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Mark: Hi, it's Mark from Top Local. We're here with Bernie Pawlik, Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver: Vancouver's best auto service experience. 22 time winners of Best Auto Repair in Vancouver, as voted by their customers. And we're talking cars. How are you doing Bernie? 

Bernie: Doing well. 

Mark: So today's victim 2014, BMW, 435i. This is a series that we haven't seen for that long in North America. What was going on with this fairly new vehicle? 

Bernie: Yeah, so this vehicle came to our shop with a very rough running, engine would barely run, a number warning lights on, and definitely needed some help. 

Mark: Where did you start to test? 

Bernie: Well, of course, scan tools, the first place to start, see what trouble  codes are stored. And then from there we did some tests. We pretty much determined that number one cylinder was the culprit. There was a number of misfire codes for that cylinder, and further testing we found that the fuel injector and number one cylinder was a kind of spraying like a fire hose. It was, as soon as you turn the key on, it would actually inject fuel. It's electronically controlled, whatever controls that hold the injector shut were basically not functioning.

So it was just dumping a lot of fuel into the engine, and we figured need replacement. The number one fuel injector was the culprit. 

Mark: So what kind of injection system is this?

Bernie: This is a direct injection system. So the fuel is injected directly into the cylinder as opposed to a port injection system where the fuel is injected into the intake manifold, right above the intake valve.

This is pretty common. I mean, BMW has been using this for awhile, at least since probably 2010, 2011. A lot of other manufacturers use it. It works really well. Of course creates some of its own unique issues, but, yeah. 

Mark: So this is a system that originated in diesels, if I've got that right. Why would they move to this kind of a system? 

Bernie: Yeah, you're exactly right. Direct injection is used in diesels. You know, diesels don't have spark plugs. So the only way that the fuel can be fired is to compress the air to a very high temperature, and then the fuel is injected and explodes. That's basically how diesel works.

With gasoline, of course, for many years, they didn't do that. Take carburetors, for instance, fuel just got sucked into the cylinder, got compressed with the air. There's a bit of heat developed and then the spark plug fires and boom, the cylinder goes down. 

So now with direct injection, they found there's a lot of benefit to it. There's way more precise fuel control, so the fuel can be injected exactly at the right time. It can be injected multiple times, like in a modern diesel.

That's the reason why modern diesels are so quiet, they don't knock and rattle like the old traditional diesels is because fuel is injected at exactly the right time, and it can be injected multiple times. Some diesels actually will inject, I believe, seven times during a combustion event. It'll start injecting on the way up and on the way down and, you know, as the pistons moving up and down. 

So, with gasoline, to be honest, I don't know if gasoline does the same type of thing, but there's no reason why they wouldn't do that. With the direct injection, they certainly have the capability and control to do that.

And the benefit is better performance and certainly much better fuel economy.

Mark: You mentioned there's some unique problems. What would those entail with using direct injection? 

Bernie: A lot of the unique problems actually are our combustion deposits, carbon deposits that develop on the intake valves. These have been a problem in cars for a long time, even on port injection systems.

But the thing about a port injection system is you've always got some fuel spring on the back of the intake valve, so it tends to wash that off. But on a direct injection system, there's no fuel being sprayed into the intake system, so over time, carbon deposits will build up on the intake valves - sometimes significantly - and it'll affect performance in a big way. That's probably the major issue with direct injection systems.  

Mark: How do you prevent that from happening? 

Bernie: First thing is always use a good gasoline. There's gasoline called top tier and a lot of  major like Chevron, Esso, a lot of those gasolines are all top tier. Just look around wherever you buy gas, just make sure it has a top tier rating. That has the best additive packages. You don't have to use premium if the car doesn't require it, just use whatever, if it's a top tier fuel, that tends to work really well. That will prevent deposits. We do have a combustion cleaning service and we recommend doing probably about every 30 to 50,000 kilometres.

It's basically a chemical spray that sprays into the injection system and that softens up the deposits and removes them. And if you do that on a regular basis, you're not going to develop that problem, but if you don't do it and you leave it for a long period of time, sometimes you actually have to remove the cylinder head from the vehicle. There's also techniques called Walnut blasting where you can actually take the intake manifold off, seal the cylinders up, and basically blast the carbon deposits off with walnut shells. If any of that Walnut debris gets in the engine, it'll just burn off, which is a safe thing to do. But that, as you can tell by removing the intake manifold, it's quite a procedure. So you really don't ever want to go there. 

Let's look at some pictures.

So there's our 2014, 435i BMW, beautiful looking car. I like the four series. It's kind of like a three series, but they tend to be just a little sleeker for some reason, so it's good looking. 

This is a direct fuel injector in the BMW.  This is the pintle that sits right in the cylinder here. So it's exposed a lot of heat in very high heat, very high combustion pressures. There's a seal on the end here that prevents combustion pressure from leaking out. The fuel line hooks up here.

There's an electrical connector up here. All the magic kind of happens in this area of the injector here. I mean, it's amazing how, we're talking like literally microseconds of opening times and sprays. It's a pretty amazing device.

And there's a top view of the engine. So these are different cylinders. There's number one, number six.. It looks rather like a diesel when you look at it, it's basically got a high pressure, common rail. There's the electrical connector here for the injectors and the injectors kind of buried down here.

We're looking at the ignition coils right here. So there's six of them. It's a six cylinder engine below that way down there as a spark plug. So. It's sometimes funny when you look at these, you know,  you can actually see the engine, it's hard to know what's actually engine and what's actually a fuel and ignition system.

There's so much that kind of gets  added on top, let's say. Timing changes. So, you know, it's over here, the engine oil filter air intake, just to kind of orient you to the engine compartment and that's the front of the vehicle there. Oh, and by the way, there's a big covers that go over top of here.

So in order to get it, that's an access that there's a very large cover. That pretty much goes right over to this area here. So when you look under the hood, it almost looks like a four cylinder. 

Mark: So, is there anything that can be done to prevent fuel injectors failing on one of these new BMWs? 

Bernie: No, they'll just fail at their own time. And they are problematic. This engine was kind of unique though. I mean, this is the  first one that we've run into this had developed this problem, but we've had others where they have misfires or they just don't quite run properly and the injectors tend to fail.

Strangely enough, this vehicle only has 50,000 kilometres. So it's very low usage, which is kind of surprising. You think it would last a little longer. I've got a 2011 X3 with over a hundred and it's still - knock on wood - the injectors are still working well, and hopefully they will. They tend to fail at a variety of ages, this seems a bit on the young side. 

Mark: Did you have to replace all the injectors or just the number one cylinder? 

Bernie: In this case, we only replaced number one and I strongly suggested to the owner, "let's do all six." Because if one fails, chances are the other ones are gonna fail.

You know, you never know. I mean, tomorrow or six months, you never know when the next one's going to fail. So the recommendation is to replace all the injectors and it kind of gives the engine a fresh start. But in this case we just replaced the one, that's what he wanted to do.

And that's what we did. We had recommended doing the spark plugs as well, but he just kind of opted to do the fuel injector, 'cause we knew that was the bad thing.

I'm gonna share another photo. After we change the injector, of course, we started the engine up and had been running really badly, the exhaust was smoking, you know, a lot of issues. We fired the engine up, we're warming it up, and this is the kind of smoke that was coming out of the exhaust for a little while. What had happened of course, with the injector dumping so much fuel into the engine and basically, you know, just flooded the exhaust system with a mixture of oil and extra fuels.

So these are some of the things that can happen after catastrophic injector failure like this, the exhaust's a little smokey. "Oh, did we do something?" And something happened. It's just, just a matter of time for things to burn out of the system when you ended up getting too much fuel like that.

Mark: After that burned out that stuff, how did it run after all the repairs? 

Bernie: The car ran great. A lot of power, ran really well, so we delivered it to the customer.  We got a phone call the next morning, the car is running like crap - check engine lights on, barely runs, and go, "Uh oh". I brought it back in and number six's injector had failed for exactly the same thing. 

I find it kind of ironic because it literally, when it left the shop, it was beautiful. So this is why we recommend, you know, when we say change all six, there's a good reason to do it. So after going through a very long ordeal, again, rediagnosed it. We also changed the oil because the oil had got pretty contaminated by now with two fuel injectors leaking too much gasoline, the oil was starting to get contaminated.

So we changed the oil, change number six injector and all the spark plugs and the misfire count was very minimal. We changed number six injector, car's been gone a week, haven't heard back. So I think it's all good, but you know, this is the exact reason why, you know, sometimes they say, you never know, it could fail tomorrow, it could fail in a year. 

And this is one of those cases where it failed tomorrow. And by the way, it actually, even though it costs you more money to do the job. All six first time, it's more money, but it's actually cheaper per injector to replace it like that, cause every time you go in, there's extra labor to remove all the other fuel rails and bits and pieces.

So there's the story, but now it's running well... so far, but there's four more injectors that could fail any day. 

Mark: Fingers crossed.

Bernie: Yes, exactly.

Mark: If you're looking for a service for your BMW, any fuel injection problems, the experts to see in Vancouver Pawlik automotive. You can reach them at (604) 327-7112 to book your appointment, you have to call and book ahead. They're busy, always busy. Check out the website, PawlikAutomotive.com. Hundreds of videos and articles on there, all makes and models of cars, all kinds of repairs over the last seven years. YouTube channel Pawlik Auto Repair, same thing, hundreds of videos on there. Check it out. If you've got nothing to put you to sleep, we can do the job.  And thanks for listening. We appreciate it, leave us a review. Thanks Bernie. 

