Hello, My wife and I are new to the Jag world. We have a 2004 XJ8, which we've had for almost a year. We have completely enjoyed it until recently, the parking brake is stuck on. It is currently at the dealership, and they want $1,100 to fix it, they say it's the parking brake motor, and the parking brake module. Does anyone have any DIY's or quick fixes. I've been able to do most repairs on our previous cars, but I'm kind of at a loss on this one. I did a search in the forum, and didn't come up with much. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Sorry about the gloomy introduction.

 

Moved you over here AltsXJ8 for some more exposure.

If you get a chance, you can try a more 'upbeat' intro in the new member area...if you haven't done so yet.

 

I have no direct experience of problems with the parking brake but here goes:

The parking brake is an electric motor with a gear box and cables to each wheel (rear).
It is located above the rear axle and is a pig to get to.
If you can remove the motor etc you should be able to release the cables from the wheels.
You can then have the bits on the bench and can start to investigate it's operation.
You can drive around without a PB just use the gearbox in the park position?
This gives you time to investigate the problem

 

Quite why Jaguar saw fit to introduce this electric handbake idea I don't know ! It does not improve on anything at all as far as I can see, and just puts needless expense into the running of one of their cars when it goes wrong. And there is more - if you replace the rear brake pads at a jobbing garage, or brake specialist, or even yourself, you then have to trot off to a Jaguar dealer to get them to reset the handbrake mechanism. A nice little earner, I'll bet !

There are no maintenance routines linked to it, so when it goes wrong it is totally down to Jaguar engineering specifications for an item that should last a lot longer than it appears to be lasting so far. The other thing that gets me cross is the air suspension on the later cars - totally unnecessary and again puts a potential cost burden into the car for a poor owner down the ownership line somewhere.

 

Have a look on the uk site-jaguar forum.co. uk

might just be that the PB module needs reflashing.

Sorry can't do links!

Bob

 

Thank You for all the info guys, very helpful!