Mark: Hi, it's Mark Bossert. I'm here with Bernie Pawlik, Pawlik Automotive, Vancouver's best auto service experience, and we're talking cars. How you doing Bernie?
Bernie: Doing very well.
Mark: So today's guest is a 2017 Colorado. This is a Dodge, Colorado?
Chevy, Colorado. Chevy, Colorado. Chevy. Chevy. Sorry. Apologies. Chevy. Sorry. Chevy fans.
Chevy Colorado. I'm not familiar with all the different vehicles, new vehicles. This is somewhat new. What was going on with this vehicle?
Bernie: The owner of this vehicle who happened to be out driving near our shop and hit the brakes, and all of a sudden they didn't work very well. They went from being normal brakes to pressing on the pedals, pressing on a rock. So they pulled into our parking lot and said, Hey, I got some problems with my brakes. We looked at the vehicle and verified it. It was actually quite frightening to just drive the car around our parking lot.
Push the brake, you had to push exceptionally hard to even stop and it seemed to lock the front wheels up and stuff. It was actually really scary. Initially I thought, okay, the power brakes have stopped, which was the case, but it seemed like there was some other problem as well. But at the end of the day, basically there was no power brake and we determined the brake vacuum pump, which is located on the back of the engine had failed. It wasn't providing any vacuum to the power brake booster. So that was the diagnosis in a nutshell.
Mark: And a pump on the back of the engine. Is that something that's new? That's not how they used to be, right?
Bernie: No, they never used to have them. Basically power brake boosters, vacuum boosters used to, and still do on some cars, operate from engine vacuum as an engine's running, and this is not a diesel, it's a gasoline engine. There's a lot of vacuum created in the intake manifold, and so you can use that vacuum basically as free energy to provide power brakes. And they basically do that. But it seems manufacturers have found it more reliable to actually have a separate pump to generate the vacuum.
It's on a turbocharged vehicle, for instance. A lot of times the engine may not be in so much in vacuum, but under pressure, and that doesn't create the vacuum you need for the brake. So I guess, a vacuum pump is pretty common on a lot of vehicles.
Mark: Let's have a look at what this was here.
This is a new pump. This goes on the back of the engine. Is that right?
Bernie: Bolts under the back of the engine. It's a little fiddly to get out, but basically it unbolts and if you look in the centre of that pump, you can see a sort of a raised area. That's the part that's driven by the back of the camshaft. And as the camshaft rotates, it drives the vacuum pump. That little blue thing down at the bottom left, is just a cap that came on the brand new one, but that's where the hose goes to the power brake booster. So as if pump turns, it generates vacuum and that provides you power brakes.
Mark: So what looks different here?
Bernie: Yeah. So what looks different here, this is the broken pump. So this pump failed. We've replaced a lot of vacuum pumps on cars. Mostly European because they leak oil. There's some oil flowing through them and they leak oil. It's not critical, but it's irritating and messy. So anyways, this is the first time we've seen one fail where the actual, that little drive piece just snapped apart, but it actually broke the housing. Initially we determined what was wrong, vacuum pumps bad, let's order a new one. Then we pulled it out and realized we're in for a little more work than we expected because of the housing being cracked.
You can see that like chunks of metal, not just the brownish colour stuff, but you can see the aluminum on the housing has broken off, like quite a lot of it.
Mark: Yeah.
Bernie: So it was a pretty catastrophic failure. It would've been even worse had the person been in an emergency braking situation.
In order to proceed further, we had to pick out those pieces. There was bits of metal that, didn't come out, we had to pick those out at the back of the engine. So we had to remove the valve cover again, another ordeal and more expensive parts and labour to take everything apart. But it was really important to get the chunks of metal out, so we could actually put the pump back in and make sure there wasn't metal floating around inside the engine.
So we managed to get everything out of there. And yeah, I say fair bit of work and lucky for the customer that these things apparently do fail. This is the first one we've seen, but in doing a little research, we find that it's not uncommon for these to fail, and sometimes it actually wipes the camshaft out too. So the owner was lucky.
Mark: And that's a very expensive operation.
Bernie: Yes. That is very much more expensive operations.
Mark: So after repair, everything's good. The brakes are working properly?
Bernie: Yeah, brakes are working properly. It would've been less expensive, not necessary had it just had a vacuum hose of the intake manifold, but I guess the engineering department, in their wisdom, chose to make it more complicated. They always probably have reasons for it, but sometimes it doesn't seem apparent when you fix it.
Mark: So this is a four cylinder, six cylinder?
Bernie: Four cylinder, 2.5 litre.
Mark: And how common is this engine among Chevy products?
Bernie: Yeah, it's pretty common.
Mark: So this isn't just Colorado's that might have this issue. This is across multiple?
Bernie: You know what, I actually don't know what other platforms have it, but I'd say it's probably more in the truck market, not in cars. I think you're gonna find it in trucks and of course, the Colorado's a small truck. So you're not gonna find this 2.5 in a 1500 Sierra.
Mark: And is that something that's on the V8s or the V6s that they do this sort of pump?
Bernie: Some manufacturers do. Vacuum pumps are very common, as I said, on European cars, but this is the first time we've ever seen one actually break apart.
Mark: If you're looking for service for your Colorado, Chevy products in Vancouver, BC, the guys to see are Pawlik Automotive. You can reach them online at pawlikautomotive.com. You can book your appointment right there. Or you can call them (604) 327-7112. They'll answer the phone and they'll talk to you, or they'll get back to you. If they're really busy. Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver, you have to book ahead. They're always busy, always. Period. Best auto repair in Vancouver. Call them. Get your stuff fixed. Keep running reliably. Thanks so much for watching and listening. Thanks Bernie.
Bernie: Thanks, Mark. Thanks for watching.
