The EPB, brakes and my new MOT. X350R.

[J44EAG]

New to me in recent months is my MY04 X350R with now 80k miles covered and with an MOT needed mid February 2016. This is how we got on.

I always present a car about a month early for its next MOT. This enables me to get any repair work done before the current MOT expires.

I`ve used Halfords for years at Gosport in Hampshire. They do a stiff MOT and that is what I require. The current tester down there is a stickler for brakes and can get a little over keen on occasions. But I don`t mind that as brakes are vital.

Last Tuesday my car was inspected and two concerns were noted. The electronically activated hand brake pads were said to be very worn and there appeared to be a leak from the offside front brake caliper flexi. I had a set of pads in stock but had to order a new braded flexi at a cost of nearly sixty pounds.

Getting onto the job on Saturday revealed the fluid lead from the flexi was not the cause of fluid leakage around the caliper. Upon removing the road wheel brake fluid leakage was noted from around the outer bleed nipple on the four pot caliper unit. The leakage was caused by me not really tightening up the nipple following recent installation of new brake pads and changing of the system brake fluid. Having cleaned up the leaked fluid all that was needed to restore the issue was a little extra tightening of the nipple.

Progressing to the hand brake calipers at the rear of the car, road wheels were removed fo inspection. To my eye there certainly appeared to be a reasonable hand brake pad set thickness with around 3mm of material left fit for further service. The MOT wanted the pads changed and in any case I wanted the hand brake system serviced to ensure future reliability. Overhaul of this hand brake system is rather more involved than the early manual hand braked S-type that I had previously run.

These notes refer to overhauling the rear electronic hand brake on my R model which has an extra separate pair of calipers solely for the hand brake mechanism.

Overhauling was done as follows and was not without some issues. With the ignition key turned to energise the dash panel, the handbrake switch is depressed and held down whilst the ignition key is turned to the fully off position. Then it is necessary to remove two pins located across each of the calipers on which the brake pads hang. Using a 3mm long ended punch, the pins are knocked out from the inside to the outside of the caliper. One pin is easy to remove in situe, removal of the other pin is obstructed by the air damper suspension unit and is best removed with the caliper unbolted from the rear wheel bearing caliper. The caliper bolts are 13mm hex head and can be very tight to remove if an excess of Loctite thread sealer has been applied.

With the bolts removed from the caliper, the caliper and brake pads can be teased over the inevitable wear lip on the brake disc. The obstructed pad pin can then be tapped out of the caliper and old brake pads removed. Clean up the caliper with brake cleaner and with a suitable brake piston rewind tool, back the piston into the caliper. I would advise buying a universal type rewind tool kit as there are many different lug spacings on modern brake pistons and it is imperative to get the correct tool fit to enable an easy wind back of the piston into the caliper. As I was short of time before the MOT was due and a suitable caliper rewind kit was going to take time to arrive, I enlisted the help of my local Jaguar independent operator at Jagcare in Portsmouth. I`m glad I did as even then the job became a bit troublesome.

With new pads fitted (normal Jaguar price about £35 a set but Bilstein equivalent sourced on the internet from Germany for £13 delivered), pins and anti-squeel shims installed and the caliper bolted back onto the hub carrier IT IS ESSENTIAL TO WORK THE LEVER ARMS ON THE CALIPERS TO WIND THE PISTONS OUT AGAIN AS FAR AS THEY WILL GO AND ENSURE THE PISTONS BRING THE BRAKE PADS LIGHTLY INTO CONTACT WITH THE BRAKE DISCS. DO NOT NEGLECT THIS ACTION. IF YOU WERE TO USE THE ELECTRIC MOTOR ACTIVATED BY THE COCKPIT SWITCH TO WIND PISTONS BACK INTO CALIPERS, YOU WILL CAUSE THE MOTOR TO OVER-WIND,
REACH THE END OF ITS TRAVEL AND JAM PERMANENTLY. IF THAT OCCURS YOU WILL NEED A NEW MOTOR DRIVE AT AROUND £173!

Having relined the brakes, carried out the piston winding, road wheels may be refitted to the car. Slight issues may begin at this point or even before you tackle to above actions. We found that even with the IDS computer linked to the car via the OBD port on the car, that it would not load up and "see" my car for putting the car into brake service mode. So we almost expected an issue once we had the car back on the floor and had started up. After start up the "park brake fault" message appeared on the dash together with MIL lamp illumination. Again the IDS could not get into my car. We faired little better with my more basic iCarsoft diagnostic tool which I carry in the car. At this point we disconnected the battery for ten minutes and tried again. All well and the park brake operating well. A test drive confirmed that Simon and I were happy with the result.

That done, it was back down to Halfords at Gosport for the new MOT certificate to be issued. No problems with that at all and three guys pumping me for information about re-lining the park brake on these cars. Now I`m an expert!

Yes, this little job is a bit of a nause but not impossible to do provided you have a 1/8th inch hardened steel pin punch, the correct end fitting for the wind back tool and something like an iCarsoft 930i or Android/Torque app and a Bluetooth ELM327 diagnostic /code clearance tool to help if faulting does occur. If all else fails the a hard dump battery disconnection for a few minutes appears to restore normal operation.

I know a bit more than I did earlier today and my car has a nice new MOT....even if I am £100 down in labour fees. A small price to pay, in my opinion.

Anyone want a brand new unused OS front braided flexi hose for a 350R? Give me a shout if you do. Cost me just under sixty quid and now surplus to requirements. Offers invited!

Mike