Bernie: Thanks Mark. Thanks for watching and listening. 

Listen to podcast here.

Mark: Hi, it's Mark from Top Local. We're here with Bernie Pawlik, Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver. Vancouver's best auto service experience. 22 time winners, 22 times. Best Auto Repair in Vancouver as voted by their customers. And we're talking cars. How are you doing Bernie? 

Bernie: Doing very well. 

Mark: So 2006 Toyota Prius. This is a hybrid vehicle. What was going on with this car? 

Bernie: This vehicle was brought to our shop. The owner had left it sitting for about a year. She'd been told by the Toyota dealer that the inverter needed to be replaced. And it's an expensive repair, so she decided to leave it and was now committed to fixing it. So she had chose to bring it to our shop to have us look at it and repair it. 

Mark: So did you just hammer a new inverter in there or did you do some testing? 

Bernie: No, we did some testing. Of course, you know, how we work around here. So first thing, the car was completely dead, so they tested the 12 volt battery. It wouldn't take a charge. It was completely dead as we expected it might be. So the first step was install a 12 volt battery because we couldn't get any information out of the car without having that going. And so we put that in. Then we were able to see if the car would power up. The internal combustion engine wouldn't start. Basically the ready functions of the car wouldn't happen. So did some scans. Did some tests. There was a DC DC converter code. We tested that unit out and found it was faulty. And that was the cause of our, at least, no start. 

Mark: Okay. What is a DC to DC converter? 

Bernie: So what that does is it converts the high voltage battery. So this vehicle has basically two electrical systems. It has the high voltage system, which drives the vehicle. And then it has the 12 volt system, which you'll find in any normal car, which runs all the electrical accessories. It works with the hybrid system and also of course, works with your lights and radio and wipers and all the other things in the car. 

So the DC DC converter basically converts the DC voltage high voltage from the high voltage battery system down to 12 to 14 volts to charge the battery. So it keeps the electrical system going. It's an electronic alternator, much like you would, or serves the function of the alternator that you'd find in a normal internal combustion engine.

Mark: So the whole system is kaput because of one unit failing. 

Bernie: It is. Yeah. It basically that the DC DC converters, doesn't operate or there's a failure of this type, it just basically won't even allow the car to start. So you're dead in the water. Unfortunately you know, I like to say the cowboy days, well cars are just gotten more and more complicated.

If you know, your alternator is dead, at least you could charge your battery up and drive it for a few miles. But not with this car. It's you fix it or you don't go anywhere. 

Mark: So the DC DC converter, I happened to know as part of the inverter. Is that how that works?

Bernie: It is, yeah. It's all integrated inside the inverter.  And actually we'll just look at some pictures right now. 

So, there is our 06 Prius. And let's have a look at the inverter. So here's an engine compartment view. So this red arrow here is actually pointing to the inverter. This sits on top of what would be the transmission is the motor generator units. And the internal combustion engine is located on this side where the yellow arrow is. So you'll notice too there's a couple of cooling systems. This one here is actually for the inverter. And this one here is for the internal combustion engine.

There's the old inverter removed from the vehicle. You can see that coolant tank that was part of it. That comes with the new inverter. Orange cables, any orange cables, these are all high voltage cables. There are a number of different spots where the cables from the motor generator are attached into the inverter. Items that are bolted in place. This is the top view of the inverter without cover off. It says hybrid synergy drive. This is what's underneath it. And of course this can be taken apart. There's many, many layers, but it's all electrical, electronic devices inside here. And finally, there's the new units sitting in a fresh box from Toyota, which is how the customer chose to fix the vehicle.

Mark: So what else does the inverter do? 

Bernie: Well, the primary function of the inverter is to actually convert the DC voltage from the high voltage battery pack, to three phase AC voltage for the motors in the motor generator unit. There's two motor generators one of them primarily drives the vehicle.

The other one will  recharge the high voltage battery. They all kind of work together. It's complicated, but those are kind of the main functions, but there's basically conversion needed from the high voltage battery. To AC triple phase from triple phase AC back to the high voltage battery to recharge it.

And this all happens inside that box. It's kind of like a magic box, really pretty amazing how it all works. The DCDC converter is in there. So there's a conversion to convert that to 14 volts to charge the 12 volt electrical system.

Mark: So it sounds complicated and expensive. 

Bernie: Well, it is complicated. These are things that we, as far as I know, I don't know anyone who fixes them. There's really two options for repairing it. There's buy a brand new one from Toyota or buy used one. The owner opted to go for a new one.

It is very expensive part. There's sort of three main components, you know, on the hybrid system on these vehicles. One is the inverter. The other is the high voltage battery in the other courses, the motor generator transmission type of unit. These are all very expensive components. Usually very reliable,  especially the inverters. I did present the option of a used one, which was very reasonably priced and you know, it's always a bit of a gamble, but Prius inverters are pretty reliable. So it would have been a good gamble, but she wanted to the new part  and the assurance that that would provide.

So once replaced, it'll likely, never go dead again, and for another, the car is 14 years old. It'll probably last 14 or much longer than that. So that's the way she chose to go. 

Mark: How complex is it to repair or replace the inverter?

Bernie: Well of course there are safety concerns with the high voltage electrical system.

You've got to make it safe to work on. Once you do that, it's just matter of unbolting, a lot of electrical connectors and there's a cooling system involved. So it's just time to unbolt things and bolt things back together. Refill the cooling system, bleed it out properly. Then it just works. As long as the computers see everything they want to see, then the vehicle starts up. 

Mark: How did the vehicle work after all the repairs? 

Bernie: Well, it started up just fine. The moment we had the proper inverter, everything started fine.

We drove the vehicle, and there was an issue. The vehicle drove fine, but the warning lights came on on the dash. There's a triangular hybrid system warning light along with the check engine light that came on, which isn't surprising considering the vehicle sat for at least a year, and who knows how long before that?

The issue with that, we're going to talk about in our next podcast, because we've spent a lot of time talking about this inverter and if this was a TV show, it'd be a cliffhanger, but this is just car repair. We'll talk about that in the next podcast.

Mark: So there you go. If you need some service for your Prius in Vancouver, the guys to see are Pawlik Automotive. You can reach them at (604) 327-7112. To book your appointment - you gotta call and book ahead, they're still busy, they're rocking and rolling even through a pandemic!  Pawlik Automotive, you can check out the website: pawlikautomotive.com. We're on YouTube: Pawlik Auto Repair. Hundreds of videos in both places, all makes and models, all types of repairs.  Thanks really, we really appreciate leaving a review or just watching our crazy talks about fixing cars here. And thanks Bernie. 

Bernie: Thanks Mark. Thanks for watching.

Listen to podcast here.

Mark: Hi, it's Mark from Top Local. We're here with Bernie Pawlik. Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver. Vancouver's best auto service experience. 22 time winners of Best Auto Repair in Vancouver as voted by their customers. And we're talking hybrids today. How are you doing Bernie? 

Bernie: Doing well.

Mark: So Ford Escape, 2009 hybrid had a problem with this high voltage battery. What was going on with this vehicle? 

Bernie: Yeah, so the vehicle was towed to our shop in a no start condition. The owner had left the vehicle sitting for a while. Found the 12 volt battery had drained completely. So he'd replaced it. That restored power to the vehicle, when you turn the key on things would light up on the dash, but the car still wouldn't start.

So at that point, he'd figured maybe the high voltage battery discharge or something else is wrong. Had it towed to us and we had to look at the vehicle. 

Mark: So what testing did you do next? 

Bernie: Well, of course, looking at the high voltage battery was the next thing. The internal combustion engine starts through a motor generator unit and that's powered by the high voltage battery. So on most hybrids, you need a good state of charge in the high voltage battery. Has to be at least above the minimum acceptable amount. To crank the engine over. 

So next test of course was to scan for codes. We found a few for high voltage battery issues, along with looking at the scan tool data for the battery indicated the state of charge was at zero.

So, that was a clue that the problem lie either in a defective discharge battery or defective battery, one of the two. 

Mark: So without a decent state of charge in the high voltage battery via electric motor generator, won't start the combustion engine on the vehicle. 

Bernie: Exactly. And this is true for most hybrids or there are a few older generation, I'm thinking Honda's that actually have a starter motor, so they can start. All Prius's they all have to have a high voltage battery to start the vehicle. 

Mark: So how do you charge a high voltage battery? 

Bernie: Yeah. Well, so you need a special charger. We bought a specialty unit from a person I've done some training with. In this case of this vehicle, we have to remove the battery from the vehicle to access, you know, open the battery pack up to access some connectors where we can actually charge the battery.

It's a very slow charging process. We had it on for a couple of days. It puts a very minimal amount of current into the battery. It's not a fast charge. We just put enough in there to get the cells balanced out and put enough energy in so the vehicle will start. And from there, the motor generator unit will take care of the rest of the charging of the vehicle.

Interestingly enough, on a Ford Escape, if you have one that's a 2008 or earlier, there's actually a capability to charge the high voltage battery with the 12 volt battery system. There's a switch. Can't remember exactly where it's located, but if you look in your owner's manual, you'll find it.

You can switch that up and it'll divert power from the 12 volt battery to the high voltage battery and charge that battery up enough so you can start to vehicle. A very smart idea, which they decided to discontinue in the 2009 model year.  Makes for a much more expensive process to fix after 2009.

