Mark: Hi, it's Mark Bossert. I'm here with Bernie Pawlik, Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver, Vancouver's best auto service experience. And we're talking cars. How are you doing Bernie?
Bernie: Doing very well.
Mark: So today we're talking about a 2017 Jaguar XKR. XFR Sport, all these long names XFR Sport. What was going on with this vehicle?
Bernie: It's funny with Jags is XK, XF, X this, X that it's like, and they've changed them over the years. It gets kind of confusing sometimes. Anyways, this vehicle came to our shop. The owner had a complaint. He'd taken in for a wheel alignment and I guess he knows the steering, you know, wasn't quite right. Maybe the wheel was pointing the wrong way or there's just a bit too much play in the steering. He went to get a wheel alignment done. They said, no, we can't do it. There's oil leaking from your front control arm bushings, which we thought that's a little odd. You know, is there an oil leak from somewhere? Well, it turns out this vehicle has actually hydraulic oil filled control arm bushings. And in one particular large bushing that fits from the front control arm to the frame of the vehicle.
Mark: Why would there be oil in the control arm bushing?
Bernie: Better cushioning is the only thing I can think of. What a bushing is, is it's basically a flexible mount. Typically rubber, that mounts between, you know, like it allows some movement. It's a part that has like one directional type of movement, usually between the frame and say the wheel of the vehicle where it needs to move up and down, you know, say three or four inches and allows for that kind of movement. So you know, you can have firmness but with better cushioning, that's kind of the key. Better cushioning allows for a smoother ride. You don't want to have a lot of play when you move the steering wheel or hit bumps. Then the car just doesn't feel stable.
Mark: Or the car rolls less around corners if it's firm.
Bernie: Yeah, exactly. The other thing is we have tests and ways to look at these bushings. I mean, not just is there oil coming out of the bushing? Which was interesting because when we got the vehicle, there really wasn't any oil coming out of the bushing. It was a stain of something, and we'll look at pictures in a second. But when I looked at the stain of it, I go, well, it doesn't look like oil. And so it's possible that the previous shop had sprayed brake cleaner, some kind of cleaner to wash the oil off. But there was definitely a staining that was unusual on there.
But what really clinched it for us, you know, needing to be replaced is when we did our tests on the bushing, we have kind of a neat rod set up. We can move the wheel back and forth while it's on the ground. You can see a lot of movement in the bushing, which indicates the bushing is worn out.
Mark: How common of an issue is this on this car?
Bernie: Well, we work on quite a few Jags. I can't say we've worked on a ton of this particular model. So I'll just be predictive that it's going to be a common problem. Anytime you have something with oil in a control arm, you know, it's going to wear out. This design of bushing does tend to wear out. The oil is kind of unique to this particular car, but the design of this bushing tends to wear out on many other kinds of cars over time.
So there's our nice, beautiful Jag.
So this is the old control arm bushing. If you look at the right hand side, sort of what's closest to us, that's the bottom of the bushing. So that's where the fluid had leaked out. And it's a little difficult to see in this picture, but, you know, to actually look at the bushing in real life, if you go up a little higher than that, like into the rubber area at the bottom. Yeah, up in there. We can see an oily film in that area that wasn't normal.
So this vehicle actually did have a couple of oil leaks, but nothing in this particular area. So we actually fixed some oil leaks, but there was nothing dripping down onto it. The oil leaks were in a completely different area than these bushings. So that's the old one.
That's the new one. Basically clean, fresh, I didn't take a picture of the whole arm, but it's basically sort of a wishbone shaped arm, bushings on each end. There's a small one on the outside. This one connects to the frame of the vehicle.
Mark: Is this an expensive repair?
Bernie: It is. The parts are expensive. It's not hugely labour intensive. It's a bit of work to take them in and out, but not enormous. It's well designed from a servicing point of view. Not that I think they intended it that way. It just so happens to go in and out relatively easily. But yeah, the parts are expensive.
Mark: So if we speculated, why would they put oil in a bushing like this when rubber has been around forever since, you know, since we started putting it in bushings after wagons?
Bernie: Yes, exactly. I don't know. The only thing I can think of is it just provides, you know, as I was saying earlier, you want firmness of ride. You want movement, but you don't want too much play. And so I think somehow mixing some oil in there in a certain chamber fulfills that, but I don't know any reason otherwise. They've done that with engine mounts for a long time, and the reason they've done that is it dampens out vibrations. I don't know that there's really any vibrations. I mean every time you hit a bump I guess it's something that goes through the vehicle, but it might just be that oil provides that extra bit of cushioning.
Mark: So speaking of the engine mounts, we've seen them, they're electronically controlled some of them. Was this a bushing controlled by any kind of electronics?
Bernie: Nothing, nothing electronic. No. I have not seen one that's electronically controlled but you and I keep getting older and keep doing these podcasts, they'll probably be, Hey, look at that. We finally found the electronically controlled oil filled bushing. They might exist on some kind of vehicle.
Mark: Of course. So how was things operating after you did the repairs?
Bernie: Yeah, it's good. The vehicle drove really well, nice and straight. We had a wheel alignment done and of course, with that play removed, the vehicle will handle much better. Much more firmly. And when you hit bumps, things won't rock around. I don't know how noticeable it was to the client, but he would have noticed afterwards it was definitely better.
Mark: Well, if it was pulling or anything like that, then that'd be all gone.
Bernie: Exactly. Yeah.
Mark: So if you're looking for service for your Jaguar in Vancouver, the guys to see are Pawlik Automotive. You can reach them online at pawlikautomotive.com. You can book right there. They'll get back to you. They'll get ready for your service, or you can call them at (604) 327-7112, discuss what's going on with your vehicle. They'll get you booked in and they'll get your vehicle repaired. Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Thanks so much for watching and listening. Thanks Bernie.
Bernie: Thanks Mark. Thanks for watching.
