Mark: Hi, it's Mark Bossert. I'm here with Bernie Pawlik. Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver. Vancouver's best auto service experience and we're talking cars. How are you doing Bernie?
Bernie: Doing very well.
Mark: So today this vehicle is a 2008 Mercedes GL 450. What was going on with this vehicle?
Bernie: So the owner of the vehicle called us. His issue was that he was driving down the road, the engine stopped running, just died. And we booked the appointment. He towed in and we diagnosed the issue.
Mark: And what did you find?
Bernie: Well, we found the fuel pump was bad. So how do we find the fuel pump was bad? Well, there's a few things we look at. First of all, when someone brings a car in, is the engine cranking over? Is it going with the key? Is the engine rotating? The answer is yes. So we know the battery is good. The starter is good. Those kinds of things are good. We can scan the vehicle for trouble codes. I'm not sure in this case, whether we did or not, or just went straight to some under hood tests, basically just to check, are we getting any fuel to the engine? Is there spark?
Those are the things we tested, found there's no fuel getting to the engine. Verified that by hooking a fuel pressure gauge up and also verified that the engine would start if we sprayed a bit of brake clean, which is basically a, it's a cleaning chemical, but it's also combustible. So we spray a bit of that into the engine and the engine starts and we know the spark is good. Basically, everything else is good. It's got no fuel. So, found the fuel pump was bad and that's basically what we proceeded to repair.
Mark: Let's go to the pictures. So here's our 450.
Bernie: Here's our 450 taken on a rainy day in Vancouver.
Mark: What kind of kilometerage did this vehicle have?
Bernie: 206,000. So it had a pretty good amount of use on it. And it's 2008. So we're about 16 years old. So that's a pretty good lifespan for a fuel pump.
Mark: And for a vehicle really today.
Bernie: Yeah, exactly. And this vehicle is in good shape. And in Mercedes are well built. I mean, there's a lot of stuff that goes wrong with them. And they can be expensive to fix, but they are generally well built quality cars. So you should be able to get 400,000 kilometres out of one if you treat it right. So a lot of fuel vehicles, you have to actually remove the fuel tank out of the vehicle to change the pump.
But fortunately for Mercedes, you don't have to do that. And that's a good thing because these fuel pumps are actually a saddle type pump where they are actually two sections of a pump that. Sorry, a tank, the fuel tank is two sections of a tank that sort of straddles the drive shaft and it would be a horrendous amount of work to remove it so you can change the fuel pump in the vehicle, but still a fair amount of work.
The white piece in the centre, that's the new fuel pump installed, but if you notice around sort of next to the blue paint, that's where the cover goes over top of the fuel pump. This is located under the rear seat of the vehicle, and it's glued down with some real kick ass glue. Let's put it that way. It's really tough. It takes a lot of effort to pop that cover off. When the repair is all done and we verify it, we glue it back down, not with quite the same strength of glue, but something that's not gonna come apart, obviously.
So here's a view of the old fuel pump removed from the vehicle. A couple of things to note, there's an electrical connector wires and electrical connector. And so the two fat wires power the fuel pump itself. And you can see that goes right into the centre of the fuel tank, the orange and red wire. And then the two skinnier wires, the bluish coloured wires, those go to the fuel tank sending unit.
And there's a, if you go to the far left of the picture, there's a little black piece. That's a float kind of like if you've ever taken a toilet lid off and you looked at the toilet plunger, these are kind of the same kind of thing. They move up and down. And as they move up and down, they send a change in electrical signal and that goes to your fuel gauge. There's a few things that get replaced when you do the pump in this vehicle and it all comes as a modular unit, but the actual pump itself is right in the centre.
And if we go to another picture. So that's the actual fuel pump itself sitting right in the middle. And these things sit in sort of a bath of fuel and what happens if you go to the next picture, Mark.
You can see sort of all white, but you see sort of a dark layer, about three quarters of the way up that layer right there, that's all full of fuel. And so when you fill the tank up, that area stays primed full of fuel and that keeps the fuel pump cool and that helps keep it lasting a long time.
Back, I don't know, we're going back quite a few years when they started putting fuel pumps inside gas tanks. They never used to have all the surrounding items to keep the pump cool. So what would happen is, you know, people would run that low on fuel and the pump would get too hot and basically they'd burn out really fast. So this actually allows you to run really low on fuel and then you'll never cause your pump to die early.
Mark: So other than taking the back seat out and floor, I guess, and all that sort of the floor covering and then removing it. Not that difficult to change over.
Bernie: Not too difficult. Not compared to a lot of vehicles where you have to actually drop the fuel tank out of the vehicle. So to all of us, these are a much preferred way to repair a fuel pump.
Mark: And what was the expense on the new fuel pump?
Bernie: It's over a thousand dollar job parts and labour for sure. Quite a bit more than that, actually.
Mark: So not inexpensive.
Bernie: And we're in Canada. Yeah it's a Mercedes, but you know, not as bad as some vehicles. You know, it's not cheap, but it's not as bad as some vehicles. And the service time is not as much as other vehicles where you have to pull a fuel tank out and it's much higher, even though you might pay a little less for the part.
So overall, I'd say it's kind of an average cost, nothing more than maybe say you know, a certain GM vehicle where you'd have to actually drop the tank. So, you know, fuel pumps are not that cheap of a job on any vehicle these days.
Mark: So there you go. If you need service for your Mercedes in Vancouver, the people to see are at Pawlik Automotive. You can reach them on their website pawlikautomotive.com. You can book right there. They'll get back to you. They'll get prepared for your appointment, 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, BC, Canada. Thanks so much for watching and listening. Thanks, Bernie.
Bernie: Thank you, Mark. Thanks for watching.