I guess they assume that the cost of the charger was too high versus how often this battery would potentially go dead. So interesting choices they make as manufacturers, but this is what we work with. 

Mark: When you were mentioning high voltage, how high a voltage is that battery pack?

Bernie: It's  around the 400 volt range. It's funny how fast my memory fades sometimes. Cause I remember looking at this voltage gauge and seeing what it was. I do remember that when we started the process was that 255 volts. That was too low on the scan tool that we have that 255 volts red, zero state of charge.

So clearly the battery was not dead. The 255 volts is way below the threshold of what the vehicle needs For the motor generator unit to work? I think when we finished, it was like up and around the four, four 50 volt range. It certainly wasn't fully charged when we put it back in the car out probably would have taken a couple of weeks at the rate we charged it or at least a week. It was , sufficient to start the vehicle. And then we had the, drove it to get things going from there. 

Mark: Like all batteries, it gets slower. The charge increase slows down the closer you're getting to full. Drastically close you're getting to full. So this is, this is obviously not at that kind of voltage. This is not a charger you can just apply it  at your local auto repair place. 

Bernie: No, no, because all those charges are 12 volts. At most 24 volt charging system is what's found on trucks and the odd Toyota Land Cruiser. That's the only vehicle I've ever worked on 24 volts, but trucks have 24, but that's far below what we need.

So this is actually a specially built charger. The whole idea behind this charge, actually was not just to charge the battery, but because it puts a very low rate. It puts  only a half an amp current maximum into the battery. It can be used to balance the cells out in the nickel metal hydride battery pack.

Sometimes an older, especially older Honda's the cells go out of balance and, there's  issues with the vehicle. If you charge it, you know, with this charger, it'll actually rebalance the cells because it's putting everything in at a very slow rate. So that's kind of the design behind it, but very handy for these kinds of issues where it's either  what do you do with the vehicle? Get a new battery pack, which is a lot of money, huge amount of money. Not worth it for the value of the vehicle. 

Mark: So this isn't a service that's available at every auto repair shop. You gotta be trained in high voltage electrics, basically in vehicles to be able to do this. Do you have any pictures? 

Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

Bernie: Yeah, I do. I do. You're getting tired of hearing me talk? Yeah, the answer is yes. I mean, I know of only one other shop around the greater Vancouver area that does a lot of hybrid work that I'm sure has one of these chargers, but I don't know of anyone else who does. I'm not even sure what the dealers do.

They may have something. I know Toyota's. You know, their dealerships didn't even have chargers, you know, in this kind of situation, they'd have to send some tech rep out from Toyota if your Prius ever went dead. So, you know, if you have a Prius, we can resurrect it. If the battery is decent.

Okay. Pictures, there's our Escape Hybrid , still dirty from when it was brought into the shop. What else have we got here? Let's have a look under the hood. So there's the view under the hood. There's the internal combustion engine under this nice hybrid cover here. 

The motor generator unit's located underneath here. The interesting thing, I wasn't able to take a picture of it. There's a lot of space back here. The way that the Escape is designed, a lot of them have V6s. So there's a lot of room and  back in the engine compartment here. Surprisingly with the complexity of a hybrid there, but there's a lot of room. Anyways, these are a couple of the major components of the vehicle battery pack. 

Mark: Is this a four cylinder? 

Bernie: It's a four cylinder. Yeah. I can't remember the size of the engine off the top of my head, but you know, it goes good. I mean, drive it it's it's decent. Of course. It's got the boost of the motor generator unit while you're driving. So you have like two power plants moving the vehicle forward. So you don't need a, a humongous engine where it works well. 

This is the battery pack. This sits in the back underneath the cover. As I said, we have to remove this and then take all these screws off of here and inside this area here that are kind of moving the mouse over.

This is where all the battery cells sit. There's a number of electronic modules and pieces as well. This was the service plug. You can switch the power off to the vehicle through this plug here and, you know, it's a critical part in any time servicing the vehicle, you switch it to this position, it basically cuts the power to the rest of the vehicle, so it's important. 

But one thing that does happen is once you take this cover off, of course everything's live inside, so you still have the full voltage available to do nasty things should you ever touch anything. You gotta be careful around these things.

Here's a bit of scan tool data. So after we put the battery in, took it for a drive, this shows the state of charge. I went out for a long drive just to see, probably about 10 miles type of drive. This is the start of the drive.

So this is after we put the battery pack in and ran the vehicle for awhile in the shop, 44% state of charge and that kind of fluctuates. But after,  again, this is a critical thing. Like when we started the process that says state of charge zero, so we knew something was going on. There's a lot of important data that we can see here on this, like the battery pack, integrity pack. Okay. I'm not certain how it determines that, but you know, of course, if it wasn't okay, that would be an indication, was time to change the battery.

This is that same sort of data, but we can put it into graphing mode on our scan tool. Apologize for all the weird lines here. But you can see this is after a long drive the battery's now up around the 59, 58% state of charge, but did it go as high as 62? So it fluctuates depending on if you're driving down a hill with your foot on the brake, then the charge starts going up quite a bit. Could probably charge the battery up to 80% pretty easily if we just had a long enough hill. 

What else have we got here? Oh yeah, then the dash. So there's a couple of features on the instrument panel that you'll find on an Escape Hybrid that you won't see on the non-Escape. There's a charge and discharge gauge. If you boot the gas pedal really hard with the internal combustion engine and the motor generator unit driving you, this gauge will go way up in this direction. If you're kind of just cruising along normally it'll probably be around this part here, maybe even in the mid range.

And once you put the brake on and the charge goes into the charge range. This situation here, this will show you whether the engine is actually running. So of course, once the internal combustion engine starts, the RPM gauge comes on. Say stopped at a light where  it just switches the engine off, you can see the sort of state of charge of the battery. the thing required an oil change too. So that's a service where we've still need to do. And there's our picture show.

Mark: So you mentioned a high voltage batteries can become discharged on other hybrids as well. 

Bernie: Yeah. I mean, any battery will discharge over time. You know, it's an important thing to make sure that you start your hybrid every once in a while. The times we're in right now with COVID some people have parked their cars, they've left them, or they're not driving very often. Critical. If you have a hybrid, make sure you get out there, start it up, drive it around a little bit. It's very important because otherwise, , it won't start and high voltage battery is dead.

 Of course we can, can definitely get it back in a state of charge that you can use the car, but it's an expense you'd probably want to avoid if you can.

Mark: And how are these Ford escape, hybrids for reliability? 

Bernie: Pretty good. We don't see a lot of them because there aren't a ton of them around, but so far they've been pretty good. They're actually built the same, it's the same platform, not the same platform as a Prius, but same type of design.

I think the quality of the materials and part components are pretty good. So you know, underneath the vehicles, very little oil leakage from the engine. It's a 169,000 miles to the U S model well car. So that's a fair amount of time and the vehicle ran really nice.

So, I'd say, yeah, it's pretty good. If you do need a battery pack, they are expensive to buy new. There are ways to fix them for less money, or even there are some good used packs available as well. 

Mark: So there you go. If you're looking for some service for your Ford Escape Hybrid or any kind of hybrid in Vancouver area, the guys to call her Pollock automotive, you can reach them at (604) 327-7112.

To book your appointment, you have to call and book ahead. They're busy. They're really busy right now. Everybody's getting ready to travel this summer. Little local tourism. You can check out the website. Pawlik automotive.com. There's hundreds of videos and articles on their repairs of all makes and models of vehicles. Pawlik auto repair is the YouTube channel. 

Of course, thank you for watching, listening to the podcast. We appreciate it. Leave us a review on Apple podcast. If you are enjoying what we're doing, if you're grooving on what we're doing, what we're laying down. Thanks Bernie.

Bernie: Thanks Mark. And thanks for watching. It's always a pleasure.

Mark: Hi, it's Mark from Top Local. We're here with Bernie Pawlik, Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Vancouver's best auto service experience. 22 time winners of Best Auto Repair in Vancouver as voted by their customers. Now we're talking road trips today. How are you doing Bernie? 

Bernie: Doing very well. 

Mark: So summer road trips that's even with the current travel restrictions, we have to take vacations within our own country it seems that certainly there's not a lot of things. Other places that are opened up more road trips, what are some of the things that we need to make our cars prepared for the kind of stress of taking longer trips?

Bernie: So yeah, I think it's going to be big summer road trips with all the travel restrictions. People aren't gonna be flying off to Europe, but they're going to be getting to see some of the beauty of British Columbia, which is possibly one of the most beautiful places on earth. A lot of people will get to see things they haven't seen before, which is awesome. But if you're taking your car and most people will, there's certainly a lot of strains that a car goes under when you're taking a long trip. Things you'd, might not happen when you're driving, you know, your usual city trip or your commute to work and back and driving your kids around to activities.

Well, which isn't going on right now either. But you know, when you're driving out on a lot of these trips, especially where we live, there's a lot of mountains, steep hills, you know, where engines are stressed, fuels burn a lot more. Sometimes if you have an engine that may have a slight oil burning problem, you may not notice that until you get out on the road or coolant hoses you've been neglecting, might burst and cause your engine overheat.

We see a lot of, when we drive up our mountain passes, you see a lot of cars that tend to die, premature death from lack of maintenance or lack of care while you're driving. So those are some of the things to look out for. 

