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 we're talking about a 2009 Cadillac. What was going on with this vehicle?
Bernie: The owner of this vehicle had done some previous repairs at a shop a while ago, maybe not sure, three months, a year ago prior to bringing it in. He'd had his timing chains replaced. And there were some trouble codes stored in the vehicle computer and they were a cam and crankshaft correlation codes, which basically usually indicates that the timing between the cam and crankshafts are out somehow. So he'd had the timing chains replaced.
The story was from the other shop that they'd done the job, they'd taken it apart again to verify that it was all correct. And whoever's at the other shop said, well, it's probably a computer problem and it's beyond our scope of fixing it. So find somewhere else. And so he came to us.
Mark: Interesting response from a repair shop.
Bernie: Yeah. Considering it's a GM and you know, usually computer repairs on domestic vehicles are probably about the easiest things to do compared to imported cars. You know, a lot of scan tools support North American vehicles very well. But nonetheless you know, it just seemed a little sketchy. And we figured based on those codes, probably the first thing to verify was that the actual valve timing was set in the proper spots.
Anyways, we'll look at some pictures. There's the car here. 2009 SRX, SRX, yep, 3.6 litre V6.
Mark: What are we looking at here?
Bernie: So we're looking at the top of the intake manifold with the intake plenum removed. First thing it's interesting that we found was that and the red arrow there, that silicone sealant that someone's applied to the gasket surfaces, which is not necessary and not really proper. These gaskets are metal with a rubber ring around the inside. So they seal exceptionally well.
And silicone is a complete waste of time and actually just makes for messy cleanup in the future. So to me, it's a first indication going, Hmm, someone didn't really know what they were doing. So there's our first thing. So what we're doing here at this point is just accessing things, getting ready to take the valve covers off so we can put the timing tools in place and verify whether the valve timing is in the proper spot.
Next thing we found, this is a very crappy wiring repair to a purge valve. You can actually see the wire that was used is actually speaker wire. You know, wire is wire, but it's just not the proper kind of wire for repair and it's just twisted together. The tape has come off in this one area. This is to the purge valve for the evap system.
And, you know, it's critical that these things have good connection all the time, 100 percent reliability. And you can't be assured of that if you're not soldering the wires or at least using butt splice crimp connectors. So again, another sort of, Oh, this is kind of sketchy repair work.
Mark: I was going to say, this looks like a home stereo repair that I would.
Bernie: Yeah, yeah, exactly. So I don't know who the shop was and did the work or whether there's a guy in the backyard. Really not sure, but anyways.
Mark: What do we have here?
Bernie: Here we have the timing cover removed. And this is where we start finding interesting evidence. Basically what we found cut to the chase is the timing chain was never replaced. The customer was billed for it. And whatever story of having taken it apart to verify it was bullshit. The timing cover removed. It was pretty evident that this cover had never been off. You can see all that black stuff in there. That's all oil sludge buildup that you would expect after 15 years of usage. Now, is it possible that someone did the timing chain and didn't clean the cover properly? Yes it is, but, you know, any decent shop is going to clean it.
So we did actually verify that the valve timing was out. It was about half a tooth out on the crankshaft, so what we figure happened is the timing chain had stretched over the years, which is kind of normal. So basically these are the old components. These are all the timing chain guides, the gears, the tensioners are on the bottom and the chains are on the left. We never actually saw an invoice, but he had a list of items. He said, all these items had been changed, but very clearly they had not all that blackness on those parts is basically all oil sludge that just built up.
If you go to the next picture of the new pieces.
Mark: Well, let me just ask, this kind of sludge buildup takes years basically.
Bernie: It takes years. Yeah. This isn't like you know, Oh, they did the job a month ago and it's sludged up. No, this does not happen. Again, like the, even that sort of dark golden colour, the brownish colour, not the black stuff, but the brownish colour. Again, that takes years of running and heat and oil vapours circulating through the engine to crankcase gases, you know, to, to colour it.
These are the new parts. I can see some of them are black because it's black plastic, but you know, all the metal pieces are shiny aluminum, which is what it would have looked like when it was new. And the tensioners, which are located on the bottom left of this picture, again, those are, you know, they're a dark metal, but they're not black.
Mark: Right. So comparison shot.
Bernie: Yeah. Comparison shot. Old and new.
Mark: Pretty drastic difference.
Bernie: Yeah. Very drastic.
Mark: Even after 1,000, 2,000, 5,000 kilometres. The parts on the left, the new parts, would look a lot closer to this kind of state, even, compared to, it's going to take, what, 100,000, probably?
Bernie: Oh yeah, yeah, like 50,000 to 100,000 kilometres, easily.
Mark: To get this stuff on the right, that are all blacked up basically.
Bernie: And I believe the mileage on this vehicle is 151,000 kilometres, somewhere around there. So. Makes sense. Yeah, the stuff on the right looks definitely true to age.
So, this is the timing chain set up. There's basically 3 chains. There's idler gears sort of down lower. The crankshaft pulley, idler gears, you know, once we put the new chains in, it all lined up exactly in the right spots. There's special tools that lock the camshafts in place, and the four gears on the camshaft, those are special variable valve timing gears. We did not replace those. That adds a lot of extra money to the job and there was really no evidence there was anything wrong with them. Those gears can fail and we replaced them on some engines, but you know, in the case of this one, everything was fine.
Mark: And what model of engine is this?
Bernie: It’s a 3.6 litre GM V6. Not exclusive to Cadillac. You'll find it in, you know, many of your GM products, Chevrolets. Whatever other brands, they keep changing, shedding brands and things. I think they still, what do they still have Buick, Chevrolet and Cadillac or something.
Mark: Yeah. So it's dual overhead cams.
Bernie: Dual overhead cam, variable valve timing, very sophisticated.
Here's another sort of view of the, that's a diagram of the torque sequence of the timing covers. You can see there's a lot of bolts there. Every one of those arrows points to a bolt and which order they need to be tightened. So this, you know, taking it apart it's like zap, zap, zap, zap, zap, zap, but putting it back together, you have to clean everything up and apply the right amount of silicone sealant to the, I keep calling silicone. I don't even know if there's silicone in it, but the correct amount of sealant on the surface and then tighten it up in the right order. And to the right torque.
Mark: And how did everything run after you completed a proper repair?
Bernie: Yeah, it was good. Ran great. You know, to be honest, it actually ran okay even before we fixed it. You know, but the light was out, car ran well.
Mark: Probably better mileage and acceleration.
Bernie: Oh, definitely. Yeah. Yeah. And it's only bound to get worse, but. Sad story, you know, hopefully this guy, he doesn't figure he can get any money back from the other place, but I certainly if it was me, might be worth paying a lawyer a couple of hundred bucks to write a nasty letter, at least to get things started.
Mark: How often do you see something like this?
Bernie: Very rarely, very rarely as I, it actually shocks me when I see it. And yeah, I was talking to my son the other day saying, you know, when I started in this business, the automotive industry had such a reputation for being rip off people. And you know, you don't see it very often and maybe it's the kind of business I run, you know, I know a lot of shop owners and they're all honest people. I mean, everyone's out there running a good honest business. You can make a good honest living fixing cars. There's no reason to be ripping people off. So this, I don't know, it's just kind of a shocker to see it, but it still exists. You have to be careful where you go.
Mark: So there you go. If your vehicle is a V6 GM product, with the dual overhead cams, you need to be seeing experts who know what they're doing and the ones to see in Vancouver, voted best for auto repair in Vancouver 25 times. They're Pawlik Automotive. You can reach them at their website, pawlikautomotive.com. You can book right there online. They'll get ahold of you. They'll get ready 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.
