Mark: Hi it’s Mark from Top Local, we’re here with Bernie Pawlik, Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver doing the Pawlik Automotive Podcast for this week. How’re you doing Bernie? 

Bernie: Doing very well.

Mark: So we’re talking about a Land Rover LR2 that was having some fuel rail issues. What was going on with this vehicle?

Bernie: So the vehicle was towed to our shop. The owner was driving it and suddenly it started running really poorly and he had it towed in because it just wouldn’t run right. So that was basically what was happening, basically un-drivable. Sometimes it would start and run and other times it wouldn’t and it would perform pretty poorly. So that was the issue with the vehicle. 

Mark: So what kind of diagnosis and tests did you have to do to find out what was going on?

Bernie: Well first step, plugging in the scan tool to the vehicle computer and just seeing what information we can extract. When we went to the engine computer, it’ll often store codes if the check engine light’s on, which it was, and there was a list of, oh I don’t have the list in front of me, it was from what I remember about 10 or 12 stored trouble codes which usually indicates something big is going on. Doesn’t mean there’s 12 different problems because sometimes one problem sets off a code for something else and if the problem had been going on intermittently for a little while, it would set a number of codes. But there was basically a number of codes stored, we cleared them because when you have that many codes stored it’s ind of important to know what is the actual real problem. Came back, one code came backlit was the fuel pressure, fuel rail pressure too low and we cleared that and another time it came back fuel rail pressure too high. So there’s a few different codes. From there we look at the repair data information. What we found is there’s a technical service bulletin from Land Rover to reflash the body control module and a couple other modules in the vehicle. Not the engine but a couple other modules that can affect this kind of issue. So we did that and that was our first step in the diagnosis.

Mark: So alright, how did reflashing things work out?

Bernie: Well it didn’t actually solve the issue, but it’s important to do those kind of things because it’s actually easier to reflash something and know that you have all the proper software in place before you proceed to the next step. So while it didn’t solve the issue, at least we knew that wasn’t the problem. The next step we did, we started doing some tests on the vehicle for the, basically, again the code that seemed to come back all the time was fuel pressure too low, but yet the engine would run and it seemed like it was running too rich. So we hooked up a fuel pressure gauge up to the vehicle, monitored some scan tool data and found some interesting stuff.

So I’ll share some photos at this point. There’s our LR2, 2008 model and we will go to this picture here, this is the fuel rail of the vehicle. So the fuel rail is where all the fuel, the high pressure fuel sits and the fuel injectors are located underneath. So there’s the injectors underneath, these are some of the injector wires. The injectors are underneath, you can’t really see them here. The fuel pressure gauge connects to a little port in the end here, the fuel pressure regulator which the red arrows point to. This is the part what we eventually replaced and I’ll talk more about that in a few minutes, but when we looked on the scan tool and the engine was running, it was running quite rough, barely running in fact. On the scan tool there’s a fuel pressure reading and it’s at zero, zero kiloPascal and yet if you look on this gauge, well  it’s at 100 psi, so 700, almost 700 kiloPascals which is way too high. The actual proper reading is around 400 to 450 range which is down 60 to 65 psi. So clearly the fuel pressure was way too high. And a close up of the fuel pressure gauge. Again you can see it’s at 700 kiloPascals and it should be down in this range here. There’s a close up of the fuel pressure regulator which sits at the end of the fuel rail and what this does is it monitors the pressure in the fuel rail, sends a signal to the computer so that the fuel pump and the pressure regulator in the tank can adjust the pressure. And finally after the repair, after replacing it, this is the reading, the vehicle ran great and this is the reading on the tool. So I think there might be pictures of you and I here, so I’ll just move this out of the way. But you can see, 438 that’s with the engine running right and that’s the proper pressure for this system.

Mark: So how difficult was the pressure regulator or sensor to actually change?

