Mark: Hi, it's Mark. 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: It is, I'm doing very well. Love that enthusiasm.
Mark: So today's guest is a 2018, 2016 Range Rover Sport. What was happening with this vehicle?
Bernie: So this vehicle had a few issues as Range Rovers do when they get older. But the issue we're gonna talk about today is a rear differential pinion seal leak, which we repaired.
Mark: So how important is it to repair a leak in the rear end?
Bernie: It is important. It depends on how much of a leak is coming out. Differentials are, there's oil in them, lubricated parts. So you definitely don't want to run out of oil. I actually fixed a car about 35 years ago where a guy had been driving a truck and his differential, the oil was completely gone out of it, and it seized up on the highway by the time we fixed it. Basically there's the gears and stuff, there's a lot of powder inside. That's how far gone the lubrication had disappeared, which I don't even know how that can happen. But anyways if you have a leak, you should at least keep on top of the fluid level, which is difficult to do a lot of times because it's hard to get at or better have it fixed and then you don't have to worry about it.
Mark: How would someone determine this? Do you have to go under the car? You just notice there's drips on the ground? What what's gonna happen?
Bernie: If you notice there's drips on the ground from that area, that's a pretty bad leak. Most differentials have one litre, maybe two of fluid inside them. So normally when they leak they'll just seep over a long period of time. And you can see by the pictures that we're gonna show you, this one had actually had a fair bit of a leak. There's actually a drip, pop up the picture. I think that's the best description.
Yeah. So this is the bottom of the differential, you can see it's pretty oily underneath there. When it looks like that it's time to repair the seal. Differentials are pretty simple. There's basically three seals and there's some covers, they have one or two covers. So there's generally the pinion seal, which is the front, which is a piece we fixed today. And you can see that the oil, it's wettest at the front. And of course, generally with cars, oil leaks run backwards because you're generally driving forward and forces of the wind push things back.
Sometimes you need to clean these things off and do more in examination. But this one here was pretty evident. It was the pinion seal. The axle seals, maybe you can just point those out with your pointer, yeah in that area. And there's two of them. One of them you can't see too well in that picture, but you can see one of them.
These axle seals fine. And also on this design of differential, it has a side cover, which is above that lower piece. There's a cover there and that seal can leak. Very uncommon. So yeah, differentials are different on different vehicles, but that's how this Range Rover one is, it's pretty robust. Of course, this is a high performance truck. So the differentials are pretty big in this vehicle.
Mark: So this is an interesting little here. That corresponds to this.
Bernie: Yeah that's the pinion nut. It's exceptionally tight. We have special tools to remove these, as you can see, that's a weird shaped nut. There's a special tool and it's big. And of course the thing is even if you had a socket, you could fit over that. You have to have a way of holding the differential. There's a picture right below that one Mark, if you show that one. You have to hold that shaft in place to undo the nut, because the nut screws on there. So it's a two piece tool. We invest in a lot of specialty tools for Range Rovers, Land Rovers of various models because a lot of them, you need specialty tools. That nut was insanely tight.
As a matter of fact, I have this snap-on, it's like about a three foot long breaker bar and snap the end of the breaker bar off. So fortunately lifetime warranty tool, but we have even more robust tools that we were able to get the nut off with.
Mark: Pull out the nine foot tool.
Bernie: Yeah, I pull out the nine foot, we went to the three quarter drive stuff. Yeah it's on there really tightly.
Mark: So not an easy repair based on how kind of complex this is to try and get in there.
Bernie: Yeah. And it's a lot of work to get in there. It's not like it some traditional American trucks, there's a lot of room in the back. You just unbolt the drive shaft with four bolts, slip the drive shaft off. You can blast the nut off with an impact gun. Slip it out, pop the pinion seal in, and away it goes. It's still an hour's worth of work at least, but, it's easy. This one, there's plates to remove and things in the way, and exhaust interferes, and lots of things have to be moved out of the way to get at this. So the typical Range Rover, it's never simple.
Mark: So after repair, everything was fine.
Bernie: Yep. It's all good.
Mark: And typically, is this around the place where you might see it, or is there any kind of timeframe as far as seeing these kinds of leaks in the rear end?
Bernie: They develop differently on different vehicles. We do a lot of rear end repairs on certain models of Range Rover or Land Rovers, the LR2s, which is a different model. But yeah the leaks in these, sometimes they happen, sometimes they don't. And things like that can happen more commonly too if someone's like doing a lot of off-road driving. But most Range Rovers never make it off-road, although they would be a good off-road vehicle.
Mark: In Vancouver. They're just stylish.
Bernie: They are. It's a good way to get around. And if you have to take off to the mountains, you can. This is one of the items we recommend regular inspections on your vehicle. Once it gets passed a few years old, every year have inspected because things like this develop and if you spend the money, you fix it before it breaks, it saves you money. You don't want to replace the whole differential. That's a really expensive thing.
Mark: Yeah. So if you're looking for service for your Range Rover or Land Rover in Vancouver, the people to see are Pawlik Automotive. You can reach them to book your appointment online at pawlikautomotive.com. Or you can call them at (604) 327-7112. You have to book ahead. Always busy because they're the best. Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver, BC Canada.Thanks so much for watching and listening. Thanks Bernie.
Bernie: Thank you, Mark. Thanks for the enthusiasm and thanks for watching.
