I've searched, and I can't find a relevant thread.

I'm looking for nice replacement parts.

I need pads and rotors, naturally, but I'd rather avoid generic stuff if possible. Brembo has a few part numbers for rotors, but the information on their application is confusing at best.

I can't find a decent set of pads out there, either. I'd really like a set of EBC pads, but I haven't found a part number that works. I wouldn't mind their rotors, actually.

I don't think Jag offers replacement parts, but even if they did, at this point they would probably just be the generic stuff all over again.

Either way, I'd like some nice stuff, because whatever is on there now is rubbish, and the standard aftermarket parts are always iffy.

If something is out there, or if you happen to know a good performance oriented brand, I'd like to hear about it. I can be an enthusiastic driver, and this vehicle sees all manner of roads, both public and private, paved and unpaved.

It's been a great car, but these ineffective, fading, squeaking brakes have to go. I know there are a million reasons for these issues, but I'm not at all interested in them. I know why it's happened, and it's time to replace them anyway.

So, rotors and pads. What's worth buying for sporting applications?

 

You can skip Wagner. I installed Wagner pad to my 95. It doesn't brake a good as my last pads (don't know what brand) and my BMW.


Wagner MX603A ThermoQuiet Semi Metallic

 

Noted. I'll avoid those pads.

The XJS is a heavy vehicle, and I'm keen on grabbing something that's better than standard fare.

I know EBC works well with heavy vehicles, but I haven't seen an option for the XJS. It's likely something they have will fit, but it would be impossible to tell. I'd have to compare an astronomical number of pads.

Normally, I'm happy to find alternative part numbers for application to... "Challenging" vehicles, but brake pads and rotors (for bolt-on purposes) are an impossibility. Not even the manufacturer could figure that one out.

So, I'm interested in hearing any opinions that are out there. Please post if you have anything to say. If you are using "X" brand, let me know what you think about it.

There are lunatics out there that race these things, for some reason. Surely an improved brake set exists.

 

Right now, I'm looking at this Brembo part number:

09.3825.10

The applications, however, are a bit ambiguous. The catalog says it fits, but some vendors don't list it under the vehicle, or suggest that it fits others.

Sometimes, on rare occasions, vendors end up being right.

 

UPDATE:

I may have found the EBC part numbers. I'll call them in on Monday to see. If it turns out I'm right, I was right about something else as well...

The rotors may be the same part number as a 1997 Aston Martin DB7.

If that's true, it comes as no surprise. The DB7 was partially based on a platform that was partially based on the latter day XJS. It may not seem like much of a relation, but the associated Rover companies had a nasty parts-bin habit.

The previous owner was persnickety, if a bit oblivious. This vehicle was serviced exclusively at an Aston dealer. I'm sure that's only because the Jag dealer didn't want anything to do with it, though. You know how they are about older vehicles, sometimes. At least the Aston boys care.

Glad I didn't have to pay those labor costs, though...

Now, I don't know what the Aston guys installed, but it just doesn't cut the mustard. It was probably a basic part, as this car was more of a garage showpiece than anything else. I never did bother to ask. Either way, the brakes are rubbish.

Sooooo... I may have come up with something. This thread may not seem of value, but if I've confirmed a connection between the vehicles and found a nice set of brakes, the thread may eventually benefit someone else.

Either way, it's now time to fix those darned sticking calipers...

I'll bet they weren't greased. I'll just bet those buggers didn't grease the pins. This is why I do brakes myself. Nobody ever does it properly, and if I'm right, this will be the second time this has happened to me. If I'm wrong... Well... It's going to be a real headache to sort it out.

 

i bought mintex when i did my rears and they work great. So you know the box said Jaguar XJS/ASTON MARTIN on the side. this is for an 88 though.

generally speaking aftermarket rotors aren't horrible crap or anything and will outperform what you have now simply because they are new. They may just not last as long.

 

I'm reading between the lines but it sounds like the brake system needs repairs. If that's the case I have to wonder if you've driven an XJS with the brakes in good working order and, if so, are you still convinced that you need to upgrade into some sort of high-performance parts?

Jags are not known for shabby brakes. I am a "sporting" driver myself and have owned 3 Jags. Personally I'd say you'd have to go from "sporting" to "outright agressive" to need brake upgrades.

Naturally you'd want top quality parts...but that's not quite the same as so-called "high performance" parts.

Anyhow.....