Bernie: Quite easy and I think I may have called that a fuel pressure regulator a couple times, it’s a fuel pressure sensor. So used to seeing a fuel pressure regulator at the end of the rail, I kind of get used to calling it that. It’s actually not too difficult. The fuel rail fortunately comes off quite easily on this vehicle. The pressure sensor just bolts onto the end and it’s actually, fortunately for the customer, a pretty easy, straightforward repair.

Mark: And as you mentioned, the vehicle ran really well once this work was replaced or work was completed?

Bernie: Yeah, it ran really well, I mean flawlessly and I mean the other thing to mention, I said we did do a reflash on several of the vehicle systems, so everything else you know whatever you don’t really know what would happen is we went to do this repair first and then didn’t do the reflash, it may not be running as well as it did. So it’s important to make sure all that kind of stuff is up to date and current, especially if the manufacturer suggests the problem with the vehicle requires a reflash.

Mark: So when you’re mentioning a reflash, you’re basically doing a software upgrade?

Bernie: That’s exactly what it is. In the automotive industry we call it a reflash, but it’s basically, it’s exactly, a software upgrade is another term for it. I guess they’re called reflash because they’re flashable…

Mark: EPROM’s

Bernie: Flash program EPROM’s, yeah and so that’s why they in the automotive industry, they term it that but I mean other manufacturers will also say software upgrades, that’s kind of what people are used to hearing.

Mark: So while this is a, the model LR2, a lot of people know this as a Freelander and you haven’t said good things about Freelander’s in the past, how are these LR2’s for reliability and repairs?

Bernie: Well yeah, this is a much better vehicle. I mean, when I think of, they don’t call these Freelander’s in Canada, but in other parts of the world they call it, it’s a Freelander and so I guess this is the second generation and a much better vehicle. The first ones were, there’s not too many vehicles where I actually say they’re horrible and I wouldn’t recommend anyone touch it, but a first generation Freelander is one of those. I just you know, for anyone who owns one, just get rid of it. That’s all I can tell you because they’re just not worth owing, which is really rare for me to every say about any vehicle. But the LR2 is nice. I mean it’s the same chassis as a Volvo XC70, you know quite reliable, much better, far better built vehicle than the previous generation and I mean the only thing, the issues that we see, I mean this fuel rail issue, was pretty straight forward, it was a nice easy simple repair. The only issue we see with these, it’s kind of chronic is the rear differentials wear out, the bearings wear our prematurely. We a lot of Volvo XC70’s, we do a lot of these LR2’s. And interestingly enough as a new client, I road tested the vehicle I could hear the differential humming so it’ll need bearings at some point too. So that’s kind of a fact but that’s sort of the worst thing in these vehicles that we see that’s chronic. Other than that it’s a nice vehicle.

Mark: So there we are. That’s this week’s Podcast and video. And if you’re looking for service in Vancouver for your Freelander, LR2, the guys to see are Pawlik Automotive. You can reach them at 604-327-7112 to book your appointment, check out their website pawlikautomotive.com. There’s hundred of videos on there, or our Youtube Channel Pawlik Automotive Repair. Thanks Bernie

Bernie: Thanks Mark.

Mark: Hi  it’s Mark, producer of the Pawlik Automotive Podcast and Show. How’re you doing Bernie?

Bernie: Doing very well. 

Mark: So we’re talking with Mr. Bernie Pawlik, Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver, 38 years of repairing and maintaining vehicles in Vancouver and 18 time winners of Best Auto Repair in Vancouver as voted by their customers, and today we’re going to talk about a 2011 BMW 335D that had a glow plug problem. We don’t talk about these very often, a BMW diesel, what was going on with this vehicle?

Bernie: So the vehicle running fine, but a check engine light on and a code P0671 which is a glow plug fault, glow plug circuit fault, cylinder number one. So that’s what we were looking at on this vehicle.

Mark: And how did you diagnose this?

