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 auto repair in Vancouver by their customers. And we're talking cars. How are you doing Bernie?
Bernie: Doing very well today.
Mark: So today's victim is a 2015 Volvo. What was going on with this vehicle?
Bernie: So this vehicle came to our shop. The owner had called and said, I've got a clanging noise in the front suspension. I think I've got a broken spring. Brought the car in, did an inspection on it and verified that yes, the front left coil spring which is part of the strut assembly was broken.
Mark: So is this like a McPherson strut?
Bernie: It's a McPherson strut. Yeah.
Mark: And what breaks a spring in that kind of setup?
Bernie: You know, I don't know what actually causes a spring to break. We actually fix springs on Volvos quite frequently. So I think some of it may be that the spring material is not of great quality. Which is kind of surprising. It's funny with so many cars, you could probably drive it a million miles and a spring would never break. And yet you get another brand and every one out of a thousand cars, the spring breaks, it's kind of odd. So I think it's something about the quality. I mean, I guess if you hit a bump too hard, it could affect it, but I would think you'd do some damage to other things first.
Mark: Yeah. All right. Let's jump to some pictures.
Bernie: There's our Volvo. Nice handy XC configuration wagon.
Mark: So what do we have here?
Bernie: So this is the top of the strut with the broken spring. If you can just do your little pointer thing that you do. That's one section of the broken spring. I guess that's the top side of the spring that looks like it's broken right there. It's kind of wound its way down through the other spring. You know, normally when springs break, yeah, there's a more of the spring up there, you know, normally when springs break, it's usually just a little section of a spring. Sometimes it can only be like four inches, not talking about the vertical height, but just if you look around the spring circularly, it is like just a little section of the spring will break off the bottom part or the top, just a tiny chunk. But this one was like snapped right in half pretty much, which is kind of unusual. And obviously the ride of the vehicle is very poor at this point because it's got no spring really no springiness at all.
So there's a broader view of the spring and strut assembly. Below it, that sort of half rusty, half shiny piece in the bottom of the round piece. That's the brake disc rotor, brake caliper, and the rest of the strut assembly.
Mark: When we're looking at this, where this bellows type thing is underneath the spring, that's where the movement is. It's not this bottom piece here.
Bernie: Exactly. The bottom piece is stationary. That it's the top piece that moves. And the reason there's bellows, this is a very polished rod. That's basically the shock absorber and the movement occurs in the strut. And so the bellows are there just to protect the upper part from moisture and water.
Mark: So while we're talking about shocks, like what does a shock absorber actually do?
Bernie: Well, it takes a bounce out of a spring. So what happens with a spring is when you hit a bump, it oscillates, it continues to bounce until I guess the energy is gone from it. So if you didn't have shock absorbers, you'd hit a bump and the vehicle would bounce up and it would bounce down and it would bounce up and down and it would slowly start bouncing less and less. But if you've ever been in a car with completely blown shocks, it's a horrific feeling to drive in it. It'd make your stomach sick really fast. It's not a good feeling. So anyways, the shock absorbers there. So basically, it just allows the spring to make one bounce. It won't do anything more.
Mark: And here we have the new setup, I assume?
Bernie: We have the new setup. Yeah. I'm not sure why it looks so rusty at that bottom part of that. That is a brand new strut. Probably should have wiped it off or cleaned it up, I think maybe some packaging material left on it, but that's the new strut installed. As you can see, the spring is sitting properly. And yeah, it all works properly. Now springs can be bought and replaced separately, but based on the mileage and age of the vehicle, sort of makes sense to do the whole assembly at the same time. If it only had maybe 20,000 kilometres on it, maybe it would make sense to just change the spring. But because it's got, you know, way over a hundred, maybe a hundred, 150, I can't, I can't quite remember what was on the car.
Mark: Yeah, so it might've even been time to have changed the assemblies?
Bernie: Yeah. It may have been the mileage was lower. I don't have it in front of me. But you know, either way, it makes more sense to just change the whole assembly. And the other thing too, of course, with the spring broken like that, it puts a lot of strain on the shock absorber portion of the strut to do the work that the spring is supposed to do.
Mark: So once that's repaired, did you have to do both sides or you just do that one?
Bernie: We do both. Yeah. Suspension work, you should always do everything in pairs, like per axle. If you put one new strut assembly on one side, it's not going to be balanced out to the other side. The spring may be a little different than the one on the right side. You know, the shock absorber may have a little bit of different characteristics. So then you'd have a vehicle that didn't handle properly. And a wheel alignment is required afterwards because the strut is sort of part of the whole structure of the front suspension. So it's important to have an alignment. It affects the steering angles and things.
Mark: After repair, how did the customer feel?
Bernie: That was good. Yeah. It was good. Car drove nicely. Rode like a Volvo.
Mark: So there you go. If you're looking for service for your Volvo in Vancouver, BC, Canada, the guys to see are Pawlik Automotive. You can reach them online at pawlikautomotive.com. We have over a thousand videos on there of all makes and models. We've been doing this for 13 years, all types of repairs on all kinds of cars. And of course, thanks so much for watching and listening. We appreciate it. You can also call Pawlik Automotive at (604) 327-7112 to book your appointment. You have to book ahead. They're always busy. Thanks Bernie.
Bernie: Thanks Mark. Thanks for watching.