Mark: So what are some things to do to prepare your vehicle, because it could be your truck as well, for the journeys that you might be on? 

Bernie: Well, the biggest thing is to make sure your vehicle's inspected and all your maintenance is current. That's the biggest thing to do.  I mean, if you're, we have regular clients who come through our shop and they, you know, we have like an A service, a B service, it's like a more full inspection.

I mean, if it's something that's been done recently over the last few months, probably not a lot you need to do in the way of having a shop do the work. But if you haven't had your vehicle inspected by a mechanic or shop for awhile, you should go in and have a good thorough inspection, you know, let them know I'm going on this trip. I want to make sure that my car is in good shape to go. So we basically do a very thorough, comprehensive inspection, look at the vehicle from front to back, and it's always good to know, for us, what people's reasoning is for their inspection. And if it's a trip, then we tend to look at certain things a little more closely.

Mark: So what if there's a large list of repairs that need to be done? Do you have to do them all? 

Bernie: Well, not necessarily. And again, we like to prioritize things. So, you know, we usually break our lists of, this is absolutely critical to do. These are things to watch for, and these are things, you know, things you could do, and things you know, things that are good.

So again, we can look over the vehicle and look at what are the priorities. But if you're going on a long highway trip, you know, making sure your cooling systems in good shape, those are critical things. Your fluids are full. Any leaks that might cause problems on routes should be fixed. Any loose, critically loose suspension or steering parts, brakes again, when you're going up the steep hills, you're going to need good breaks coming down the hills.

Now if you're traveling on the prairies, of course, that's a different conversation, because you're kind of going on the flat. But you know, nonetheless, it's important, you know, you can either choose to have your car repaired at a place you like and trust, or you can choose to leave it for, gamble the odds and possibly have it repaired in a place you don't really trust. 

Mark: What about tires?

Bernie: Tires? Well, obviously you know, tires need to have proper inflation and that's really critical and especially really important when you're loading your vehicle up. You know, you've got your family in the vehicle, you've got a whole bunch of extra gear, a bunch of extra weight, making sure your tire pressures are set, is critical.

And this is another thing, of course, as I mentioned, if you'd had your vehicle recently serviced, oh within the last few months, you're going to want to make sure your tire pressures are good yourself. Those are things to check yourself, make sure your oil's full, your coolant levels up. Those are do it yourself checks that you should do. And, you know, make sure, especially tires, you know critical and the treads are in good shape. 

Mark: What about cracking? I know that's something that you mentioned on my father's vehicle. He's got an older vehicle with, it hasn't had a ton of mileage on it, all around town. So the treads are probably okay. But there's a lot of cracking in the tires. Is that a indicator that the time for new tires? 

Bernie: It is actually. Often we'll see tires, cars that have very low mileage people don't drive a whole lot. The trends will start to crack. Rubber breaks down. And you can actually look on your tires, there's a DOT, Department of Transport tag that tells when the tire was manufactured. And it's generally, sort of a rule of thumb, is if a tire is older than seven years old, like as manufactured more than seven years ago, it's pretty much time to change that tire. Now I'm not saying that a tire that's 10 years old is going to burst, but you know, it's getting to that age where the rubber is starting to get old and it's worth considering replacing your tires. 

I have an RV trailer. I mean, just trying to think of how old, I think my tire's like 12 years old. I hardly use it. So the treads are like, you know, 90% of original, but I decided, you know what, I'm changing the tires because I just don't want them to blow up on a road trip.

So these are the kinds of things that are good to look for. So yeah, cracking tires definitely worth replacing. 

Mark: So what are some of the other things that I should be making sure I'm taking a look at while I'm on the road. 

Bernie: Well, I think it's important, especially if you're doing a long trip, even if it's not that long, but before you start out driving in the day, do a walk around of your vehicle, have a look. How did the tires look, you know, is there anything noticeable, maybe, you know, poke your head under the vehicle? Is there anything dripping. By the way, it's normal for air conditioning systems to drip water. So if you're seeing a fluid coming out, kind of usually that's around the floor where the passenger's feet might be, it's normal for water to come out there.

So if you see a fluid, don't freak out, just maybe back the car up and go, Oh, is that water? And you can tell if it's water. You know, but if, you know, just have a look on the ground, make sure there's no fluids or drips. And if you do see something on the ground, make sure it's your vehicle and not from some other previously parked vehicle, but, you know, have a look at that kind of thing.

And, and I think it's very worthwhile every once in a while. Maybe every time you fill up, or every second, fill up, just pop the hood, check the oil level, just have a look at the coolant, make sure it's in the overflow bottle, it's full. You know, those are couple of things that can save you a lot of grief.

Mark: So what if my car has tire pressure monitoring or other alerts that tell me if the fluid levels are low or if there's any other problems. Should I still make these periodic checks? 

Bernie: Well I think the walk around is important, but yeah, there's some vehicles, I have a BMW that pretty well, kind of tells you everything. I mean, if the tires are low on air, a light will come on. If the oil's low, a light will come on, if the coolant's low a light will come on. So these are all things that are all taken care of. I will say that it's probably not a bad idea to just poke your head under the hood and look anyways, although on a lot of cars you won't see anything because they're so covered. But you know, it's good to know your car. So you need to know, does my car actually have these features. 

I own an older Suburban. It has oil and coolant level monitoring as well. So a light will come on if the oil level is low or the coolant. So I don't really need to look at that stuff, but it doesn't have tire pressure monitoring. So that's the kind of thing that I need to look at. And of course in that vehicle, like an under hood inspection is a good thing to do. 

But the important thing is get to know your vehicle. Don't make assumptions, look in the owner's manual. If you have any questions call your trusted mechanic, or if you're in Vancouver and you deal with us, call us. We're happy to help. 

Mark: So any other tips that you might have for making a successful trip? 

Bernie: Well, you know, it's not a bad idea to bring a little extra fluids along, like know a bit of extra coolant for your engine. You can just bring a jug of water. I mean, water works fine as a coolant for it, you know, on temporary basis. Maybe a litre of oil or so just to be on the safe side, if you happen to need it somewhere in the middle of nowhere. And you know, it's important to know where it is you're going. If you're doing a trip, that's kind of like off the grid, like out in the bush somewhere, and you're going a ways,  there's some other things you might want to bring along. Make sure your spare tires got air in it. And you know how to actually change the tire. 

Extra batteries. A lot of places sell these booster packs. They're small little compact battery. It's a sort of yay big, not very big. So I think it was a lithium ion battery. You can charge it with your car charger or charge it at home, but it has clips on it, so if your battery happens to go dead, you've got actually a battery booster to get you out in an emergency. And it's compact. You can also use it to charge your cell phones and things. But of course, if you use it for your cell phones too long, you know, your car battery won't have enough juice to do your car battery. So you've got to kind of watch it, but it's a good emergency item to have. 

Other than that cell phone, you know, bring some water for yourself, maybe some energy bars or just something to eat in case, unfortunately, your car breaks down somewhere and you have to walk. It's also good to know your terrain. Like what's the cell phone coverage like where you're going. Because there are a lot of places where there is no cell phone coverage in certain areas. So you know, just knowing that is helpful. 

Mark: Yeah you might not be able to rely on whatever support systems that you typically would have in the city. So you have to be a little more self-reliant.

Bernie: Exactly. And there are highways that have better cell coverage than others and, you know, little pockets that don't and that's basically, yeah. 

Mark: So there you go. If you would need your vehicle inspected before you go on your next road trip, the guys to see in Vancouver are Pawlik Automotive. You can reach them at 604-327-7112. Check out the website pawlikautomotive.com. YouTube channel Pawlik Auto Repair. Call and book ahead, they're busy. You got to book ahead. But there's hundreds of videos there for you to learn from and check out what the problems might be with your vehicle on the website or on the YouTube channel. And again, if you like the podcast, give us a review on Apple podcasts or wherever you're picking up your podcast from. We appreciate it. Thanks Bernie. 

Bernie: Thanks, Mark. And a happy motoring, safe driving.

Mark: Hi, it's Mark from Top Local. We're here with Bernie Pawlik, Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver. Vancouver's best auto service experience. 22 time winners of Best Auto Repair in Vancouver. And of course we're talking Fords today. How are you doing Bernie? 

Bernie: Doing very well. 

Mark: So a Ford Edge, 2008, that had a fuel injector problem. What was going on with this vehicle? 

Bernie:So the vehicle came to our shop with a couple of concerns and one of them was that the engine was running rough and the check engine light was on. 

Mark: So you did some testing and diagnosis. What did you find? 

Bernie: Yeah, so we, of course our first step in testing is hooking a scan tool up to see what trouble codes we have. There was a code P0301, which is a cylinder one misfire, and there was also a code for a misfire on startup. So clearly the problem was you know, indicated which cylinder it was. We did some tests and verified, in fact, number one cylinder wasn't firing properly, not completely dead, but partially dead.

The testing and diagnosis on this was interesting because a lot of times, you know, it'll be a bad ignition coil. A lot of these, they have an ignition coil per cylinder. They tend to fail quite frequently. And so we often come into our diagnostics with assumptions. Oh, it's probably that, but in fact, that coil had been replaced about eight months ago at another shop. Still doesn't mean it wasn't a problem. So we ran some tests. We have a lab scope where we can actually get a pattern, like a firing pattern on each coil. So we tested the coils that we could, the rear cylinder bank is a little difficult to access on this vehicle because the intake manifold hangs over the back of the rear cylinders.