Bernie: Well, so they’re the code’s pretty specific. It says glow plug circuit fault and a lot of people would think oh yeah, it needs a new glow plug. Well actually the code’s a circuit fault. So the circuit is the glow plug, it’s the wire to the glow plug any related wiring and it’s also the control unit. Those are the items that could be at fault in this particular situation. So to diagnosis this particular vehicle, the glow plugs and the control module are all located underneath the intake manifold. So it actually required removing the intake manifold to do any further diagnosis on the vehicle.

Mark: Ok that sounds like a lot of work to figure out what was going wrong?

Bernie: Well it is actually a lot of work to at least get into what’s wrong and this is you know, where we like to do a little pre-planning with our client to say, you know to keep the cost down, if we were just to say, I just want you to diagnose this, it would be very expensive for us to take everything apart, test everything, put it all back together and tell you you know, this is what’s wrong with it. So it’s the kind of thing where we need to kind of pre plan what could actually be wrong with it. It could be the glow plug, it could be the control module, the most likely cause of the fault and with the vehicle being 7 years old, you might just need to replace, if one glow plug’s bad, you may as well replace them all. Or if it’s a lot of work to take the manifold off, why not just replace everything and then you’re done with it and it’s not going to leave anything to say 6 months from now, oh well plug 6 died or something to that effect. So this is the kind of pre planning we do in certain situations like this. Because it make more sense, if you’re going to take the manifold off to just fix everything at the same time. So once we remove the manifold, then we’re able to do some tests. We actually found the glow plug would actually heat up and light up and the module is faulty but as said, based on the mileage in the vehicle we ended up replacing all the glow plugs and the control unit at the same time while everything was apart. Let’s just have a look at a few pictures here.

This is the 2011 BMW 335D, your sort of standard BMW sedan but of course with a diesel under the hood. The engine again, covered in plastic with a nice, beautiful plastic, it’s hard to know what, you don’t really know what’s underneath until you take the plastic off. But this is the engine with the intake manifold removed and I’ve put some nice red arrows there indicating where the glow plugs are located. So the glow plugs were actually removed at this point, the intake manifold actually has two ports for each cylinder. So you have your lower set of ports, your upper set of ports. These are the fuel injector lines. The fuel injects are located up in this area here and the red arrows point to where the glow plug holes are. So we at this point removed the glow plugs and just for reference, the control unit sits down around this area under these hoses. What else have we got in the way of pictures here. We’ve got a view of the intake manifold removed. This has a swirl valve, well that’s a Mercedes term, but an intake manifold runner so you can vary the intake ports for different air flows and performance at different engine speeds. And here we have the EGR valve and throttle unit and in this area we did find some carbon deposits which we cleaned and we can talk about that a little later on. And finally the stars of the show, the glow plugs and the control unit. So here’s an example of two of the glow plugs. Your basic, standard type of glow plug and the control unit which looks like it says BMW on it, made by Bayer. These are, this type of control unit is very common. They look pretty much the same on a Mercedes, Volkswagen, a Isuzu diesel that we do a lot on, like in a medium truck. They’re basically all the same type of thing and they all tend to fail, same with the glow plugs and so once you get to a certain mileage, it’s best just to replace it all and be done with it.

Mark: So what did you find that was actually wrong? Was it the unit?

Bernie: It was actually the control unit that was bad in this case. As I mentioned we took all the glow plugs out and we were able to power them up and heat them and they all heated up fine. Now that still doesn’t mean the glow plug, even though it heated up fine didn’t have some resistance issue or something that the control unit found faulty. But in this case, the control unit was from what we could tell, the item at fault.

Mark: And you mentioned carbon deposits, I know that’s a huge issue on diesel intake systems. What did you find on this car?

Bernie: Well it wasn’t too bad as you could, I mean I know we’ve you know the pictures are gone now, but really there was actually a very minimal about of carbon deposit in the intake runners which is a good sign. This vehicle only has 78,000 kilometres, so it’s still pretty low mileage and it sounded, the owner I believe, has done a lot of highway driving with it so that all helps to, but we did find in the EGR valve and on the throttle plate, there was a lot of carbon deposit. We remove those and clean them out while we had everything apart. So that’ll definitely help airflow in the vehicle. 

