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Mark: Hi, it’s Mark from Top Local Lead Generation and we’re here with Mr. Bernie
Pawlik, Pawlik Automotive, 16 time winners of best auto repair in Vancouver as voted
by their customers, how’re you doing today Bernie?
Bernie: Doing very well Mark. Mark: It’s a beautiful sunny morning; we’re
going to talk about transmission fluid, how exciting. So you have a story about a 2001
Z3 BMW. What’s going on with the transmission fluid on this vehicle?
Bernie: Well this vehicle, nothing in particular other than the owner wanted a transmission
flushed based on the age of the vehicle. Just this is a Z3 convertible, it’s a second
car for the owner, you know he drives it, it’s a pleasure vehicle, takes it on some
trips here and there mostly in the summertime, beautiful convertible, a lot of fun to drive
and it’s got very low kilometers, it’s only got, I think it’s only got about 75,000
kilometers which is really low for this kind of vehicle but the transmission fluid had
never been serviced so he wanted it done. Mark: So was the fluid really dirty?
Bernie: Not particularly, a little discoloured as you would expect from usage on a vehicle
like this but yeah, not particularly, not particularly dirty.
Mark: So is transmission fluid replacement something that BMW recommends for their vehicles?
Bernie: Well they actually don’t which is, which is one thing they’re very adamant
about it in fact; I’ll share a couple of photos with you here, umm, adamant to the
point of, let me just get the screen share going here, so there’s our BMW Z3, nice
convertible. This is the sticker that’s on the bottom of the transmission; let’s
see it says, warning no oil change or top off necessary, lifetime transmission oil fill.
They also warn you other fluids will cause non warrantable transmission damage. Now I
mean it’s not rocket science to get the right kind of fluid and they have part number
for the fluid on the bottom or it says Dexron III. Interesting thing about Dexron III is
that is your regular type of transmission fluid that has been used on cars for years
and years and years. I’m just going to cancel the screen share here if I can remember how
to do it. Mark: Yeah, you did.
Bernie: I did, oh perfect, excellent. Yeah, so Dexron III has been used on automatic transmissions
for years and years in American cars, Japanese cars, many European cars up until around the
early 2000’s and many, many manufacturers recommend transmission flushes but BMW doesn’t.
Mark: So why would they not recommend it when other manufacturers do?
Bernie: Well, the whole idea behind it is to present the consumer who’s buying the
new car with a very low maintenance cost, you know they can say hey you know, this is
what it costs to maintain this car you know over the next five years, you need to change
the oil, we need to do this and that but the transmission fluid off the list, it keeps
the maintenance cost on the car down so they can advertise that as being a benefit to owning
a car. Now it depends on what you want to get out of your car, I mean do you want to
keep your car for five years, if that’s all you want to do is buy a new car and keep
it five years, great, don’t worry about the transmission but if you’re going to
keep a car for ten years, fifteen years, and really get the most money out of the car,
doing a transmission service here and there is really a worthwhile thing to do.
Mark: So does changing the transmission fluid make any difference to how it shifts?
Bernie: Well, we never, we never like to say you know, tell our customers that you know,
do a transmission flush is going to make a difference but sometimes it does and in the
case of this BMW which is what prompted me to do this hangout is that we did the flush
on the vehicle with very low kilometers with fluid that wasn’t really all that dirty
and the customer calling me back and saying this transmission shifts a whole lot better,
was way smoother, snappier shifts so it actually does make a difference so in spite of what
BMW says about never changing the fluid it actually makes a difference. So we’ve had
customers of Volvo’s who’ve had some shifting problems where changing the fluid has made
a difference, again I don’t recommend it if there’s a problem but often it can make
a difference. Mark: So the results are variable. What did
your shop do when doing an automatic transmission service?
Bernie: Well we always do the most thorough service possible and replace as much fluid
as we can so there’s really two kinds of transmission fluid services. One and it depends
upon the kind of transmission, some transmissions do not have a transmission pan and they don’t
have a filter so in that case you drain the fluid then we hook up our flushing machine
and we just simply just flush the fluid. The machine pumps in new fluid as you know, with
the vehicle running the machine allows the old fluid to pump out so it basically replaces
pretty much all the fluid in the vehicle, so that’s the simplest kind of flush. On
vehicles such as this BMW they have a removable pan, they have a replaceable filter and so
we will remove the pan, we replace the filter, we clean the pan, look for any debris inside
the pan, if there’s a bunch of metal filings, well that’s a bad sign, probably not worth
even continuing to flush, if it’s bad. We rarely ever run into that though, then we
replace the pan gasket filter and then we hook up the flush machine and then we flush
the fluid out from there, so it’s a real thorough service and I would just be worried,
I mean there’s a variety of prices that various shops charge but to do a proper flush
is time consuming, it does use a lot of fluid and it is costly, I mean anywhere on average
2 to 4 hundred dollars depending upon the car, the type of fluid even some land rovers,
land rovers and range rovers they have an integrated pan and gaskets, very expensive
and time consuming and that could be like a 7 hundred dollar job but it’s worth doing
it right to make sure it’s done properly. Mark: If you want to extend the life of your
vehicle this is the way to make sure it happens basically, is that right?
Bernie: Absolutely. Yup, absolutely. Mark: So any other thoughts on automatic transmission
service? Bernie: Basically every vehicle needs it you
know, from 58 somewhere between 50 and 100 thousand kilometer range is what you want
to do, you know, whether the manufacturer recommends it or not it’s a good thing to
do. It’s a key thing with a lot of these maintenance recommendations from a lot of
manufacturers is they most of them use the same kind of fluids, the vehicle is driven
in the same kind of conditions and different manufactures have different ideas on what
you need to do but transmission flushes should be done on every vehicle.
Mark: So if you want to maintain your vehicle the guys to see, as you can tell Bernie is
pretty passionate about making sure your vehicle is running for a long time and as trouble
free as possible. These are the guys to talk to Pawlik Automotive in Vancouver, you can
reach them at 604-327-7112 to book your appointment, they’re busy so be prepared, you might have
to wait a little bit or check out their website, tons and tons of information on there pawlikautomotive.com.
Thanks Bernie. Bernie: Thanks Mark.