Hi,

I am very new in the US, and bought a used Jaguar X-type 2005 a couple weeks ago. It has ~122,000 miles on it. I took it to a mechanic after buying because the 'brake fluid low' warning was on, and the person I bought the car from had got the brake fluid topped up just a week earlier. The mechanic told me it seemed like a leaky rusted pipe in the rear that needed to be fixed. After getting that fixed (for $150) the brakes still seemed to go to the floor. And the mechanic said that the master cylinder also needed replacement (another ~$350). After that the car seemed to run fine, the brakes seemed responsive. I took it for a short drive the next day and in less than 20 minutes I started feeling something wrong with braking, it felt hard to push, although it did brake thankfully. Accelerator started feeling unresponsive at times. The speed of the car would suddenly drop from 45 to 30 mph, and it would be hard to pick up even though I was pressing hard at the accelerator. 'DSC system status' came on. I even smelled something burning, but didn't realise until I got home that there was smoke/burning smell coming out from front left wheel (I think from brake pads).
I have an appointment with the same mechanic tomorrow. But could someone give me an idea of what's going on? Or how can I make sure the mechanic knows what he is doing.

I already feel I made a mistake buying this car.

Thanks!

 

From the sounds of things, you have a caliper that has failed and is stuck in the engage position. You want to prove this for yourself, simply pull out your jack, block both front wheels (prevents the car from rolling away), lift the rear end in the air and put the car in neutral. You can then attempt to roll the rear tires. You will probably find that rolling the right rear is going to be fairly easy, but the left rear is going to be very difficult. That will prove the stuck caliper. The only other possibility is that your e-brake is stuck. But, this can be proven simply by pulling up on the e-brake lever. You should be able to only pull it up a short distance (a few inches) and then feel the brakes engage. If you are pulling the lever really high (say 8-9 inches up), then you have a problem with the e-brake on the left side. Either way, it is most likely going to be a new caliper.

 

I think Thermo may have just misread which wheel you were having the problem with. Left front...is where you saw the smoke problem not rear.
A stuck caliper is still the likely cause and jacking the car up at the appropriate corner (after chocking it and putting it in neutral to ensure transmission is not locking your wheels), you'll probably find that wheel is stiffer to rotate compared to doing the same procedure on the RHS front wheel.
Note: Make sure you are jacking the car up at the correct factory jacking points.

 

Thanks for the replies. I'll give it a try.

 

The flexible brake hoses can collapse also and prevent the pads from retracting.

HTH, Dave

 

It was indeed a stuck caliper.

 

I guess one way is now to swap the whole caliper, but swapping all the seals in the old caliper might also do the trick.
At a very minimum, you should change the brake fluid and check, if that made a difference - maybe it was just dirt in the fluid, which "made" the caliper being stuck.

And I repeat Marks advise above:
>> Note: Make sure you are jacking the car up at the correct factory jacking points.
If you choose the wrong point (which is very easy to do on the X-Type), you will deform the chassis - the metal will bent away inwards.

 

Thanks!

I wasn't planning on fixing it myself, just wanted to understand what's wrong. I have left it at the mechanic's shop (they confirmed the stuck caliper). The person I bought the car from had been driving it with a bad master cylinder and a leaky pipe. She just topped up the brake fluid when the low brake fluid warning came up. The mechanic said that he thinks that calipers getting stuck has something to do with that. He said that earlier the calipers were not getting engaged properly because of low pressure of brake fluid, and now that he filled the fluid and replaced the master cylinder, the calipers are getting used after a very long time, so got stuck. Does that make sense?

 

That's not unreasonable, caliper pistons do get stuck if they don't move for a while.

You (or your mechanic) can "exercise" the piston* by removing the brake pads on the problem caliper, pressing the brake pedal until the piston extends from the caliper, cleaning the sides of the piston and lubricating with a tiny bit of brake fluid, then retracting the piston all the way back... repeat half a dozen times and it should free up. If doing this yourself, be EXTREMELY careful not to over-extend the piston to the point it pops out of the caliper... this can be hard to judge if you don't know how deep the piston actually goes in the caliper, so it might be a job for your mechanic.

