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 in Vancouver. And we are talking electric cars. How are you doing Bernie?
Bernie: Doing very well.
Mark: So today's victim is a 2011 Nissan Leaf. What was going on with this vehicle?

Bernie: This vehicle came to the shop. The owner had a couple of concerns that there, there was some grinding noise coming from the rear brakes. And he'd also had a left front ball joint come apart on him and he'd repaired it. Not sure if he'd done it himself. I don't know the entire story, probably done himself. Replaced the control arm, the ball joint and the axle, because the axle had been damaged in the process of things coming apart. But there was clunking noises coming from the front left. So those were his concerns.
Mark: So, a repair was attempted by somebody, but it wasn't done particularly right. Is that sort of a synopsis?
Bernie: Yeah, exactly. So, some of the things we found, we did a brake inspection and found that the brakes, on all four corners were worn out. We'll talk about EV brakes in a minute, but yeah, basically all four corners of brake pads and the brake pads were worn out. It was time for new pads and rotors.

As far as the front end, we found on the left side, the ball joint needed to be tightened a little bit more. The control arm bolts weren't tight enough. So that was causing the clunking sounds. It also appeared that the, so we're looking here actually add a picture of the left front, some of the parts we replaced.
It looked like when we were running it on the hoist, the axle that had been replaced was running kind of wobbly, like possibly bent or damaged. So we replaced that as well and also the left outer tie rod had appeared to be possibly bent. It didn't look like it was sitting properly. So, you know, the angle is wrong. So we replaced that as well.
And then we found on the right hand side, the control arm was worn and there was a wheel bearing that was worn out, causing a lot of noise. So a number of steering suspension drive train issues that we replaced. And we also did a four wheel brake job. With a brake fluid flush as well.
Mark: So EVs, as some people might know and realize, that EVs use brakes less often, but they do wear out. So what are we seeing here?

Bernie: Yeah. So they do. I don't just, before I explain this, EVs are, you know, they are very gentle on brakes because they use the EV motor to slow the vehicle down, to generate electricity, to recharge the battery. It's a great system. And it saves your brakes, but interestingly enough, this vehicle only had 112,000 kilometres. So it wasn't like it's 300. So you know, 112, 000 Ks is not crazy. Like a lot of cars with standards would have much thicker brakes than this, at that kind of mileage.
Anyways. So what we're looking at here, this is a front brakes. And I've basically taken the two brake pads from one side, put them in a vice to just compare the two pads. And you can see that one pad, the pad material is that sort of layer. Maybe you can go over it with your marker. Yeah. That sort of thin material there. That's the actual brake pad. And you can see quite a substantial difference between those two brake pads. Now, the one on the top where the red arrow is pretty much worn out. But the one on the bottom is like, it's gone. It's like a less than a millimetre thick.
The red arrow is pointing to a part, it's called a pad squealer. And that thing is supposed to warn you. That thing, when it touches the brake pad, it's supposed to warn you with a noise that goes, well, while you're driving. And usually when you touch the brake, the squeal stops. But as you can see, it's not really a perfect system because one brake pad is already worn far more than the other one. And the squealer hasn't even warned you that the pads are worn out yet. So that's just an example, you know, to me, these squealers they put on brakes sometimes are really not that useful.

This is the rear brake and you can see the same situation. The pad with the squealer. The red arrow's pointing to the squealer. It's got, you know, still a bit of material on it and the pad above it where the yellow arrow's pointing, there's basically no material left at all. The camera didn't quite pick it up. The brake pad that's left is about as thin of a sheet of paper. Not effective in any way, shape or form.

But this brings me to the point of EVs and that is, you know, people don't bring them in for maintenance that often, you can get away with it. I mean, you don't have to change the oil regularly. Most of them have a tire pressure warning light. So if your tires get low on air. A warning light will come on. You should still come in for service is what I'm saying. You know, and maybe in the first two or three years, it probably doesn't matter that much, but once the car gets on an age. Five years old, older, you know, you should bring it in for an annual inspection because things wear out.
You know, this owner experienced a ball joint coming apart. There's a noisy wheel bearing. The brakes were worn out and you know, the brakes had probably never been serviced and had they been serviced, maybe every two, three years, which involves taking it apart, cleaning and lubricating everything, the brakes may well have lasted a lot longer, they probably would have. So the message here, it's an EV. Yeah. You don't need oil changes, but you still need service and inspections.
Mark: And I guess part of that, the function of that is that an EV is significantly heavier than normally an ICE vehicle. And so it's harder on suspension, tires and brakes in some ways.
Bernie: It is. Absolutely. Yeah. Definitely much harder on tires because you've got a lot more weight on the ground. Yeah, you know, and that's for a comparable size vehicle. I mean, a LEAF is a unique vehicle, but if the LEAF was an internal combustion car, it would definitely weigh less. So you know, they do definitely wear harder on certain things.
Mark: So there you go. If you're looking for service for your electric vehicle, LEAF or any brand, doesn't matter what it is, the guys to see in Vancouver are Pawlik Automotive. You can book online at their website pawlikautomotive.com. There's also a plethora, over a thousand videos on there of repairs of all makes and models of cars over the last 13 years we've been doing this. You can book right there for your appointment or you can give them a call at (604) 327-7112 to book. You have to book ahead. They're always busy. Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Thanks so much for watching and listening. And as always, thank you, Bernie.
Bernie: Thank you, Mark, and thank you for watching. We appreciate it.