2007 Jaguar STR Brakes Confirmed

[dwiggy]

Don't get caught up in the four piston hype. These brakes are a huge improvement over stock for a marginal increase in price!

We are talking 500$ for a 14" front brake kit! Woot! Woot!

 

[Elemino]

I don't know if I should love you or hate you... I just swapped my rotors and brakes the day before yesterday and now you have me contemplating another change! LOL

 

[marcredd]

Dwiggy.....pm sent.

 

[Andrizzle]

Sick!!!!

 

[mlara1129]

Great Job and thank you!

I was hoping my front brakes would hold for a few more months, but they need to be replaced now...too bad i can't afford this yet.


Question:

I'm going to replace my front brakes within the next few days, and I want to throw in the stoptech SS lines while i'm in there...since these calipers are direct fit, is it safe to assume i will be able to re-use the stoptech SS lines when I upgrade to the STR set up?

 

[dwiggy]

Question:

I'm going to replace my front brakes within the next few days, and I want to throw in the stoptech SS lines while i'm in there...since these calipers are direct fit, is it safe to assume i will be able to re-use the stoptech SS lines when I upgrade to the STR set up?

It looks like they would fit... Try your stock lines first before you buy the fancy lines.

 

[dwiggy]

One more note before I get to the rears:

Jaguar used these brakes on 2006 - 2009 "R" models to include; S-Type R, XJR, and Super V8.

 

[marcredd]

Did a parts lookup from Rock Auto:
Parts list:
CENTRIC Semi Loaded Calipers with Brackets Front $132.00 X 2 (Left and Right Specific)
CENTRIC Semi Loaded Calipers with Brackets Rear $151.00 X 2 (Left and Right Specific)
RAYBESTOS Semi Metalic OEM Pads Front $38.00
RAYBESTOS Semi Metalic OEM Pads Rear $37.00
RAYBESTOS OEM Replacement Rotors Front $107.00 X 2
RAYBESTOS OEM Replacement Rotors Rear $39.00 X 2

Total without shipping $933.00 front and rear.

Everything is on backorder but you can get it if you are patient.

I'd do the brake lines too.

17" wheel will not clear. My 18s are really close.

The dust shield clears. I bent them back a bit but they don't touch.

I bought the rotors off of eBay for 327+Free shipping.
I found the calipers on eBay for 499 and offered them 399 + shipping.
My calipers had the factory bolts, stainless lines, Red Stuff pads with zero wear (I got a good deal).

Car stops like it shed a 1000 pounds!

The front calipers are not 45/38mm dual piston like the OEM. They are a single 60mm piston.

I am on Rockauto at the moment. I see the Centric rear calipers but only the A-1 Cardone front calipers. Do you have a part number for the Centric fronts you found on Rockauto?

 

[mlara1129]

i've been looking all morning lol they seem to be out.

even those A-1 cardone ones are just "return and rebuild"

 

[BlackLS06]

We need to do a group buy on this....even just the front upgraded would be a major improvement in stopping power for a damn good price.

$500 for a complete front big brake kit is unheard of for this car.

 

[mlara1129]

We need to do a group buy on this....even just the front upgraded would be a major improvement in stopping power for a damn good price.

$500 for a complete front big brake kit is unheard of for this car.

+10000000

Anybody have connections with part suppliers?

 

[RodLS]

If someone could find a way to get a deal on them and if I have a surplus in my account I'd like to get them.

I will be putting my Volvo wheels on next week and need something to will the brake gap :shifty:

 

[Kumba]

Probably need to look at the rears too as they would be 326mm and help the car maintain it's balance. Someone still needs to guinea pig them out though. They may not be a simple bracket/caliper conversion like the fronts.

Unless you did already swap the rears and didn't mention it

 

[TooManyToys]

I'm not crazy, Kumba. I'm just a curmudgeon.

 

[2002_lincolnLS]

I'm not crazy, Kumba. I'm just a curmudgeon.

Synonyms
grouch, crank, bear, sourpuss, crosspatch.

that made me chuckle

 

[Kumba]

I'm not crazy, Kumba. I'm just a curmudgeon.

Embrace your inner crazy! It makes life interesting LOL

So what does a learned brake-centric individual such as yourself think on the topic of this post?