* On calipers with multiple pistons often only one will be stuck, you can use blocks and/or clamps to stop the others from moving while you exercise the one problem piston.

 

If the brakes were working at all four corners (despite there being a fluid leak requiring it to be regularly topped up), then the calipers had probably been moving properly up until the caliper seizing event which can often be due to the vehicle sitting unused for a period of time.
It is more likely that because the brake system had a leak and was being regularly opened and topped up, and also there was also a contaminant entry point in one of the brake lines, that moisture was getting introduced. That inevitably created some pitting in the master cylinder and corrosion inside the caliper which eventually bound up the piston.
Most brake fluids are hydroscopic (will readily absorb water), thus will transport that water throughout the system. That is why it is good practice to renew brake fluid every couple of years to rid the system of any accumulated moisture.
The silicon based brake fluids are not hydroscopic, but water may still get into the system where it instead creates small water beads that can create pinpoint corrosion.

Moving forward, you will want to regularly monitor your brake fluid level and note if it starts to drop.
If it does, you will be checking your remaining three calipers for any sign of weeping, as they may have also sustained some internal damage but it may not yet be sufficiently bad to give you any issues.
If you are driving for any moderate distance, when you pull up check how warm each of your alloy rims feels to the touch. They will be naturally warm from general tyre friction with the road and normal braking activity, but if comparing the relative temperature of the two front rims and then the relative temperature of the two rear rims, you might pick up on a difference that could be excessive disc rubbing or even a wheel bearing on the way out.
Comparing temperatures of the front wheels to rear wheels is not always great as the braking force is different, with most cars having a 70/30 or 60/40 split of brake force front to back, so the front wheels may always feel a bit hotter than the rears.

 

The mechanic fixed the stuck calipers. He had assured me he would drive the car for some solid distance to see if some other problems arise while long distance driving, but he forgot.
And when I brought the car back home it again started giving me DSC system fault warning. It was hard to accelerate from rest and I could feel some weird vibration while accelerating, and the speed would suddenly drop while driving.
I left it at the shop again.
But does this sound like transmission issues?

 

First thing to do is get a OBD2 code reader plugged in and see what fault codes are being listed.
If you haven't already done so, you can download technical reference material for your car (schematics, error code list, technical bulletins etc.) from JagRepair.com - Jaguar Repair Information Resource
You are more than welcome to post the codes on this site to get some feedback and guidance from the other members, or you can use the advanced search feature of the forum to do some initial detective work on what other members may have already found and resolved on their cars with respect to any particular error code or symptom.

The DSC error could be any number of things from a failed wheel speed sensor (or was disconnected for some reason when the brake work was being done), wiring issue or data CAN comms error to the DSC module. The error codes should narrow the possibilities.

The engine slow down is likely that the car is entering "limp home mode" which limits the engine power output and RPM to about 2000 RPM.....never a nice feeling to have that kick in. You likely also had the check engine light or transmission error light come on.
The weird vibration during acceleration could be anything from an engine misfire, a mechanical instability in engine/transmission mounts or a suspension problem.

Without the codes to refer to it is difficult for me to to do anything other than broadly speculate.

 

Yes, all 3 issues could be all kinds of things (as Mark pointed out):

DSC: speed sensors, but more likely than them the connectors to them, wires or DSC module (where I would have thought, that the DSC module = ABS module, but I might be mistaken there).

Vibration: Many things, but as you mechanic just did the brakes...: Any chance, he messed that up (just like the test drive...?
I am sure that if I would really be trying that I could manage to assemble calipers and rotor (=brake disc) incorrectly to the effect that I create vibrations...

Speed drop: Many things (like limp mode (as Mark wrote above)). But could it be the brakes kicking in even though you did not activate them? Referring again to my above notion that your mechanic could have messed up. One way would be to mount the rotor somehow angled (not sure how that would be possible, but it is probably not impossible), which would mean that the rotor touches the brake pads once or twice at every rotation of the wheel...

And yes, a code reader would be helpful.
And not just the search feature on this forum might lead to answers, but also google...