Mark: Hi, it's Mark Bossert producer of the Pawlik Automotive podcast. And of course we're here with Bernie Pawlik of Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver. Vancouver's best auto service experience and 20 time winners, 20 times, as voted by their customers of Best Auto Repair in Vancouver. And of course we're talking cars. How are you doing this morning, Bernie?

Bernie: Doing very well.

Mark: A Nissan Sentra 2007, there was something going on with the heater. What was going on with this vehicle?

Bernie: This vehicle came in, it had a very noisy, when you turned the heater blower fan on, it was making quite a hideous racket and needed to be repaired and replaced.

Mark: What's involved with repairing a heater motor?

Bernie: Well, on most cars it's, on many cars it's not that complicated. You can usually remove the blower motor through a little panel under the dash, maybe takes an hour or two worth of work. Unfortunately, on this vehicle, it actually involved removing the whole dash to get at the heater blower motor. It was an extremely involved job. Not too many cars like that. I'm thinking, some BMWs are like that, some Volvos, but kind of surprising for a Nissan. But that's what was involved, so the whole dash had to come out, the heater box dismantled to change the blower motor.

Mark: When you took the motor out, what did you find?

Bernie: Well what we found was a rodent's nest inside the blower motor, inside the heater box and all the items that the rodent had used to make the nest, which was mostly the insulation from under the hood, the firewall installation had been completely chewed away and conveniently moved into the a heater box. That was basically, it had basically plugged the cabin air filter. It had, there's debris all over the inside of the squirrel. Okay, this is kind of funny because we call this the blower off, get pictures of this thing. We call it a squirrel cage. It's kind of funny that that's named after a rodent, but it looks like kind of one of those hamster wheels that they run on. Inside the squirrel cage was just full of debris causing the motor to be off balance and caused a huge racket.

Let's get in some pictures because this is a fun part.

There's our Nissan Sentra, your basic, good basic economy car and the more interesting pictures we can get into are, let's get a look at the, there's the cabin air filter that we took out. Kind of broken apart, but you can see just full of, a lot of this is just debris. It may not have been serviced properly, but there's a lot of dirt, debris, very, very, very contaminated cabin air filter. Here's the, the squirrel cage of the blower motor. And again you can see it's full of leaves and debris and pieces of stuff. And I probably should've taken pictures. I didn't have a chance to take pictures of everything else that was in there because there was a lot more debris in there that was causing noise.

And it also looks like one of these fan blades is actually missing a piece, which will cause quite a vibration. We call this a squirrel cage. The motor's located back in here and that turns this big round wheel here and blows air so you know any amount of debris in it will cause it to go off balance. And of course create a huge, huge racket. As I mentioned, a lot of this was insulation from under the hood. This is the engine here. Looking backwards to the firewall, you can kind of see the wiper blades here and the windshield would be up in this area and this area here would normally have a some insulation. And what's left of it is basically whatever pieces are held to the attachment points and it's been completely chewed away.

That's where everything went. It migrated from, miraculously migrated from under the hood to inside the heater box. And we didn't see the rodent by the way, it had vacated the premises.

Mark: Just a winter home.

Bernie: Yeah, winter home. Yeah. Who knows. I'm assuming it had been done more recently, but because otherwise it may have been the blower probably would've been noisier, but it may have been made awhile ago and somehow got sucked into the fan. For whatever reason the rodent was gone. They kind of tend to come and go. That's maybe a good thing.

Mark: How often do you see this sort of thing?

Bernie: Well, not too often with heater boxes, we see it occasionally. But more commonly wire chewing is a common occurrence under hoods. This is very common. We do see some hoses being chewed from time to time as well. But wires are chewed because over the last 10 or more years, manufacturers have, to be more ecological or environmentally friendly have started using soy based insulation on their wiring. And this of course is tasty to many rodents and a disadvantage to car owners of course.

Mark: Anything that can be done to prevent rodents from chewing wires or attacking the under hood area of your car?

Bernie: Well, we're going to, I'm not going to get into all the details of that because there's some complexity and I haven't quite figured it all out myself, but we're going to put a link on the bottom of the video that has a really good website with some very specific ways and this person has got some very detailed ways you can prevent rodents from chewing, from getting under your hood and doing your wires. To be honest, I think it's almost more than I'd want to get involved in, but they're, if you followed it thoroughly, I'm sure it would work. If you took perhaps a few of his ideas, that would probably work well too. Interestingly enough, one common vehicle, there's a Honda that has a wire that often gets chewed and causes a check engine light and it sits right underneath the intake manifold in a Honda V6 engine.

It's an expensive repair, Honda actually sells a new wire and it has a wrap around the wire and it has a little picture of a mouse with an X through it. It's actually a rodent proof wire right from the factory and that's how bad rodent chewing wires are. And then actually the problem is so bad there's actually class action lawsuits against several manufacturers for rodent, for the wiring that they've put in their cars. It's a big thing.

Mark: After repairs, I assume everything was good in the heating department in this vehicle.

Bernie: Yeah, it worked fine. Nice. The fan was nice and quiet. Everything worked really well. Yeah, just like it's supposed to do.

Mark: And how our Nissan Sentras for reliability?

Bernie: Generally they're good cars, it's an economy car. We see very few problems with them other than basic maintenance. It's a pretty well built, decent car.

Mark: There you go. If you're looking for support for your vehicle, if you've got any kind of rodent problems or if you need your Nissan Sentra or any Nissan product, looked after the guys to see in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada are 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. Or check out the website, pawlikautomotive.com. Hundreds of articles and videos on there as well. Our YouTube channel, Pawlik Auto Repair. Again, over 350 videos on all makes and models of cars and all types of repairs. And of course, thank you so much for listening to the podcast. We really appreciate it. Thanks Bernie.

Bernie: Thanks Mark, and thank you for watching and listening. Always a pleasure.

Mark: Hi, it's Mark Bossert, host of the Pawlik Automotive podcast and we're here with Mr. Bernie Pawlik. Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver. Of course, serving Vancouverites for over 38 years, repairing and maintaining cars and 20 time winners of Best Auto Repair in Vancouver as voted by their customers. And we're talking cars. How're you doing this morning Bernie?

Bernie: Doing well.

Mark: So a Mazda 3 extensive repairs and maintenance. Extensive! What was going on with this Mazda?

Bernie: So, it's a 2005 Mazda 3 and the owner brought the vehicle to us who was heading on a long trip and wanted to make sure the vehicle was road worthy and had a few concerns. And we certainly noted a few when we road tested the vehicle. When you put the brake on, the brakes didn't work too well. There was some severe, sort of shifting in the front end of the vehicle when you hit bumps or applied the brakes. We knew there was something pretty serious in the front end. And this had been a customer that had been coming to us for quite a few years on and off so there was a bit, a couple of deferred maintenance items that needed to be done too.

Mark: So what, when you started tearing things apart, what'd you find?

Bernie: Well, we found a lot of interesting stuff. And I'll just get right into the picture show of what we've got.

So there's our 2005 Mazda 3. Still looks pretty good other than a few little scrapes and scuffs which is kind of normal but overall still a pretty decent looking car for a, what's that make it?

Mark: 14 years

Bernie: Fourteen years old. Yeah. So what'd we do? Well here's a nice pile of parts, and I think this hose here, I think snuck in here from a different job. I came into work Monday morning and there was this big pile of parts from Friday. These were a number of things that were replaced. So struts, we have a pair of struts here, we have a belt, a drive belt, there's a brake caliper here, there's a brake rotor that's been, actually, it was rusted on so badly it cracked in half when it was hammered off. There's brake hoses, there's a control arm bushing right there attached to a control arm, there's a control arm under here. What else do we got? There's am ABS wheel speed sensor sitting here and also some sway bar end links. So quite a few parts and pieces.

So what did we end up finding? So some of the shifting and the severe, dangerous feeling we felt in the front end was due to worn out control arm bushings and severely worn struts. There were some clunks as well contributed by the sway bar end links. So we basically replaced those major front end components. The brakes of course as you can see, the rotors were not in great shape, pretty badly rusted. So we replaced the brake calipers, rotors, pads and the brake hoses had cracks as well. So the brakes got a really good treatment, a full meal deal pretty much everything on the wheel side of the brakes was replaced. We also flushed the brake fluid. I mentioned there was some maintenance items that were deferred. We did a transmission fluid service. So that's a filter replacement and flushing new fluid through the system. No evidence of that in this picture. What else? And serpentine belts, they were worn as well so we replaced them.

There's also an ABS warning light on on the dash and we found that the ABS wheel speed sensor on the right front had a broken wire. You can see this broken wire here, the wiring connector was broken so we replaced it but the speed sensor still wasn't working and we found the actual sensor itself was bad. So we replaced both components and that restored that issue. So the ABS brakes were back in full function.

Just one other closer picture. This is a view of one of the rear brake rotors and you can just see the rustiness, I mean this surface from where I'm moving my mouse here, this should all be shiny metal kind of like this, and not rust. So basically the brakes are minimally effective, you know pushing against a rusted surface. So that's kind of our picture show. Lots of interesting parts, kind of fun when you do a complete repair like this and the car ends up driving away, no clunks and stops well. It's pretty rewarding. I know it was a fair size bill, but the client will leave going, "Hey I got good value for my money because my car's functional and safe again".