And number one cylinder just happens to be in the back where it's not so easy, but the coil was visible and we were able to at least test the pattern on the coil seemed to be fine, but just a verifying testings further, we remove the intake manifold as much as we needed to. Pulled the coil out, swapped it with another cylinder, verified that in fact that coil is good, inspected the spark plug. It was good. Did a compression test on the cylinder. It was good. So that kind of narrowed us down to either a major vacuum leak or a fuel injector. So we went and performed some tests on the fuel injectors. 

Resistance tests were the first, well, actually the first test we did was we can listen with a stethoscope. We could hear the injector was clicking, so it was actually firing, but still doesn't guarantee of course the injector's perfect. I'll just go some pictures because this is where we find the actual issue. 

So there is our Ford Edge, 2008, 12 year old car now. Still in good shape about 180,000 kilometres, I believe on this vehicle and after we fixed it, of course ran well. There's a picture of the fuel injector. These are quite compact compared to what they used to be. Although I don't have anything, you know, size to compare it to. But just a couple of things, this is where the electrical connector hooks up. The actual fuel's injected out of this area here. So this sits in the intake manifold, and this is where the fuel rail connects up where the high pressure fuel sits. This is a port fuel injector, so it fires the fuel into the intake manifold as opposed to a direct fuel injector, which fires directly into the cylinder, which is a different technology.

So this is one of the fuel injectors. This is a tested with an ohm meter. So we're testing the resistance through the fuel injector, 12.2 ohms. That's a normal amount. I could show you the other five injectors, but we'll just go to the bad one, this is the bad one, 105 ohms. Immediately we knew there was something wrong with it. Now interestingly, when we first tested it in the car, we actually found that the resistance was only about 30 ohms, which was still three times what it was supposed to be. But, as we tested it a few more times, for taking this picture, I found that the resistance would vary from 40 to 105. Sometimes it hit 200. So clearly there was a problem. And that's what we found. So sometimes resistance tests are kind of useless, but in the case of this vehicle, this was clearly what helped us confirm our problem.

Mark: Did you fix the issue? Did you just replace one injector or did you have to do all of them? 

Bernie: Well, that was the discussion we had with the client, because obviously there was only one that was bad, but the vehicle has 180,000 kilometres, it's 12 years old, one injectors died. What are the chances that the other five are going to go in the next week, month, six months a year, and this is not an entirely uncommon wear out part on this particular engine. Fuel injectors do wear out fairly commonly. So we had a discussion with the client. Here's the cost to do one here's the cost to do all six. He chose to do all six. Smart move. You know, the labor to actually change one of them is the same as changing all six, because you have to remove the whole injector rail. Remove the intake manifold remove the whole injector rail. So they all come out of the engine. It's just really a matter of do you change one, or do you change the others?

And so had he not chosen to do them because that does add a bit of cost. These are fortunately not the most expensive injectors out there, so they're reasonable, but it's still six is a lot more money than doing one. But the consequences of not doing it would be, say a month from now, the engine starts running rough again. We have to go through the whole diagnostic procedure and all the costs associated with that only to find, Oh, another injector's died and then you have to pull the whole fuel rail off. He pays the whole labor cost again to change another injector. So it just makes sense to do all of them at the same time.

But again, these things, you know, we need to evaluate, you know, as to how difficult the job is. If it's easy to just change one at a time, then you can go that route. But we found in the past, a lot of times we get an engine where one ignition coil's bad, we change one and then a few months later, the next one dies. So it's often better to do all of them, but it really depends on costs and the work involved. 

Mark: So, how did it run after you completed the repairs? 

Bernie: Kind of like brand new. It was awesome. Yeah. Ran really well started great. Ran smooth. So yeah, really, really good. 

Mark: And how are Ford Edges for liability? 

Bernie: They're pretty good. We've got a number of clients with them from, you know, people who drive them very little, to you know, people who've got fairly high mileage on them. They seem to be pretty good overall. I mean, this is not an unexpected repair for a vehicle of this age. So overall I'd say they're pretty good. They're not a super high priced vehicle, so they're, I think a pretty good deal, but you will probably do a few more things than you would on a Toyota, but that's all as the benchmark standard. You'll probably hear me say that all the time. It's going to sickening and annoying, but not as reliable as a Toyota, but still pretty good. And generally the price point on them to buy is good. 

Mark: So there you go. If you're looking for service for your Ford product in Vancouver, the guys to see are Pawlik Automotive. You can reach them at (604) 327-7112 to book your appointment. Again in Vancouver, BC, Canada. You can also check out the website, pawlikautomotive.com. Our YouTube channel Pawlik Auto Repair. On both places, hundreds and hundreds of videos, articles on all makes and models of vehicles and all kinds of repairs. Thank you for watching the podcasts and listening. We appreciate it. Leave us a review and thanks Bernie. 

Bernie: Thanks Mark. Thanks for watching.

Mark: Hi, it's Mark from Top Local. We're here with Bernie Pawlik, Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver. Vancouver's best auto service experience. 22 time winners of Best Auto Repair in Vancouver as voted by their customers. We're talking Jeeps. How are you doing Bernie? 

Bernie: Doing well.

Mark: So a 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee. That had a limited slip differential problem. What was going on with this vehicle? 

Bernie: Yeah, so the owner's concern was a warning light on the dash and said four wheel drive system fault. And there was a couple of other warning lights that would come on at the same time, ABS and then a couple of other things. So that was the primary concern.

Mark: So how did you diagnose this? 

Bernie: Yeah. We road test the vehicle, it felt fine. Plugged in our diagnostic scan tool and did a full system scan. This is sort of the best way. I mean, we could of gone right into the four wheel drive module, but the best thing to do on a modern vehicle, especially 2015, which is pretty advanced electronics, is to do a full system scan. So that scans every module in the vehicle computer from the engine to the power windows, whatever the vehicle equipped with, it scans the whole system and it reports on any trouble codes found. And so, we found trouble codes in a variety of different modules, ABS traction control, electronic limited slip differential, which is kind of where the area of concern we found lied. 

So from there, you know, once we record all the codes and we clear them, drive it and see which come back. And that kind of gives us an idea. Because one code will often set a code in another module. So it's important to decipher which item is actually causing the fault.

So from being a little more driving diagnosis, we found that the fault clearly it was the electronic limited slip differential motor. There was a circuit problem with that motor. 

Mark: So were there any more tests that you needed to do from there? 

Bernie: Yeah. Well, now that we'd verified where the area of the problem was coming from, then we were able to test the motor, the circuits, make sure that see what component was bad.

And of course we consult the manufacturer's information when we need to, and their system is pretty simple. It's clear the code. Doesn't return. Is the wiring hooked up. If it returns the motors defective. So that's kind of their system. And in fact, this time it did work fine, but so often in automotive repair, I've seen it, you know, install known good part.

Well, sometimes the known good parts, a thousand bucks. So, you know, I don't personally feel that good about going, you know, telling someone, Hey, it's going to be a thousand dollars plus labor. It might not work. It's a good way to lose customers fast, but we did our tests and the motor turned out to be the problem.

Mark: So how difficult was it to replace this motor? 

Bernie: It's pretty simple. This motor bolts onto the side of the rear differential and pretty straightforward replacement. Let's look at some pictures. 

So there's our Jeep 2015 Grand Cherokee, fully loaded. These vehicles, they just get fancier every year, pretty cool vehicle. Good off-road ride. So let's have a look, there's the motor. Electrical connector here. There's a little drive gear here that operates the innards of the differential. And we'll just look at a few more views of the motor, but essentially there's several bolts, and this bolts right into this side of the differential case. No messy fluid to change, it's pretty straightforward and easy. Okay views. This is the gear that meshes inside the motor. You can see the mounting holes here for the bolts. 

I found this stuff kind of interesting. The motor, it says if drop scrap, Do not open or modify. And then I kind of looked at it a little more closely and noticed that the whole motor is riveted together. There's not a bolt you can take apart to look at it. So this is a very integrated unit with sensors and obviously sensitive, like if drop, scrap. It's funny, interesting kind of English.

Wiring. So this is, you know, the electronics are complicated on these things, and this is like a, again, I'll just show these sort of things so you can kind of get an appreciation for the level of complexity that a modern vehicle has. You know, this is basically the motor here and differential clutch hall sensor, that's basically a position sensor. So the computer knows what position the motor's in, whether it's doing its thing and any of these things that don't quite work properly will cause the motor to malfunction and the whole system to go down. So again, clutch motor, there's a lot to this. And this is just the the rear differential. There's the electrical connector. And I think that kind of covers our picture show.

Mark: So, did you have to reprogram anything to get this motor to work properly? 

Bernie: It's a great question, because on a lot of modern vehicles, the moment you change a part, the vehicle needs to be reprogrammed to accept the module and what it is. And in this case, it wasn't. So it made first kind of simple plug and play operation. But yes, there are a lot of vehicles where if you put a module and all of a sudden there'll just be an error code and nothing works and all systems down and you have to reprogram it. But fortunately for this, it's easy. And this is a bit of research we always do before we replace a part on a vehicle just to check with the manufacturer to make sure that it doesn't need reprogramming. So that way as a customer, you know what to expect when the job's done. 

Mark: So I've replaced a couple of differentials in vehicles over the years. I've never had to put any kind of electronic stuff in there. Why are they using electronic controls in a deferential and what does it actually do? 

