2010 Nissan Cube, Maintenance and Repairs- Pawlik Automotive Repair, Vancouver BC

2010 Nissan Cube, Maintenance and Repairs

Mark: Hi it's Mark from Top Local. We're here with Bernie Pawlik, Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver. Vancouver's best auto service experience 21 time winners of best auto repair in Vancouver, only 21 times. It's a lot of years of doing a fantastic job for the residents of Vancouver and area. People come from a long ways actually just to get their vehicles serviced at Pawlik and it's because they do a good job. Today we're talking about a 2010 Nissan Cube that had some maintenance and repair issues. What was happening with this Rubik's cube?

Bernie: Rubik's cube, that's a good name for it. I've just got to start with a picture of the car because it's just such a unique looking vehicle this cube. I don't know if it's ugly or good looking but it's certainly an exceptionally practical use of space. It's a box car let's put it that way. So, there's our picture for the day.

So yeah the vehicle, so this has been a regular client of ours for many years. We've serviced this car since new. It came in for a maintenance service, a B service, it had, some of the complaints were some clunks in the steering and suspension area of the vehicle or when you're going over bumps and it was due for a B service.

Mark: So you mentioned clunks. What did you find was causing that?

Bernie: There was some worn out control arm bushings in the front, and also sway bar end links, and the upper strut plates were worn out as well on the vehicle. So there was a number of items causing clunks and thunks when you go over bumps.

Mark: So was that just replacing the struts and tie rod ends or?

Bernie: Exactly. In the case of this vehicle the struts seemed to be in pretty good shape so we just ended up replacing the strut plates and the struts felt really firm even though the vehicle is getting on in age and probably around the time you should replace them. It just made sense to do the plates. It's not that difficult to do the job. And the control arms we replaced, mostly what wears out with control arms are the bushings. The bushings a flexible rubber attachment piece that it's bolted between the frame of the vehicle and the control arm or the end of the control arm and the steering knuckle unloads off the ball joint at that end.

But there's a lot of movement of actually these joints or the bushings tear or crack and then they get excessive play and cause a thunking and bumping sound. So, sometimes you can change just a bushing other times the whole control arm needs to be replaced and sometimes even if you can do the bushing it makes more sense to do the control arm and because the ball joint may wear out soon so why not just do the whole thing and then it's complete and done.

Mark: So during a B service, that's your more extensive service item. You also look at maintenance items like spark plugs, fluids, lubricating, all the basically checking everything. What else did you find in this?

Bernie: Yeah. So, we basically cover all of that now. Things like spark plugs we don't necessarily visually inspect them. On this vehicle spark plugs are to difficult to access so we look at maintenance rec and we look at manufacturers maintenance recommendations and we look at our own history or if it's a new client to us we find out from the client, "Do you know if these had been done recently?" Other items like fluids of course we inspect them, we do this B service is a comprehensive inspection so we also do a wheel off brake inspection. We look at everything quite thoroughly, lubricate door locks, hinges and latches, those kinds of things to keep the vehicle in good order so when you pop the hood it pops up or you open the doors it's not a creaking sound, those kind of preventative maintenance items we do.

Mark: And you guys follow a checklist to do this, right?

Bernie: We have a checklist and we do this with our electronic inspection which I think we've talked about in previous podcasts or videos. And yeah, we follow a pretty thorough checklist of things to look at.

Mark: What is it a 138 point something like that?

Bernie: We don't have a point number. The inspection we used to do had 150 points on it. This one probably has either more or less depending on the kind of car we work on. So, it really depends on what the vehicle is but as I said there's a very thorough list that pretty well covers everything. It doesn't cover diagnosis so we may have clients who come in, "Hey, my check engine lights on." And certain vehicles we will include a vehicle scan and we can give at least a code report on, "Hey, this is a particular code." But to actually test and diagnose that is an additional cost. So, but a lot of other things we do on a B service where as long as it's reasonably accessible we will test the battery and charging system with test equipment. So again, you get a report on that kind of thing and the pressure adjusted cooling system. So again, if there's hoses or things that are about to fail we can find those kinds of things too.

Mark: And did you find anything else that was due in that department on the Rubik's cube?

Bernie: Yeah, the spark plugs were due for replacement. We did those. And there was a couple of other fluids that were discoloured and needed to be done so we also serviced those as well at the same time.

Mark: And how many kilometres were on this vehicle?

Bernie: About 200 it's actually got a fair amount. The vehicles actually in good shape for the age and the owner has been pretty good in terms of doing maintenance on it. I have to say, I can't say quite perfect. There's been times where oil changes have been left a lot longer than they should have and the vehicles survived well. It's not something I recommend to anyone. You should always do your oil changes on time or sooner. There's just so many expensive things to go wrong but some people do tend to push the envelope and this one has survived well so far.

Mark: And how our Nissan Cubes for reliability?

Bernie: Well I can't say we've worked on a ton of them because there aren't a ton of them around but based on this one this has been a really car. There's been really very few issues of any sort other than just normal wear and tear. We've put a few sets of tires on it and a few sets of brakes and this is the first time we've done any sort of major suspension work on the vehicle. So, overall it's a pretty good car. I think doing proper maintenance on it it should last for quite a lot longer.

Mark: So there you go. If you have a Nissan product in Vancouver the guys to see are Pawlik Automotive. For maintenance and repairs you can reach them at 604-327-7112 to book your appointment. You have to call and book ahead, they're always busy. Check out the website, pawlikautomotive.com. On YouTube of course there's over 350 videos on for all makes and models and types of repairs. Pawlik auto repair is their search term. And of course, thanks so much for listening and watching to the podcast. We really appreciate it. Share it with your friends. Thanks Bernie.

Bernie: Thanks Mark. Thanks for watching.

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