Central Valley Classic Cars

This week I took a little road trip to my old stomping grounds on the San Francisco peninsula to have some work done on the Jaguar XK8 coupe by the good folks of Hills Motors in San Mateo.

The mechanics at Hills did the initial inspection of the XK8 for me. Over the following year, I got to know them and they got to know my car as they helped me with project work. Since the move out to the Central Valley, the car had been leaking a small bit of oil from at least two spots on the garage floor. I called Mike at Hills to see if he knew anyone with Jaguar V8 experience in my area. He didn’t, but he noted that they had previously fixed an oil leak among other engine work that they guaranteed; if I brought the car to them, they’d do a free inspection; if the oil leak was related to any of their previous work, they’d fix it for free.

Back to the SF Bay Area

I still work in the Bay Area, but I usually take Amtrak. The opportunity to take the XK8 out on the road sounded good, but sitting in commute traffic did not. Attempting to beat traffic, I headed out about 5:45am. The first leg went well and I was over the Altamont pass within an hour. Then traffic went down hill along with the road and moving through the Livermore/Pleasanton area was less than fun. It’s a blessings that the XK8 is a really good grand tourer, not only because it’s fun to drive on the open road, but also because it is comfortable in molasses traffic.

After Pleasanton, things began to move again. But this was short lived. Then came 238 -> 880 -> 92. I detest this stretch of road. I’ll leave it at that. From 92 on was fine. FasTrak is a good thing. All said and done, I pulled into Hills Motors at 8:45am… the second leg took twice as long as it does without commute traffic.

Jaguar Mechanic Investigative Reporting

John lifted his head from under a hood to greet me as I came in and Mike emerged from the office to do the same. Mike has always taken the time to chat with me about my car and their work and this time I came prepared with a list of questions. Mike was gracious and patient and gave me lots of good info I’ll disperse in a couple of posts over the next week or so.

Worth immediate note is that Hills is offering a discounted price on replacing the upper timing chain tensioner (for $1600) or completely redoing the whole timing chain system, including chain, tensioners and guide rails (for $3900) of 1997~2000 Jaguar V8 engines. Both quotes reflect $100 off their usual estimate. They’ve seen enough 4.0 AJ-V8s ruined by chain tensioner failure. I had them do the complete job awhile back, and they did solid work. From what they’ve seen, just replacing the top tensioner greatly reduces the chances of failure, and I highly recommend doing this if you still have the original, plastic-encased tensioners.

Rollin’ Executive Style

With the XK8 in Hills for the day, Mike tossed me the keys to an XJ Vanden Plaus – an extended, executive saloon. I headed over to Raj Tiwari’s home office on the lagoon of Foster City. It was like sailing through Venice. The day was cool and overcast on the peninsula for the morning, but the clouds burned off in the afternoon and the blue skies reflected beautifully off the water.

Then Came the Bad News

Turns out the leaks weren’t related to any of the previous work done by Hills. And it wasn’t two leaks, but three:

• Engine oil pan (which looked bruised but functional at purchase) – $155 for replacement, plus a couple hours to install and clean up the mess.
• AC pressure line o-ring – $180 to discharge the AC and replace the coupler o-ring, plus $195 to evacuate and charge the AC.
• Power steering cooler hose at connector – estimated at $417.

This was well beyond what I could do at the moment. That little voice in the back of my head was saying “what was the budget for this project car again?” This wasn’t on the charts. I had them skip the power steering drip for now – I can watch that and buy some time.

After doing the work, Mike showed me the beat up oil pan and failed gasket. Apparently, some time in the past, the pan had encountered something hard and had bent but not broken. Instead of replacing the pan, the gasket was augmented with silicon. Eventually the gasket gave out at the silicon edge.

On the Road Again

The Hills Motors guys got the work done quickly and had the car ready by 3:30pm. I traded them the XJ for my XK8 and jumped on the road in more vain hope of beating traffic. The trip back was pretty much a mirror of the trip out – bridge/92: a breeze; 880 -> 238 -> 580: painful; 580 through the Tri-valley: fluctuating; over the Altamont/down the Central Valley: mostly smooth sailing.

A Fun Trek and a Job Well Done

I made it home, safe and sound, with time to wash the car and the garage floor before parking it for the night. I’m pleased to report that when I pulled the car out the following evening, only a small drop of power steering fluid had blemished the floor.

Hills Motors
4011 Pacific Blvd.
San Mateo, CA 94405
(605) 573-7425