Mark: So it sounds like this was a lot of work, almost like a rebuild or partial rebuild of the vehicle. Was it worth doing?

Bernie: Well I think so, but of course every vehicle owner has to make a decision because sometimes when you're faced, and I'm not going to talk about the cost of the bill, but a lot of times vehicle owners are faced with a few thousand dollars bill and they go, No that's it, I'm out, you know, I'm replacing the car. And other people are going, No I'll keep going with it.

This car is, it is 15 years or 14 years old, it'll be 15 at some point. It's 165,000 kilometres, so not really high amount of mileage. I mean if it was over 200, I might be like, ah maybe it's time to not consider doing this. But 165 is not too much for this vehicle. Mazda 3s are a decent, reliable vehicle over all. So I tend to put them on a recommended list of cars to repair, of course, it depends on how far you leave it. But these are items that just needed to be done on pretty well any car if you leave it long enough. And obviously this vehicle has seen some rusty, salty climates to have brakes like that. So it's a little harder on the vehicle.

Mark: So that brings up a point, you said, where's the level of where they've left it too long, would it of been, I mean I know the answer to this, would it of been better to have been doing more regular maintenance and maintaining these items more gradually, rather than waiting for almost catastrophic failure to then repair everything at once? What's the better strategy here?

Bernie: Well I think it's better to repair on an ongoing basis because you don't get hit with a huge repair bill like this. And a lot of times, sometimes we get cars in and people you know, it comes with all this level of repairs and maintenance and people go Forget it, I'm getting rid of the car. Whereas if they'd, and so then they're faced with the purchase of another car which you know in and of itself isn't necessarily a bad idea but it's more economical to just keep repairing things as they go. For instance, it may be that if the car was brought in a year ago, we would of noted that hey, these struts and control arm bushings are worn, let's replace those right now and the brakes may have been ok. So smaller bill, spread out, it's a little easier on the wallet, let's put it that way, and terms of choices. A lot of times if you do things as things wear out, it's cheaper because you don't let things wear as far as they could. For instance, when you have severe front end wear, a lot of times you can end up wearing your tires out prematurely. So in this case, fortunately that didn't happen. But a lot of times, if you have a bd shock absorber or strut, it can cause your tires to wear funny and had you replaced them, you wouldn't be replacing tires as well.

Mark: So it sounds basically like Mazda 3s are very good cars overall and are there any other serious issues or common recurring issues with them?

Bernie: Well there's a few common things, like a couple of things come to mind like check engine lights will often come on and there's a variety of reasons that it'll come on. But one common one on Mazdas is that the thermostat will stick open or they open too soon and you not even necessarily notice a driving issue. Although in a cold climate, you may notice not as much heat in the vehicle, in the cabin. But a lot of times, that'll be a check engine light issue. That's a pretty common item. Ans also, there's a right side engine mount that will often fail and the vehicle will have a vibration when you're, if it's an automatic in drive, there's a certain vibration. So there's a couple common things that tend to wear out on these cars. And the only other issue we found, up until a few years ago, we used to think these were like bullet proof, reliable vehicles, but the 2.3 litre engine which this vehicle does have, does tend to have some problems. They will start burning oil and have some compression issues. So we've done a couple engine replacements on them. And this kind of came along suddenly and then we found out that a lot of other ones had that same issue. So the 2 litre model engine, sort of in this vintage or in the 2000 decade, tend to be really reliable but the 2.3 do tend to have problems after awhile. It's kind of hit and miss. Some of them go forever and some of them develop problems.

Mark: So maintain your vehicle regularly.

Bernie: Absolutely yeah, absolutely just maintain it and you'll get the best life out of it.

Mark: So there you go. If you're looking for service for your Mazda in Vancouver, the guys to see are Pawlik Automotive. You can reach them in Vancouver at 604-327-7112 to book your appointment. You've got to book ahead, they're busy. Or check out the website pawlikautomotive.com, hundreds of videos and posts on there, over 600 actually, I checked the other day.

Bernie: Awesome.

Mark: Repairs and maintenance of all makes and models of cars over many years. Our YouTube channel, Pawlik Auto Repair, same thing, over 400 videos there on repairs and maintenance of all makes and models of cars and light trucks. And of course, thank you so much to listening to the podcast and watching, we really appreciate it. Thanks Bernie.

Bernie: Yeah, thanks Mark and thanks for listening and watching. It's always fun.

Mark: Hi, it's Mark Bossert, producer of the Pawlik Automotive Podcast. And of course we're here with Bernie Pawlik. Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver. Vancouver's best auto service experience, 38 years of servicing, repairing and maintaining cars in Vancouver, BC, Canada, and 20 time winners of Best Auto Repair in Vancouver as voted by their customers. How are you doing this morning, Bernie?

Bernie: Doing well.

Mark: So a Jeep Grand Cherokee 2011 model. What was, there was an engine noise? What was going on with this vehicle?

Bernie: Yeah, this vehicle came to our shop. The owner was complaining of a ticking sound, a fairly loud clicking sound in the engine. So we had to look at that and did some diagnostic. It definitely wasn't normal.

Mark: And what did you find was causing the problem?

Bernie: So we isolated the problem to the right hand, right cylinder bank. This is a 5.7 litre Hemi V8, and there was definitely some noise in the right hand cylinder bank. So in order to diagnose it further, we removed the right valve cover, inspected to see if we could find perhaps a loose, something loose in the valve train. This is a pushrod engine. So the cam shaft is located in the centre of the V, sort of the classic spot for a V8, and has push rods running up to the push rods and rocker arms. We didn't see anything noticeable. We rotated the engine, ran it. Nothing was excessively noticeable. But we were certain that the noise was coming from that side of the engine. And doing some research into these engines and from some personal experience, we figured that it was probably, possibly a worn out lifter or a cam shaft problem of some sort.

Mark: What was the next step?

Bernie: Next step, removing the engine. And incidentally this engine also had a leaking oil pan gasket, which can be done in the car, but it's quite a labor intensive job. So at this point we knew we had an internal engine repair to do of an oil pan gasket to repair. So we authorized the client to let's take the engine out and take it apart and find out what's going on, and then we can fix it all in one shot.

Mark: So once you had the engine out, which is a big job, and apart, what did you find?

Bernie: So what we found, and we'll just get right into the picture show here, we found that, we did find wear in the cam shaft and we found one of the lifters worn out. These use roller lifters for low friction and that's what we found was worn out. So a combination between that, those two, is causing the ticking noise.

There's our nice 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee. Really nice condition. This vehicle has actually pretty low mileage, 114,000 kilometres. So it's still, in my eyes, kind of a brand new vehicle. This is the old and new cam shaft. So part of the replacement was to, we had to replace the cam shaft. We replaced all the rocker arm, all the lifters, rocker arms were in good shape. So the cam and lifters was basically the main component. But we also changed the timing chain and the a, it has variable valve timing. We changed the variable valve timing actuator gear as well.

While everything is apart, it just kind of makes sense. There's always wear in everything. But this is the new camshaft down here, and if you look up at the old camshaft, you can see worn parts. I'm going to just show a closer picture in a second, but you see this cam lobe is where this one has wear. There's wear in several others that's pretty pretty noticeable.

Mark: And 114,000 kilometres. Normally that wouldn't necessarily be that apparent.

Bernie: I wouldn't think so. I mean I think this is really excessive, but if you do a little research on these engines, there's a lot of problems with these, with the lifters and cam shafts wearing. We can talk a little more about why this would happen at such an early age in a minute. But again, this is a closeup view. This is the front cam and this is the one where the lifter was collapsed as well, or worn. And you can see this wear here, this pitting. The case hardening on the camshaft is coming off. And as I said, there are several other lobes. The lifters on the others were all working fine, but it was only a matter of time before they, all of this would tend to fail.

So these, interestingly enough, this is not something you're going to find on an old 426 Hemi, that the front cam journal is just going to be a big solid piece of metal. But these passageways, these are for the variable valve timing system. So up in the engine block there are passageways and there's an electrically-operated solenoid and that changes the oil pressure out to the cam gear, which is located in this area here. And that can adjust the valve timing of the engine.

So that's kind of how that's accomplished. So again, as engines get newer, this is the same old kind of classic V8 that's been around for since the '50s, but modern modifications make it work better and more efficiently.

Lifters, this is a set of lifters. These are interesting. When you buy them, they basically come as a, normally you just buy loose lifters. These coming in this plastic holder here and there, if you notice there's little round holes in some of them and not in the others. This engine has a variable, it's a variable displacement engine. So the computer can actually shut off up to four cylinders in this engine while it's running, for a better fuel efficiency and lower emissions. And it does it with the lifters. It'll basically just depressurize these. So they basically, the cam shaft and lifter moves, but it doesn't move enough to allow the valves to open, so they stay closed. So the cylinders are basically just causing no drag on the engine. Very minimal. So it's kind of an interesting system.

