Mark: Hi, it's Mark from Top Local. We're here with Bernie Pawlik. Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver and we're doing the Pawlik Automotive Podcast this morning. How you doing, Bernie?

Bernie: Doing very well, Mark.

Mark: So we're going to talk about a diesel an ML320 Mercedes Benz. There was a problem with the intake manifold. What is going on with this fine German automobile? 

Bernie: Well, what was going on with this ... I won't try the German but what was going on with this vehicle, it came to our shop with a massive oil leak which we diagnosed to be coming from a couple of spots, the rear crankshaft seal and also the engine oil cooler seals. Now the engine oil cooler seals are located in the valley right at the V6 engine so the valley is the section between the two cylinder banks. The oil cooler is located is right in the very bottom. And there's a lot of items that need to be removed to get at the oil cooler such as the intake manifold being among them. 

Mark: So if it came in with an oil leak, again I guess, why are we talking about intake manifolds? 

Bernie: Well we're talking about intake manifolds because there's an actuator in the intake manifolds that causes problems. They have two ... it's an actuator that moves a flap back and forth inside of each intake runner and it can vary the size of the intake or the intake port size. And it's tuned for basically different running conditions so at certain speeds you want different kind of flows through the intake manifold for performance. And this intake runner, these things plug up. They wear out. And I'm going to put a video on which we can look at right now which will explain it almost better than my discussion here. So let's start with the video of the bad runner. Now you can see this, correct?

Mark: Yep.

Bernie: Okay, so we'll start the video. So this is the very close up view of the intake manifold port. There's one port that flows continuously and one that gets blocked off with this actuator flap. And you'll notice in this area here, there's a lot of play in these plastic moving arms. So we'll just fire it up right now and you can see. You notice there's an incredible amount of movement. 

Mark: Wobbling around pretty good.

Bernie: Yeah. Wobbles around and if you look at these two different ports, you'll see that one of them's moving and the other one isn't even moving. So there's a lot slop in this piece here. You'll also notice there's a lot of gunk inside that ... all the passage ways and that's stuff that really needs to be clean out. I'll just play the video one more time, so you can have a good look at it. So this is why we're talking about the intake manifold. We're talking about these intake manifolds runners. They sometimes call them swirl valves, variable intake actuators. I can't think of all the names. Different manufacturers use different names but there's a motor that actually operates that the computer sends a signal, the motor moves the valves and that's what makes it go. 

Mark: And so that would affect the performance and economy of the vehicle? 

Bernie: Absolutely. It does make a difference. And with those blocked ports as well, it makes a difference. I'll just show you ... this is the new manifold. You can see the arms moving. You can see how clean this is too. You can imagine how much more air is actually flowing through the engine with it set up like this. I'll run it again. Again, there's no play in any of these rods. They're all moving exactly at the same speed, same time.

Mark: Very nice. Back to you.

Bernie:Makes a big difference with it all clean. 

Mark: So then do you end up obviously changing the manifolds just for an oil leak? 

Bernie: We did. Well, we did it while we were in there because the manifolds have to be removed to get at the oil leak, to access the oil cooler. So it kind of made sense to change to them while it's all out because there's no extra labor charge. I mean, the parts are expensive, no doubt. And it's kind of a shame to toss away what's a perfectly good manifold but that's the way they manufacture them, it doesn't leave any option to replace those rods or linkage pieces. You have to change the whole manifold. And one of them comes with the actuator motor and this is an item that also had some oil had soaked the motor and that's a failure item on these engines as well. So this has been a preventive maintenance for future issues. 

Mark: And was it just a gasket issue or what was actually leaking on the oil cooler?

Bernie: The oil cooler is seals leaks so it's where the oil cooler meets the engine block. There's two rubber seals and they harden up and leak after a while and they can just ... it was leaking horrific amount of oil after. And we diagnosed it, cleaned it. There was a lot of oil coming out after ten minutes of driving, this little small puddle forming on the ground. So there's a lot of oil that can leak out.

Mark: So does it need to be this complex?