Bernie: Well again control is the word and with electronics, as we well know, you can do things fast. You know, a lot of the switch time in these things is a hundred milliseconds. So that's pretty quick, you know, and so a computer senses a wheel needs to grip the road a little better. It'll just send that signal right away. And then the differential can make the adjustments, whereas on a normal limited slip differential, it's a bit crude. I mean, it works great, but you're not going to get necessarily the very best traction you could, unless you can actually send the torque to the wheel that you need to.

So this gives that capability to be able to do that. What's inside of this thing. I actually tried to do a little research and I actually don't know exactly how it works because through my repair information, they don't show, Chrysler hasn't released anything on what the insides are like on this. So I have to get a unit and take it apart and see at some point, and I know that'll happen at some point in time. 

I looked at an Eaton video, which this may be an Eaton unit I'm not sure but they have a video on how the system works. It's kind of interesting to watch. 

Anyways, you know, the clutches are basically electronically controlled and it's basically speed and operation and control and integration with the rest of the vehicle. Perhaps more torque needs to go to the front and less on the rear, you know, being an all wheel drive vehicle so this is what the vehicle can do. Much more control. 

Mark: So 2015, it seems pretty new for replacement like this. How reliable are 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokees? 

Bernie: Well, you know, I consider Jeeps to be a vehicle in the fair reliability department. There's a lot of things that tend to go wrong on them. They are, in all honesty, they are are complex vehicles. There's a lot more to them than most, but this vehicle only had 42,000 kilometres. So really not a lot of mileage. And in my opinion, this motor should have lasted a whole lot longer. So I think, you know, if you own a Jeep, I guess the easiest thing I can say is just expect you're going to spend a little more money to do repairs than you would a few on some other equivalent vehicles.

Mark: And does that accelerate a little bit, if you're doing a lot more off-road stuff, even though that's rarer and rarer for Jeeps these days. 

Bernie: Yeah, well, there's certainly the risk of you go off road that you might bang or smash something, but it may actually in some way actually enhanced the life of some of the components, because they're actually meant to be used in these ways.

So sometimes lack of use can cause problems just as much as overuse. But I would say, yeah, if you're going out in the bush it might well do it. Like you said, a lot of these are city four by four. They don't really get used for what they could be used for.

Mark: So there you go. If you're city four by four, or off-road four by four needs some service in Vancouver. The guys to see your Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. You can reach them at (604) 327-7112 to book your appointment, you have to call the book ahead. They are busy, always a line up to get in there. So got a call and check. Pawlikautomotive.com is the website. Pawlik Auto Repair is the YouTube channel. Hundreds of videos of all makes and models and types of repairs on there over the last seven years. And of course, thanks so much for listening, watching the podcast. We appreciate it. Leave us a review. Thanks Bernie. 

Bernie: Thanks Mark. Thanks for watching.

Mark: Hi, it's Mark from Top Local. We're here with Bernie Pawlik, Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver. Vancouver's best auto service experience. 22 time winners of Best Auto Repair in Vancouver as voted by their customers. And we're talking Mercedes today. How are you doing Bernie? 

Bernie: Doing very well. 

Mark: So a 2008 ML350 that had an ABS problem warning light. What was going on with this SUV? 

Bernie: Yeah. So this vehicle was brought to us. It had a number of lights on, on the dash. Primarily the ABS light was the biggest concern. He'd actually taken it to another shop to have it scanned and diagnosed and repaired. But they, well, we can talk about this one later, but to make a long story short, it was at our shop too to be looked at. So we scanned the vehicle and found some interesting stuff. 

Mark: So, is there any other diagnosis that you had to do after scanning it? 

Bernie: We did. For sure. So, part of the procedure of course is to, with any diagnostic is to road test the vehicle. We did that the vehicle drove fine. You know, the thing about ABS lights to know is that when usually when an ABS warning comes on, it doesn't usually affect your braking system, because your base breaking system works as normal. It's just the ABS features, you know, that sort of antilock feel. If you've ever pressed the pedal hard and it, you feel the pedal vibrate, that will be shut off. In the features of antilock braking, which, you know, prevent the wheels from skidding, won't happen.

So you've got your basic brakes, but anyways vehicle drove fine. We found quite a few trouble codes starting the vehicle, but all of them pointed to the left rear wheel speed sensor. And there was all sorts of different descriptions for the codes. Mercedes are very detailed in a lot of their code descriptions and tests that they do on these things.

So there was even one that said perform visual inspection on censor, which I thought was kind of an interesting code description. So clearly we knew where the area of the problem was. And so our next step of our tests and unfortunately I have a video I really wanted to show. Maybe we'll maybe we'll be able to put it in with the with the final podcast, but it's not here available today, but we were able to look at each wheel speed sensor when we drive the car and compare how each centre’s operating.

So the interesting thing I noticed right away, so it has, you know, each wheel speed sensor and you would expect as you're driving down the road to have a reading of it. You're going like five kilometres an hour, five miles an hour. However it is. And they should all be relatively the same. Well, the interesting thing was as I went to that screen with the vehicle sitting in park and the engine running, you can see the left rear wheel speed sensor was, every wheel speed sensor said 0.7 of mile per hour. For some reason, I guess that's the default number when you're not moving. The left  wheel speed sensor would start reading 3, 4, 10 miles an hour without the vehicle even moving. So clearly we knew there was a problem in that area of the computer or the sensor.

Mark: So you've found the bad sensor. Do you just change a sensor or are there any more tests that you do after that? 

Bernie: You know, there's always different ways to deal with diagnostics. I'm going to actually go to a screen share here we'll just look at a few pictures while we're talking here. 

There's the vehicle 08 gasoline powered pictures. There's a new and old wheel speed sensor. You can tell it's the old one, because there's a bit of rust and corrosion, which we frequently find. And wheel speed sensors can often be problematic to remove cause they rust and corrosion in place.

Fortunately, this one was not too difficult to remove and this is the actual speed sensor located bolted up in the wheel hub in the rear. There's the wire. So no, we don't just change the sensor. I mean, sometimes depending on what tests need to be done and depending on the price of the parts, sometimes we'll make the decision with the client. Let's change that piece first. In the case of this, we were able to do some testing on the wiring, resistance tests, and wiggle testing the wiring, and found that we when we would actually be under the vehicle, looking at the scan to a wiggling the wire, you can see the numbers jump around back and forth and normal and resistance test found the sensor was defective.

So there are other things that could have been. You know, there's a wire that runs from the rear of the vehicle to the front. Sometimes those are problematic. Not very often. The computer itself can be bad too. And we found that in other vehicles. So just jumping to the conclusion of let's just change the sensor can often lead to a, without a proper dialogue with the client can often lead to some dissatisfaction. Let's put it that way. 

Mark: So, how was it all after replacement? 

Bernie: Yeah it was good. Yeah. You know, right away the readings were normal. Everything read 0.7, when you're sitting there, no fluctuations are moving around. And once we drive it down the road, the vehicle ran you know, all the numbers were fine. All the warning lights went out. We cleared all the codes, nothing returned. So all good. 

Mark: So the ABS sensor on this at 2008, so it's a 12 year old vehicle. Would it make sense to change any of the other ones or do you wait for them to go bad?

Bernie: We wait for those to go bad. So I think with wheel speed sensors, they're usually replaced as needed type of thing. They do tend to fail kind of on their own. It isn't like if one fails, the rest of them are gonna fail shortly after. And there's really no, other than diagnostically, there's really no advantage to changing the other ones because it's all a separate labor item to replace. It's on a different corner of the car. So there's no labor savings in doing them. And I've found in the past, if you change one, sometimes you won't have a problem for a long time with the others. Good question though. 

Mark: So this is a gasoline powered ML350, how's it for reliability, especially compared to the diesels, which we know have a little bit of issues.

Bernie: Yeah. If you want to know about the diesels, of course, we have a many podcasts. I don't know how many, but there's gotta be 10 or 20 on diesel Mercedes, maybe even more. We do a lot of them. There are a lot of issues with the diesel engines, which don't happen with the gasoline engine. So you know, the rest of the vehicle like these ABS sensors are the kind of issue that'll happen on a gas or diesel. Suspension issues happen as well. But I'd say overall, a gasoline vehicle is definitely more reliable than a diesel, with the less expensive problems going wrong. So of course, your fuel, your price to drive it down the road is more expensive because of the fuel, but the diesel is very economical, but when it comes to repairs, the diesel will cost a lot more.

Mark: So there you go. If you're in Vancouver, BC, Canada, the place to go to get your Mercedes fixed is Pawlik Automotive. You can reach them at (604) 327-7112. Website is pawlikautomotive.com. The YouTube channel, Pawlik Auto Repair, hundreds of videos on all makes and models and types of repairs on both of those places. As well, thanks for watching. We really appreciate it. Leave us a review if you're so inclined, and thanks, Bernie. 

Bernie: Thank you, Mark. Thanks for watching. We really do appreciate it. It's a pleasure to do this.

Mark: Hi, it's Mark from Top Local. We're here with Bernie Pawlik, Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver. Vancouver's best auto service experience. 22 time winners of Best Auto Repair in Vancouver as voted by their customers. And we're talking Subaru's how are you doing today? Bernie? 

Bernie: Doing very well. 

Mark: So today's victim 2012 Subaru Impreza that had an air conditioning problem. What was going on with this vehicle? 

