I bought my 04 XJR 1 1/2 year ago with 80,000 miles. I am the second owner. The first owner was an 80 year old gentleman who owned the land the dealership leased. Lots of service records, including a complete brake job at 68,000 miles.

The cost for that job was $2800. The itemized receipt shows 4 new rotors and 6 sets of brake pads. I made a comment when I was buying the car from that very dealer about it being very expensive for a brake job.

He told me to remember that the car has Brembo racing brakes, and they are very complicated. Lots of labor, you know.
Last week my rear brakes started squealing (I've got 105,000 now).

Sure enough, they are worn. When I replaced them, it was obvious that the front brakes were in great shape with new rotors and pads. I did go ahead and put Akebono pads on the front, and it took longer to take the tire off than to change the pads.

Not so complicated.

But the rears...no way they were changed at 68,000 miles. The rotors were original and very worn. The pads were nearly gone, and again I am sure original. The parking brake pads are nearly gone. Again, I would guess original.

So, this nice old man paid big $$$ for a complete brake job and got screwed.
Shame on them.

Dealers like that should be shut down.

 

They should - is there nowhere to report them to?

 

Oh boy do I agree with you. I was going to make a wise-crack about how the previous owner was probably ripping the dealership off on the land lease so maybe they were just getting even, but it's not funny at all that more dealers are like this rather than not. It has become so common and the "advisors" are paid to find unnecessary work, and the workers are all paid piecework prices as an incentive to do 30 plus hours work in an 8 hour day. Somewhere along the way dealership became so greedy that even those that are highy regarded charge exhorbitant prices and consider it a normal way to do business. The worst offenders are European Luxury and Sports Brands, and I don't need to name names here.

Now that both the complexity and packaging have made DIY service very difficult for the average guy, it has somehow gotten worse, if thats possible. The manufacturers are even distraught about how much it hurts repeat sales. This is behind the "3 years free service" arrangements that are now common. What do the dealerships do? They make up unneeded "add-ons" to the factory recommended service intervals. Things like "Fuel Injection Service" at 20k miles, and sell these completely unnecessary services as "recommended" The only entity recommending this crap is the dealership itself.

This is why the few cars I have bought new have had the absolute MINIMUM contact with the deal-ership And its entirely their own fault that I trust them about the same as I would some guy in a trenchcoat in a back alley. In other words not at all. So, just like a lot of folks, and the op of this thread, I do my own brakes, even if they are "very complicated" and take "lots of labor" Man! Do they really believe everyone is that stupid? I guess we know tbe answer to that.

 

I would not jump to such a conclusion... 50k miles is more than enough to wear out the pads and the rotors on the rear of these cars.

Now the parking brake pads are another story... not sure why these would ever wear out or need to be replaced. They should only hold the car when it's not moving, there shouldn't be any appreciable wear.

 

not sure why but I replaced the parking brake pads on my 2004 XJR at about 70K miles and I looked at them recently and suspect they may be gone in 20K miles. So the dealer may have very well replaced the parking brake pads as indicated in the repair records. One of the slides on mine was very tight and badly needing lubrication when I put the parking brake pads on at 70K miles, other than that, nothing was suspicious.

RyeJag

 

The manner/method varies state-by-state but I'm fairly sure that every state has some sort of consumer protection agency set up via the Attorney General's office. That's where I'd go if I wanted to pursue the matter.

However, a report alledging repair fraud 37,000 miles ago from someone other than the person who paid for the repairs might not get too much attention. Unless, perhaps, there is a whole sheaf of similar complaints against the same dealership....in which case one more complaint might be what's needed to launch an investigation.

Hard to say.

Cheers
DD

 

I understand the wear that the rear brakes could experience during the miles traveled. However, the rear rotor is severely rusted and worn far more than you would see in that amount of time. As with most of you, I have worked on cars all my life and I know the difference between a rotor with 30,000 miles and one with 100,000. The front still has the corrosive coating, the rears are all rust. Trust me. They didn't do a complete rear brake job.

 

The rear parking brakes are also used during traction control events, so they do tend to wear out sooner than you'r expect.

To the OP, it's funny how the dealership guy told you the Brembo brakes are more complicated. My experience is they are a bit easier than the non Brembo on the non XJR models, since the non Brembo calipers have to be turned in while retracting them. The Brembo ones just slide back in easily.

 

I went to a local heating co. showroom recently to talk to them and learn more about warm

air house heating with a view to improving the system.

I spoke to a bloke there and asked a number of technical questions.

Talking it over afterwards with a friend I realized that the b######d lied to me twice!

I was tempted to write to the co. (anonomously) and say that if they were running their

business on lies they had better employ better liars!

 

Yes and in your heart of hearts you may be 100% sure the previous owner was ripped off but there's ultimately no proof.
Even the owner who had the service done would have a hard time getting traction on such a claim I would imagine.

I'll assume positive intent and think that perhaps the previous owner secretly played out his role as Alfred, stashed his Jag in a remote bat cave somewhere. Access to said bat cave was on a 8 degree slope (both ways for some reason), hairpin turns on muddy gravel roads. And you guessed it, Alfred drove like a bat out of hell.


OK, I'm going to take my meds now.

 

The arithmetic says 37,000 miles on the brake job.

Anindyam has pointed out that the brakes are used during traction control events.

Brutal has mentioned several times that in his experience the rear brakes wear much faster than the fronts. His estimate was two to one. The explanation is both the traction control system and the anti-dive geometry. Mine also wears the rear much faster.

It also doesn't take too many "oops forgot to release the parking brake" events to wear out the parking brake friction material. An 80 year old might be more susceptible to this.

Then there is the business relationship. They might have charged full list on all Jaguar parts, but deliberately defrauding the landlord is not likely. A landlord can find lots of ways to get even. In spades. And then again, the tech doing the job probably has no axe to grind with the lessor. Not his problem. How much can land cost in WI anyways?

 

The dealer was in Florida. To clarify my original point ( and to lay the conversation then to rest) the rear rotors were most certainly not of the same vintage as the fronts. One can fairly easily tell a rotor with 30,000 miles from one with 105,000. That's all I'm saying.
I have no plans to "turn in the dealer" or make a claim against them other than to vent here, for the very obvious reasons stated here. I am not the one who got screwed, and how would one prove an issue so far after the fact. Again, not arguing this.
Just stating that it is unfortunate that someone would be dishonest. And unfortunate that a jaguar dealer would tell me directly how complicated these fancy brembo brakes are.

 

There are several participants who know or have opinions on what a rotor with 37K on it would look like.

It certainly is not an exact science.