 

[TooManyToys]

I'll have to look at the balance more when I have time. I'm hip deep in an Escape forum right now.

The gut feel is like you said, it would be good to bring the rear up so the brake bias is more in line with what was developed for the car, and the software for all the electronic handling functions.

Big brakes with high friction material can start to get you into a modulation issue. You don't want a system that is so effective that it is hard to modulate the brakes under poor road conditions. Yeah, I know, the ABS will take care of any wheel skids.

Being old school we used to target skid points so they were just above the point of booster runout, so it would take proportionately more pedal effort to gain the little hydraulic pressure needed for the wheel skid. This gave a driver much better control to stay within the incipient skid range where you get the shortest stopping distance. It is a dated methodology as many of the newer vehicles are designed to just let the ABS take care of the issue.

But I've been in vehicles that have had a real touchy pedal and it's no fun. Some of the big brake kits actually use a lower friction brake material then stock to keep out of this issue. But no one is going to know how this is going to work out until they try.

 

[dwiggy]

Rears

Looks like that back is an easy fit also.


Stock LS is 11.34" while STR is 12.8"


Lincoln ls E-Brake is different.



You will have to get a clevis or make one. You should use about 1/2" clevis to fill this gap. (The cable moves out a bit.)


The appearance is much better. I took pictures of different sides.


The rear calipers are single piston 45mm bore (v) the LS' 43mm bore. There is no noticeable impact on the braking proportioning.

 

[TooManyToys]

Cool.

 

[Kumba]

On a more interesting note, the pads are smaller on the XF. 123/52 (backing plate) versus the LS with 163/58.

Would need to get a measure of the actual friction material to see what that is.

 

[HyeLifeLS]

How freakin pimp is this?!?!? Nice!!!

Would love to put some 03-04 s-type R brakes.

 

[Kumba]

How freakin pimp is this?!?!? Nice!!!

Would love to put some 03-04 s-type R brakes.

That requires a pretty extensive, and unproven, suspension upgrade as well. The good news is that if it worked, you would have superior brakes and suspension. The bad news is that if it didn't work, you'd be out $2K or so.

Of course, you could certainly use the third gen STR set-up and use parts from a second gen regular S-Type to get the best of both worlds. bigger brakes and the better suspension. Only thing you would be giving up doing that would be the brembos.

 

[TooManyToys]

On a more interesting note, the pads are smaller on the XF. 123/52 (backing plate) versus the LS with 163/58.

Would need to get a measure of the actual friction material to see what that is.

The pad surface size doesn't matter for stopping distance, only for wear life and if it's a low temperature threshold material, fade resistance.

I know what your going to ask. Think unit pressure. I need to go farming for a few hours.

 

[HyeLifeLS]

This is so great, it's crazy. It is pretty much about the same price or just a bit more than buying new stock brakes, but instead you get a full BBK with a 14" rotor!!

I recently changed my brakes, but wouldn't mind spending a $1000 or less on an huge upgrade like this especially since I already have the S-type R wheels.

 

[Kumba]

This is so great, it's crazy. It is pretty much about the same price or just a bit more than buying new stock brakes, but instead you get a full BBK with a 14" rotor!!

I recently changed my brakes, but wouldn't mind spending a $1000 or less on an huge upgrade like this especially since I already have the S-type R wheels.

Man, that's a pretty crappy car when a standard brake job includes 4 reman calipers. LOL

I guess I would look at things different. This is how it all looks to me:

Standard brake job: ~$300 (Rotors, pads, hardware, etc, all 4 corners)
320mm Upgrade: ~$80 more ($380 roughly)
355mm Upgrade: ~$620 more ($1000 roughly)

They also fit into different grooves. For instance:

Standard brakes: Works with everything
320mm brakes: Works with 17" stock rim, possibly 16" rim but unverified.
355mm brakes: Requires 18"+ rims.

So, the cost of just the 355mm brakes, assuming nothing else changes is $1000. But if you don't already have 18" rims, then you have to add rims+tires. Could easily be looking at $2K to do this change. And that's before snow tires and all that.

Still a damn nice upgrade! Only other problem is parts availability. Almost seems easier to start hitting salvage yards and rebuilding the calipers yourself. Almost everywhere seems to be R&R.