well while washing the wife's car I found a crack in the rear rotor on the passenger side, so it's brake time



obviously I'm wanting to run ceramic pads


as far as rotors, I would prefer cross drilled and slotted BUT I'm new to the whole Jag ownership and I'm wondering if there's any places to avoid when making the purchase? currently rotorpro's is going to get my business

 

Yikes!

According to feedback on this forum, EBC pads seem to offer the best performance v. low dust. From what I have seen, ceramic pads, while low dust, do not offer very good stopping power.

Cross drilled/slotted rotors offer no additional benefits on passenger cars. If want them for just cosmetics, then there are a few web stores that carry them, but they are more expensive when compared to OE replacements.

 

I agree, you're really not going to see any difference with cross drilled/slotted rotors on a street car. There is no point!

 

Stoffer,

Unless you are involved in some serious track work with your car stay away from ceramics and slots. They cost plenty, don't serve well, particularly in urban driving, and you will not like the "feel" of em. Alan and Jahummer got it right.

The OEM brake set up for these cars is plenty good. There are a number of aftermarket suppliers offering quality components too.

Far too many drivers think that race bread components are intrinsically better when the fact is they are sometimes intrinsically worse. We hear good reports on the EBC red stuff from our Jag Techs. EBC components are not bargain priced but the reports are PD good.

Mind you. There are some hard core types out there who are doing some serious work with their Jags. Okay, I understand that. I'm just saying for all around satisfaction for the average XJ, OEM is the smart ticket.

 

I am of the different opinion. I changed over to ceramic brake pads on both of my Jaguars and love them. They are a little different in "feel", but I prefer the ceramic feel. They seem to be able to provide a softer stop without the lurch, but when needed they will indeed stop the car promptly. Mine are on solid vented discs.

 

Disc Brake Rotors & Pads | R1Concepts.com

is the site I got after searching around on here, and the cross drilled & slotted aren't much more than the stock replacements...



when I lived in Europe I had to upgrade the brakes on the wife's expy and she preferred the cross drilled appearance and the ceramic pads held up just fine hauling the land barge down from autobahn speeds.


however, this is why I'm here, to learn from ya'll that have been dealing with the vehicles for a minute

 

Agreed Stoffer. I have purchased my brake parts from R1 Concepts and am very satisfied with them. I did get a wrong pad from them, but it was rectified immediately.

 

We are in agreement up to a point. If all you want is the best stopping power down from autobahn speeds then perhaps ceramic/slots/vents are in order. However, that is not where your car lives ( spends most of its life).

You got to ask yourself, "why don't XJs, XJRs,Xks and XKRs all come standard with ceramic pads and drilled/slotted rotors?". I saw a post from a gentleman in Asia (I think) who claimed that ceramics & drilled rotors came as an option on his XJ. I don't know the truth of that but it begs another question,"why as an option?".

Surely Jag would not hold off on a superior braking system because it cost them $50 or $100 more. I hold to my view that ceramic/slots brakes are not suitable or desirable for the average Jag Pilot.

 

I understand they were offered in 2003 only.

Unless you do a lot of high speed driving and aggressive braking, not much benefit. If you like the cosmetic look of slotted or drilled rotors the amount of reduced braking performance probably won't be enough on normal everyday driving to be that noticeable. But do go with EBC Redstuff, very low dust and reduced stopping distance and long life. Shop around, there are good prices available.

 

There are a lot of drilled/slotted on all sorts of cars today as OEM, I dont think it is just cosmetic , the main reason is to keep the disc temps lower, improve performance and reduce the warping and cracking via heat.
When I change out I will def go with drilled or slotted discs and upgrade the calipers.Brembo does a nice package, I really do not care for the oem pedal feel either.

Slotted and Drilled Rotors: Show or Slow?

 

There are a lot of drilled/slotted on all sorts of cars today as OEM, I dont think it is just cosmetic , the main reason is to keep the disc temps lower, improve performance and reduce the warping and cracking via heat.
When I change out I will def go with drilled or slotted discs and upgrade the calipers.Brembo does a nice package, I really do not care for the oem pedal feel either.
Even if you feel that the street advantage for the average driver may be negligible, the advantage of reducing cracking and warping has to be considered.
I also think they look cool.