Mark: Now something we’ve mentioned before about BMW’s, they use a lot of plastic parts, is this a plastic intake manifold?

Bernie: It sure is, yeah they use a lot of plastic wherever they can. Well a lot of other manufacturers do too, but yeah this is a plastic intake manifold. So nobody issues like that, you know I showed that swirl valve or you know, intake runner, whatever, every manufacturer has a different name, you know, those kind of things tend to wear after a while. I remember having a Ford years ago where that intake you know, after moving for years and year and years, it just wears the plastic away. So thats the kind of issue with plastic you know that you eventually get and the intake manifold will probably need to be replaced at some point. Who knows when. I mean at this point, it’s in very good shape.

Mark: And how are these BMW diesels for reliability?

Bernie: So far we’ve found them to be pretty good but you know, to be honest, we haven’t worked on a lot of BMW diesels. There’s not a lot of them out there. I think that’s mainly the reason, we’re starting to see more and more of them as they come off warranty and you know, there a few more on the market but when you compare it to Volkswagen or Mercedes, they really haven’t sold a lot of diesel vehicles or they’re pretty rare for BMW. Not so much for Volkswagen or Mercedes. 

Mark: And contrary to what people might think, this is a BMW high performance vehicle. In fact it might be the fastest 3-series and certainly in terms of torque, is that right?

Bernie: Yeah, it’s very peppy. After we did the repair I drove it, I go wow, it really moves well. So yeah, it’s a nice car, there’s really no compromise with a diesel. You know as I say, the thing about diesel’s that always worry me and we see it a lot, is they do cost a lot of money to fix when things go wrong and they tend to go wrong more than they use to. So you get a lot of good fuel mileage, you save a lot of money on fuel while you’re driving this vehicle that ’s for sure.

Mark: Absolutely. So if you need some service for your BMW diesel in Vancouver or your Mercedes or Volkswagen, the guys who are experts at it are Pawlik Automotive. You can reach them at 604-327-7112 or check out their website pawlikautomotive.com. We’ve got hundreds of videos on there and lots of them about all kinds of different diesels or our Youtube channel Pawlik Automotive or our new PodCast. Thanks Bernie.

Bernie: Thanks Mark.

Mark: Hi it’s Mark, producer of the Pawlik Automotive Show and Podcast. How’re you doing Bernie?

Bernie: Doing very well Mark.

Mark: So we’re talking about cars with Bernie Pawlik, Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver, 38 years of servicing and maintaining cars, trucks, vehicles in Vancouver and 18 time winners of Best Auto Repair in Vancouver and today we’re going to talk about a 2005 Toyota 4Runner. What was going on with this vehicle Bernie?

Bernie: So the vehicle came to our shop, a regular client of ours, and the steering was stiff, especially in one certain direction when you turned the steering wheel there was a stiff, tight spot to the steering.

Mark: Ok, so what did you find that was going on?

Bernie: What we found, we did an inspection on the steering and suspension system and what we found was the universal joint, the U-joint at the end of the steering column, down to the steering rack and pinion was worn out, basically it was just seized in one direction and that was causing the issue. Basically what happened the U-joint allows a twisting motion to occur and when it seized in one direction, it just becomes very stiff to turn the wheel in that one area. 

Mark: So why do you need a U-joint in the steering column?

