I am planning on changing my front brake pads soon and have searched the forum's posts regarding this matter. Am I correct in my belief that I have standard brakes and not the Brembo system? I want to order them on line and everything just says it "fits" my model. The parts shops near me want an outrageous amount of money for just the pads compared to what I can get them for on line. I can replace pads and rotors for the cost of just pads at the store.

The rotors are not slotted but I do have 18" wheels. The PO's records show a brake pad replacement at abut 67000 miles but no specifics. Now she has 587000 miles and winter is coming so I want to get ready.

According to the VIN decoder on this site the front brakes are 12.6" x 1.2 " but nothing is mentioned about the brake type. I do not recall anything about the brakes when I looked my car up on the FordEtis site and since I did not print out the information tat VIN information is now lost to me. The Ford site did indicate my car had the optional wheels where the other site shows both the 17" and 18" sizes. Since none of the sites raise the issue maybe it does not matter? Since I do not have an XJR or a supercharger if it wasn't for the larger wheels I wouldn't have thought about it but there have been so many recent posts concerning Brembo brakes I wondered.

Thanks for any insight.

 

The mileage is a bit confusing.

If you're not sure of which type braking system you have, you can post a picture of the caliper and disc. It is also helpful to provide vehicle details such as MY, engine and other details.

 

Sorry about that. 87,000 miles now. (It seems like the older I get the more confusing my posts become.) Just the stock XJ8 4.2 with the 6 speed transmission. I don't have the wheels off yet but did look through the wheel spokes to see it there were any markings on the outside of the caliper to indicate the manufacturer. It didn't appear to have anything on the outside but there may be a part number visible if I pull a wheel. I will update my signature now that I have this cat..

 

A 2004 boggo-standard X350 should have the aluminium caliper castings and be the same as my Sport of 2003, (now part-exed for a 2007 X358 Sovereign). The car I have now has the same caliper at the rear, but what seems to be a cast-iron caliper at the front. No doubt the bean-counters at Jaguar got busy and deleted the more expensive calipers !

 

Thanks, the caliper does appear to be aluminum. It has nice rounded edges and would probably polish up well. The back is hard to see clearly because of the EPB caliper so I cannot say with certainty what they are made of. I do think it is probably the stock brake system but she does have a few options in addition to bigger wheels and that is what gives me pause.. I have heated seats and steering wheel. I think the rain sensor was not reinstalled when the windshield was replaced. The compass and auto dim rear view mirror do not seem to have power but the fuse is good (I need to check the electrical connections in the roof). Plus it has a multi-disc player in the trunk and the navigation system. The factory phone was once upgraded to blue tooth by a dealer sub-contractor that didn't work well and was later removed. However the work order shows a new harness and I bet they left it in place when removing the blue tooth. I think they left the mic in the roof (unless it is a sensor). After I replace the sagging headliner I want to upgrade the blue tooth.

 

I usually have good luck with parts from Rock Auto but now I would like a 2nd opinion. I was thinking perhaps I could replace rotors and pads on the front (the rotors do not really need it but I was looking anyway) and purchase a kit. However the specs on a kit they offer as OE replacement show a diameter of only 11.33" (287.80 mm) This seems to be smaller than I would like. I was thinking over 12". Even though they are slotted and coated, with ceramic pads and look nice I believe they are not up to OE specs. The kit is from a company I am not familiar with, Powerstop. I cannot get an accurate measure of my rotors without taking them off but I believe they are larger than 288 mm. Maybe I should stay with a name brand.

 

The standard brakes on the X308 XJR are 325mm and Brembo rotors are 355mm if that helps.