Mark: Hi, it's Mark Bossert. I'm here with Bernie Pawlik, Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver. Vancouver's best auto service experience. They've been voted best auto repair in Vancouver by their customers for 25 times. How are you doing Bernie?
Bernie: Doing very well today.
Mark: So today's victim is a 2017 Range Rover Evoque. What was going on with this vehicle?
Bernie: This vehicle came to our shop with a coolant leak. We did a diagnostic on it, which includes a pressure test, visual inspection, and found that the radiator was leaking. So we then proceeded to replace the radiator.
Mark: So there's no other way to author this repair other than replacing the radiator at this point in time.
Bernie: Yeah. Radiators used to be a repairable item going back, Oh, like 25, 30 years, generally radiators were made with a copper core and they had brass tanks soldered together. All metal item. There was a number of radiator shops around in Vancouver, many around town. There's probably only one left. Large industrial radiators are still repairable, but automotive radiators are not. They're basically aluminum tubes with plastic tanks, all crimped together. And there was a time when those were repairable, but it pretty soon became uneconomic to repair them because you can buy new ones for same or less money.
Mark: And how common is this an issue? Have you seen this a fair amount in vehicles as they're getting newer that there is a regular amount of radiator repair?
Bernie: Yeah, radiator repair is something, you know, depending on how long you keep your car, it's something that you will have to deal with at some point in time. So this Range Rover is seven years old at this time. Seven years old, and just over a hundred thousand kilometres. So, you know, kind of young, but it's kind of par for the course. You might get 10 or more out of a radiator, but that's kind of the range.
Mark: Have a look at some pictures. Here's our Range Rover Evoque. Nice looking vehicle.
Bernie: Tis.
Mark: And from the front.
Bernie: Yeah. So take a good look at this front because we're going to see just what's involved in doing the radiator on this vehicle. The nice, beautiful front with the grill and the molded bumper and headlights.
And our next phase of the job is this. So this is what it comes down to. And actually the radiator isn't even out. What we're looking at, you can see the actual hard part of the bumper a little lower, yeah, right down there. That's the hard part of the bumper that you're pointing out. The bumper is obviously off, the grills off. You can, if you look to the left, you can sort of see part of the fender hanging down. And then the radiator assembly, which includes the intercooler for the turbo and the AC condenser is located right where you're pointing. So that whole unit has to come out, it's all bolted together. And then the radiator comes off of that.
So we have a couple more pictures. There's another angled view. The radiator is the item closest to the engine. So that piece is the AC condenser, the intercoolers in between and the radiators further back, in behind there. So it's all together.
And that's with everything removed from the front of the engine. So you're actually looking at the engine back in there and the transmission to the right. And yeah, so that all comes out. The radiator is taken apart. The air conditioning system needs to be evacuated and recharged on this vehicle because it has to all come out. So it's a complex, expensive job. And that kind of shows a picture of pretty much what's involved. I didn't take a picture of the radiator itself, but you know, you can Google and look online at what a radiator looks like if you really want to know.
Mark: It looks pretty similar to this.
Bernie: It does. Exactly. That's the AC condenser. It looks very similar to that. It's a condenser is a type of radiator as well. It just has a different function.
Mark: So major disassembly, in other words. And you mentioned fairly, like, how many hours of work is this to get it replaced?
Bernie: I'm thinking off the top of my head about a six ish hour job. It might be a little more. Might be a tiny bit less. Somewhere in that range. Yeah, you know, at least with the air conditioning. It's basically the kind of job that the vehicle will be in our shop for a day for sure to do it.
Mark: So, for Range Rovers or Evoques, is this a fairly common, more than regular, or is not really normal, kind of normal replacement?
Bernie: It's kind of a normal replacement across vehicles. I mean, this is maybe a little on the young side, seven years old, but, you know, it's kind of getting in the range of where they need to be done.
Mark: And this stacked situation is, I'm not used to this, mostly working on older cars. That's pretty common now with the condenser, the intercooler, the radiator, all being kind of stacked on top of each other in a row horizontally.
Bernie: Yeah. Yeah. That's been going on for quite a while.
Mark: That adds a lot of complexity to doing, trying to work on any of those systems. Is that right?
Bernie: It does for sure. It does. You know, it's now almost a given that when you're doing a radiator, you're doing an air conditioning, evacuate and recharge, which adds a, you know, few hundred dollars to the bill, right there, just to have to do that. And this vehicle I believe has the newer style R1234YF refrigerant, which is more expensive, more time consuming to evacuate and recharge and more expensive to replace. The refrigerant is very expensive.
Mark: And better for the environment. That's why it exists.
Bernie: Better for the environment. Yes, it is. Yeah. Not for your wallet, but better for the environment, which is a good thing.
Mark: So is there anything that the owner could have done to have extended the life of the radiator?
Bernie: I'd say not. Used to be in the olden days, flushing your cooling system on a regular basis was important to keep radiators in good health to prevent them from leaking and getting plugged. But nowadays, you know, antifreezes, they last for, you know, some of them are good for 200,000 kilometres of time and 10 years. So there's really no advantage to flushing the cooling system. It wouldn't have saved it. So it's just basically going to wear out in its own time.
Mark: It's just the heat cycling then that's causing the crimping of the plastic and the aluminum somehow to start to fail at some point?
Bernie: Exactly. You know, some manufacturers make better radiators than others. You know, sometimes there's a bit of a crapshoot, you know, someone with the same vehicle might go for 200,000 kilometres in 15 years before the radiator leaks. So sometimes you just don't know. So yeah, that's a really good question.
Mark: Range Rover Evoques. How are they for reliability?
Bernie: I'd say they're okay. But there are a lot of things that do go wrong with them. You can probably find a few things on our list of podcasts. We repair and service a lot of them. So there are issues. It's a nice vehicle, but yeah, be prepared to spend a little more money on repairs and maintenance. I will say that we've serviced this vehicle for this customer. He didn't buy it new. He bought it used. He's had it for quite a while. This is the first repair we've done on it. So not really bad for a seven year old vehicle. Everything else up until this point has just been regular maintenance. So that's been pretty good.
Mark: If you're looking for service for your Range Rover 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 ahold of you, they'll get ready, try and dig into a little bit about what's going on and get ready for your appointment. Or you can call them to book (604) 327-7112 to book your appointment. You have to book ahead. They're always busy. Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Thanks so much for watching and listening. Thanks Bernie.
Bernie: Thank you, Mark. Thanks for watching.
