Mark: Hi, it’s Mark from Top Local, we’re here with Bernie Pawlik, Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver, Vancouver’s best auto service experience, 18 time winners of Best Auto Repair in Vancouver as voted by their customers. How’re you doing Bernie?
Bernie: I’d doing very well this morning.
Mark: So we’re going to talk about a Duramax diesel, a 2002 ChevyK 2500, what was going on with this truck?
Bernie: Well this vehicle came to us, it was running rough and there was some issues that we eventually determined with the fuel injectors but basically the engine was shaky, was making noises and a bit of acessive smoke.
Mark: so what are some symptoms of bad fuel injectors?
Bernie: Well bad fuel injectors will do a number of things. They’ll cause an all out misfire which, so you know, the engine will be very shaky and very rough, on a more subtle level, it can just cause some subtle knocking noises and the engine is loud to subtle knocking noises in the engine, can also cause smoking ,so either start up or while it’ running,or under different throttle loads it will be a variety of a, there can be different sort of smoking conditions either white or black depending on what’s happening with the injectors. Also starting problems to the engine just takes a long time to start. So those are some of the symptoms of bad fuel injectors.
Mark: So what can cause injectors to go bad and what caused these ones to go bad?
Bernie: Well, so this is an interesting story and I’m going to add a little backstory for this truck. So this vehicle, our client purchased it about, I believe, about 6 months ago, he found this huge truck, we did an inspection, looked great from what I remember it seemed to run pretty well so he bought it. He’s a handy person, he took on repairing a number of the things that we found wrong with it but he also decided, “l’m going to change my fuel injectors because you know, it’s not quite running perfectly or there’s a bit of smoke”, so he did it himself which is an incredibly bold thing to do because even in our shop and all our tools and equipment, it’s a couple days worth or work to change them, it’s a lot of work, it’s a big job, a lot to be dismantled to do it and a lot to be put back together. But he did it, did a great job, put it back together, started it up and it ran fine for a bit and then he said after a while it started running like really rough and there was a pretty bad knocking noise in the engine. Yeah, so what caused these injectors to go bad? I mean the end story that I’m going to tell you is that the injectors themselves were not good quality but that’s basically what happened. The job he did was good. We had to do some diagnosis to figure out what exactly was happening. So there’s, this job came in two rounds, and the first round we basically determined number eight injector was bad and we had another one sent over from the place he bought it and put it in and it ran much better, but still not perfect. So after great amount of, a little more work we determined that the injectors we all likely bad, had them sent out for testing and sure enough, all eight injectors had a similar problem in the certain range of fuel delivery, that all of them were defective.
Mark: Wow. So is this a common issue with fuel injectors for diesels?
Bernie: Well you know, my whole point of doing this hangout is that you’ve got to watch where you buy your injectors from. I think this is really the lesson that just because someone sells a rebuilt fuel injector doesn’t mean it’s rebuilt to the right standards, and clearly in the case of this engine, this person he’d ordered them off the internet and from a somewhat reputable company but obviously they weren’t good. We have a supplier that we deal with, everything we buy from them is always good because, the injectors they sell are mostly rebuilt, at least these ones are rebuilt by Bosch, big company, they’re the people who manufacture in them in the first place, their rebuilding standards are as high as you can go. But they tell me, and this makes a lot of sense, a lot of companies they buy them and clean the injectors, they make sure they function, at least seemingly function, you know, there’re cleaned and sold off. But they’re not really rebuilt in a proper way.
Mark: So ok, a bit of fun there, two sets of injectors later, how does the truck run?
Bernie: Really good, really well, I mean smooth, starts up instantaneously, runs smooth right from the moment it starts, no smoke, it’s perfect. So the thing with diesels, as long as you have good compression in the engine, usually the injectors just make all the difference. They’re just so critical to, I mean, they control everything from the like in a gasoline engine you have a spark timing but you know in fuel delivery whereas with a diesel it’s all done with the injector. So you know having that working properly, it’s critical. I’ll just share a photo here of the truck, or I should say of a truck because I couldn’t quite get all my photos together this morning. This is a 2002 Silverado, you know similar to the truck we worked on, great vehicle, super reliable, there is nothing bad I can say about these trucks, really good overall.
Mark: So what’s the difference between injectors that he purchased and what you supplied?
Bernie: As I was mentioning, the injectors we supplied were, they’re Bosch remanufactured and you know the highest, say the highest standards of quality so that the difference again, the key, I know we do these videos mostly for people who are just interested in having their car repaired, but you know, there’s a lot of do-it-yourselfers who watch this so my word to you is buy injectors from a reputable supplier, buy as close, maybe not right from the dealer they’re way more money but someone who’s a very reputable diesel rebuilder or supplier of diesel parts.
Mark: Any finally I guess, how are Duramax diesels?
Bernie: Duramax, yeah they’re awesome. I mean of all the big three manufacturers, these are definitely our favourites in our shop because a lot less goes wrong with them than the others. I mean, even though Cummins are really reliable, there’s still a few problems with them. The Ford’s of course are legendary, I mean the 7.3 is pretty good but I mean these Duramaxes, they’re amazing, like they really don’t have that many problems, I mean the odd injector goes bad but there’s very few problems with these engines, they’re really good. Again, this would be my choice for a diesel to buy.
Mark: So there you go, if you are looking for service for your Duramax diesel in Vancouver, the guys to see are Pawlik Automotive. You can reach them at 604-327-7112 to book your appointment, you have to book ahead, they’re busy, or check out their website pawlikautomotive.com or our web channel on YouTube search for Pawlik Auto repair or our new Car Truth Show web channel, YouTube channel, lots of good stuff on there. Thanks Bernie
Bernie: Thank you Mark
