Mark: Hi, it's Mark Bossert. I'm here with Bernie Pawlik, Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver. Vancouver's best auto service experience 25 times, voted best in Vancouver at auto repair by their customers, and we're talking cars. How you doing, Bernie?
Bernie: Doing very well.
Mark: So today we have a wonderful 2008 Subaru guest. What was going on with this Impreza?
Bernie: So this vehicle came to our shop for two concerns. One was a very loud rattle in the exhaust system, and the second was that the vehicle had no power when driving up hills.
Mark: So did you have any in inclination what it was?
Bernie: Not exactly. Exhaust rattles in Subarus are quite common and they're quite common due to heat shields rattling. Once we drove the car, it was much more distinct rattle than a heat shield. Much louder. And you know, there's some testing and diagnosis we did. Came to the conclusion the exhaust system was plugged, which will cause that lack of power.
Mark: Okay, well here we have our vehicle. Lovely looking. What kind of mileage?
Bernie: Oh, about 180,000 kilometres. I dunno what that makes it in miles 110 or something. Pretty low for a Subaru.
And there is our old catalytic converter. This is an aftermarket converter too. That was in the vehicle.
Mark: That's this part right here?
Bernie: That is it. Yeah. So on a Subaru, these converters that you're looking at, the whole and sort of entire exhaust manifold and converter, those two pieces on the ends that look similar, there's four holes. It's a four cylinder engine. Those bolt up to the cylinder heads. And so the catalytic converter's located very close to cylinder heads for efficiency. The hotter the catalytic converter gets, and the faster it gets hot, the more efficient it is.
Mark: So what was the rest of the story here? You just replaced this piece then?
Bernie: Yeah, we basically replaced that whole unit that we're looking at right there. So unfortunately kind of an expensive job. The part's very expensive because of all the piping that you get with it, but there's no other option on this particular model of Subaru. And this is the case with all modern vehicles. The catalytic converters are usually part of the exhaust manifold or very, very close to the manifold. So you usually get a whole bunch of extra pipes and pieces and it's expensive.
Mark: Okay. So we have another thing. Let me just share that. So what's the rest of the story here?
Bernie: Yeah. Okay. So the rattle was inside the catalytic converter and very distinct. Are we gonna have a quick listen to this?
Mark: We can do that.
Bernie: Yeah. Let's do that and then we'll talk about the plugged exhaust part of it.
Mark: For those who love cowbell.
Bernie: So what we're listening to there is what's left of the catalyst, which normally fits very tightly inside that round cylinder, is basically broken apart. And so when it breaks apart, of course that, you know, it's all hard material. It has to go somewhere. There's two catalytic converters on a Subaru. That's the main cat. And then there's a secondary cat further down the stream of the exhaust. So all those little bits and pieces, they all break apart. And so they plugged the second catalytic converter, which was causing a lack of power.
So there's two options with that. Either replaced the whole unit, which again is expensive. Not as expensive as this one, but it's an expense. What we decided to do is just take it out, take it apart, and we were able to actually shake it out. And bang it and remove most of the debris from inside the catalytic converter, and then put it back in. It seemed to work fine.
So on the floor of the shop, I didn't take a picture. There was quite a pile of little metallic bits and pieces that was the catalytic converter that was in the cow bell piece.
Mark: So you swept that up and sold it for a million dollars 'cause it's all palladium.
Bernie: Yeah. Well we didn't, it ended up in the garbage because there wasn't much of it. But yeah, anyways, that's kind of the story. I took it for a good long road test up a hill and the vehicle seemed to have adequate power. So it might be that it's, you know, it's on the edge of needing to be replaced, but to me it felt good. So figure, you know, save the customer a fair chunk of money.
Mark: Since he'd already spent quite a bit on this first piece.
Bernie: Yeah, the first piece, exactly. Yeah.
Mark: So vehicle ran great afterwards and everybody's happy, sorta. So if you're looking for service for your Subaru in Vancouver, if you have some cowbell happening, the guys to see are Pawlik Automotive. You can reach them online at pawlikautomotive.com. You can book your appointment right there. They'll get ready for your appointment. As well, 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: Thank you, Mark. And thanks for watching.