Bernie: It does and just actually before we talk about the complexity, I was going to say on the manifolds, it's interesting 'cause 2008 is the last year that Mercedes made these where there isn't a switch on the end of those actuator rods. 2009 and newer they put a little micro-switch on the end of each rod so when the motor moves the linkage, it if doesn't move far enough it will actually cause your check engine light to come on instead of trouble code. So you're really at that point force to change the intake manifolds. On these older ones, you don't actually have to change them if it's broken as long as the motor moves, the computer thinks it's working. So they made it a little more complex in newer models so you can actually get away with not changing them but in the case, they're still an effect of the performance so it's best to do it. The question about the complexity, does it need to be this complex, I'd say, yes it does in this modern era. I mean at one time diesels were simple, reliable, mostly reliable. Some weren't as good as others. But you don't find like a lot of older German diesels, Volkswagens, Mercedes they're very reliable diesel engines. And lot of the older American trucks they just you know turn the key, they start. You didn't have to do a whole lot to them. But they stunk. And they put out some horrific pollutants into the air, a lot of smoke and the nice thing about these diesels is you don't see a lot smoke, they don't smell so bad even though they don't ... they're not as clean as advertised as well know but they do make you know, it does make a difference. So I'd say yes, unfortunately it does need to be this complicated if we want to have clean air, cleaner air, fuel economy and performance. 

Mark: So there you go. If you're looking for service on your ML320 or any Mercedes Benz diesel product in Vancouver, the guys to see are Pawlik Automotive. You can reach them at 604-327-7112 to book your appointment. You have to book ahead, they're busy or check out their website, pawlikautomotive.com. Lots and lots of information on there, hundreds of articles on all different types and models of problems and cars and trucks, or our YouTube channel Pawlik Auto Repair or our lovely new podcast. Thanks, Bernie.

Bernie: Thanks, Mark.

Mark: So, I've had a couple of newer versions like this vehicle. They were a little bit less forgiving, perhaps, because they were high pressure fuel systems. But I definitely had issues with running bio diesel in cold weather. Was there any kind of issue in that regard? Like, why was there so much dirt in there, or debris?

Bernie: I mean ... I think it's just that it accumulated over time. I'm not really certain how that dirt got in. But, I mean normally fuel is filtered when you buy it but it's never 100%. That's why vehicles have fuel filters. Although, interestingly enough most gasoline engines, actually for the last 20 years or more, have actually had ... The fuel filters been largely eliminated as an extra piece. The actual filtration happens right in the gas tank. Rarely with a gas engine do we ever see any problems. Because I think the fuel processing system and delivery is just so clean that it actually works that way. In the past, you know, it wouldn't have been so. But, with diesel I guess, you know obviously there's some debris and things have accumulated over time. These vehicles usually last a long time too. So, you know, it's a 2002 that makes it, what, 16 years old. You know, there's quite a few kilometres and years of pumping fuel through the vehicle. So, the debris just builds up. 

Mark: And as you mentioned, this is a 2002 Jetta. How is it for reliability?

Bernie: These are still really good vehicles. The fuel system is ... it's more mechanical in this version than it is on the newer ones. More mechanical, less electronic. It works really well. It's kind of a nice, sort of, era where the blend between the fully mechanical and the more electronic diesel's ... It's kind of half way in between that. It actually works pretty well. I mean, these cars are getting ... you know, they don't have as much value as they used to. So, repairs can get expensive. But over all they're still pretty good cars. The actual base engine itself is really solid. It just, often the fuel system starts to cost money when you get to this age of the vehicle. But, this was a fairly simple repair and not to costly.

Mark: There you go. If you're looking for service for your Jetta, TDI or otherwise, in Vancouver the guys to see are Pawlik Automotive. You can reach them at 604-327-7112 to book your appointment. You have to book ahead, they're busy. Or, check out their website pawlikautomotive.com. Our You Tube channel, Pawlik Auto Repair. We've got hundreds of videos on there, or of course hopefully you're listening on our lovely new iTunes podcast here. Thanks Bernie.

Bernie: Thanks Mark.

Mark: So is that the main reason for a brake hose to deteriorate like this, rust?

Bernie: Well, this is one reason. We actually don't see that all that often around. We're in Vancouver. The weather is pretty mild here. We don't get a lot of road salt. This vehicle is from Alberta. There's a lot more road salt used in Alberta. The winters are harsher. And so, that basically ... the salt and moisture just ends up creeping in behind this piece of rubber here which is sort of that ... there's an protective shield, kind of creeps in there, sits in there over the years. It's 10 years old. It just eventually starts to corrode the metal, it expands. As I said, it would ... it just loses its grip on that. It's a high pressure crimp on the rubber hose.

