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 best in Vancouver for auto repair by their customers. And we're talking cars. How you doing Bernie?
Bernie: Doing very well.
Mark: So today we're talking about a 2009 Subaru Forester. What was the problem with this vehicle?
Bernie: So this client called us, new client to our shop. And he just bought this vehicle recently. He was complaining there's a noise coming from the rear when he was driving it, thought it might be a wheel bearing and brought it in. We authorized a steering suspension inspection on the vehicle, drive train inspection, which is what we normally do to diagnose a noise like that and proceeded to look over the car.
Mark: So, surprise, there was a lot of problems. Is that a fair summation?
Bernie: We can get into a big story here, but there was a lot of problems found on the car. I think what we could do is just get into the inspection right now and talk about it.
Mark: All right.
Bernie: So as per his diagnosis, both rear wheel bearings were noisy and worn. So this is the front page of our inspection, our digital inspection.
Mark: There's our vehicle.
Bernie: There's a vehicle. Yeah, quick picture of the car in the shop with the hood up. And then on the right hand side, you can see a few issues with the vehicle. As I said, this was a steering suspension drive train inspection. We also include a complimentary inspection where we look at some basic items like lights and just look around for fluid leaks, wipers, you know, quality of fluids, that sort of thing.
Found a number of orange items, a few items in the okay section. But you know, there were some things that were even though we put orange, were still in pretty bad shape. Like the tires were not in great shape and the treads weren't worn off but the tires were cupped indicating that the struts were probably in bad shape. They were wearing in a funny way. The steering rack was leaking. Both rear wheel bearings were worn out. And there's a lot of rust in the back, which would probably have cost a fair amount of extra time and money to actually get the wheel bearings in and out. A lot of times more components need to be replaced then, you know, then if it's not rusty.
We can drill down this inspection a little further. Just to give you an idea of some of the things we look at. So this is the steering rack and pinion leaking fluid. So that needs to be replaced.
Mark: Is that always the case with these nowadays? It's a component that you're not able to rebuild the steering box or did you ever?
Bernie: No, never. Those were never a thing. That's a very specialized piece of work. One time early on in my career, I decided to reseal a rack and painting, it was a disaster. As soon as you start the key and the power, the power kicked in, you move the wheel to the left and just kicked all the way to the left. I'm sure I can do it properly. It's just one of those things where it's a specialized trade. So we buy either rebuilt or new ones, usually remanufactured. They work well.
Number of oil leaks under the engine. Not untypical for Subaru, but there's oil leaking in many places.
Mark: What's this picture here?
Bernie: What we're looking at, there's the front differential area.
Mark: It looks wet, basically?
Bernie; Yeah. So that could be oil. It's leaking from the engine. It could be differential seals. The axle seals. Those green items, those are the CV shafts. They go to the wheels.
Mark: And this is the oil pan here?
Bernie: That's the engine oil pan, yeah, very wet. Just because the pan's wet doesn't mean the pan gasket or the pan is leaking. It could be coming from somewhere else and leaking onto the pan. Thing with oil leaks is they always go downhill, downwards, and they go backwards because of the wind. On this picture we're looking at one of the valve cover areas. The timing covers at the front. There's a lot of oil leaking here, so either, you know, valve cover gasket, probably. And I think that's another picture of the rack and pinion on the right.
Mark: And here's some pictures we have.
Bernie: Yeah, so here we have the tire treads. It's hard to see in a picture, but the treads are cupped. What that means is the tread isn't flat. Some of the edges of the tread slope upwards and some slope downwards and it causes a vibration when the vehicle is driving down the road and also noise as well. So had we fixed the wheel bearings and it would have eliminated a lot of the noise of driving the car, but probably would have still been there from the tires.
And then the brakes, although it wasn't part of the inspection. You can see, this is looking inside the brake from underneath the car. And there's a little spot where you can see the brake rotor, which is rusted and was very noticeable. Yeah, right there. You got it. Technicians made a note, front rotor condition looks bad, had pulsation on road test. So when you hit the brake pedal, steering wheel would shake and the car would vibrate. So these were obvious issues. That we just noted and you know, had we done a further detailed inspection, we probably would have found a few other items that were bad.
Mark: So this is as part of your inspection procedure, you're taking pictures of the faults that are or suspected faults that are being found and saying, okay, this is what needs to be finished is the red stuff. This is dangerous. This needs to be fixed.