This is our worn out lifter here. I'm going to get into a little closer picture so we can see some details of what was happening. It's a little subtle, and a video may have been more useful, but if you'd notice, if you look at the gap between this point and that point and then you look over here where the arrow is pointing, you'll see it's substantially lower. And if I could grab this with my hand, I could, if I could show you, but what we're able to do is actually this piece will move up and down and it's not supposed to do that. So there's little needle bearings inside that have worn out and basically created a whole bunch of excessive play. And so that's, this is where our ticking noise is coming from.

Also on the lifters, they're in this plastic retainer. And there's a reason that it being a roller, of course, this has to always roll in the proper direction. And apparently these fail. I haven't seen one yet, but it's a reasonably common item where the plastic piece will break. And so the lifter will actually rotate sideways and not roll properly on the cam. And of course that will create wear in a real hurry.

So here's another kind of close up view. There's the lifter holder. There's the lifter that slips in and you can see it's got its grooved to fit properly in there. What else do we have for pictures here? I think we've, I think we've covered ... Oh yeah, the engine.

So yeah, there's the, it's a four, this is a Hemi. It's like Dodge's, Chrysler's made a good use of their branding from the 60s. You've seen a lot of their vehicles, their Chargers, their Cudas. A lot of the vehicles they sell are leftovers from the good old days in the late 60s early 70s, when their engines had huge amount of horsepower. This is a hemispherical cylinder head. The other thing, one thing's different about this over the original 426 Hemi, of course, is that it's a smaller engine, displacement wise, but it also has two spark plugs.

And as far as for details, I assume these are both fired at the same time, but there are some engines that do use two spark plugs, again, for just better combustion. It's kind of added complication. And of course when you have to change the spark plugs, it doubles the price. But they do last a long time. So that's our picture show for the engine.

Now I do have some other items if you want to ask me the next question.

Mark: Did you find anything else while the engine was out?

Bernie: Yeah. So the other item that I did notice while the engine was out is that you can see a, you could see some coolant leakage, very subtle amount of coolant leakage. You can see sort of, this is the front left oxygen sensor. And you can see some crusty buildup around this oxygen sensor. And there's a heater pipe right above this, and so very slight amount of coolant's been leaking, who knows how long, onto this oxygen sensor.

So it just made a lot of sense to change this part while the engine was out because of course you could actually get right in there and do it. I mean it's not a hideous job while the engine's in, but the oxygen sensors are actually a real pain to change in this vehicle. Very, very inaccessible. There was a lot of good things about doing this engine job, but the location of the oxygen sensors wasn't one of them. So we changed this oxygen sensor and these heater pipes, and I'll just get a little closer view of of this kind of thing.

There again you can see a little bit of the crustiness and this is a, it's interesting. It's a little, it's an assembly, a pipe assembly. It has a plastic elbow that goes through the firewall. And then there's a couple of other hoses at the other end that attach to the actual ... this is actually in the, I shouldn't say, this is in the cowl area and the firewall is actually further back. But they, it needs this adaptor to run the hose through the cowl.

What else do we have here? Oh yeah. Close up view. There's the oxygen sensor with the crusty deposits on it. Again, we changed that while the engine was out. I mean it, as far as we know it was working fine beforehand, but you never know how, that with that kind of stuff dripping on it, it'll definitely shorten the life span.

And there's one final picture of this. So this is that hose assembly. So I wanted to just get this elbow, but of course being a modern vehicle, they only sell the hose assembly. The good news is it wasn't very expensive, which is good. And it came with all the quick connect ends down here, which clip onto the heater pipes of the engine and the hoses. It comes with clamps. So the actual removal and reassembly process is actually pretty straight forward because it comes with all the parts and pieces you need. You don't need to hunt around. Do we have clamps, how do they go together? It's pretty straight forward.

But I often wonder, this vehicle's eight years old. What's going to happen when it's 15? Oh we're sorry we don't sell that part anymore. Then you've got to start custom making stuff and kind of annoying that way. So I'm back.

Mark: So you mentioned the mileage. It wasn't that high on this vehicle.

Bernie: Oh yeah. About 114,000 kilometres is really a pretty, a young vehicle. Low mileage.

Mark: So that's kind of early for this sort of catastrophic wear to be already taking place.

Bernie: I would consider that to be so, and you might want to ask, well why would that happen? And I think, I mean, there's always manufacturing defects and things that aren't made as well as they should be. But I mean really, this is where it's critical to change your oil on time or early every time. And when this vehicle was brought to us, it had, it was a little overdue for an oil change. It was a little low on oil, not critically. But those kinds of things can all make a difference. You just get a little slight lack of lubrication or the oil just breaks down a little too much. It's a little too old. That kind of thing will cause this sort of wear to happen on engines, and you never know from engine to engine.

We have customers who abuse the crap out of their car. We had a Subaru yesterday where the owner brought it in and every time she's like, if she's like 5,000 kilometres overdue for an oil change. And she'd been doing it for years. So there, I'm not saying, like you can get away with it in some cars, because some people will go, Oh yeah, well I did that. Well, yeah. Okay. You're lucky, because there's people who drink a case of beer a day and smoke five packs of cigarettes and lived to a hundred, but they're kind of rare. They are the very rare exception. So with cars, it's like change the oil. I mean that's really the critical thing. Change it when it's due. Even a little before it's due.

Mark: Could we make an assumption that this car was probably not really driven for long distances, like taken out and driven 250 miles in one goal kind of thing. It's been all stop and start in town. And that's even more critical for making oil changes on time.

Bernie: It is. Absolutely. That's a really good point. If you do a lot of straight highway driving, you can actually stretch your oil change interval out even longer because the engine is hot. It's warm. Everything's moving. Very, very good point, Mark. It's the city stop and go traffic is even harder on it. So cold starts and that makes a huge difference. So yeah, I mean even then it's worth changing the oil probably more often.

Mark: And a lot of sitting, probably, with the eight-year-old vehicle that's only got 60,000 miles or 70,000 miles on it.

Bernie: Yeah. Yeah. Not a huge amount of use.

Mark: How are Jeep Grand Cherokees overall?

Bernie: Well you can always ... thank you for bringing that. Overall, I mean, well, to me this is kind of a bad stain on the reputation of a Jeep, and if you do a lot of research you'll find a lot of these 5.7 litre engines have similar issues. You and I do a lot of podcasts on Jeeps because there are a lot of things that happen to them. This particular Jeep. It's beautiful. Like it's a really beautiful vehicle. Really nice to drive. It looks great. And I think Grand Cherokees have always been like that. I mean, they're a really nice vehicle. But they do have a lot of issues. I mean this one we, on this particular vehicle, and I think he's a fairly recent owner, secondhand. We've actually rebuilt the transfer case on it because it had an issue.

So it's had a number of problems at what I would consider a pretty early age. I have a 2001 Suburban, knock on wood. I've never rebuilt the transfer case. It's got triple the mileage of this vehicle. So there are a lot of things that do happen to Jeeps, and it could be that this one just suffered from some bad maintenance. That does happen to us. Unfortunately the risk when you buy a used vehicle, which is good to really look at, if you're getting a used vehicle, if you can look at the maintenance schedule. Because you're, there are some risks. But I'd say like for Jeeps, there are definitely more issues than average.

Mark: So if you want to look after your Jeep in Vancouver, 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 because they're busy. Can't just walk in. And they're only servicing people in Vancouver. So we appreciate your calls and interest from all across North America, but we can only serve you in the Vancouver, BC area, other than maybe some other circumstances. Check out the website pawlikautomotive.com. Of course on our YouTube channel, Pawlik Auto Repair. Hundreds of videos and articles about all makes and models and repairs over many years now. And of course, thank you so much for listening to the podcast. We really appreciate it. Thanks Bernie.

Bernie: Thanks Mark. And thanks for watching.

Mark: Hi it's Mark Bossert, producer of the Pawlik Automotive podcast and we're here with Bernie Pawlik of Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver. Vancouver's best auto service experience and 20 time winners of Best Auto Repair in Vancouver as voted by their customers. And we're talking cars. How're you doing Bernie?

Bernie: Doing well this morning.

Mark: So we're preparing for the apocalypse and we're going to talk about Jeeps. How reliable are Jeeps?

Bernie: Well they're reliable enough to get you to, if there's a zombie apocalypse, to get you out to the bush. Let's put it that way. We often wonder why so many people own Jeeps. But people love their Jeeps. The Wrangler, which is kind of your classic Jeep style which goes back to when Jeep was founded in 1943 as an army vehicle. The Wrangler is just a modernized off shoot of that. People love that vehicle and Jeep's been really successful with their SUVs, with the Grand Cherokee of course, which is a very nice luxurious, they have really nice luxurious platforms in a lot of them. They've been making that since the, the Grand Cherokee goes well into the 90s anyways.

Mark: Almost a pioneer in SUVs.

