Mark: Hi, it's Mark Bossert. I'm here with Bernie Pawlik, Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver, BC Canada. Vancouver's best auto service experience, and we're talking cars. How you doing Bernie?
Bernie: Doing very well.
Mark: Today's guest is a 2011 BMW X3. A reappearance of this vehicle. What was going on this time?
Bernie: So this vehicle had some shock absorber issues. When you drive it and you hit the brakes, the front end of the vehicle would dip, and as soon as you hit any bumps, the front was just, it was like boing boing boing. It was like the struts were completely blown. Horrible feel of a ride. So the struts replacement was long overdue.
Mark: So I've experienced this many times with vehicles. And is it a pretty good indicator that the shocks are gone?
Bernie: Oh yeah. You can tell. There's a certain amount where the shocks are not quite as good as they could be, but this is when they're critically need to be replaced because it affects your braking ability 'cause the vehicle will dive. Or if you have a vehicle with rear shocks that are blown, it kind of gives this weird sensation in the vehicle. You know it's bad because it's a really uncomfortable ride. So at this point it's really important to fix it. You think, ah, shock absorb, it's kind of along for the ride, but it actually is a very important safety issue for sure.
So there's the car. 2011, still good looking after 14 years.
Mark: And the shock absorber.
Bernie: This is the left front strut. You can see the spring wrapped around the shock. The shock absorber portion, which is in the middle, and you can see a lot of oiliness and sort of sand there. And that sand and dirt's just been picked up by the oil. So the shock absorbers are all filled with oil no matter what kind of shock it is.
Mark: And a strut is an assembly basically that has the spring and the shock absorber all in one piece. Is that right?
Bernie: Exactly. Yeah. And it's part of the suspension system of McPherson Strut. It eliminates a lot of other moving parts in a suspension, so that's why they're attractive in a lot of vehicles. And it can be made as an assembly, like you said, you put it in.
Here's another side view of the sort of lower part of the strut. And you can, again, you can see all the oil that's poured down there.
Mark: What's all this googla stuff down here?
Bernie: Yeah, so this vehicle has the fancy sport suspension system. You can adjust buttons in the vehicle and it'll change from sport ride to normal ride. To be honest, I have the same car. It makes no difference whatsoever that I feel. And the reason I say that is it probably does, but this is like an SUV. It's not a sports car, you know, if you wanna go rip it around in a sports car, you'll notice a difference.
But I find, you know, when I'm driving, it's a peppy car. I don't really want to go any faster around corners. Just doesn't make any sense to have it. But they put it in, it's a nice feature, I guess.
Mark: And I imagine quite a bit more expensive.
Bernie: Huge cost difference. Like these shocks and I can't remember, they're really either a thousand dollars each or 2000 bucks each from the only available from the BMW dealer. Like it was just, it's horrendously expensive. And so on this vehicle we put a pair of Bilstein shocks in which are just the normal, if you don't have that suspension, this is what the car comes with. Excellent shocks, very good feel. And after doing the job, you can't notice any difference in the ride of the vehicle whatsoever.
Mark: What about the computer system and all the warnings and stuff?
Bernie: Yeah, so there's a warning light on the dash that says EDC system. Everything's monitored and hooked up. So if something isn't right it'll come on. It doesn't affect the vehicle in any other way other than there's a warning light. And there's a way to program that out with special scan tools. So, that's something we can do if you are ever doing a job like that, we need to do it. It can be programmed out of the system. Kind of telling the whole vehicle computer system that this vehicle doesn't have that particular component.
Mark: Right? So how are these BMW X3s? You've got one. How is it for reliability?
Bernie: It's not too bad. I've had it for quite a while. I bought it used. It has a few issues, like engine oil leaks seem to be a problem that are hard to stop. We fix one thing and then there's another leak, I don't know what it is. You know, you can have a Toyota that's like 15 years old and 400,000 kilometres, there's not even any oil vapour on the side of the engine.
You get like a BMW or a Mercedes and a hundred thousand kilometres and you got like, you know, a couple thousand dollars worth of oil leaks. I just don't quite get the German versus Japanese difference. Anyways coolant issues can be a problem on these cars too. But other than that, they're pretty good. They're fancier, so more stuff goes wrong. But overall, I can't say I can complain too much about it having owned one myself.
Mark: So how did this vehicle drive after the strut replacements?
Bernie: It was shockingly better. No, it actually felt really good. I mean, it felt normal, you know, like when you drive over everything, the feel of the car is basically the same as it would be in the normal ride position of the shock absorbers. I think there's some vehicles where you might not want to take the system out, but on this particular car it's really makes no difference.
Mark: So if you're looking for service for your BMWX 3 or any BMW product, any German product, any car honestly, in Vancouver, the people to see are Pawlik Automotive. You can reach them and book your appointment online at pawlikautomotive.com. Or you can call them (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.