Mark: And so, is this like an accident that's waiting to happen?

Bernie: Absolutely. I can't say enough. We often talk get your ... I mean, we often tell people get your vehicle inspected once a year. I mean, not you own a vehicles only two, three, four years old. It's probably not that necessary. But once it gets on in age, really necessary to have a vehicle inspected every year because you never know what's ... what you're going to find next year even though things can be fine now and you may only drive 5,000 kilometres, there's ... things happen over time, things deteriorate, rust and corrosion just starts to get into places and it'll start working its way through stuff. So, what looks good now, even a year later, even if you don't drive a lot can often amount to problems. So this is why you always need to have an inspection because you'll never see this until it breaks and seeing an accident waiting to happen, when a hose like this breaks, usually it's fine until you hit the brake really hard which is a panic stop, usually. And then I'll assume the hose just bursts because the pressures too high. That's that's when you do not want your brakes to fail. This is when it will.

Mark: Again, this isn't something you find all that often?

Bernie: We don't find this all that often around here. I'm certain that if you ... place like Alberta, Eastern Canada, the US, places where there's lots of road salt, you'll find this kind of stuff, this kind of corrosion happens a lot more often. We do find brake hoses wear, they tend to crack and that ... that's kind of the wear we find here, but that usually takes at least 10 or 15 years before that kind of thing happens. Again, that's something we can spot on inspection it and fix. But this is almost more serious because if the failure can happen almost faster then it was just ... it's got a crack in it.

Mark: So there are a few different models of four-door Wranglers. What are the differences?

Bernie: Well, mostly, I mean, there's some more different trim packages but the main difference ... like this is an Unlimited Wrangler, some of them have cloth seats. This was really nice. It had leather seats and really, really nice interior in it. But the main difference in the upgraded model is the Rubicon which is kind of cool. It's got locking differentials, like they electronically lock the differential. So, this is ... that vehicle is a true four-wheel drive. Once you lock it all in, it's ... all four wheels are pulling you whereas most four-wheel drives, you're kind of got, posy in the rear-end, you've kind of got a three-wheel drive, but this is like a true four wheel lock drive. So you can really go ... you can really go places. So it's a pretty cool vehicle, little more complex, a lot more stuff to go wrong and things do with the differentials. But other than that, that's kind of the main difference, Rubicon or the sort of not Rubicon.

Mark: Not Rubicon?

Bernie: Well, it doesn't say not Rubicon, the plain Unlimited, the more base model. They still all go well out in the bush but the ... if you really want the best, get the Rubicon.

Mark: What other issues do you see going wrong with Jeeps?

Bernie: We work on a lot of them. I mean, a lot of front-end, the steering linkages wear out, which we replaced in this vehicle, ball joint, steering linkages. I mean, brakes wear is normal as you'd expect. There's more fluid services required because it is an all-wheel drive utility truck type vehicle. So, there's extra differentials and things that need service. People often drive them in harsher climate. So when you do that, more work need to be done and a few cooling system repairs here and there but other than that, they're pretty good.

Mark: So there you go. If you're looking for service for your Jeep or you have some concerns about having imported a car from Eastern Canada and maybe you need to have the brake hose checked, the guys to see are Pawlik Automotive. You can reach them at 604-327-7112 to book your appointment or check out their website pawlikautomotive.com, hundreds of articles and videos on there, or the YouTube channel which is the same, five-plus years of videos on there, or our new podcast on iTunes. Thanks, Bernie.

Bernie: Thanks, Mark.

Mark: Hi, it's Mark Bossert, producer of the Pawlik Automotive Podcast here with Mr. Bernie Pawlik. Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver. How are you doing this morning Bernie?

Bernie: Doing well.

Mark: We're talking cars. Of course Pawlik Automotive, Bernie and Bernie have been repairing cars in Vancouver for 38 years and are 19 time winners of Best Auto Repair in Vancouver. Today we're talking about a 2007 Subaru Impreza that had a wheel bearing problem. What was going on with this Subaru?

Bernie: Well we'll just cut right to the problem, so have a listen to this. This is what was going on with this vehicle. 

Mark: Okay, that sounds pretty catastrophic. What did you find was wrong?