Bernie: Yeah, the owner brought the vehicle to us with the air conditioning system, not working. And he pointed out to us that you could see the air conditioning clutch was burnt at the front of the air AC compressor. So there was an obvious issue with that part.

Mark: So not a lot of testing and diagnosis needed. Did you do any further stuff and then what happened? How did this happen? 

Bernie: Yeah, normally with an air conditioning issue, when a client brings a vehicle to us, we will do a diagnosis on the air conditioning system. Air conditioning is complicated, there's a lot of moving parts. There are a lot of hidden parts or places to leak, the fluid in the air conditioning system, switches from a gas to a liquid, high pressure, low pressure. And there's a number of places the air conditioning system can leak and a number of electrical components that can fail as well.

So diagnosis is complicated. In this case or say it can be commonly in this case, it was very obvious with the compressor burnt. Usually that's a fault of the compressor or the compressor clutch. So there wasn't really anything further required other than to actually replace a compressor to start. 

Mark: And how did that happen?

Bernie: It's difficult to say.  I will just share a couple of pictures and we'll talk as we go. So there's our 2012 Impreza. The owner's kept in very nice shape. Looks pretty much like a brand new car. It's always nice to work on older vehicles that are in good shape. 

Okay, so there's the front of the AC compressor clutch, actually probably better to show a picture of a new good one. This is where the belt runs the air conditioning compressor and it's an electromagnetic clutch. So it receives an electrical signal and the electromagnet closes the clutch and that'll cause a compressor to drive.

If you were to drive the compressor all the time, it's a huge waste of energy. Air conditioning draws a lot of energy from the engine. So, running it only when needed is best and you can obviously see, this looks all rusty and corroded. Basically this compressor was seized and the clutch was burned inside. 

So how this happened, there's a few ways this will happen. One is the compressor can actually seize internally. It's like a little motor. It's got pistons inside of it. And valves and plates and a lot of moving parts that can seize up so he could have seized internally. There's also a bearing at the front of the compressor that could have seized.

And there's a very large bearing where the pulley rides and those seize up as well. But when those seize up, usually the belt will burn up pretty quickly. So that was not the case with this vehicle. It was basically this part here, which rotates the compressor was seized. So until we took it apart we weren't exactly a hundred percent certain, but one of the first steps we do as we changed the compressor is to take it out and we drain the oil out of it as best we can to look for any particles. If we find particles, then there are further repairs required. If not, then the compressor itself could probably just be changed and it could be safe.

Here's another view of the two compressors. This is the old one. Here's the new one. You can see some oil, there's an inlet and outlet on the compressor. There's a suction side and the other side is called the discharge side. That's under pressure and as I said, we basically drain this out see if there's any particles in the oil. Fortunately for the owner of this one, there's nothing found, so the failure, it all happened at the front end of this compressor and nothing inside.

Mark: So, would it be possible to just change the clutch or do they come as a unit, the compressor and the clutch? 

Bernie: They just come as a unit. There was a time where you could change the clutch. I'm pretty sure in this case, so that the seizure was actually in the compressor, probably the front bearing of the compressor and not the clutch.

There's been times where we've changed clutch bearings, but it's getting to be a rarer and rarer phenomenon, you know, more and more parts and cars are sold as complete units. Unfortunately this compressor is pretty expensive. We put a brand new one in there. There weren't too many options. I'm not a big fan of rebuilt compressors because they, sometimes it lasts a long time, but I say sometimes because other times, you know, one or two years down the road it'll start leaking or fail in some way. So brand new is always better in this case because you know, the repair is going to last a long time.

Mark: And how often do you see this part fail? 

Bernie: It's not entirely uncommon. We actually see quite a few AC compressors fail on Subarus, and overall, you know, in cars in general compressors do fail, but maybe, you know, 20% of all the air conditioning problems we run into, maybe 20% of them are compressor failures.

Most problems are leaks, but you know, for any hard part failures, compressors are a pretty common. 

Mark: And how are 2012 Subaru Imprezas for reliability. 

Bernie: Oh, they're very good. Subaru has gone away from the timing belt on these models. These are chain driven engines, so you don't have that timing belt replacement that's required at usually about 168,000 kilometres. Also the head gaskets, they seemed to fix the head gasket issues because we've never done one yet on one of these type of timing chain driven engines, which is a good thing, because that will be a much more expensive job to do than it would be on the timing belt model engine.

But they seem to be quite reliable. The only complaints I've heard about these engines, we haven't seen it personally, but I've heard, engine oil consumption can be an issue, excessive oil consumption on some of these engines. And there is actually, doing a little research, there's actually a recall on some of these like 2012 to 14 Impreza, some different models, you know, a variety of different models, for valve spring failure. So it's an actual recall from Subaru. So if you do own one of these cars, you could check and make sure that the recall has been done. The valve spring failure will actually cause the engine to run poorly. It could actually, you know, in severe case actually caused quite a major engine problem. So definitely something worth looking at. 

Mark: And recalls are done at the dealer. 

Bernie: They are done at the dealer. Yeah. Yeah. All recalls are done at the dealer and you can just call a call a Subaru dealer and say, here's my car, here's the VIN number. Am I up to date on my recalls? And they'll know, they have a database, and if you haven't done the recalls, there's possibly a couple others for different things, but that's the only engine related and major one I saw, but yeah, they'll let you know, and a book in and do the job.

Mark: So there you go. If you're looking for service for your Subaru in Vancouver, they've done hundreds of them. The guys to call Pawlik Automotive. You can reach them at (604) 327-7112 to book your appointment. You have to call and book ahead. They're always busy or check the website, pawlikautomotive.com, hundreds of videos and articles on their all makes and models of cars, all types of repairs or our YouTube channel, Pawlik Auto Repair. Again, hundreds of videos on there. And Hey, thanks for watching or listening to the podcast. We really appreciate it. Leave us a review on Apple podcasts or Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts from. And thanks Bernie. 

Bernie: Thanks Mark. Thanks for watching.

Mark: Hi, it's Mark from Top Local. We're here with Bernie Pawlik, Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver, 22 time winners, 22 times. Best Auto Repair in Vancouver as voted by their customers. We're talking GMC trucks. How you doing Bernie? 

Bernie: Doing very well this morning. 

Mark: So a 2017 GMC Sierra, the lumbar support broke. What was going on with his vehicle?

Bernie: Yeah, so the owner had been, it's a work truck, he was sitting in his vehicle and I guess he needed to stretch out. So he pressed his legs rather hard on the floor, as he told me and pushed his back into the seat. And there's this pop. And after that, no lumbar support. 

Mark: So which part broke? 

Bernie: Well there's a unit on the back of the seat inside that creates a lumbar support. It's like, there's an electric motor and you can adjust it. So it pushes forward and back, you know, it's a nice truck. You know, these GMCs, they have different seat supports, side bolsters, lumbar supports and things. So basically a piece inside the seat that broke.

Mark: So why would that break? Shouldn't it be engineered to handle a lot of force? 

Bernie: I would think so, but we're going to look at some pictures now and you can see the quality of this part is less than stellar. I assume they have some sort of criteria that they don't expect people that really stretch into it and push into it. But in my opinion probably should have been built a little better than it is. But let's have a look at some pictures. 

So there's our 2017 GMC Elevation model pickup truck. And we'll get into the seat bolster here. There is the broken piece right there. We're looking at actually I'll do a wider view of this piece.

So this is the lumbar support fully removed from the vehicle, basically a long plastic pad, kind of hinged. And there's like electric motor that drives it. And some hooks in the end that kind of this whole assembly is kind of hooked into the seat mechanism. And this pushes against the seat, the back of the seat cushion, depending on whether there's a cable in the back we'll look at that. But you can see a little crack here and we'll look at our closeup again. This is the area that's cracked here. So you can see a cable here. This cable actually loops through a hole here, and that loops through a framework on the back of the seat. So that's basically what broke. As you can see, it's not very thick plastic. It's, it's pretty flimsy in fact. There's the lumbar support, the new one installed. It basically as I say clips into the back, you know, inside the frame of the seat here. There's the electric motor with cables and the wiring connectors.

The other closeup view of where the seat. This is again, you can see this sort of hinged piece here. Depending on which way the cable pulls it'll pull it tighter or looser, depending on how you want to adjust your lumbar. There's our picture show.

Mark: So obviously you could just replace the part. You didn't have to replace the whole seat, which is better. But you have to take the seat out of the truck. 

Bernie: No, you don't actually have to take the seat out. Fortunately, they've actually made it a fairly easy repair. I mean, as far as seat repairs go, you can remove the backing of the seat. Like there's a, you know, a cloth pad or a pad of sorts at the back of the seat, we remove that part. And then, then the lumbar support is pretty accessible inside there. So it's just a matter of, you know, unclipping things, taking it apart. And then, it's fiddly to put it all back together, as a lot of seat components are, but put it all back together. It was actually, it didn't require the seat removal, which is good. I mean, as far as seat repairs, that was probably one of the simpler things you could do. 

Mark: This is a crew cab pickup. I don't remember the picture. 

Bernie: It is. Yeah. Yeah. 

Mark: So that would make it a little bit easier to get access to that front seat. 

Bernie: It would be much more difficult if it was just a two seat pickup truck, but you don't actually, when I think about two seat pickup trucks, you know, well, without anything in the back are almost nonexistent anymore. It used to be like, you know, you have your traditional pickup truck with the bench seat and you could throw up a Jack in the back. It wasn't even, maybe a thermos or something in the back. Yeah. That was about it. But those days are long gone.