Bernie: Well I’ll just talk a little history on the steering column. In the olden days, when cars were well, even up into probably right into 1950’s and 60’s, the steering column is just pretty much a straight, long shaft and it would run from the steering wheel down to the steering box. And actually here’s a scary thought, I mean, steering columns used to actually be just a big, huge steel rod and you can imagine what happens when you get in a head on collision and that front of the vehicle gets pushed back a foot or two, basically that steering column just got shoved right into your chest and a lot of people died from that. So one of the first things, one of those sort of safety things, well I say first things, I mean they didn’t really do it probably til the 50’s or 60’s, 60’s for sure, it was mandatory to have a collapsible steering column. So the shaft could actually compress, the steering column would actually be like an accordion type thing where it would actually fold on impact. So that’s a good feature for staying alive in a collision. But anyways, the universal joint, it sort of came after that when steering columns, the vehicles started getting shorter, not such long hoods, they would perhaps go, hey let’s put the steering box, the steering rack and pinion further back in the vehicle and so there’s the universal joint allowed the shaft to go straight and then downward and that allowed the flexibility in the steering column.

Mark: Ok, so back to the worn U-joint in this truck, what was causing the, what would cause that to happen, what would cause it to just wear on one side?

Bernie: Well what happens, this one here wore from rust corrosion. These, we’ve replaced them on some vehicles and sometimes they just wear out just because, you know they just get moved and turned a lot. But this one here suffered kind of a hard life. The vehicle spent a lot of time out, I would assume on salty roads and basically it was corroded. So at this point we can go into a couple pictures. Toyota 4runner, really nice shape at least it is on the top side and well talk about this in a minute. But anyways, you know beautiful 2005 Toyota 4Runner. This is our steering column U-joint. So this is the universal joint right here. This is the actual part that we replaced. You can see from the picture it’s extremely rusty and corroded and this is the U-joint. So it’s basically a cross piece with bearings and it’ll flex in two different directions but this one basically you could only move it in one direction. So that’s what was causing our issue.

Mark: Alright, so rust isn’t something we’ve talked a lot other than in brakes and cars don’t seemingly rust like they used to, how often do you see vehicles like this?

Bernie: Not that often around here but it’s surprising. actually this is sort of the second part of this story. So the steering column U-joint is one, the second is the owner of this vehicle bought this vehicle about six months ago, maybe a little longer. He didn’t get an inspection on it because it was a great deal, it only had 114,000 kilometres which is very low mileage for a vehicle like this. Looks beautiful on the outside. He drove it, he goes yeah it drives great, the price was right, he bought it. He brought it to our shop, I’m not going to say how much money he spent, but let’s put it this way, it’s thousands and thousands of dollars on things like rusted out exhaust, this is another issue now the steering column U-joint. So it’s really important to have a vehicle inspected before you buy it and we’ve said this before. You never know, you look on the outside, you look at the mileage, you go, hey it’s a great deal based on those factors but the one factor that wasn’t in there is where’s the vehicle been driven. We live in Vancouver, it’s a pretty, we don’t get a lot of snow here, we get a bit, there’s a bit of salt that maybe goes on for a couple weeks or a month a year, but in other climates, you get a lot of salt. We recently did an inspection on a 2015 Subaru, only 60,000 kilometres, 3 year old vehicle, looked underneath it, there was a lot of rust corrosion already starting to develop. Nothing debilitating but given time that vehicle would definitely have a lot more repairs needed. Now it’s a local car, but the people, they buy these vehicles because they go skiing a lot to Whistler which is nearby. A lot of snow on that road, a lot of salt is used. So those are the kind of things you really got to look fo when you buy a vehicle. but yeah, rust is not as bad. Vehicles are really much better built than they used to be. But salt still takes it’s toll. Once the vehicle gets ten years old, then you really start to see the problems

Mark: Haven bought one of those kind vehicles in my past of vehicle history, I am familiar with this. 

Bernie: Me too, you know, I’ve bought vehicles like that to and it’s like it just reinforced my conviction, have it inspected, really take a second look at it, don’t get too attached to anything just because the price is right or you like the vehicle. You know, you’ve got to look for the right one, otherwise you’re going to end up paying a lot of money to get it set straight later.

Mark: So any final thoughts on this repair and Toyota 4Runners?

