• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

New Brakes

Share this page

T

tk421

Senior Member
Offline
Finally got my EBC Redstuff pads and some new EBC rotors. I never knew that cast iron still had a purpose, but apparently rotors are made of it. Still have to figure out where and how to get the calipers.
 
tk421 said:
Finally got my EBC Redstuff pads and some new EBC rotors. I never knew that cast iron still had a purpose, but apparently rotors are made of it. Still have to figure out where and how to get the calipers.
Click to expand...

What kind of Jaguar are you talking about??
 
TOC said:
equiprx said:
What kind of Jaguar are you talking about??
Click to expand...

I'd guess from his signature line:
1996 Jaguar XJ6 BRG
Click to expand...

:thankyousign:

Anyways, as a follow up, I'm still waiting on the brake calipers. But, prices are up, down and all around. Many of the ones on Ebay are usually yanked out of a junker, so I don't want to bother with those because putting used brakes into a car is just delaying the invetiable.

There are companies like Centric (never heard of), Beck/Arnley (never heard of), and remanufactured ones. Jagbit's price per caliper is a bit high. I am leaning towards Britishparts.co.uk, if I order them myself. The other option would be to have the shop that will do the work order them, as long as the price is reasonable.

Britishparts.co.uk

This is also the first time I've bought brakes for a car, so besides the whole calipers, do I need anything else besides the caliper itself (i.e. gaskets)?
 
Pads. Grease seals for the repacking of the wheel bearings.
Hoses if original (or haven't been changed that you can remember).

It has been a long. long time since I did brakes on a newer Jag.
Not sure if your calipers are shimmed like on a MK2, but watch for shim packs if you pull the bracket off, keep them in the same order.

ABS on a 96?

NEVER push the pistons back into the bores without opening the associated bleeder screw first.
Pushing old and dirty fluid back through the ABS actuator can get very expensive.

XK's Unlimited shows calipers, rebuilt.
 
I'm going to have a shop replace the brakes.

Already got the pads and rotors.

Shop should have grease.

Yes, the X300 has ABS.

I will have the shop replace the fluid.

XKs Unlimited seems to only have XJ6 stuff until '87.
 
I thought I read later than 87. Are the calipers non rebuildable? By 96, one would have thought they'd caught up with the rest of the world and put the seal in the outer end of the housing, not the piston, which means clean and seals.
 
Well, all of the calipers I see for sale are rebuilt. No new ones. And all of the places that sell calipers for the X300 offer a refund if you ship back a caliper that is "useable", like Jagbits and Britishparts.

The #s for the X300 calipers start with JLM. XK's calipers start with GR.

I emailed XKs Unlimited, so I'll see what they have to say. I googled the part number I saw on another website, and XK came up.

What is the brake caliper core? The pads?
 
Core is the whole thing less pads.
On earlier Jags (and other Brit Marques) the seal is on the inner part of the piston, wiped up the bore as pads wear. The "dust seal" between the visible end of the piston and the caliper housing is all that keeps water out.
Calipers rust badly when water gets to the cast iron, and then, as the pads wear, the seal moves into...rust. And they leak.

Newer designs puts the seal in the caliper housing proper, at the closest end, piston rides on seal, everything behind the seal is in brake fluid.

If that's how yours are (and since you see rebuilts for sale, I think they are), your brake shop should be able to rebuild yours.
If the pistons are good, just a few bucks for a kit, big bore hone knocks any rust out of the bore, scrape the seal groove out to make sure it's clean, and put it together.
Once off, about 20 minutes per caliper bore is more than enough time.

Dave
 
Thanks for the 411.

I will get the calipers on my car looked at, and hopefully I can have them rebuilt. Might just try it myself for fun.

I found this video. It looks pretty easy, just changing out the seal.

Rebuilding Caliper
 
The dust seals can be a bit more difficult, depending on specific design.
I have a big 20+ year old bottle of assembly lube I use instead of brake fluid, but brake fluid works.

I think I would have cleaned the calipers up a bit more externally......hourly or commission shop mechanics don't get paid to make it look nice.

Can or two of spray Brakleen to hose it off after cleaning and sanding out the bore, and you can put it together.

Experienced mechanic should be able to whack them out in no time.
Just have kits in hand before you start!

Dave
 
TOC said:
equiprx said:
What kind of Jaguar are you talking about??
Click to expand...

I'd guess from his signature line:
1996 Jaguar XJ6 BRG
Click to expand...

Sorry, brain farts again.
I bought a rebuilt set from O'Reilly for about $100. Just like a new set.
 
Beck/Arnley has been around for ages, like a dinosuar. Used their parts for decades. You are upgrading the brakes why not Brembos? Stainless steel lines/hoses?
 
LarryK said:
Beck/Arnley has been around for ages, like a dinosuar. Used their parts for decades. You are upgrading the brakes why not Brembos? Stainless steel lines/hoses?
Click to expand...

Well, EBC is just as good as Brembo, so that's why I have their pads and rotors hanging out in my living room (I'm waiting until my 3 week vacation starts before install).

I saw B/A on O'Reilly, but they wern't avaliable. Thanks for the heads up. If my calipers can't be rebuilt, I'll look into those.

This article put me off Stainless Steel:

Jags and Stainless Steel

I emailed Girling about brake lines Monday morning because they don't list a price on their site, haven't heard back. Delphi also makes/made lines for my car.

I'm not 100% sure Brembo makes lines for my car. If someone has had a good experience with a company that makes Stainless hoses, I'd be all ears. But everyone just says "go stainless", and that's all.
 
I only suggested Brembos as they are a dealer item and are installed on the XKR and XJR. Never used EBCs calipers and won't denounce them as I use their Yellow pads on my race Cooper S. Most vendors on this site should be able to locate lines for you. If not try the dealer, club members get 20% off.( again XKR, XJR).
 
In view of the fact that I haven't heard back from Girling yet, I'm going to go with Goodridge brake hoses.

Goodridge offers stainless and zinc braided brake hoses. I've never heard of zinc, but zinc is cheaper than stainless. The brake hoses are the only thing I need to pick out unless the calipers can't be rebuilt.

Goodridge stainless hoses for my car would be ÂŁ72.
 
Back
Top