Mark: Hi, it's Mark Bossert, producer of the Pawlik Automotive video series and podcasts and we're here with Mr. Bernie Pawlik of Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver, 20 time winners of Best Auto Repair in Vancouver as voted by their customers. And of course today we're talking cars. How are you doing this morning, Bernie?
Bernie: Doing well.
Mark: 2015 Mercedes Benz, CLA45 AMG, has a bloody long name. What was going on with this vehicle?
Bernie: Yeah, so this vehicle came to our shop for an inspection and we found that the front brakes, all we really found with the front brake pads and rotors were worn out.
Mark: Anything unique about the brakes in an AMG?
Bernie: Well, yeah, so AMG of course is a high performance version, the Mercedes high performance division and the brakes in any AMG model are definitely larger than their lesser model cars. So you know they're larger rotors, larger pads, larger calipers for obviously better stopping ability with the higher horsepower engines.
Mark: Is there only one type of brake option?
Bernie: No, actually there isn't. So interesting with Mercedes generally as a whole line. A lot of their cars you'll get a, say a C series regular sedan and they'll have like two or three different brake packages, which as an auto repair business, it makes it a pain to order the brakes sometimes, but on the CLA model, for instance, there are actually two different brake packages. There's the the regular brakes and then there's the AMG brake package and you think everything would have the AMG brake package, but, in this case, there was another option and this is true among a lot of other AMG vehicles. You'll have like this sort of regular AMG brakes, then you have the actual AMG brake package and the difference is very substantial in cost. For the rotors, I own an SL55 and the regular brake packages, for instance, like the brake rotors are, I can't remember, they're about about $300 per rotor for the front, but if you have the AMG brake package, the rotors are $1,300, like we're talking Canadian dollars, so you know $1,000 more per rotor. That adds a lot to a brake job.
Now the brakes are even bigger than, double my 55 and it's already got massive brakes and it stops really fast. With the AMG brake package has even bigger rotors. So I guess you know, we're going 150 miles an hour, you can keep stopping it really fast wherever you'd ever drive that fast. So the CLA kind of a drifted off a little bit. The CLA is the same thing. It has two different options. Fortunately for the owner of this vehicle, it had the cheaper rate package.
Mark: Any extra work required in replacing these brakes?
Bernie: No, there isn't. They're actually the same as any other Mercedes brake or most other brakes. Simple re-movement of the rotors, calipers, cleaning and servicing as we always do but there's nothing extra to do. Although some AMG models have, instead of like say two brake pads, they'll have, actually, the pad will be split into two pieces. It will be actually four brake pads per side. So it adds a little bit of extra labor but not a lot. On this car, it's basically the same. And actually we should get into some pictures.
Nice red CLA45 beautiful looking car. It's a little hot rod for a four door sedan. There's a view of the brakes. So again, the nice thing about the AMG too is they give a nice presentation. When you're looking at the wheel you'll see a nice, some are silver, some are red, you know with the AMG stripe and a nice sized caliper.
And you can see these rotors are, they're a pretty good size rotor cross drilled with some slots in them as well for extra cooling. And this is a picture of our old brake pads. So again, it's interesting, some of these, they have like little extra counterweights on the brake pads and I don't know why they do that. I probably should know since we're trying to speak intelligently about these things. But anyways, that's a picture of the brake pad. You can see the brake pad wear sensor goes in this area. You can see the pad's pretty well worn down, right where the pad sensor groove sits. So anyways, there's a few pictures.
Mark: So this is a smaller sized AMG vehicle. How is it?
Bernie: Oh, it's awesome. Fun little car. It's a two litre, twin turbo, really fast. I think zero to 60 in about 4.9 seconds, which is pretty quick, very quick. And yeah, it's a fun little car.
Mark: So there, if you are looking for some service for your AMG in Vancouver, the guys to see are Pawlik Automotive. You can reach them at (604) 327-7112 to book your appointment. You have to book ahead. They're busy. Or check out the website, pawlikautomotive.com. YouTube video series, Pawlik Auto Repair, hundreds of videos over the last five years on all makes and models of cars. And of course, thank you for watching the podcast. We appreciate it. And thank you Bernie.
Bernie: Thanks Mark. Thanks for watching.