Your '96 XJS should have the hybrid brakes: old style 4 piston front calipers, non-floating. These go right back to the 70s-80s and were used on all the XJSs, and XJ6/12s thru the end of the Ser III production. You can get Ferodo, Jurid, Mintex, EBC....darn near anything you want.

The rear brakes are the later style with floating calipers...same as used on the X300s sedans. Here again you can get most anything you want.

Ebay has a jillion listings for brake pads of all kinds. Same for brake rotors...many grooved and gross-drilled....and most or perhaps all with unfamiliar brand names.....or no brand name at all. They'd "probably" be fine...but if you're gonna be driving hard you always wonder if no-name parts are from a third world country and not up to the job.

Akebono pads are great for hard driving but it appears they're offered only for the rear.

Cheers
DD

 

I have a 96 and I think the brakes are fantastic. I don't know what they are, since I haven't changed them since I bought the car used over a year and a half ago, but when they'll need to be replace, I would be thrilled to have what I have replaced with the same parts.

They aren't Brembos or anything fancy, that I can tell.

You may have something wrong with your brake system. My car has no fade, no squeaks and they do a great job of slowing down my car in a short distance. I would recommend someone go over your brake system.

 

Yup. The system needs a bit of service, but I'll handle that. It's not the only issue. I want to get brakes out of the way, here. I'm sketchy about certain brands, and I don't want to use something I'm going to regret.

Ferodo just isn't what I'm after, Lockheed doesn't have it takes, Mintex can have a bit of a "reputation" depending on the application, and I wouldn't touch other brands that are offered at local brake shops.

I've been there with a lot of products on different vehicles. All of them will stop a car. Most of them will stop a heavy car, but so will an anchor. It's slowing a soft, heavy, fast-moving car several times that will cause problems.

I'm not talking about highway or around town driving. I enjoy the car, but I behave myself on the street. I'm also not talking about racing. Wrong car for the job, really. There is a middle ground that exists here and there.

So, yes. I'm after something for more sporting applications, but no, I have no use for anything overly "high performance". I don't consider run-of-the-mill EBC products very high performance. They've got some crazy brakes, but I don't need anything like that. Red Stuff pads are the way to go on this car, I think, combined with their sport rotors to keep the wear even and the pads working properly.

For some idiot reason, I spent quite some time searching, and didn't find the EBC part number. I notice they pulled their catalog from the site. Perhaps the information in the catalog was outdated, and that's where I looked. Heck, I don't know.

I wanted EBC from the beginning, but it didn't appear they offered anything, and that didn't make sense to me. Geez. They've got something for every other car... Apparently they do for this one as well.

The Brembo rotors I was looking at aren't anything special. Overseas, these are simply a premium replacement option. Yeah, it's a name brand, but I was only interested in them as a known quantity.

As for Ebay... I do a lot of selling there, and I do a lot of buying, but there is no way I'd buy brakes from someone on Ebay, name brand or not. It's not worth the risk, and returning things is a real headache.

I consider the two most important things on a car to be tires and brakes. I don't mess about when it comes to those things. She's got some tires coming as well. The chassis can take a lot more than the tires, right now, and I don't like that at all.

Well, here is another pointlessly long post.

 

Check out this brake pad test by Car and Driver. If you are looking for the least pedal force (like me), Hawk HP Plus looks good.

Car and Driver Blog » Performance Brake Pads Compared: Hawk HPS, Hawk HP Plus, EBC Yellowstuff

 

I do have something wrong with my brake system. I mentioned that I was aware of it in the first post. That's why I said I wasn't interested in considering it right now.

It wasn't always wrong, but it happened. It's the issue with the braking system that has caused a need to replace them. I'd run the pads and rotors until they needed replacement if they were fine.

I'm not a wasteful person.

 

That's a neat review. I'm not worried about pedal force, though. Either way, that's a cool comparison of things that aren't often considered.

 

Have you been here, specifically?

1996 Jaguar XJS EBC Brakes, EBC Rotors and EBC Brake Pads

Looks like they everything you need


Cheers
DD

 

Yup. That's what bugs me. I was all over the place, and I couldn't find anything. Of course, that was a few months back. I've bought several sets of rotors from them in the past, for other vehicles. Those guys aren't just vendors.

I've bought them other places, as well. Somewhere along the line, either I got stupid, or the XJS brakes weren't listed properly, because I couldn't find anything.

 

I've placed my order.

I decided to buy the EBC replacement style rotors, as well as a set of their Red Stuff pads.

What I've done, here, is avoid some unknown quantities.