Bernie:  Well just final thoughts, pre purchase inspection. Whenever you buy a used vehicle, don’t just assume the deal’s great. Really have it looked at and 4Runners, I mean they’re great vehicles. Besides the issues with this thing, it’s still an incredibly reliable vehicle, really nice driving, definitely, probably the best SUV of its type on the road.

Mark: So there you go. If you’re looking for service and you’re in Vancouver, the guys to call are Pawlik Automotive. You can reach them at 604-327-7112 to book your appointment. Or check out our blog at pawlikautomotive.com, hundreds of videos on there and articles as well as our YouTube channel and as you’re probably enjoying this on iTunes. Welcome to iTunes for the Podcast of Pawlik Automotive. Thanks Bernie.

Bernie: Thanks Mark.

Mark: Hi, it’s Mark from Top Local, we’re here with Bernie Pawlik, Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver. Vancouver’s best auto service experience, 38 years repairing and servicing, maintaining cars and trucks in Vancouver and 18 time winners of best auto repair in Vancouver as voted by their customers. How’re you doing Bernie?

Bernie: Doing very well this morning.

Mark: So we’re going to talk about a Range Rover, 1999, a little bit older one that had a plugged engine oil pickup tube, I keep thinking pickup artist on this thing, pickup tube, oil pickup tube. What was going on with this SUV?

Bernie: So this vehicle came to our shop, the owner had, the problem he was having was the engine was making a ticking sound and the oil warning light on the dash, the red oil can like looking light, which is very serious, light was coming on and he’d had a similar issue in the past. So anyways, that’s what was going on with the vehicle. Low oil pressure and obviously a pretty serious concern.

Mark: And so how did you diagnose that it was a plugged oil pickup tube?

Bernie: Well this one was a little bit of a different diagnosis, you know, we work on cars for a long time so generally when you hear an entire engine going tick tick tick tick and the oil light on, it’s usually a pretty good indication that there is in fact little to no oil pressure in the engine. We could of hooked a gauge up and verified that, but in this case, the owner of the vehicle had the vehicle for a long time, had the same thing happen in the past a few years ago, and the oil pickup tube was plugged. And in fact, this is actually not an uncommon issue on a 4.6 litre Land Rover engine. So we opted to just simply pull the oil pan off and inspect it, figuring the pickup tube was probably plugged, as he’d mentioned. And it’s actually surprisingly easy job to remove an oil pan on this engine, which is kind of rare. Usually on a 4x4, it’s a complete pain to remove it, but this is actually a rare treat, very simple to do. So I’ll just share a few photos. 1999 Range Rover, beautiful vehicle in its day, you know, getting pretty aged now but you know again, top of the line SUV in its day. There’s our oil pan underneath the vehicle. Bit of a weird angle of a photo, but there’s actually a lot of space. This is the front differential, it’s a solid differential, I’ll get into that in a minute which is interesting and unique, but it’s not like a new Range Rover or even a lot of older American pick up trucks where you can, it would take you hours to get the oil pan out. This is a really simple, very accessible job. Let’s get right into the heart of the matter, there is the plugged oil pickup tube. So the oil pickup tube is basically, it’s a big long tube about a foot-18 inches long, thin you know half to three quarter inch diameter metal tube with a pickup section on the front and a strainer. It’s got a screen which you can see, this is black carbon sludge that’s being sucked into the strainer and blocked it, so when the engine is running it can’t pick up any oil. It just sucks on this and thats not a good thing. Here’s a view in the bottom of the oil pan. This is some more sludge we found on the bottom of the oil pan. So the repair job consists of cleaning the tube out, cleaning the sludge out, washing the pan, getting rid of it all and getting it all back together. Just while we’re looking at photos, a couple of unique things I found on this vehicle. It’s old school. This is the rear differential and it’s a solid differential, like the front, so it’s a pretty simple vehicle compared to a lot of newer pick up trucks and especially Range Rovers where they have all complete independent suspension and a lot of complexity. The vehicle still have air suspension which is you know, give it a nice ride and some adjustability, but it’s a benefit of the solid axles which are very durable and if you want to take this out in the bush, this would be a really, really good vehicle to do that kind of thing in. I think that kind of covers our photos. Yep we’re all good.

