XJ sat for over a year, now the brakes hardly stop at all?!

Fired up the XJ for the first time in about a year and a half and took it for a spin around the neighborhood. Felt good to ride my trusty steed again however once I got over the thrill of being back in the saddle I noticed that this thing has almost no brakes! I mean I was pushing with both feet as hard as I could while pulling up on the steering wheel and could only manage to gently slow to a stop. By pulling the e-brake I could get the back right to lay down a nice 10 foot skid but that's it.

Ideas? Do the pads get oxidized or something? Do I dare give her a high speed run and then brake hard and try and burn off any crud (what if I can't stop - yikes!) Is it time for new pads even though these still have thickness left in them?

Please advise, thanks in advance.

Are the rotors rusted?

You'll need to wear off the rust and stuff on the rotors, drive slow and ride the brakes. I'd think they would need to be really bad to warrant replacement.

Yes they were rusted pretty thoroughly. Most of the light stuff is gone from driving around the neighborhood but there are some deeper spots and still a genral rusty haze over all. I'll ride the brakes aound for a while and give that a try. Thanks for the advice!

Bleed all the fluid, might have picked up some moisture from sitting in snow

ehall said:

Bleed all the fluid, might have picked up some moisture from sitting in snow

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Good idea. Snow in the winter in Utah for sure but also sprinklers in the summer were directly spraying the driver side and front. ...left lots of hard water deposits too.

The calipers also like to seize when left for a long period of time. Sometimes they break free after a good heat cycling, sometimes it's just replacement time. Just did the same thing, and had to replace the passenger side caliper, might still need to replace the drivers side but it's just dragging under application now, give me a faint pull to the left under heavy braking so we'll see if it improves or worsens.
The rear calipers seem to have survived the storage though. Or I'm just not noticing.
I was even thinking of asking about storage tips to prevent seized calipers. Looking at parking the MJ for a bit next.

Maybe the pins/bolts are corroded. Good idea to keep some Permatex green caliper lube on-hand and regrease every couple of years

Bleed everything good. Then do pads and shoes and check rotors. Then do calipers and or wheel cylinders