Bernie: It really is actually. I guess sometimes I argue maybe the Suburban is kind of like the original, but really Jeep Grand Cherokee really brought the SUV to the forefront and they're kind of like the poster child of the SUV and everything that's wrong with an SUV too because they're... a lot of them, they're not that big. Of course you can drive pretty well anywhere with them but they've got a hideous gas guzzling engine, not very economical. A lot of energy goes into to powering the drivetrain on these things. So really I think there was a while were the Jeep Grand Cherokee had about the worst gas mileage going for a long time. So there's some things that maybe not to be so proud of but they are an awesome vehicle in terms of what they do and people love them. And we do work on an awful lot of them. A variety of Jeep models.

Mark: Yeah, so what goes wrong with Jeeps?

Bernie: So let's just, we'll just talk for the last couple decades, say from the year 2000. As much as I hate to say it, there's actually quite a lot of stuff on Jeeps that does tend to go wrong. Let's just start on the engine side of it. So Jeeps, mostly gasoline engines but in the Grand Cherokee there are some diesel options. In the Liberty they put a diesel in for a little while too.

So let's just talk about that Liberty diesel. If you look at our list of podcasts and videos, you'll see a number of videos we've done and I won't delve too deep into them. But it is a vehicle I'd avoid. There's a lot of engine issues with these Liberty diesels. I believe it's an Italian made diesel engine, kind of a strange design and a lot of things go wrong with them. They're hard to get parts for. We're in Canada and we usually order all our parts for these out of the US where there's a lot more available but they are an expensive engine to replace. Things do tend to go wrong with them. So as I say with a lot of diesels, the amount of money to save on fuel because they are super economical on fuel, you will pay in repairs over the long run. And these Liberty diesels they were only around the 05, 06, 07, somewhere around that model year. So these are starting to get pretty old and we're seeing less of them getting repaired nowadays because I think they're just getting less economical as they tend to get older.

The Grand Cherokee had the Mercedes 3 litre diesel for a few years in the mid 2000s. I think 06, 07, 08 somewhere around that range. Just a few model years. We repair a lot of these. Again look at our videos and podcasts because we talk a lot about these. But same kind of typical stuff that we find with the Mercedes ML320. It's a common used engine and there's a number of things that tend to go wrong with these. Again over time.

Mark: Keep up your maintenance.

Bernie: Well, keep up your maintenance that's really the key factor with these things. But even if you keep up your maintenance, you're still going to run into a number of issues that tend to go bad with them. But there's some good maintenance items that can save you some money over time and we can make sure we take care of those in our shop. But as I say, look at our videos and podcasts, there's some good ideas.

Jeep stopped making the diesel for a while and then they brought it back with a... you know when Fiat bought out Chrysler, they brought back a Fiat version diesel and to be honest with you, I've never seen a problem with them. They're not really common. I think they've been out for about 5 years now. I don't hear a lot of bad things about them but I have to say, to me having been in the car business for a long time, to me Fiat and reliability just don't tend to go along well together. So I worry that given time that Fiat diesel could be worse than the Mercedes one, but who knows, maybe it's better.

So gasoline. So as I say most of them are gasoline. I mean, all the Wranglers are gasoline, they're mostly V6 engines. Pretty reliable. I mean, we don't see too much with those. A few oil leaks here and there. Some coolant leaks. Water pumps, those sort of things. On the Jeep Grand Cherokees and some of those models they're available with V8s. Hemis, there's some issues with those which we're going to talk about next week on an engine repair we're doing. But there's a few engine issues with these, they're not bullet proof reliable, as good as you'd think. You might think they'd be being the type of engine they are. The earlier straight 6s that they put in a lot of Jeeps and this went into the 2000s, those were really good engines. Really bullet proof, reliable engines. So if you're looking at something older and you can get on of the 4 lire straight 6 engine, those were really tough. I've seen people abuse them horribly and they still survived really well. That was a good engine.

Then we have some smaller Jeeps, Compasses, those type of things. They tend to be fairly reliable. A lot of them with 4 cylinder models. Pretty decent. And of course, I'm sort of thinking back to the V6 versions of the Liberty. The gasoline model, definitely not a great engine. A lot of problems with those, with timing chains and valve seats slipping out of the engines. Definitely, you know to me, a Jeep Liberty is not a great vehicle to own. You're probably going to have a lot of issues with those. Seems like the engines, whether you or gas or diesel you're going to have some issues with those.

Oh yeah, cooling system. You know especially with Jeep Grand Cherokee, they tend to have radiator problems I tend to think ahead of their time and they're an expensive radiator repair. The way they're built with the Chrysler style of doing it, they've sandwiched the, they've sort of built the radiator, the AC condenser and the power steering cooler, it's all kind of a modular assembly all put together. And taking the radiator out is a lot of work on these vehicles. So expect to pay a lot of money when you have a leaking radiator on a Jeep. And we've seen some too where the transmission cooler fails. So you get transmission fluid inside the radiator or worse. If you get coolant into the transmission, it'll cause the transmission to fail. But fortunately most of them we've seen have gone the way of going into the radiator which is at least more repairable. You have a good cooling system flush in the radiator. It's a much more complicated repair than I think it needs to be and myself, and my fellow technicians we often curse and swear when we do it. We go "Why did they build it like this!"

Mark: So what about the transmission and drive train?

Bernie: Generally these are pretty reliable. We don't run into too many problems with them. Yeah, generally pretty decent. Although, actually I will say, transfer cases. There are a few issues on the, you know, the manual transfer cases on the older models and some models are pretty much bullet proof. But there are some electronic transfer cases on Grand Cherokees. They have an actuator unit that tends to fail prematurely and we do find the odd transfer case issue. But the differentials are generally pretty good. The CV axles are pretty well built. Not too much problem with those.

Brakes again, you know, I'd consider them average. There's nothing that tends to go wrong with those prematurely than any other vehicle. Usually of course, pad and rotors need to be replaced. Some models have to have drum brakes. But yeah, they're generally good and reliable. A lot of them have ABS brakes and there'll be the odd ABS brake sensor that will fail and need some repair. But generally the brakes are pretty reliable on these vehicles and nothing above average for repair.

Mark: And how's the steering and suspension?

Bernie: Well there's some issues there with some models. You know in a lot of them, especially I'm thinking the more the Wrangler style. The tie rod ends tend to wear out probably sooner than they could. The ball joints on a lot of models tend to wear out. There's some control arm bushings on some models. The suspensions are different depending on again, which vehicle you're looking at. But there's probably a higher than average number of repairs needed on the steering and suspension system on these vehicles. Some rack and pinions on certain models as well. So you can be prepared if you own one of these that there'll be a few, you will be spending a few more dollars than you would on some other vehicles.

Mark: How's the electrical system?

Bernie: Generally pretty good. You know on some of these they're pretty complex especially on the Grand Cherokee. some of them are pretty fancy vehicles. But generally they're pretty good and pretty trouble free.

Mark: And how is the body, fit and finish?

Bernie: Well some of these are, I'd say ok. I mean especially the Wrangler of course is a more utilitarian vehicle so it's not quite as fancy and people don't expect it to be. I find like the Jeep Grand Cherokee, when they're new, they tend to be really nice but as they age they tend to get, I don't know, they get a little creaky and the fit and finish doesn't seem to be quite as good as they were when they were new. But we don't really run into a huge amount of electrical problems with them.

It does get me thinking, you know, the one thing we haven't talked about really is the air conditioning and heating system and there are a number of issues with Jeeps. And again, I'm thinking more of the Grand Cherokee models with AC evaporator core problems and heater core issues. You know, these can be expensive repairs that require the dash to be removed. So we see that on some models, not all but occasionally they do have issues like that that need to be repaired.

Mark: So to sum it up other than freeing yourself from a Liberty at all costs, how are Jeeps overall for reliability?

Bernie: You know again I'd say probably a little below average for some. I think a lot of people buy Jeeps because they like the vehicle and to me I thinks that's kind of one of the most important things in owning a car. Do you like the vehicle? Does it suit your needs and is it what you want? You will be paying a slight premium to own a Jeep in terms of repairs for that kind of thing. As I said, the Liberty is a model I'd avoid. There's a couple there to avoid but the Grand Cherokee is decent. The Cherokees are good. The Wranglers are ok. You will just spend a little more money than you would on some other vehicles.

Mark: So there you go. If you're looking for service and maintenance on your Jeep in Vancouver, Bc Canada. 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 because they're busy. Check out the website pawlikautomotive.com. Hundreds of articles and blog posts on there about all makes and models of cars and repairs and reliability reports as well. And of course, our YouTube channel, Pawlik Auto Repair, same thing. Many videos over 400 now. And thank you so much for listening to the podcast. We appreciate it. Thanks Bernie.

Bernie: Thanks Mark and thanks for watching.

Mark: Hi it's Mark Bossert, producer of the Pawlik Automotive podcast and we're here with Bernie Pawlik, Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver. Vancouver's best auto service experience and 20 time winners of Best Auto Repair in Vancouver as voted by their customers. And we're talking cars! How're you doing this morning Bernie?

Bernie: Doing very well.

Mark: Mini's. We're going to talk about the BMW version of the Mini. And how reliable are BMW Mini's?