Mark: So, this is the question actually popped into my head. This truck's only three years old, wasn't this a warranty item? 

Bernie: No, the warranty had expired. I mean, and this is a question we ask our customers, you know, when you have a vehicle that's fairly new we say, isn't that covered under warranty and they say no, it expired. So, you know, it's a work truck. He uses it a lot. It's got a fair amount of mileage on it and it either expired by mileage or age. I'm not sure which one, but it was beyond warranty. 

Mark: So this is a unique circumstance, but is this a common issue with this part? 

Bernie: Well, I can say that this is the first lumbar support we've replaced in our shop and maybe the last. I don't know. It's not very necessarily a very common repair for us, but what I will say is that when we went to order the part from the GM dealer, it was readily available in quantity at their local warehouse. So that tells me that this is a part that breaks a lot because you know, things that don't break. They don't stock. Maybe they'd have one of them. So you know, that's always a sure sign for us sometimes when we have a repair where we're not exactly sure what it is or what's happened. Yeah. We've got lots of those in stock. That means that it's a common failure problem. So the key takeaway from this one is, you know, don't press too hard on your lumbar support because it might break.

Mark: So GMC trucks have been quite reliable. Have a reputation for being reliable and have actually been reliable for many years. How has this 2017 model?

Bernie: It's good. You know, again, it's not too old, but it uses a lot of the same engines that have they've used for a while. Same drive train components. So, you know, I say ever since around the year 2000, I've been pretty happy with GM trucks. I think overall they're a well-made products. You can count on them. They're good. Things do go wrong. You know, this lumbar support, as I said, isn't the most robustly built piece, but, you know, had he not stretched hard, you know, it may well have lasted for many more years. So overall I'd recommend a GMC truck. I think they're good. 

Mark: So there you go. If you need lumbar support replacements in Vancouver, or you need service for your GMC vehicles, the guys to see are Pawlik Automotive. You can reach them at (604) 327-7112 to book your appointment. You have to call and book ahead, they're always busy. Check out the website, pawlikautomotive.com or our YouTube channel Pawlik Auto Repair. There's hundreds of posts, videos, and blog posts, et cetera on all makes and models of vehicles and repairs. If you're enjoying the podcast, leave us a review. We'd appreciate it. And thanks Bernie.

Bernie: Thanks Mark. Thanks for watching.

Mark: Hi, it's Mark from Top Local where he was Bernie Pawlik, Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver. Vancouver's best auto service experience. 22 time winners of Best Auto Repair in Vancouver as voted by their customers. And we're going to talk about pre-purchase inspections today. How you doing Bernie? 

Bernie: Doing well?

Mark: So you've seen a couple of vehicles come through your shop lately that have had post-purchase inspections. What have you found? 

Bernie: Well, they're not exactly happy stories. We do get a number of people who come to us and, Oh, I just bought this car and it's got some issues. And, so yeah, it's a post-purchase inspection. This is why we're talking about pre-purchase inspections.

Now, sometimes they're happy stories and we find, Hey, there's not much wrong with the car, needs a couple of little things. But in the case of these two cars, there was a lot going on. 

First one was a Nissan Quest, mid two thousands. Person kind of needed to buy a vehicle in a hurry. Right off the bat she wasn't really, I spoke with her for awhile about the whole purchase process and right off the bat, she wasn't really very happy with the, didn't get a good feeling about the people she bought the vehicle from. They told her some work had been done. It was kind of like someone was selling it for their aunt or uncle. I can't remember all the details, but I hear these stories so often and I've seen them myself. Anyways did buy the vehicle. It wasn't a lot of money, but the vehicle ended up needing a huge amount of work, like thousands of dollars worth of work just to make it safe. There's one sad story. Had this vehicle had a pre-purchase inspection, they probably wouldn't have bought it in the first place, but if they did, you know, if they would have got the vehicle for next to free, that would have probably been, would have maybe made it an okay purchase. 

Our second story, older Dodge van, some younger people wanting to go on a trip. Bought the vehicle for cheap price. Again, they were told, you know, certain things have been done and this and that, but there was a problem with something they tinkered around with a few things. Finally brought it to us. So we did a good, thorough, comprehensive inspection on the vehicle. Found again serious problems worn out rear differential, loose ball joints, worn front brakes, you know, and like really serious expensive items. Again, you know, many thousands of dollars worth of repairs far exceeding the value of the vehicle. 

So there's a couple of sad stories right there. And the reason why you really do want to get a pre-purchase inspection, because you want to know what it is before you buy it. You don't want to find it after you buy it, oh, crap, now I'm faced with all this money to spend. And the vehicle and then, you know, if you decide, Hey, I'm going to sell the vehicle, then you've got to BS your way into selling the vehicle. Whereas perhaps the other people before were just ignorant and they say ignorance is bliss. 

Because you know, for me, I can't sell, you know, I could never sell a car if I knew, Hey, this ball joints about the break. And most people who know those kinds of things are not, don't feel ethical about doing that. 

Mark: So what's a positive story about pre-purchase inspections that you've encountered lately?

Bernie: I've got lots of positive stories, but I'm going to go into one. We had a client and I believe we did a podcast about this, he was looking for a, you know, a fairly new three quarter ton pickup truck. So he went to a GM dealer, local dealer. Very good reputation. Brought the vehicle to us. It was, it was only like two or three years old, not very old, pretty low mileage, like 30,000 kilometres or something like that. So there was a fair amount of money, this purchase, because it was a fairly new vehicle. We put up on our hoist and were shocked to find that this vehicle, it obviously, you know, spent most of its life somewhere in Northern BC or Alberta, where there's a lot of mud on the road.

There was two or three inches of caked on mud all underneath the vehicle. And it had been sprayed with undercoating. So, you know, we kind of curtailed the inspection halfway through said, you know what, this isn't a worthwhile vehicle to buy. He agreed, took it back, eventually found another vehicle from the same dealership, came back same thing. We did another, you know, almost of an inspection and say, you know what? Same thing. So he got a little discouraged with it. I think he found a Ford truck from somewhere else. We did an inspection, great vehicle and you know, he was happy with his purchase.

But if you're spending a lot of money, you want him to get the right truck. And smartly went through the process. You know, we've had people where they do one inspection and I don't know, for some reason they just don't want to spend the next amount of money to do the next inspection. This customer was smart. He did it, you know, we found the right truck and we haven't seen him since, because the truck didn't need any maintenance or repair and he's really happy with it.

The thing I'll say, you know, this was bought from a reputable dealership and I had actually ended up talking with the sales manager about it. Cause I said, Hey, I don't know if you guys actually looked at these trucks, but they probably, I'm assuming they bought them from auction somewhere. You know, they, they kind of bought them on the premise of the mileage was low and, and it's true, but you know, there were some maintenance issues, you know, care, taking issues with the vehicle that should have been dealt with, you know, had someone got under the pressure washer, really cleaned it and done a good job. It would have made the vehicle probably decent. 

Mark: So what could that customer have done to not have to go through three vehicles to find the right one? What quick tips would you have for that? 

Bernie: Well that's a really good question. I mean, I think, you know, before you buy, you really need to do your research. You know, what car do you want? How's the car work? You know, you go for a test drive and make sure the car feels fine. Now this guy did all that. And I think, you know, and then the question is, who do you buy it from? 

If it's a private sale? All you've got to go on, is your intuition and feeling for the person. But if you buy a private sale vehicle, you know, if you got someone to go, Hey, I've got all these maintenance records. I've serviced my car at this place for, you know, at the dealership or this shop for like the last 10 years, they've got those maintenance records. Those are really positive things, you know, in the favour of the car.

But again, for this person, they're buying from a reputable dealership. And I think just something happened, something fell through the cracks. I mean, I wouldn't hesitate to, I was surprised because most car dealerships, especially name brand GM, Toyota, Mercedes, wherever you buy it, you know, their reputation is at stake. They don't want to sell crap. So it kind of surprised me. And there are a lot of independent dealers that are good and some that are crappy. 

So I think you just gotta kind of do your research first. And you know what, at some time, every once in a while you get a, you know, a story like this, where something kind of falls through the cracks.

Mark: Any final thoughts on pre-purchase inspections? 

Bernie: Well, you know, I'd say if you're buying a used car, it's a process. It really is a jungle out there in terms of trying to find the right car. So do your research figure out which car you want and just go with your gut feeling on, you know, who you're buying it from, but get a pre-purchase inspection because you never know whether you're buying a good car from a bad person or a bad car from a good person or a, you know, the, maybe a reputable dealerships got some crappy cars for some reason, their, their systems and procedures slipped. So you get the pre-purchase inspection, again you're going to know a hundred percent that you're buying a car that's good.

Mark: So there you go. If you need a pre-purchase inspection, because you're looking for a good used vehicle, the guys to see in Vancouver, Pawlik Automotive. You can reach them at (604) 327-7112 to book your appointment, you have to call and book ahead because they're busy even now, as we start to open up. As well, there's over 600 videos on YouTube, Pawlik Auto Repair, check us out there, all makes and models and all types of repairs. And of course the website pawlikautomotive.com and leave us a review on Apple podcasts or Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts we'd really appreciate it. Thanks Bernie. 

Bernie: Thanks Mark. Thanks for watching and get your car inspected.