Mark: So the sludge is what blocked the pickup tube and where does the oil sludge come from?

Bernie: Well if comes from, it’s formed from combustion gases reacting with the oil. Now how that occurs, I mean mostly I would say it’s due to either a blocked crankcase breathe system, we’ve talked about PCV valves in an earlier podcast, you know, a plugged crankcase breather system will cause that kind of thing to occur and we actually did do a little more investigating on this. We actually found that one side of the crankcase breather system was blocked in this vehicle. So that’ll cause the sludging to reoccur quite easily but a lot of it can be lack of maintenance too. And in the olden days, this is a lot more common. I think the older formulation oils, newer oil formulations don’t seem to sludge up as much, but a lot of it is due to the crankcase breather system and lack of oil changes. And really you know, if you change your oil religiously, regularly, it’s important to prevent this. Also people think, oh I’m driving around the city, I don’t need to change all that much. It’s like when you live in a cooler climate like Vancouver, you don’t drive a lot of highway drives, just city drives, it’s the worst thing for the oil because it never gets to warm up fully, a lot of times and that causes the sludge to occur.

Mark: That’s really disappointing. I was thinking it was something like those old dinosaurs are trying to re-form their bones and grow again in the motor.

Bernie: Well it could be, it could be the beginning, you know.

Mark: So is this just something that happens with Range Rovers or is it common to all vehicles?

Bernie: Well this is actually, if you look on some Land Rover/Range Rover forums, you’ll actually find that a few threads and posts about this. So it’s not an uncommon issue on this particular engine but you know, over the years, in the past, I’ve seen it happen on a lot of different engines. A lot of times it happens, mostly sludging and oil occurs from lack of maintenance and lack of oil changes. So biggest thing, we always talk about changing oil regularly because that’s the biggest thing that causes this. And the moment the crankcase breather system has an issue and then that’s an often neglected part these days, again we talked in the past you know, PCV valves used to be replaced a lot because they’re easy, they’re just, a lot of older, I’m thinking of an American V8’s, they just used to clip in the valve cover. You could pull it out and change it in a matter of 30 seconds so why not do it. Now that isn’t really a full crankcase ventilation service because it could still be a blocked hose, but at least if you look, change the valve, a lot of times it would solve a lot of your problems, but nowadays, they’re largely forgotten. I mean, this vehicle has a PCV valve, it’s screwed into the intake manifold. People tend to forget about it, they just don’t service them.

Mark: And how are these older Range Rovers for reliability?

Bernie: They’re pretty good. I mean, we work on a lot of Range Rovers and Land Rovers, and they all seem to have their sort of quirky problems, for every generation has a certain problem with their engines and the next one doesn’t have engine problems and overall these are pretty good. You know, it’s a complex vehicle. It’s got air suspension, so there’s a lot of things that can go wrong, and do, so be prepared to be spending a lot more money owning one of these vehicles than you would on a simpler type of vehicle. But overall, they’re  pretty good. I mean I like things when you have a repair like this where the oil system is sludged up, we can actually remove an oil pan quite simply and make a repair. That’s a good thing. So I often say, you know, every car has its positives and negatives, sometimes some cars have simple things to fix and sometimes they’re complicated. In this case, the oil pan was a nice simple fix.

Mark: So there you go. If you need some service on your Range Rover or Land Rover in Vancouver, the guys to see are Pawlik Automotive. You can reach them at 604-327-7112 to book your appointment, you have to book ahead, they’re busy or check out their website pawlikautomotive.com, hundreds of videos on there or our Youtube channel Pawlik Automotive Repair or our new Podcast. Thanks Bernie.

Bernie: Thanks Mark.