Bernie: A great question. So Mini is an iconic brand of vehicle and BMW seized it around the time the British car industry was basically kaput so to speak. The Mini was started in 1959 and as you and I chatted earlier, it never really changed from 1959 til 2000 when they stopped making them. You know to me, the Mini was kind of a piece of crap. Although people loved it and really actually it was a car ahead of it's time with the transverse mounted engine, front wheel drive and if you think about, it of you go back to 1959 nobody was doing that. Especially in the North American market where everything was large cars, with front engine, rear wheel drive, it was a great drivetrain configuration. But the Mini packed everything in a nice small space.

And I remember I had a friend in high school who had one and this guy was big. He was like 6'5" and he sat comfortably in this thing which is remarkable with a car so small. Where you could actually park two of them in a parking spot of an American car. But anyways, we won't talk about those old Mini's because to be honest, I don't have any experience with them and I'd never want to work on one anyhow. That's about how I feel about them.

But we'll talk about the Germanized version, the BMW version. They took a pretty neat brand, they stylized it and put modern safety features in it and beefed it up into a pretty cool car. I have to say, I often thought that they're kind of like little and not that neat. It wasn't the kind of car that appealed to me until I drove a, I think it was an 05 or 06 supercharged Mini and I go this is a really fun car. So I can see what the appeal is to the car. Why people buy them. So let's talk about reliability and we'll start at the heart of the car, the engine.

So there's quite a few issues with Mini's. A lot of coolant leaks, water pump failures, thermostat gasket. They use thermostat housings that are plastic, like a lot of cars and a lot of German vehicles. These tend to fail and leak coolant. So coolant issues are definitely one of the more common things that you'll run into. Also oil leaks. There are oil filter housings on various models at will leak. The oil filter adapter seals will start leaking. Also the odd oil pan gasket will happen. Timing chains can be an issue on some of them. We've actually never done one is our shop but when I read and look around it's a somewhat common concern on some of these, again it's more the mid 2000 to 2010 range, in the slightly older models. But people have experienced problems with a lot of things in these even with low mileage. I think with Mini, you don't have to have a lot of mileage to start seeing a lot of these issues that we're talking about here.

We've had the odd Mini too with poor compression and major engine failure. Who knows, that could be due to bad maintenance. But generally the engines are fairly robust but there are a lot of issues in some areas.

Mark: What about the transmission and drivetrain?

Bernie: So there's a few issues around those too. I mean, the general drivetrain, the CV axles, those kinds of things are pretty reliable but I would avoid buying one with a CVT transmission, that's a continuously variable transmission. There's a lot of problems with these at least in the US. There's a class action law suit against BMW over issues. But they're very, very... they fail commonly and they're very, very, very expensive to repair. Often more than the car's worth to repair. So I would avoid one with a CVT transmission. The standard transmission seems to be quite reliable but the clutches do wear out which is normal. They are expensive to replace because they have a dual mass flywheel which again, is not an uncommon feature on a lot of cars even right down to a Nissan Versa which is a base model car. But the flywheel itself is very expensive and there are kits available where you can put a single mass flywheel in but it's a fairly expensive repair no matter which way you go. So clutches are something that do happen. But this is a fun car to have a standard, I mean that's one of the, it's a fun driving car. So having a standard is a good feature. As far as the regular automatic transmission, don't really see any issues with those.

Mark: What about the brakes?

Bernie: Brakes to me are average. They're sort of an average wear type of thing, 50,000 kilometre type thing on brakes. Pads and rotors always and sometimes calipers as the cars get older. But nothing really about the brakes that stands out as being particularly bad, but just sort of average. Average wear out item.

Mark: How about the steering and suspension?

Bernie: Again, generally we don't see a lot of problems with that in our shop with the steering or suspension, like anything that wears out prematurely on these vehicles they're generally pretty good. Not to say that things won't, things like control arm bushings won't wear out and shocks and struts over a period of time but they're generally, fairly good in that department. Nothing glaringly bad.

Mark: Now we get into maybe a bit of a scary area for a British/German car, the electrical system.

Bernie: You know, again nothing really leaps to my mind about problems with those. Again it's fairly reliable which is a good thing because the electronics on the BMW version of the Mini of course are much more complex than on the British version. As we know, British electronics have that reputation of being very poor. The Lucas wiring system that they use in British car for many, many years is one of the worst things about the cars.

I was just thinking about Basil Faulty in Faulty Towers where he's whacking, it wasn't a Mini but it was a Maxi I think, where he's whacking the car with a shrub when it wouldn't start. If you've never seen that, you've got to look it up. It's hilarious. Faulty Towers where he's hitting the car with a shrub. It's hilarious. But yeah, that was probably an electrical system issue with that vehicle.

But yeah, generally with the newer Mini's, there's nothing you know, blaringly that's bad about them.

Mark: What about the body, fit and finish?

Bernie: Yeah, fit and finish on these cars are really nice. Again, the original Mini was kind of a cheap car. The BMW version is not a cheap car. It's a well built vehicle. Nice fit and finish. I can't really think of anything off the top of my head that's obvious that tends to wear out prematurely. So really in that department it's pretty good.

If you're going to buy a used one of course, just look at how well it's been previously taken care of and it should be overall a good car. We don't really run into any issues with power windows or door locks, that are above average or concerning. So you know, when we do these reliability podcasts of course, as I say with any car, any thing and every thing can go wrong at some point in time. We're just kind of looking at the common stuff that we see.

Mark: So overall, how would you rate a BMW Mini for reliability?

Bernie: Well I'd say that they're a little below average. And now reliability of course, they tend to start, they're reliable in that department. But as far as repairs, I'd say they're a little above average, maybe even quite a bit above average in terms of repairs. And sometimes at lower mileages than you'd think. I mean, they're a nice car, they're a fun car but do expect you're going to spend more money than average to repair and maintain the car.

Mark: And keep up your maintenance.

Bernie: Keep up your maintenance, again expensive technology. Change your oil more often that the scheduled maintenance, you know than BMW recommends. Make sure if you have any coolant leaks, fix them first. You don't want to overheat one of these engines or damage it because they're very expensive to repair.

Mark: So there you go. If you're needing service and maintenance on your Mini in Vancouver, BC Canada, 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 because they're busy. Or check out the website pawlikautomotive.com. There's the Youtube Channel, hundreds of videos on there, Pawlik Auto Repair, all makes and models and types of repairs. And of course, thank you so much for listening to the podcast, we appreciate it. Thanks Bernie.

Bernie: Thanks Mark. Thanks for watching. It's always a pleasure to do these.

Mark: Hi, it's Mark Bossert from Top Local. We're here with Bernie Pawlik, Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver for the Pawlik automotive podcast. How are you doing this morning, Bernie?

Bernie: Doing very well.

Mark: So 20 years, best auto repair in Vancouver as voted by your customers and probably going to win a couple more, I bet, this year. Today's victim is a 2016 Jaguar XF. What was happening with this fine British luxury automobile?

Bernie: So this car came to our shop that was basically just due for a maintenance service. No concerns. Not a very old car, 2016, this is three years old at this point. I guess maybe four. I guess we're almost ready for the new model year, this being July. So three, four year old car basically due for a maintenance service.

Mark: So that's a B service. What's involved in a B service on a Jag?

Bernie: So B service, essentially there's two major services, there's the A and the B, the A is an oil change and a basic inspection. The B, which we did this time, is an oil and filter change and then a full vehicle inspection. So on this vehicle we would remove the wheels, inspect the brakes, do a full steering suspension inspection, inspect all the fluids, a full visual inspection under the hood, test the battery and charging system, pressure test the cooling system, do the full look over the vehicle. Scan the vehicle computer, see if there's any codes stored, usually clear them because often on these kind of cars, you'll get a number of codes stored for a variety of things that are not really relevant. But one or two systems pick up a little flaw. They set a code, store it, and we would just reset all that. So that's basically it.

Mark: So you follow a checklist when you're doing that, is that correct?

Bernie: Very, very thorough checklist. Yeah. Yeah. And it's based on our own checklist plus the manufacturer has a list of specific items, but generally speaking, from car to car, they're all the same. Unless of course you have an electric car, there's different fluid, there's less fluids to look at. And obviously you're not going to look at spark plugs on an electric, pure electric car. So there's different checklists of things for different cars. But for the most part, any gasoline or diesel powered vehicle will have the same checklist in general.

Mark: So were there any concerns with the vehicle?

Bernie: No. This car came up with a clean sheet, to use a British soccer term, nothing much found on it. It only has 12,000 kilometres. So the owner drives very little and four years old, really very little going on with the car. Next service, I think a brake fluid flush would be ideal. But which will be in a year. But other than that it's really, everything was in very good shape.

Mark: So anything interesting about this vehicle that you want to talk about?

Bernie: Yeah, I want to, well one thing I really like about this vehicle and we'll start a picture show in a minute is just what happens when you start the vehicle up. There's some pretty cool, if you've never been in a car, if you have one of these cars, you'll know what I'm talking about. But if you've never been in one of these cars, it's pretty neat when you press the start button, a few cool things happen. So we have a little video and of course, a few pictures. So we'll just start.