Slotted and Drilled Rotors: Show or Slow?

 

Again, it depends on what kind of driving you do. If you are driving like you are on a race track and/or are tearing up the twisties all the time, slotted rotors might be the right thing for you. But for the vast majority of drivers, even (or especially) Jaguar X350 drivers, they are of no benefit other than looking cool.

By the way, with ceramic and/or high performance brake pads, if the pads are too cool, they won't work all that great either. But this isn't a problem on the race track because the brakes are always hot!

It might be true that you see them standard on more and more (high performance) cars these days, but I chalk it up to it being a fashion trend and/or a way to jack up prices on replacements, not actual street performance value.

 

I beg to differ. I am not aware of that many sedans or SUVs that come with drilled rotors as standard equipment. My S-Class came with drilled rotors stock, but that is the only time I have ever seen them.

Thank you for the link to the article but it really only reinforced my points. OEM non-drilled rotors are designed to handle the amount of heat they are exposed to in everyday driving.

If having drilled rotors was so important then manufacturers would be using them all of the time or perhaps even required to to meet safety standards.

Oh and by the way, the article pointed out the dangers of drilled rotors cracking NOT non-drilled. Drilling does not reduce this, if ANY rotor is used beyond its useful life, it can crack.

The Super V8 and XJR as well as the S-Type R and XKR had Brembo standard without drilled rotors, in fact Brembo also makes OEM non-drilled rotors. Other car makers who utilize Brembo such as Infiniti & Chrysler have non-drilled rotors as well.

Drilled rotors are for track cars or people who drive their cars as if they were on a track. Period.

 

As some of you pointed out in low key terms --- there are a lot of drilled/slotted rotors and ceramic brakes being sold as fashion statements. Right now , bling brakes are the hot trend. Additionally, we see a lot of guys putting race hardware on their car when there is "no earthly reason for it except it's what the super cars run".

The objective literature is clearly on the side of restraint on this issue. As noted, it's astonishing how 2 guys can look at the same objective data and come to opposite conclusions.

Race on Sunday sell on Monday is a marketing philosophy that applies not only to cars but to everything on the cars as well. Parts houses are not in business to sell you what you need. They are in business to sell you what you want. Therefore, it's sort of pointless to come down too hard on blokes who want "rings on their fingers, bells on their toes" metaphorically speaking.

 

I went with AKEBONO for rear and EBC Redstuff on the front. Both are low dust and high quality. Would have gone AKEBONO all the way around but they didn't offer front pads.. only rear. I picked up a power bleeder from Motive products and it came equipped with Jaguar adapter. It's worth the investment to keep fresh DOT-4 fluid in the system. Good luck

 

well, the wife is still shopping for which ones she likes the look of

 

That's strange! I have Akebono on the front and rear of my XJ8.

 

Lew, For my 06 XJ8 I found Akebono part # 38528 for the rear but had to go with EBC Redstuff # DP31911C on front. I looked and looked but could not find front Akebono pad to fit my application. They are both excellent pads. Do you have the Akebono part numbers handy ?
Bob

 

I think the front brake pads changed in 05. The Akebono pads for my car were:
EUR1065
EUR806

 

The cross drilled rotors came with racing, the reasoning was to let high temp gases from the pads frying out from under the pads when the rotors were red hot, letting the pads stay on the rotors better. Cross drilled also lets water out from under the pads faster, making wet braking quicker. As far as warping, rotors rarely warp, they get pad deposition on them that causes the surface to vary, creating the pulsing you feel. The "warped " rotors that you hear about are from chap pads that melt at low temps. I have not heard of rotors cracking, drilled or not, unless thay are too thin or subjected to impact. The 06 XKR I have has factory drilled rotors so Jaguar does use them. The bad part is that they are very costly and really have no purpose on a street car. They do look cool though..boy racer stuff and all that. Brembos on my car are just for looks, maybe there are some guys out there that do drive around at 120 a lot, they might need them.