.

 

Yes they are a big brake manufacturer but unless that caliper is listed for a Jeep I don't quite see the relevance.

I haven't uncovered any details on number of pistons involved on the 06-08 versus the 03-05.

I noticed touchy brakes on an 06 I drove but not on another 06 I drove so? Unless someone has the wrong type of pad installed (possible) it's a matter oh how the system was tuned. On the last 06 I drove was the brakes were fine though certainly not sports oriented.

Bob S.

 

The relevence would be that they probably have the same finish and made out of the same material, which was one of your questions. Seeing as there are a million Jeep forums, you could probably find your answer on one of them. I think Mercedes has thrown them on a few of their models as well. It was just a suggeston for there isn't much info out there on the EXACT OEM model #, material compositions and finish for Teves calipers on 06-08 Jaguar STR's.

I would suspect the variance of brake performance on your 06 test drives would come down to different types of pads, not necessarily wrong pads, and possibly rotors.

 

in the uk you can have 06/7/8 str with brembo brake.s some dealers did them as options.not sure about the u.s.

 

And ... do Robin Hood and Friar Tuck prefer the Brembos?

Bob S.

 

The one that was grabby had more miles so maybe the rougher rotors had something to do with it but in all the cars I've had this has not happened. I've had them start to not feel smooth or the front wheels shimmy but not this. That's why I suspect someone threw a set of pads on uncut rotors and they might have been non-stock giving bad feel hence what I would label as wrong. I mean it really sucked as in didn't buy that car bad. The other one I drove was fine. There is no shortage people who "tune" their cars with stuff and end up making things worse. I've tried plenty of stuff and had to reverse it.

Bob S.

 

HA HA HA HA, nice one!

 

All kidding aside I really do want to know if in the UK they prefer the operation of the Brembos. They look better, they are lighter, seem to be better finished but I have read something about someone not being happy with aluminum pistons in them. That doesn't sound right to me. I'd expect that the pistons are steel or stainless but maybe they're hard plated aluminum?

Over here I see references for rebuilt S-Type R Brembo calipers for not that much money so I wonder if it's just a bolt on thing?

Bob S.

 

In 2006 Jaguar downgraded the brakes on the STR. The old brakes were Brembo 4 piston, fixed caliper front brakes, 14.3" in diameter. In 2006 and up they reduced the front disc size from 14.3" down to 13.98". Then they dropped down from 4 caliper to single caliper floating caliper. So now the STR has the same type of brakes that 98% of the other cars on the road have.
In the rear they downgraded the STR from a dual piston fixed caliper to a standard single piston floating caliper design. They also reduced the rear brake disc diameter down to 9.29" on the entire S Type range. So the STR now has the same rear brakes as the 6 cylinder cars!!

Yea a great step forward!! Let's be honest here. This change was to reduce cost on a car that was soon going out of production. I saw a VERY similar thing in the Lincoln LS. After the 2003 upgrade on the LS Ford started "decontenting" the entire product line for its eventual cancellation.

Note that when the XFR was released it got bigger brakes and the front disc went to 380 mm or 14.96" diameter!! But it still looks like they kept the single piston calipers?? Does anybody know??
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Found out the 2006 and up use cast iron calipers instead of Aluminum. The STR at least gets a partial Aluminum caliper in the front and rear.
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Yep, they help avoid the Sheriff of Nottingham

I've only driven 2 STRs, a 2005MY and my own 2004. Both Brembos. Never noticed any grabby brakes but then I don't brake much

I feel tbird6 is right. The replacements were deemed "adequate" for the STR, I expect.
(hmm, "adequate"..... and STR in the same sentence, yuck)