Bernie: Yeah.
Mark: The orange is, you might be able to get away with not doing it right away, but we probably recommend it. So after it's all said and done, new vehicle to this owner, what's the real message here?
Bernie: Well, the real message here is get a pre purchase inspection. You know, the guy who bought this, he did a lot of smart things. He told me the story, shopped around for a few different cars and he found the owner of this vehicle. He was very nice to deal with, seemed like a good person. And I think that to me is a very important thing. When I bought used cars from people individually, I can get a good feeling about people are not a good feeling. And I think it's important to follow that. The owner also had a stack full of receipts from previous repairs and service, which is a really good thing. I think that shows sign of care.
And you know, the person actually cared about the car, took care of it. And that's a good person to buy used car from as well. He also said he brought a friend along, but I would say that the friend probably didn't know very much about cars. If I was the friend, I would have picked out a lot of problems just driving around the block and probably called it a no, or you better get this at a very, very cheap price.
There's certain things like vibrating brakes, noisy wheel bearings, cupped tires. These are easy things to see without even spending much energy. But of course you gotta know what you're doing.
Mark: Yeah. So bottom line, this ended up being not a good deal for the purchaser because of a pretty healthy bill after the fact to make the car safe. Is that correct?
Bernie: Exactly. We did up an estimate. It was like into five figures, let's put it that way. Very low five figure estimate. When we find issues, we basically just give the customer an estimate for the whole thing. You know, they don't have to do anything, but this is what you need to do, and this is what it would cost if you want to put this car back into good shape.
So it gives the owner an option to go, Hey, I'll do this. Or this is, this is way too much. I've got to get rid of the car. So he knew, but that's an exceptionally high amount of money for a car that was just purchased used and under the idea that it wasn't so bad, maybe needed a wheel bearing.
Mark: Bottom line. Don't guess when you're buying a used car, get expert opinion about it. Someone you can, you can trust. Someone who knows what they're doing. Who can a real evaluation of whether this is a good vehicle to buy or not. It's worth the investment ultimately.
Bernie: Yeah. We charge around approximately 200 for a pre purchase inspection. And sometimes it can be a little more or a little less. It's money well spent because you know, for this person here, he actually paid what I consider to be a full premium price for this vehicle. It should have been, he should have got it for half or less or a third even, you know, and I'm not actually not blaming the person who sold him vehicle. I don't think it was a scammer in any way. I think that the previous owner did not know. Did not appreciate or know actually what was really wrong with the car because wherever that person was having it serviced, wasn't either good or didn't take the time to explain all the things that were wrong with the car.
So, they didn't know that they were actually selling a car that was actually a piece of crap, not a piece, no pieces of crap.
Mark: Not a good investment.
Bernie: Yeah. Not a good investment. So the value of a pre purchase inspection, A, you get to know what you're buying and B, you know what kind of money you'll spend if you do choose to buy the car. Because it could have been an okay deal if the costs were right. I mean, there were good things about the car too.
Mark: I know you in the past and in conversations about this, you've said that, you know, plan ahead, you're buying a used car. Get it for a price where, you know you might have to spend another thousand, 1,500 hundred dollars to get it safe or to the level that you're fully comfortable with it, that it's going to operate for a year or two or five or 10 without a lot of problems. Is that fair assessment?
Bernie: Absolutely. The other thing I was going to say that makes it tricky for the guy, who's the the purchaser of this car, our customer is, you know, if you think, well, I'll just sell the car now. You know, we had a conversation about it. I mean, once your eyes are opened to what's actually going on with the car, it's very hard to sell it, in good conscience and go, yeah, I'm selling this car for the same price I paid for it and get rid of it. Because otherwise then you will be a liar and a dishonest person. And some people are like that, but most people aren't. So you know, it's really good to know what you're getting before you buy it, because once you own it, you own it.
Mark: Don't descend into the valley of guilt if you don't have to.
Bernie: Exactly. That's right.
Mark: So there you go. If you're looking for buying a used vehicle in Vancouver, often a great deal. But you need to verify that it's a good deal before you lay your money down. The people to see are Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver, BC Canada. You can book online at pawlikautomotive.com, or you can call them at (604) 327-7112 to get their opinion, to get their advice quickly, but mostly just a book because 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.
