Mark: Hi, it's Mark Bossert. I'm here with Bernie Pawlik, Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver, Vancouver's best auto service experience. 25 times voted by their customers as the best auto repair company in Vancouver, BC, Canada. And we're talking cars. How are you Bernie?
Bernie: Doing very well.
Mark: So today's victim is a Jeep 2008 Jeep Patriot. What was going on with this vehicle?
Bernie: This vehicle was towed into our shop it wouldn't start. The owner had complained previous to booking the appointment that sometimes you'd be driving it and it would die and then restart again. But by the time we got it and looked at it, when we turned the key to start, nothing happened. I mean, there were lights on the dash, but no clicks or any activation from the starter.
Mark: Now that sounds like a pretty unique problem. Is that something you see often?
Bernie: Yeah, quite a bit. But often, you know, you turn the key and there's a click or some other noises, this time there was nothing. We do see it a fair bit.
Mark: So what did you discover?
Bernie: So we had to start with the diagnostic. I mean, the first place to start is testing the battery. That's kind of the heart of the electrical system. Tested the battery. It was good. Did some tests on the starter. The starter is hard to get to, but there's some simple tests on the starter that we did, and it appeared like the starter wasn't the problem.
Scanned the vehicle computer with a scan tool, and this is where we found some interesting information. There was a lot of communication codes of not communicating with certain modules and the engine control module, power train control module wasn't even communicating on the system. So that would indicate that either the module's gone bad or it's getting no power, so that's where we started our diagnosis. And followed it from there.
Mark: How about some pictures while you're explaining.
Bernie: There's our vehicle There are many things that can cause the vehicle not to start you know, for that lack of communication. There's miles of wires. It could be any broken wire somewhere. It could be a computer that's down. So we basically followed some repair procedure. We have good repair information and gave us some ideas of where to start.
And where we started was testing the main relay and the fuel pump relay for the vehicle and we found out there was no power going through some of the circuits. So we investigated further, which led us to a main relay module box located underneath the driver's fender well.
Pulled things apart. Cut some tape off the wires. This is actually after repair. This is the box that we fixed. This is a relay box. What you're looking at just to the left of that arrow. That's the driver side headlight. So it kind of gives you an orientation. This is under the vehicle covered in by the fender well, but obviously, you know, moisture can get up in this area. It's it's low down. You can see there's a lot of wires wrapped up in tape. And the area that we repaired is that nice black tape. Sort of just to the right of the arrow.
So our testing led us to this area. So we cut the tape open, started looking at the wires and found a couple of interesting issues. There's a big fat red wire, now these pictures are small, unfortunately, but if you look at the bottom left picture, you can see we slightly cut the, yeah, that's the picture. We cut the casing open. You can see an actual bulge of the wire. So the wire is actually corroding underneath the insulation. And being a relay, it usually has two large power wires fed by two small wires, one a signal wire and one a ground wire. And as we tugged away on the wires, one of the small wires, which is the wire on the right, the upper right picture, basically just broke apart in my hand. So, no broken insulation, nothing cracked, moisture must somehow seep into the wire jackets somehow. Get in there, start corroding the wires, and eventually one day it just won't start.
Mark: So, speculating, how do you think that could happen? Just cheap wiring?
Bernie: Probably. That would be my guess. It seems surprising because usually wire sheathing, the plastic is usually pretty, pretty durable, but it may have just, you know, over the years, just got a little porous and just enough to absorb some moisture because the corrosion was all in one specific area. So you think of it seeped in, say, from a connector, it would be corroded all the way up the wire, but it wasn't, it was only in one spot. Once we cut the wire, stripped it, the wire was actually in good shape. So it was just one area. So yeah, I would speculate crappy quality wire.
Mark: So then after repair?
Bernie: Yeah, so these are the repairs. So we basically cut the section of wire out. We soldered, heat shrinked. We actually even crimped the wires together. So we do a very durable repair. And that's basically the thick wire. And if you look sort of behind that, you can see a black wire. That's the other wire that was broken. And it was actually, in fact, the thin wire that was causing our problem. The other wire we just repaired as a prevention for a future issue.
And of course, while we're in there, we tugged at all the wires to make sure nothing was going to snap apart and everything was good. And afterwards we turned the key on and the vehicle started, everything lit up, key started and everything operated normally.
Mark: How often is it that it's from broken wires?
Bernie: Not too often. Usually it won't start because the starter is bad or maybe a relay is bad, not too often broken wires.
Marl: And you said there's miles, there's literally miles of wiring in a car?
Bernie: I'm kind of guessing off the top of my head, but there's got to be a couple of miles worth if you stretched it out.
Mark: Which is a lot of copper.
Bernie: Yeah, it's a lot of copper. And you know, with electronics and computers that actually makes it less because you can have, say a module in a door that would normally, say a car with like power windows and door locks and everything. A lot of time they used to be It used to be like 20 or 30 wires that would go into a door and some of them really fat for lots of power.
Nowadays, you may have two thick, fat power wires and two other wires for you know, computer signals and the computer will just signal the module to turn this and that on. We made a more complicated, but we've saved a lot of wire and a lot of weight because copper is heavy. So it makes a difference.
Mark: So there you go. If you've got any kind of starting problems or any problems with your Jeep vehicles in Vancouver, the guys to see are Pawlik Automotive. You can reach them on their website, pawlikautomotive.com. You can book right there. They'll get back to you. They'll find out what's going on. They'll get ready for your appointment. Or, you can call them at (604) 327-7112. You have to book ahead. They're always busy. Pawlik Automotive, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Thanks so much for watching and listening. Thanks, Bernie.
Bernie: Thanks, Mark. Thanks for watching.