Bernie: That was a recording of the noise from the rear wheel bearing in the vehicle while we were running it up on the hoist. That's a right rear wheel bearing. That gives you an indication of what a noisy wheel bearing sounds like. Now while you're driving your car on the road, it's a bit of a different sound, but it's similar. It's a great, grindy, groaning sound and it usually gets louder the faster you go.

Mark: Do you always test the vehicle on the hoist to verify what the noise is? Or where it's coming from?

Bernie: Yeah, we always do that because when you're driving a vehicle there's obviously four wheels, four wheel bearings, it's often difficult to decide which wheel bearing's making the noise. Sometimes it can sound like it's the left front wheel bearing when it's actually the front right wheel bearing. It's kind of odd that way. Once we put it up on a hoist we listen to it. Sometimes we can just walk by it, like in the case of that one, you don't need any listening equipment. Other times we use a stethoscope and we'll listen to all the bearings and see which ones are good and which ones are bad. In the case of this vehicle we actually found there was two bad ones. The right rear, which was the worst, and the right front was also making about 50% of that amount of noise. The other bearings, when you listen to them with a stethoscope, you don't even hear anything. There's just a little very quiet humming sound.

Mark: With it sounding that bad what did the rear wheel bearing look like once you took it apart?

Bernie: Well this one was really badly worn and we could go into looking at some pictures. This is the wheel bearing apart. You can see this okay?

Mark: Yep.

Bernie: Awesome. This is the wheel bearing apart, so these are actually the ball bearings. There's a race which is where the bearings run sort of out of view here behind this dirty grease. Then there's a wheel hub that sits in the middle here, which I'll show you in a minute, but this ... I mean these bearings, you know the grease is supposed to be kind of a nice cleanish colour, sort of like this. These bearings are extremely badly worn. The balls, they're a polished ball, highly polished, and they start to chip after a while, so there'd be little chunks and pieces missing of the metal. Slowly that metal as it rolls around in this race, where the arrow points to, this is supposed to be a precision, beautiful, absolutely smooth piece of metal, but as you can see it's just all roughed up with metals transferred from the bearings to the race, to the race to the bearings. It just totally destroyed ... '07 Subaru here. Back to me.

Mark: How much longer would this have continued to squeal and before it finally completely failed?

Bernie: Well I'd say it was very close to a complete failure, however, I mean, I guess to define a complete failure to me would be like the wheel actually seizes up or something breaks, like the hub breaks off or the wheel actually goes flying off the car. I can't think if I've actually ever seen that happen on this type of wheel bearing, because by the time that would happen, there'd be so much play in the bearing, like the wheel would be flopping around and the brakes would start to feel funny. You know people just tend to fix them by the time they get that bad. I'd say this bearing is close to something getting worse, but it's hard to say.  You know sometimes they can make noise for quite a long time, but this one here was getting very close.

Mark: What's the way to prevent that kind of wear?

Bernie: Well there really isn't. A wheel bearing on most cars ... now in the olden days, I don't know, 30, 40 years ago, and there's still the odd car that has a repackable wheel bearing, those are the kind of bearing where you actually take them apart. You clean them. You repack them with fresh grease. Any vehicle that doesn't have that, which is almost every vehicle nowadays, has a sealed wheel bearing, so there's nothing really you can do about it. The reason the bearing fails is that the seals will eventually deteriorate. Water will seep into the bearing. It'll damage the metal and damage the bearing. That's basically what happens with these bearings. The other thing too is if you hit a curb hard or something, that can also damage the bearing, but generally speaking, there's nothing you can do. They just wear out in their own time.

Mark: Am I right in assuming that everything was all good after you did the repairs?

Bernie: Yeah, really awesome. This vehicle also had a couple of really badly worn front tires as well, so we replaced all the tires. The two wheel bearings. Drove great. Really nice, quiet. If you can imagine from that video how loud that was on the hoist, how loud it would be to drive the car, almost unbearable. Even turning the radio up didn't really help too much, so afterwards really nice. Quiet, smooth, handled well, and safe.

Mark: Unlike a check engine light where you can just put a sticker over it, in this case you would have had to have your headphones on full blast to still drive the car and ignore the problem.

Bernie: Yeah. Yeah. Not a good idea.

