Mark: Hi, it's Mark. 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 you doing, Bernie?
Bernie: Doing very well.
Mark: So today's guest is a 2017 Volvo S90. This a bit of a luxury car. What was going on with this vehicle?
Bernie: Yeah, it was a beautiful car. The owner called up, I've got some coolant leaking outta my engine. I need it fixed. So brought the vehicle to us, I believe, on the tow truck. And we proceeded to do a diagnostic to find out where the coolant was leaking.
Mark: So was there any particular reason why it was towed in the car didn't run anymore, or just was scared?
Bernie: Yeah, he was worried it would overheat. You know, which is smart, it was a pretty active drip. And when we did our diagnosis, a cooling system pressure test is what we do to find a leak. But in this case, no pressure test was needed because as you pour the coolant in, it would just pour out pretty much just as fast.
Mark: There's a big hole somewhere.
Bernie: Yeah, there's a big hole. A very active leak.
Mark: Alright, let's have a look at our vehicle here. Our guest. Beautiful 2017 Volvo.
So we're gonna jump here.
Bernie: This is the engine compartment with the beautiful plastic engine cover on top. It's a two litre turbo.
Mark: Four cylinder?
Bernie:Four cylinder. Yep. That seems to be very common in Volvos over the last, maybe decade. I guess we're almost a decade. The six cylinders and five cylinders that were common in the past seem to be disappearing into the four cylinder turbo models, which is good. More efficient use of power for sure.
And this arrow is pointing to our hose that was the culprit of the coolant lake. This is a plastic coolant pipe. It's called a bypass pipe or a bleed pipe. It basically bleeds air, excess air out of the cooling system into the overflow bottle. And it makes a bunch of twists and turns through the engine compartment. Connects up to another little plastic pipe that runs under the cowl. And basically, the pipe just broke apart where it was joined in one spot.
Mark: So was it leaking right where the arrow was showing?
Bernie: No, it was leaking actually further up. But where you're moving your most pointer, kind of actually underneath. Yeah, beyond what you can see there, is where it was leaking.
I didn't take a picture, of the actual broken pipe afterwards, but that's gives you kind of a view of the pipe and from a different angle. And it runs under that air duct, which is a big round rubber piece.
Mark: This thing here.
Bernie: Runs underneath there, wraps around a bunch of different spots, and then goes to where your mouse pointer. Out here. Yeah, it goes right there. It's got nice little twists and curves. These things are highly manufactured you know, they're just molded and shaped to fit all the little nuances of the engine compartment. But, you know, the story for me around this stuff is it's overly complicated, not very durable. And when you go to change it, they're snap together clips, but they don't come apart very easily.
Putting it together is easy. Just click, snap, but taking it apart, a lot of times the plastic will break off or it'll get stuck and you have to be very careful so you don't break the other end of the pipe as you take it apart. So they tend to kind of sort of glue themselves together over time.
Mark: was this a fairly complicated repair?
Bernie: Took a couple hours at least, you know, maybe a little longer. There was a lot of things to remove just to get at the pipe. And then the pipe, as we took it off of one end, it actually broke off inside another coolant pipe. So we had to change two pipes. And this is very typical.
Mark: And is that a result of the plastic or the design or both?
Bernie: Yeah. There's a bit of a result of both. But I don't know if there's a way, you know, that you can use things like on metal, like Never-Seez when you put bolts or assemble parts, where over time as it rusts and corrodes, you could take that thing apart because the Never-Seez provides a barrier.
But with plastic, there's not much you can do. Nor would they even bother at the factory. They just wanna snap it together and blast it out the door as fast as they can. And why not? You know, they're in the business to make money manufacturing cars and selling them.
Mark: Well, there is a design and engineering issue as far as, hey, is this repairable or not? And I think that a lot of companies make the decision that, we don't care. Yeah. Is that fair?
Bernie: Yeah, absolutely. And you know, the thing that's disappointing, that I find is over the years, at some point this hose will break. This pipe will break. And you call up the Volvo dealer, that's where we get the pipe. Obsolete. And then what do you do with, you know, a car that's perfectly functional in every other way. It's like you have an obsolete pipe. There's probably things you could do to, work arounds, but they're gonna be like, at some point it just gets like, scrap the car, right. Hopefully they'll keep the parts going for 20 years.
I mean, to me, a 20-year-old car is a pretty good run. But you're not gonna see someone restoring this car in, you know, 50 years from now, see one of these cars driving down the road.
Mark: It'll be customized in some way and eliminate this part or change it or jury rig something else.
Bernie: Yeah. But you know, it's just a general complexity of cars. They work fantastic, but you know, there's a certain shelf life to them.
Mark: Yeah. 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 hundreds of videos on there, all makes and models and types of repairs. Check it out. Or you can call (604) 327-7112 to book your appointment. You have to book ahead. They're always busy. Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver. Thanks so much for watching and listening, and thanks Bernie.
Bernie: Thank you, Mark. Thanks for watching and listening.