There's the a 2016 XF Jaguar right there. And let's just get in. There's a neat little video here I'll just share.

That's basically the start and stop procedure on the vehicle. So when you start it, you can see the gear shift knob. There's no actual handle anymore. It's just a button you rotate, pops up and down. And also, what I didn't show in this video is on the instrument panel on the dash, there are two vents, air vents, and they rotate open. So they're normally in a closed position. And when you press the start button again, these vents rotate to the open position. It's kind of cool and when you shut the car off, they kind of go down. So it's kind of neat. There's some neat little hideaway features on on this car.

Mark: So with those kind of interesting features, electrical features, did you want to show the engine and stuff too?

Bernie: Yeah, here's a view of the engine compartment. So I'll just talk about the engine for a second because I know you have a question to ask me about that, those neat features. But here's a view of the engine compartment with the plastic cover on the top. This is a three litre turbo, sorry, it's three litre supercharged engine, which is remarkably like the five litre engine you'll find in some other Jaguar models and Range Rovers.

And the engine, interestingly enough, looks pretty much like the, it looks pretty much like the five litre but everything's just a little shorter because as two less cylinders. But the supercharger, a lot of the piping, very, very similar in design. So it's kind of, it's neat when you see a manufacturer use that kind of thing, in a way where they take the same engine, they kind of scale it back and.

Mark: So they've scaled it from a V8 to a V6.

Bernie: Yeah. And it kind of reminds me, I don't really know the internal engineering of this, the internal engineering of the engine, but there's different things you have to do in a V6 motor. But Americans when they went from their V8's seem to be popular, they went down to V6's in the 1970s for fuel economy. They have a lot of engines, they kind of did this where they take a V8 and they basically chopped two cylinders off and they did it in kind of a rushed fashion and some of them didn't quite, the engine didn't quite fire properly, like odd fire V6's just by nature of the construction of the engine. Anyways, we're getting kind of technical here and but nonetheless, it's a neat way to do things and probably saves a lot of money in the long run.

Mark: All right, so the doodads, for the electronic doodads that, the first question that pops up in my mind is what happens when the battery goes dead? How do you start the car?

Bernie: Well you start the car with a... Okay, so you start the car and you can actually jump start the car. Like generally the battery, I believe on this vehicle's either located in the trunk or under one of the, probably in the trunk, usually hard to get at. A lot of, used to be a battery was always found under the hood of a car. But that doesn't happen much anymore. It's always remotely mounted somewhere, which is probably a good idea because you cram more under the hood. However, this big red positive symbol here, if you pull that cap off, you can actually attach a jumper cable to the positive and then just find a good ground somewhere else under the hood. Some vehicles actually have a ground tab and this one may have one. I don't see it readily available. But you can often even use something like a bolt from the top of the strut if you had to.

So that's how you jumpstart the battery. But if that doesn't work, then you might wonder, well what if everything is just completely dead and you can't even, I need to roll the vehicle to get it on a tow truck. There is a way and that is, with this engine cover off, there's a little piece right here, little lever. So this is a tip if you own one of these cars, there's a little lever right here. And if you pull on this lever, this will actually allow, that will actually shift the transmission into neutral so you can roll a car. So it'll actually lock up and you can do that. So there's your tip. If you own one of these cars, of course it has this little booklet picture here with a question mark.

Mark: An I, information. That's right. Yeah, I knew I was saying the wrong thing anyways. You know that you can refer to your owner's manuals is what they suggest here. So this is a good thing. Always good to keep your manual in your car, by the way. That's another tip because you never know when something comes up, you go, "Hey, what? How do I do that? Or what's supposed to happen here?" So keeping your owner's manual on your car is always a good thing to do. And that's your tip for the day.

Mark: So Jaguar XF, obviously this is a complex luxury vehicle so a lot of electrical parts, a lot of superchargers, et cetera. How are they for reliability?

Bernie: Well, they're pretty good. I often think Jaguar as having the reputation of needing to be in the shop for repairs every week. They used to be like that a long time ago, but when I think about it, they lived in a world of cars that weren't very reliable anyways. As time has gone by, cars have just got better and better and better and more reliable. But so to have Jaguars. These are pretty reliable cars but they do have a lot of expensive things to go wrong. And one thing that that we've seen on some of these, like a little slightly older models is cooling system problems, they'll develop coolant leaks. That's something that's really important to keep an eye on. We had someone a while ago, the water pump was leaking. They left it too long and destroyed their engine.

A while ago I was taking a little walk, we have a really nice walk over the bridge called Lion's Gate Bridge in Vancouver and I was walking across the bridge on a nice sunny day and I noticed the guy coming up the hill in a nice Jag of similar type to this. And I could see smoke coming out from under the car. I go that's very unusual that I could smell antifreeze in the air. So this person obviously had a coolant leak. And I think, I hope that guy fixes that car soon because otherwise he's going to cook his engine too.

So with regular maintenance, you can deal with these things. But of course if a low coolant warning light comes on, take it seriously. As much as we like the work of changing an engine, we really don't, because it's money that you could have, it's wasted money.

Mark: So there you go. If you're looking for service for your Jaguar in Vancouver, the guys to see are Pawlik Automotive. You can reach them at (604) 327-7112. Again, that's for people who live in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, (604) 327-7112 to book your appointment. Call to book because they're always busy, otherwise you're not going to get in. And of course thank you so much for listening to the podcast. There is more information on the website, pawlikautomotive.com. Hundreds of videos and articles on there. Our YouTube Channel, Pawlik Auto Repair, same story, close to 400 videos on there. All makes and models and types of problems and repairs and maintenance and advice about vehicles of all kinds. We love them all, mostly.

Bernie: Yep, we do.

Mark: Thanks, Bernie.

Bernie: Thanks, Mark. Thanks for watching.

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

Bernie: Doing very well.

Mark: So we're going to talk about the reliability of a storied franchise in the automotive world, Land Rover and Range Rovers. How reliable are Land Rovers and Range Rovers?

Bernie: Yeah, well let's break it down, because that's a pretty big line of cars. Let's break it down into ...

Mark: A lot of years.

Bernie: Yeah, yeah. We'll cover early 2000 up to modern, and of course modern being brand new. However, we don't really have a lot to say about brand new because they're new, and new cars are reliable and anything that needs to be fixed will be done at the dealership level. However we can and we do a maintenance service on brand new vehicles. It's just that anything that needs to be fixed will be sent back. And generally it takes a while for a vehicle to age into seeing what reliability issues are. Three to five years I think, and then after that, other issues tend to crop up. And we're going to be talking, as I said, the line of Land Rover and Range Rover is large. With the Range Rover, we're going to stick with the full size and the sport. And with the Land Rover, it's LR3 and LR4 models. The LR2s and Range Rover Evoques, we'll discuss those another time.

Mark: All right, so we've narrowed it down. Let's start with the engine. What kind of issues do you see with Land Rover, Range Rover engines?

Bernie: Yeah, so as far as engines, first of all, you'll find either a V6 or a V8, mostly V8. So V6's are not super common but they are available. And as some of the newer Range Rovers also have a supercharge V6, as well, which is a nice option because they do tend to be a real fuel consuming vehicle. Heavy, powerful, and then the engines will either be naturally aspirated or supercharged, one of the two.

So as far as reliability, with the supercharge, we see a lot of ... I'll just talk about problems. Supercharger nose cone failures, there's a little coupler in the supercharger nose cone that tends to wear out prematurely, so that's a definite reliability issue. And by the time you hit 100,000 kilometres, 60,000 miles if you're in in the US, that part will tend to fail and need to be replaced.

There's also the other issues, and again, we see this between 2013 ... Sorry, 2010 and 2013 models. Timing chains seem to wear out, mostly on the supercharged models, but they will even ... Yeah, and on the naturally aspirated ones, as well. For a few of those model years, they didn't build the timing chain tensioners substantial enough for that. There's a few pieces, and we have a video on, podcasts on that you can look at. But you generally, if you've owned one of these vehicles long enough, you'll most likely have to replace the timing chains and tensioners on that vehicle.

So those are the two major issues you'll see. Of course, if you don't have a supercharged model, you won't do the nose cone. The other issues we do see on on some other models are cooling system failures, hoses, couplers, small coolant leaks that tend to develop into larger coolant leaks. So those are things to keep an eye on, as well. And of course, if you have your car regularly maintained, you'll be able to pick those things up and fix them and service them. But coolant leaks are probably the bigger issue.

The good news is oil leaks are something we don't see a lot of on these engines. So that used to be something that would happen a lot more in earlier generations, oil Leaks, head gasket problems, and that doesn't seem to be happening in this generation we're talking about, so that's a positive thing.

Mark: How about the transmission and drive train? How are they for reliability?