Mark: Not a good idea. There you go. If you're looking for service for your vehicle in Vancouver the guys to see are Pawlik Automotive. You can reach them at 604-327-7112 to book your appointment. You have to book ahead. They're busy or check out their website, PawlikAutomotive.com. Check out our YouTube channel, Pawlik Auto Repair. There's hundreds of videos on there, or of course, if you're listening on iTunes to our podcast. Thanks, Bernie.

Bernie: Thanks, Mark.

Mark: Hi it's Mark Bossert here, producer of the Pawlik Automotive Podcast. We're here with Mr. Bernie Pawlik, Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver, and we're talking cars. How you doing this morning, Bernie?

Bernie: Doing very well.

Mark: So 38 years of servicing vehicles in the Vancouver area, and 19 time winners so far of Best Auto Repair in Vancouver as voted by the customers. What are we talking about today, a 2017 Subaru Outback? What was going on with this vehicle?

Bernie: So we had this vehicle in the shop for a pre-purchase inspection, practically brand new vehicle, under 20,000 kilometres and we had a good look over the vehicle, found nothing wrong, which you expect on a car that new, but found a lot of new interesting features on this car. We've been servicing Subaru's for quite a long time, and there's a lot of neat features on this car that I wanted to just share.

Mark: Alright, so what did you find? What are some of these new features?

Bernie: Let's get straight into some pictures. There's our 2017 Subaru Outback, nice stylish looking car. This is a base model so nothing real fancy here. We'll get into some of the ... Let's have a look at some of the under hood features, so there's the engine, 2.5 litre in this car. It is available with a 3.6 cylinder model as well. This is the 2.5 ... It actually goes really nicely with this engine. Well interesting compared to some of the older models of Subaru, this uses a plastic intake, which is typical of a lot of modern cars. It's actually pretty simple and clean under the hood, there's not a lot of extra pipes and hoses and things like that. Everything's been cleaned up quite nicely, oil filter accessible from the top. The other interesting feature on this vehicle, of course, is it's ... Well what Subaru has done for quite a while, they've gone with a timing chain and not a belt, since around 2011 I guess, so this engine is a lot more like the 6 cylinder used to be. So far no head gasket problems with them, but who ... Time will tell how they go in the long run. What do we got here? Same engine view. I know I've got another one here in my pile of pictures somewhere. Yeah, there we go. You can see that in this view here, the oil filter, you can see the timing chain covered down the front. It's got variable valve timing as well, it ... They squeeze about as much power to this engine as they could, short of putting a turbo or super charger on it. Electric power steering as well, so one less accessory driven by a drive belt, so that's the under hood features of the car.

Mark: What type of transmission does this car use?

Bernie: It's got a CVT transmission, which I took a picture of that as well, which is for what it's worth, so there's a CVT transmission. One interesting feature of this transmission is quite short compared to what you would see on the regular automatic. These are available ... I believe they're available with the standard as well, I'm not 100% certain, but CVT is a pretty common feature, but the transmission extends from this arrow to this arrow, so it's actually very short. There's not a lot of gears and pieces in it, but not really-

Mark: So that ... What were looking at there left to right is front to back basically of the transmission.

Bernie: Exactly. This is the front, this is the back. You can actually see the front axle shaft, front left axle shaft here, so there's a differential assembly in the front, and then the extension housing in the back, which actually the transfer case features are function because it's all wheel driver incorporated throughout in a couple of different spots of the transmission, some in the back, and some in the front, which are out of view.

Mark: And the CVT, how ... What's your opinion on the CVT transmission?

Bernie: Well I'm not big fans of them, this car drove fine, and it's not a ... It seemed to work fine, but doing a little research, they have had some ... Subaru has had some problems with them and they've extended their warranty, which is a good thing. I know Nissan has used CVTs for quite a long time, and they had a lot of problems with them for, and again extended their warranty quite substantially. So the manufacturers, they want to use this technology because there's a lot of good things about it, but they ... A lot of them seem to have trouble getting it working properly. But as I say in the case of this car, it feels fine to drive. Hopefully once any warranty repaired items will keep the transmission going for a long time further.

Mark: So let's just maybe drill into this for just a second, CVT means constant variable transmission, so in theory than instead of a 7 speed or 9 speed or 3 speed transmission, you have an infinite amount of shifting basically, the trany will just provide the power the car needs based on the load?