I know where EBC rotors are made, and I've used them many times before. I haven't used their non-slotted rotors before, but now is as good a time as any to try them out.

The slots are nice for even pad wear, but they can be irritating as heck with the whooshing noise they make, and I thought I'd avoid that, if possible. Aside from the pad wear issues, the slots don't really do much outside of heavy track use.

If I decide I've just got to have those slots later, I'm not out enough cash now to prevent an upgrade. The blanks are worth a shot.

I'd have gone with the Green Stuff pads, but I've never felt that the 2000 series was really meant for heavy cars, and that's all they offer here.

At least the Red Stuff has less corrosive and noticeable dust. Those Celebration wheels sure catch it, and they are a pain to clean. The Red Stuff pads need a bit more warm-up, but that's not a problem on this dinosaur. I think they will work well on the car. Here's hoping they like those rotors. It's a bit of a stretch on blanks, but they should be fine.

Now I've got to sort out the rest of the system.

I can't believe I couldn't find these before. Something must be wrong with my head.

 

Well, I was right about the issue. The brakes were sticking like mad.

To go ahead and sort it all, I was going to rebuild my calipers, but I found that it was slightly more economical to purchase rebuilt units, since they needed pistons as well.

It's a shame, but I'm not overly concerned about keeping this car all original. It doesn't matter. So long as it works, I don't care, and I'm not about to mess up the new pads and rotors, which I'm looking forward to using.

To make a point, the system works well. I knew the system was good for such a car, but I also knew the pads and rotors were rubbish, regardless of the issues at play. So, while I had some mechanical problems, I knew it was a good braking system.

It should have been better at stopping the vehicle when it was all in good shape, but it wasn't. In the process of screwing up, it ate some crappy parts that were causing the actual braking issues. That was what I wanted to sort.

Next up are bushings and joints all around in front.

After that I'll worry about the crap in the rear. I'm sure the brakes have some slight issues from sitting, but at least they aren't screaming at me all the time.

That noise from the front was infuriating, but I didn't want to replace anything until I sorted the issue. The brakes were still safe, but they weren't going to stay that way much longer.

I'm sure I'll be happy with the EBCs. I think I've made a good choice, and I appreciate being pointed in the proper direction. I can't fathom why I couldn't find what I wanted. Something wrong with my head, I think. I've bought several sets of EBC brakes from various places.

I must have been looking at something improperly.

 

Update:

The EBC blanks and Redstuff pads work wonderfully. They seem perfectly matched with the soft, heavy car. Warmup is very quick, and I haven't noticed any undue fade. It's a vast improvement, even over the behavior when the old brakes weren't malfunctioning. The calipers are good enough to take advantage of high quality pads.

If you've got the cash, those Redstuff pads are great on the car. EBC rotors, of course, are always a safe and reliable purchase. Shame it took me so long to find the part number.

In the end, I decided to overhaul each corner. I replaced the brake lines, the calipers, as well as the pads and rotors, of course. I also used all new hardware.

The lines and hardware were genuine, and the calipers were rebuilt. I'd have rebuilt them myself, but the parts were significantly more expensive than replacement units.

She loves the new brakes, though. I probably should have gone for the slotted rotors, but it's no big deal.

I will say this as a word of warning: This is not a car on which to replace the front brakes only...

When replacing your brakes, be sure to go for all four, and make sure they are properly performance matched. I learned that very fast. I'm not sure about previous generations, but those with outboard brakes do not like an unbalanced setup at all.

I always do all four, but I thought I'd have a couple of months on this car before screwing around with the rears. Some here will realize immediately why this was an incredibly stupid and unsafe mistake on my part.

For those who don't however, just be sure to take my advice and do all four at once, especially when switching pad types.

I don't know what the heck I was thinking. That was just plain stupid. I knew better, but I didn't want to wait.

 

I totally agree. I fitted the EBC slotted rotors and red stuff pads about 10 years ago to fix the rather underbraked feeling of the standard setup, once I had the car going properly. Absolutely superb performance, no fade even after repeated hard stops from 89/90 mph. Not too pricey either for such a big improvement.

Greg

 

Kennith13,
Thanks for taking the time to sit down and write about your brake swap. Just one question from my end. Where did you go for the rebuilt calipers?

 

I believe I purchased them from Terry's Jaguar Parts, along with everything else, aside from the pads and rotors.

As a side note, the Genuine Jaguar brake lines were shockingly cheap. I don't remember the number, but it was a pittance on top of everything else, so you may as well replace them if you swap calipers.