Hey guys I have a 2013 xj awd but I can’t get the brake pistons to go in how do I release the electronic parking brake or do I need to do something else. Thanks

 

Pengdon, a few things to keep in mind when doing the rear brakes. The big one is that after doing the brakes, you will need to reprogram the electronic e-brake system. I know of 3 ways to do this. The first being to get the jaguar service laptop (expensive) and click the buttons to tell the computer to reset it. The second way is to disconnect the battery, wait a few minutes and then reconnect it. This forces the car to relearn a lot of stuff and one of those is the e-brake. You will also have to reprogram the windows (takes 2 minutes if you are slow). The third way is to simply manually engage the e-brake a few times until the pads are in the correct spot following installing the new pads. Then the car doesn't know that the brakes were worked on.

As for retracting the rear calipers, trying to simply push them in is very difficult and some will argue that this is not good on the ABS unit. I find that cracking open the bleed port on the caliper and then pushing and turning the piston allows it to go in with minimal effort. Keep in mind that the rear pistons need to be wound back in. I forget if both need to be turned in the same direction or if one gets turned clockwise as the other gets turned counter clockwise. Either way, push and turn the piston. If you turn it the correct way, you will see the piston slide in. If you turn it the wrong way, you will see the piston come out.of the caliper.

When doing brake service on the rear, chock the front wheels to prevent the car from rolling, release the e-brake and then jack up the rear of the car to do the needed work.

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Thanks for the feed back, does both sides need to be jacked up and both wheels removed or can you work on each side individually.

 

You need a tool that actually turns the pistons back in, rather than just push them in with a C-clamp like you can in the front. I know that is how mine are with my 2012 XJL. They are universal tools. Here are some examples of the tool you would need: As you can see the vary from the cheap one piece that you connect a ratchet or braker bar, up to complete kits. Of course, you don't really have to have the special tool for it. You can actually just use some needle nose pliers to fit into the two holes, and then twist the pistons back in. Much easier with the tool though.

I used to have the kit, but I gave it away with the rest of the stuff I had in my storage shed in the USA. Since moving overseas, I always live places with cheaper labor, so I don't even change my own oil, much less change brake pads.

 

Pengdon, you can do the wheels one at a time. I tend to lift both wheels (either say both back wheels or both wheels on the same side of the car) just to minimize stresses on the body. Am I being a little paranoid? Maybe. But, you will be doing both wheels anyways, just makes it easier to go side to side once you get into the roll of things.

 

I got the brake caliper kit from Harbor Freight. It's a surprising high quality kit!!
It worked great on my XJR rear brake pistons.


Brake Kit

Don't forget to use the 20% or 25% off coupon and bring your fee gift coupon too.
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How do you lift both wheels? Two jacks, one under each jacking point?

 

Mark SF, I have a set of jack stands. So, I will jack up one side of the car, put a jack stand under a solid part of the car and lower the jack down to rest the car on the jack stand. Then I go to the other part of the car to raise up the other corner and put a jack stand under a solid point there. I then lower the car on to the second jack stand. You never want to rely on the jack to hold the car up when you are working on it. Why do I say that. My uncle had a jack fail on him as his hand was under a rotor. Pretty much broke every bone in his hand. Took a while to heal and his hand was never quite right after that. Granted, this is also one of the reasons why you never want to have your hand underneath the rotor or tire when you are working on a vehicle. Jack stands are much less likely to fail and also tend to have a curve to the surface where the car sits to help keep the car centered on the jack stand vice the flat surface that most jacks have.

 

True. When I lived in the USA and worked on my own cars, I had the jack stands. However, I am paranoid, so I used the jack stands AND the jack, so that even if I had extremely bad luck and a jack stand failed/broke, the hydraulic jack was also there.