Bernie: Really reliable. I can't really even think of the last time we ever did a transmission or a differential repair on these models, axle shafts. Everything in that department is really well built, really robust, transfer cases are good. There's a lot of electronic controls on these two and they all tend to work really, they all tend to be pretty reliable. So that's a good thing. And these vehicles, even though most people, at least around these parts, don't take them off road, we do have a few customers who actually do use them out in the bush and they tend to be very reliable and good, tough vehicles. So that part of the vehicle is, I wouldn't say it's bulletproof, but not something we see a lot of problems with.

Mark: What about the brakes system?

Bernie: So the brakes, again, pretty reliable, but they do tend to wear out faster than you might expect. Especially if you look in, you can see into the wheel and you look at a Range Rovers' brake rotor, they're just, they're massive, huge things. You think that with a brake rotor that size and large brake pads, it would dissipate the heat well and last for a long time, but they don't. You're lucky to get 50,000 kilometres out of a set of brake pads and rotors on these vehicles. Maybe a little more in an LR3 and 4, but the Range Rovers, they're heavy, and they tend to go through brakes a little more frequently, and they are expensive. They're not AMG-Mercedes or Aston Martin expensive, but they are a little more money than your average vehicle, just because of the size of the parts.

But the other components, like the calipers, tend to be pretty reliable. We changed the odd one on an older higher mileage model, or something that's been in a bad, rusty climate, but generally the brakes are pretty good. They just tend to wear out, need servicing a little more frequently.

Mark: So I know this next area we've definitely done podcasts about. Steering and suspension.

Bernie: Steering suspension. Yeah, that's an area on these vehicles that definitely tends to need some work.

Let's just talk about the steering. The steering is pretty reliable. We have done the odd rack and pinion, because they do tend to leak after a certain amount of time, but not a really common repair. Tie rod ends tend to be pretty good, but the suspension end of it, there's a lot of things that can go wrong, and do, on these vehicles. So these vehicles all have air suspension. Right away, that's an an added set of issues. The suspension compressors do fail on all of them over time. So the air suspension compressor will go bad, the airbags themselves fail after a time, although we don't do a lot of them, but they do tend to fail. So given long enough, you will end up replacing those air bags.

But we see 10-year-old and even 15-year-old models and they're still intact, so they are fairly durable, but they do fail from time to time. But the big thing on these is control arm bushings. And specific, the lower control arm has a rear bushing that tends to fail on very, I'd say, prematurely there. They tend to go pretty badly, but we've done full control arms on front and back on a lot of these models because they tend to wear out over time. They're all real nice rubber bushings for a nice, smooth ride. But they're not the most robust and durable, so given time, you will replace a lot of control arms on these vehicles to get the bushings fixed up. And how you'll know they're bad, you'll have creaky noises or there'll be a lot of clunks in the suspension, and those tend to develop over time though. That's probably the biggest issue with these that we find.

Mark: What about the body and interior?

Bernie: Generally everything in that department is pretty good. I can't really think of any issues. We don't do body work, but the fit and finish on these vehicles is all really good, high quality. The paints are good.

Interior wise we don't see any things falling apart or busting apart. The power windows tend to keep working for a long time. The door locks, there's a few things we fix here and there, but there's not really any alarming concerns, I'll put it that way.

Mark: And how both the electrical system?

Bernie: Again, electrical system is pretty reliable. With the amount of complexity on this vehicle, they actually tend to be pretty good, though we do change the odd alternator. It's important to keep a good battery in these type of vehicles. Any modern vehicles, especially something that runs the amount of electronics these do, having a good strong battery is an important thing to keep.

And generally batteries last five years, it's about the case with these vehicles, too. But every five years, you should change your battery. But we test them on servicing, and nothing fails prematurely. But electrically speaking, these cars are pretty good, and I know in the past, Land Rovers, Jaguars, had a bad reputation, the Lucas wiring systems. There's a lot of jokes-

Mark: They were a lot of fun.

Bernie: Yes. Yeah, there was a lot of problems, but that's long, ancient history. It's like we're talking about a different kind of car. As much as I do bash Fords now and then, it's probably the best thing that ever happened to Land Rover and Jaguar was that Ford bought them out, because they actually made them into pretty reliable cars, so there's our compliment to Ford.

Mark: So there you go. If you're looking for service in Vancouver, BC, Canada for your Jaguar, 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 busy. Check out the website, pawlikautomotive.com, hundreds of articles and videos on there, or on our YouTube channel, Pawlik Auto Repair. All makes, models, types of repairs, maintenance issues, tips, et cetera. Many years now doing this. And as well, of course, we really appreciate you watching the podcasts and listening and thanks, Bernie.

Bernie: Thanks, Mark. Thanks for watching.

Mark: Hi, it's Mark Bossert, producer of the Pawlik Automotive Podcast and Video series. And we're here with Bernie Pawlik. Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver, Vancouver's best automotive service experience and 20 time winners of Best Auto Repair in Vancouver as voted by their customers. And we're talking cars. How are you doing this morning, Bernie?

Bernie: Doing well.

Mark: So 2006 GMC Sierra with the Duramax diesel. What was going on with this vehicle?

Bernie: So this vehicle came to our shop with the diesel engine running extremely rough. A lot of knocking noises coming from the engine and a lot of smoke coming out. I mean we're talking like a hideous amount of smoke pouring out the tailpipe when the engine was running.

Mark: Well, I know there's different types of smoke. What sort of smoke could you tell from... Was it inky black or was it cloudy white?

Bernie: Yeah, there was a lot of black and greyness to it. And with a diesel, you know, as you're alluding to, you can do a lot of... A lot of the diagnosis with the diesel is done through the smoke that comes out the exhaust. If it's really white, usually indicates that there's not enough fuel, too much air. If it's really black, it's too much fuel, not enough air. You know, grey is kind of a... Often we get grey in diesels that are over fueling or the injection process isn't working properly. And then of course the blue smoke that can be from over fueling as well or it can be, you know, from a worn out engine. A bad head gasket of course can cause a lot of white smoke. So we have a little tricks and ways to figure out what, you know, whether it's diesel fuel or whether it's engine oil. But in this case there was just a lot of smoke coming out and figured, you know, there's most likely a fuel injection problem of some sort.

Mark: So what diagnostic tests did you run?

Bernie: Diagnostic tests?

Mark: Yes.

Bernie: Well a scan tool is very useful in this vehicle. So this is a common rail system electronics. So the scan tool works fantastic to do it. There's a number of diagnostic tests we can do. One of them we did was there's a cylinder, a power contribution test to see which cylinder is contributing power to the operation of the engine. And it was pretty clear that number four cylinder, as soon as we killed that cylinder and shut it off the knocking noise in the engine disappeared. Smoke was reduced, not gone, but the knocking noise in the engine disappeared right away. And even though the engine was still a bit shaky because it's only running on seven cylinders, it was a definite noticeable difference. So we're on to something there for one cylinder. And there's also an injection balance rate, I believe. I'm trying to think of the right term. Anyway. So there's another PID to look out on the computer where it can tell how much the injectors are being compensated in terms of how much fuel they're delivering. And you know, there was another injector in a different cylinder that was quite a bit out of range for that as well. So we knew there was at least two bad injectors. So at that point we have the option, we can remove all the injectors, send them up, and have them tested. But in my past experience with doing that is like nine out of 10 times every injector is going to have some kind of a, you know... Not malfunction, but you know, it's not going to meet the specs. And so, with the age of the truck, it's, you know, well over 10 years old, quite a bit of mileage on it. It's time to just change all the injectors. Once one or two go bad, the others are, you know, probably not operating at 100% performance and need to be replaced.

Mark: So you concluded that the injectors were bad?

Bernie: Absolutely. Yeah. There was no doubt the injectors were the cause of the problem.

Mark: So how difficult is injector replacement in a Duramax?

Bernie: Well, it's not too bad on this particular model. The first generation Duramax, so it'd be a couple of years older than this model, required removing the valve cover. There's a lot of fuel pipe plumbing that needed to be removed under the valve cover. It's a very... Quite a large job. I mean I love Duramaxs. They're good engines, but that was definitely a downside of that particular engine. This one, however, the injectors are accessible without taking the valve cover off. It's still a fair bit of work, but you can undo all the injection pipes and change the injectors. A much simpler operation than in the previous. And there's no injector cups that go bad on these. It just... Just everything just fits together a lot better. It's made for much easier servicing on this particular generation of Duramax.

Mark: And do we have some pictures?

Bernie: Yeah, we do. Yeah. Thank you for reminding me. Let's get into that. Okay.

So there's our truck, a nice dually for hauling big loads, you know, with that big diesel you can haul a lot with this particular vehicle. Next photo we've got is the fuel injector. So this is one of the old injectors removed. As I said, you can see it's pretty simple. It's just one high pressure fuel line going to the injector, the electrical contact connection is there. And then the injection nozzle fits down into the cylinder there. There's the high pressure ceiling ring, and then there's a couple of other little seals that just kind of keep dust and dirt out of the injector bore. So that's basically it. A nice simple slideshow. I mean, you know, what goes wrong... I mean there's electronics inside here that fail. Also the injection nozzles can fail as well to deliver the right amount of fuel or they can be stuck open and just keep, you know, pumping like a fire hose. So that'll, you know, either... It's hard to know exactly what was wrong with this one. As I said, if we tested them, we could find out. But the testing in this case is really in the way the engine ran.

