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 BMWs this morning. How are you doing Bernie?
Bernie: Doing very well.
Mark: So today's victim is a 2016 BMW X1. What was going on with this vehicle?
Bernie: So the owner called and said, I've got some blue fluid leaking out of my vehicle. And there's really only two kinds of fluid that would be blue from a BMW. One is engine coolant. And the other is window washer fluid, assuming using the antifreeze type. But the window washer fluid is a much clearer type of blue. Anyways, she brought the vehicle in. We proceeded to do some diagnostic which includes a pressure test on the cooling system.
Looked things over, everything's very buried in the engine on this car. It's hard to see anything, but we did find the leak. There's an oil filter slash oil cooler housing, it's a plastic assembly that bolts to the front of the engine, buried way down in the front of the engine. There was a coolant leak between that and the engine block.
Mark: Alright, let’s go to pictures here. So here we have an extremely tight engine compartment.
Bernie: We do. So what's interesting about this engine is that this is a transverse mounted engine, which is unique. It's kind of unusual for BMW because almost every BMW has a longitudinal mounted engine. It's sort of more originally rear wheel drive with four wheel drive attitude. And this one is a front wheel drive configuration. So it's a different design. It very, very compact as you can see. So our coolant leak was coming way down from the front of the engine. I don't have arrows on there, but you can do some movement and marking. You can see your thing. Yeah. So the coolant leak was in behind that area down there.
And if we move to our next picture, so after disassembling a number of items to access the assembly, this is the first thing we found. This is one of the seals that goes between the housing and the block. And you can see, there's a cracked off broken piece of plastic there. So what happens with these, and this is not uncommon for BMW. A lot of vehicles with plastic coolant housings, the plastic will eventually crack in one spot and then it'll cause a leak. It's not even so much that the seal fails. It's a plastic that fails and then leaks out the seal.
This is the assembly. So this is the side that goes to the engine. And again, if you get your fancy marker out, just around that area is where that broken off piece was. So you can see a number of passageways there. So at least two of those are for engine oil to circulate out to the oil filter, which is located on the right hand side of this piece. Yeah, you got that Mark there. The oil filter screws in there. It's a little canister filter. And then, of course, two passageways are for coolant. And those go to the engine oil cooler, which is mounted on the other side of this plastic plate.
And there's another picture. And this is the side where the engine oil cooler bolts up to. It actually, when we buy this piece, it's all replaced as one complete assembly. But in order to install it, you actually have to take it apart to sneak it into the car. So as you can see, there was very limited amount of room. There's a lot that needs to be removed just to facilitate doing the replacement like that. But this is where the engine oil cooler sits. So again, you've got four passageways there. There's coolant flowing through some of them and engine oil through the others.
Mark: And all built out of plastic with the most extreme temperature changes. So yeah.
Bernie: I’ve been joking for probably 20 years that German plastic really helps our business a lot. Sometimes you have to be humorous in this business. You know they built it for a reason, but you know, it doesn't last as long as if it was metal. And I believe there are metal replacements available as well. It wasn't available to us at the time we went to do the job, but you know, a good plastic replacement in this car is nine years old at this point. I mean, a good replacement will last at least that long, if not longer.
Mark: So after all the repairs, what else did you have to change? Anything else within that?
Bernie: Nope. That was basically it. Just, you know, obviously changing the coolant and making sure all the fluids were full, the engine oil and the coolant and warm it up properly and bleed the air out of the cooling system and it's all done.
Mark: Happy customer.
Bernie: Happy customer. Yep.
Mark: So if you're looking for service for your BMW or your BMW X1, if it's leaking a little bit, the guys to see in Vancouver, BC Canada are Pawlik Automotive. You can reach them online at pawlikautomotive.com. 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. Thanks so much for watching and listening. Thanks Bernie.
Bernie: Thanks Mark. And thanks for watching. We appreciate it.
