Mark: Hi, it's Mark Bossert. I'm here with Bernie Pawlik, Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver, and we are talking cars. Vancouver's best auto service experience, 25 times voted best auto repair in Vancouver by their customers. How you doing Bernie?
Bernie: Doing very well.
Mark: So today's guest is a 2006 Subaru Outback. Again, a frequent appearance on the podcast, what was happening with this guest?
Bernie: Yeah, this as a guest. This vehicle came to our shop, it actually needed a few repairs in a few different areas, but one area that we're gonna focus on, and this one was rear suspension bushing. So this had a number of bushings in the rear suspension that were worn out and required replacement.
There was clunks and just a sort of general handling issue at the back. It was time to replace the bushings. The owner is committed to keeping the car for a while. It's in good shape, even though it is at this point about 19 years old, but I'd say still has lots of life left in it. So a worthwhile investment.
Mark: And I think we've mentioned in our startup talk that this is not a normal or not a frequent repair that you guys do, although you work on a lot of Subarus.
Bernie: Yeah, for some reason we haven't done a lot of rear suspension bushings. They do wear out from time to time, but it's not one of the more common repairs that we do. And it wasn't like this car had really high mileage or this person ran it off road for most of its life. It just had I think a sort of average city kind of life. But things had worn out over time and that happens. A lot of it's rubber, it's metal, you know, things just deteriorate over time.
Mark: Let's take a look at some pictures.
Bernie: Yeah, let's have a look at some pictures. Here's our car, 06, but still in excellent shape.
Mark: And the issues.
Bernie: The issues. So yeah. So here we have one of the bushings. There's actually a number of arms. There's probably four. I'm thinking there's, can't remember off the top of my head how many bushings there are in total, probably about 10 in the back. The rear suspension, I was just guessing I might give or take a couple.
Here's an overall view. So on the left, that's the rear brake caliper. Gives you kind of an idea of what we're looking at here. And then as we look inward to the vehicle, there's bushing in there, there are bushings in there. You can see some rust around that arm there.
Mark: You could kind of make that one out there, I believe.
Bernie: Yeah, I believe there's something up there too. So there's a few of them. Drive shaft here to drive the, yeah, that's the drive shaft right there. So that's kind of gives you kind of an idea of what we're looking at here.
This is the trailing arm pushing. Sorry, Mark?
Mark: A well worn bushing.
Bernie: Well-worn bushing. Yeah. This is the trailing arm bushing. And so this sits sort of forward of the rear axle. There's basically an up and down rear movement on this bushing. So this one's pretty badly worn. And so there are variety of ways we replace them.
So this is a new bushing put in. You can kind of see the difference between the two.
Mark: So when you replace these, sometimes you replace the whole arm because maybe it's more effective or less labour or better for the customer ultimately, or it's you can press in a new bushing. Is that correct?
Bernie: It is. Yeah. And bushings are actually available and can be pressed in for all of these pieces. But some of them, so this is like a thick cast arm and to actually remove this arm is a lot of labour. It actually bolts right up to the rear knuckle where the wheel bearing and hub and axle sit. So it's a lot of work to remove it. We have special tools that we can actually replace the bushing in the car. So economically it makes way more sense to do this. Plus this part would be very expensive.
But some of the other arms, we would just replace the whole arm. It's a, it's sort of a stamped steel control arm with a, you know, the area where the bushing slides in is pretty thin, so sometimes when you go to press these in, it doesn't work so well. And these arms are not overly expensive. So it makes more sense to replace these as complete units.
So we replace complete units where we can and we need to. And then where it's makes more sense, we just replace the bushing.
Mark: What about in this case?
Bernie: Yeah, that's a replace the bushing. Again, you can see that's like a cast arm. And so for this one here, we just replaced the bushing.
Mark: I think you mentioned earlier that the rust is a telltale sign that the bushing is worn out?
Bernie: Yeah, definitely. Because the rust forms when the metal is moving around. You know, if the metal is sitting or the rubber's worn off and causing the metal to wear. But it's usually when you see rust like that in a bushing, it's a sign that's worn out. Something's moving that isn't supposed to move.
What you'll notice, you know, in a car with worn out bushings is you'll notice the car doesn't handle quite properly when you hit a bump. It kind of tracks strangely, or it'll move in a way that, you know, you don't feel like you've got quite full control. Or when you hit bumps, you get clunking sounds. And you know, those are just parts that are moving too far in ways that they're not supposed to. They weren't designed.
Mark: You can get away with it for a while, but it's not a good idea because it's gonna just keep getting more expensive. Is that sort of the story?
Bernie: Exactly. And then if you leave things too long, then tires start wearing funny, so you end up wearing your tires out. Actually one of the things we did on this car was replace the tires as well. They were worn, needed to be replaced. Maybe because of the bushings. Maybe they were just old.
But yeah, it's good to keep everything lined up straight and then everything, tires included last longer.
Mark: After repair Another happy customer.
Bernie: Yeah. Yeah. The car worked really well.
Mark: So if you're looking for repairs for your Subaru in Vancouver, the experts to see are at Pawlik Automotive. You can book online at pawlikautomotive.com. If you're having trouble sleeping, we have hundreds of videos there on all makes and models and types of repairs as well. Or you can call them at (604) 327-7112 to book your appointment. You have to book ahead. They're always busy. Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver. Thanks so much for watching and listening. Thanks Bernie.
Bernie: Thank you, Mark. Thanks for watching.