Mark: And how did the truck run after the repair?

Bernie: What was... Well there was a couple things. So immediately upon starting it up, the engine was, it was a V8, ran nice and smooth, no more knock, knock, knock, knock noise. But one thing that was a little disturbing is that there was still a lot of smoke coming out of the exhaust and it seemed like, "Okay, what else could be wrong with it?" But what we determined... We shut the engine off for a while and let it cool down. It started up, there was no smoke but after driving it for a few minutes the smoke would increase and what we determined pretty quickly is there was just a lot of excess fuel. And the engine had been running so rich that it had been dumping fuel down into the exhaust system. The other issue too that we noted was that the engine seemed to be a little gutless. Like when you go to boot it, it would tend to lack power.

So immediately brought it back to the shop and just made sure we didn't leave any turbo ducts loose cause that... You know that does happen from time to time. A duct will pop off. Verified that was all good. There's no leaks of any sort. So the best thing we did, we took it off for a good hour, hour and a half drive on the highway up and down hills and after doing all that, the smoke cleared up because we burned everything out of the exhaust. It was embarrassing for a little while getting rid of that smoke. Once it disappeared then the turbo... There's a couple of codes that kept returning for a turbo under boost, but after driving it for a while and just getting it really hot and burning everything out, it actually cleaned everything up in the turbo and the engine at full power ran just fantastic.

Mark: So was that soot and build up in the turbos from the over fueling situation?

Bernie: That's what we figured probably happened. You know, this is a variable geometry turbo. There's a vein that operates and moves in it. It could have been sticking. So I actually took it out for the road test out in the highway and I could see on the scan tool... There's different things we can look at to see if it's actually responding the way it's supposed to. And initially it wasn't and then it started... It cleaned itself up.

So this is one thing that, you know, I realized a lot of times when we take on a repair like this, we think, "Okay, it's got the bad fuel injectors" and we need to remind our clients that, "Hey, by the way, there could still be other things afterwards because you never know if you've been driving it for a while like this what other... I don't want to say damage, but what other issues may have occurred because of this." Fortunately, it was good news. It just required an extra long road test to clean everything up. But we're kind of concerned that maybe the turbo had been gummed up to the point of needing replacement, but it didn't. So...

Mark: And how are Duramax engines for reliability?

Bernie: Well, I'd say they're good. They're certainly my first choice in terms of the American diesels, especially for the 06 model year. When you think, you know, what did Ford offer? Well they had their six litre and you can look at our plethora of podcasts and videos about the six litre. You won't see much about a Duramax. And the Cummins are really good too. But I like the Duramax. They just seem to have that little extra edge of reliability. And we very rarely ever do a lot of work on them. So that's, you know, maybe not so good for us, but good if you own a diesel, a Duramax.

Mark: So there you go. If you're looking for service for your Duramax 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 the website, Pawlikautomotive.com. On the blog, there's literally hundreds of videos and articles about repairs, maintenance of all makes and models of cars over a lot of years. A YouTube channel, Pawlik Auto Repair. Same thing, hundreds of videos. And of course we really appreciate you watching and listening to the podcast. Thanks, Bernie.

Bernie: Thanks, Mark. Thanks for watching.

Mark: Good morning. It's Mark Bossert at Top Local here with Bernie Pawlik of Pawlik Automotive, and this is the Pawlik Automotive podcast and video series, and we're talking cars. How are you doing this morning, Bernie?

Bernie: Doing well.

Mark: So, we're talking about a bit of an exotic car today, a 2014 Audi R8 that had a maintenance schedule. What was going on with this vehicle?

Bernie: Yeah, this vehicle just came to us for some routine maintenance service. It had about 24,000 kilometres, and we did an inspection. It needed an oil change and some air filters, and that was kind of all the car needed at the moment, but yeah.

Mark: Basically it had just been aging in a garage. Did you find any issues with it?

Bernie: No. Really, besides the air filters were dirty and obviously hadn't been replaced, yeah, there was not much really wrong with it. As far as mileage, it's pretty low. Not that there aren't things that do start happening to these cars, but as I say time is often as much of a car killer as mileage. Killer's isn't really the right word, but you know, it ages the car and it requires service. But in this case, nothing was needed. It was in good shape.

Mark: What's involved in an oil change on this vehicle?

Bernie: Well, they're a little more time consuming than your average vehicle. It uses a dry sump oil system, and I could explain that in a couple of minutes, but why don't we just get into a couple of pictures right now?

And you can see our R8 there sitting in the shop. The same platform as Lamborghini Gallardo. So you get get a bit of Lambo for the price of an Audi, which is kinda cool.

And what else we got here? We have one more picture, which is my favourite part. You know what's neat about this car is it's got that, if you ever look at these cars, it has that sloped back, I call it a trunk, it's not. It's a mid-engine car, and so you can see the engine on display through a glass cover, which is a really cool design feature.

But once things are removed, I mean, you can see there's two quite dirty air filters here. There's a big box that they're encased in, so they need to be replaced. You know, it's just a beautiful work of engineering, this engine. Really nice looking, very pleasing to look at. What can I say?

I was saying it has a dry sump oil system, and so that involves a little more work in terms of changing the oil. There's a number of oil drain plugs that need to be removed, not just one like a standard oil pan would have, but there are several that need to be removed, plus the filters kind of buried. That's kind of it. So it takes a little more time to change the oil, and of course the air filters are hidden away in a big box, so more time, but they don't need to be serviced too often.

Mark: So with a dry sump system, how does that work?

Bernie: So dry sump is basically, well like I guess as opposed to a wet sump is like a standard oil pan in a car. A standard car will have an oil pan where all the oil drains in this catch pan in the bottom of the engine, which will hold anywhere from four to maybe eight litres of oil depending on the engine, and a dry sump doesn't hold that oil in the bottom. It basically has a pump that sucks that oil, so the pan is essentially flat. The oil's sucked and it's stored in a separate tank in a different location, and the advantage to that is that you can pump the oil in and it doesn't ... It can be ... Well I guess, when you're driving really fast and you're going around the corner, the oil sloshes around and so there's a possibility that you could actually starve the engine for oil, so in some of your racing applications, all those kind of engines have dry sumps.

In the case of this Audi though, another reason it needs a dry sump is because the pan of course will stick down a lot, and this is a very low riding car, so to keep the centre of gravity low without having the oil pan there, you can actually mount the engine lower and put all the heavy parts, the weight down low where you want it for better handling. So, that's another reason for it as well.

I think I explained that. Is there anything else I missed about dry sump? I think that kind of explains it all.

Mark: That's pretty good. So, what's the recommended service interval on this car?

Bernie: Well, the first oil service, it's basically an annual service. So every 12 months the vehicles should be serviced, oil changed, and the vehicle inspection done. As far as mileage, every 10,000 miles or 15,000 kilometres is kind of the recommended, except for the first service is 8,000 miles, but then after that 15 ... Sorry, 8,000 kilometres, then after that it's 15,000 k's after that, or 12 months, whichever comes first.

Now if you only driven a thousand kilometres, I would assert you could probably go a couple of years between oil changes because it's not going to deteriorate or get contaminated that quickly. It's not necessarily a good thing to change oil too often either.

Mark: No, you're just wasting resources.

Bernie: Wasting resources, but there's also ... I'm not an expert on oil, but what I've read is that there are certain additives to oil that can actually poison catalytic converters. You change it too often, it gets phosphorus or something in in the oil. I could well be wrong about that, but if you were to change your oil too often it can actually poison your catalytic converter because this item gets burned off as time goes by, and too much of it will wreck your catalytic converter, so.

Not something we see very often, because most people don't change their oil too often, but it's something that I'm kind of cognizant of.

Mark: Sure. So this is obviously a very high performance semi racing vehicle. How reliable is it?

Bernie: Really reliable. I mean, I think the neat thing about now Audi R8 is that if you want to get into it, I mean it's essentially a Lamborghini Gallardo. This is a V8 model, so it's kind of tuned down a little bit, because I believe the Lambo's all have V10s, and of course the Audi R8's are available with a V10 as well. But I mean, the car goes really well. It's got like a 420 something horsepower in a 3,500 pound little rocket. It's was a pretty good moving car. I mean, they're very reliable. I mean yeah, they're going to be more expensive to fix than your average, like an Audi A4, but for the kind of car it is, it's a really good bargain and you can get them used for a good price. I mean, even new, they're well priced. I think if this is the kind of car you want, this is a great vehicle to own.

Mark: So, if you're looking for service for your R8 or any Audi in Vancouver, 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.

Bernie: Always busy.

Mark: Check out the website, pawlikautomotive.com. Hundreds of videos and blog posts about repairs and maintenance of all makes and models of cars. And of course, bragging about 20 time winner of Best Auto Repair in Vancouver as voted by their customers. And, thank you so much for watching the podcast. We appreciate it. Thanks Bernie.

Bernie: Thanks for watching, and thanks Mark.