Bernie: Exactly. It can be in any gear and the thing that's great about this and that's why a lot of engines have gone for electronic throttles or some engines that even have the valve trains are completely ... Not completely, but largely electronically controls of the valves can be open at different times then things aren't bound by gear ratios or timing chains, where things have to be precisely timed, they could be varied. So you can get the maximum power, the best fuel economy, the best exhaust emissions all wrapped up and all controlled by a computer, so there's good reasons to have it, did that answer your question?

Mark: Yup.

Bernie: Good, perfect.

Mark: And how else ... What else did you notice about this car? What else ... Was there any of the-

Bernie: Couple other interesting features, if we go ... Well actually back under the hood, I really like this feature. Hood shocks, or hood struts, where Subaru used to have the typical prop rod where you'd lift the hood up and put the ... Hang the rod up. These have the shocks that hold the hood up, so that's a nice ... It's a simple thing, but it's a nice feature that's been missing from Subaru in the past, and especially being a technician working on a car, it's always appreciated to have these things. However, it's nice when they work, sometimes when they fail, people don't wanna spend the money to fix 'em and that can be a little disconcerting, but we can always put the rod in place then. Electric parking brake, this is a ... Maybe this is a good feature, maybe not. It's nice if you just pull a little lever and the brake locks on, and if you forget to take the brake off, no big deal 'cause as soon as you accelerate, the parking brake comes off automatically, so many cars use electric parking brakes these days, the hand lever or foot pedal seems to have pretty near disappeared, so Subaru's gone that route too. Again, it's good, however it leaves one less brake that you could have manually operated if you needed it, and also a lot more expensive to repair as time goes by, but a nice feature. It gives the car a nice modern feel. The other feature I found I really liked on this car is the front control arm bushings. The front ... The control arm is an arm that extends from the frame of the vehicle out to the wheel. The wheel of the car would be over ... Just out of the picture here, you can see the drive axle here, and this is ... The frame of the vehicle is here. Now the rear control arm bushing where I've got the red arrow pointing, in the older generation of Subaru's like back up to the second generation, these ... They had a bushing of a similar design, it was very durable. I owned a car myself for over 10 years. The car almost 300,000 kilometres when I finally packed it in, and the bushings were still in good shape. In the next generation, they went to a bushing that looked more like this tire. It was a vertical bushing with a bolt that went this direction, through the centre and they were really crappy. They did not last, not durable, and surprising that they even put it in a car that a lot of people will actually take on rougher roads, so they've gone back to this design here, very robust, so I was really pleased to see that. That's a really big improvement for Subaru, there's a ... Actually there's the same view. I had another closer up, there's another closer view of the bushing, so the rubber bushings in here, but the bracket is really solid and robust. This design is just much better. One final feature on the inside of the car, there's your electric parking brake lever. It's got a couple of electronic modes, one, the x-mode will lock the all wheel drive system so you have better traction in slippery roads, which is a great thing to have. Also, a hill mode too, so you can climb or go down steep hills and it'll lower the gear ratio. So it gives a ... Sort of features of a ... Maybe a multi-speed transfer case, but all done electronically. I think that's all we have in the way of pictures, so I'll bring myself back to the camera.

Mark: So you drove it, you inspected it, how ... What was ... What kind of score would you give this vehicle?

Bernie: I'd say really good. My only nit picky complaint is I hate the smell of the interior, it's got that horrible plastic smell and I find that I find it hard to breathe in that environment, but it's a nice car, and this is a base model and it had ... Really had the feel of a ... If you go back past a couple of generations, it had the quality and feel of a much nicer model. So really well built car. Again the CVT is hard to know how reliable it'll be. This is a 2017, so it still got lots of warranty left on it, and other than that, fantastic car, really nice to drive, good fuel economy too with the engine.

Mark: So there you go, if you're looking for service for your Subaru's or you need a pre purchase inspection for any brand, make model of car in Vancouver, the guys to see are Pawlik Automotive. You can reach them at (604)327-7112 to book your appointment. Check out their website, PawlikAutomotive.com, our Youtube channel, Pawlik Auto Repair, there's hundreds of videos on there, or hopefully you're listening on our new podcast. Thanks Bernie.

Bernie: Thanks Mark.