Mark: Hi, it's Mark Bossert. I'm here with Bernie Pawlik, Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver, BC Canada. Vancouver's best auto service experience, many times voted that by their customers and we're talking cars. How you doing, Bernie?
Bernie: Doing very well.
Mark: So today our guest is a rather new vehicle, a 2022 Subaru, which outback what was going on with this vehicle.
Bernie: The vehicle came to our shop, it was due for a 50,000 kilometre B service.
Mark: So what's included in a B service?
Bernie: So, a B service is essentially an oil and filter change along with a full vehicle inspection. So it's a thorough inspection, tire rotation if required. We lube the door locks, hinges, and latches. Minor maintenance items, but the kind of heart of it is the oil change and the full vehicle inspection. We pull the wheels off, look at the brakes, look at the steering suspension, full under vehicle, full under hood inspection, look at all the fluids, assess the condition.
So at 50,000 kilometres, this would be the second or third oil change for this vehicle? It should be at least the fourth, if not more. We usually like to go eight or 10 Ks on oil changes on these kind of vehicles. Not any more than that. So I think it should probably have at least, at least five services by now. Probably about the second B service.
Mark: Okay. So let's take a look at some images here. All right, here we go. So there's our vehicle.
Bernie: Yeah. It's a beautiful car, by the way. This is like a higher end model. Really, really nice fit and finish. Leather seats, really nice trim. Subaru's done a great job of these cars. You know, they've just beautifully finished. Nice to drive.
Mark: You can't really see it very well, but Subaru actually has a pretty advanced driver warning system. You can see there's a couple cameras up here.
Bernie: Yeah, they do actually. They're pretty good in that department.
Here's the engine. Yeah. 2.5 litre engine. Basically same type of design. Horizontally opposed, four cylinder. They've used it for a long, long time. This is the timing chain version, which has been going since probably about 2011, 2012. The only thing that's always more noticeable in these cars than with a lot of vehicles, there's more plastic involved. Like the intake manifold is plastic. It used to be metal at one time and now it's plastic. But we won't hold it against them.
Mark: And here we have the start of the inspection report. So let's talk about this?
Bernie: Yeah. So this is the report that as the customer you would receive. And basically it brakes things down. You can see red colours, amber colours, or orange and green. And the red, of course, are things that are pretty critical things that need to be done now. We noted that the rear brake pads and rotors need to be replaced. And then there was a few other lesser coloured items, headlight, which is basically a headlight lens. The oil was dirty, which we'd already changed. Brake fluid was discoloured due to be flushed. The air filter and cabin filters were due to be replaced. And we recommended a gasoline direct injection cleaning. We can talk about that a little later.
And then, of course, on the rest of the inspection, there's the green items, which there says a hundred items I believe. The text is kind of small. I don't have my glasses on, but a hundred items are okay.
So if we want to look at some of those, this is some of the list of the items you can see, you just breeze through it. Air conditioning, we've got the front brake pads there with measurements of the pads and rotors. Quality of the calipers, wheel bearings variety of things that we look at. And well, I should mention too, we also take the vehicle on a good road test before we do the inspection as well.
Mark: So why is that important?
Bernie: The road test?
Mark: Yeah.
Bernie: Well, we can find a lot of things out about the car. You know, how it handles if there's clunks when we go over bumps, if the steering pulls, if there's loud noises in the car, maybe wheel bearings. The feel of the brakes, squeaks. Sometimes, you know, most clients report to us issues that they have, but sometimes there are things that we notice that people may not have noticed. They've just got used to. So these are things we note.
Mark: And those are things that you can't discover up on the hoist?
Bernie: Exactly. You know, things like a wheel bearing, for instance, you need to drive it at a decent speed to hear something like that. So that's the kind of thing we do. Now, a vehicle with 50,000 kilometres in this condition, I wouldn't expect anything to be wrong with it, but you never know things can happen.
Mark: And so here's some more images. This is the brakes?
Bernie: Yeah. These are the front brakes. So this is an image and, and that red thing there is our measuring tool that shows the measurement of the brake pads. it's very thin, so due to be replaced. Notes on the rotors. We didn't take a picture of them, but they need to be replaced based on the age. And then there's the cracked light, there's a crack in the lens. I mean, didn't seem to be full of water, but it's definitely something that's gonna need to be replaced at some point. It's worth keeping in mind anyways.
And we have some more of the good items. And again, you know, there's a measurements of the tires. A note to the tire pressures that we filled them to and that sort of thing.
Mark: So a lot of points get checked on the vehicle to make sure that it's gonna operate and be safe to drive and reliable, in other words.
Bernie: Exactly. People often ask, well, how many points is your inspection? Like, it's some kind of thing, and it's just whatever the car needs. We have a big, long list and there are items on this list that don't show up in the inspection because they're not relevant to the vehicle, like diesel exhaust fluid. It's not relevant to this vehicle, but it would be on a diesel. So you know, those are things that don't show up in the inspection, but there are points of things that we will look at, depending on the vehicle.
Mark: And do you guys check how the doors are operating and lubricate, all that sort of stuff?
Bernie: Yeah. A B Service, we lube the door locks, hinges, latches. Of course, there aren't really much in the way of door locks anymore, but hinges and latches, I guess.
Mark: Yeah. So in other words, as much as is possible on a car with 50,000 kilometres, by the time you're finished, it's back to almost new again?
Bernie: Exactly. Yeah. And of course it's up to the client, what they want to do with the vehicle from our recommendations. This client did choose to do a couple of things. We did the rear brake pads and rotors, the brake fluid flush, and a gasoline direct fuel injection cleaning, which is something we recommend usually about every 30 to 50,000 kilometres is a good maintenance service.
Mark: And what does that do for the client?
Bernie: It removes carbon deposits from the intake valves and from the combustion chambers, as well. As carbon deposits build up, it sort of robs a vehicle of power and performance. Sometimes subtle issues will happen such as, the engine might start a little slower, might idle a little rougher. So if you do it every once in a while, you'll never experience that problem because a car will just run like brand new all along.
Mark: So there you go. If you're looking for service for your Subaru, the experts to see are at Pawlik Automotive. You can reach them online at pawlikautomotive.com. You can book your appointment right there, or you can call them at (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: And thank you, Mark, and thanks for watching.
