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Comments
You get a "lien kit" from DMV and follow instructions. It's pretty easy. I've helped a few garaged do lien sales. I did the paperwork, placed the public notice and after the auction--which nobody ever comes to---I filed the lien papers for the garage. They got a title, sold the car to pay for the repairs*
* Note: there are rules regarding how much a garage may charge for "storage" and also a rule that if the sale exceeds the cost of the repair bill, that extra money goes back to the owner of the car. Also, the owner can contest the lien sale, but if they contest it and still refuse to pay, and don't file a lawsuit, then the lien sale goes on.
Threat of a lien sale is a good way to get non-payers to cough it up or shut up.
So my friend asked about it and learned that they had overhauled the transmission (Powerglide) but the owner refused to pay for the job or pick up the car. They had just completed the Mechanic's Lein paperwork and told him he could buy it for the price of the rebuild which was, at the time, around 200.00!
He picked me up, stopped by the bank and we went back and picked up the Chevy which they had washed in the meantime! It was a So. Calif beauty, rust free with something like 60,000 miles on it. I drove it home for him and it ran like a dream!
He drove it for abut a year and finally sold it to a guy who kept bugging him for I think 600.00.
It got lowered to the ground, split manifold installed and lived the rest if it's life as a "cholo wagon"
The guy that owned the place told me that, if I had happened to come by there about 5-6 months earlier, I could've had that car for free! I didn't understand what he was saying at first, so he explained. Turned out, the previous owner had brought that car to them, and when they said it needed a new transmission, he didn't want to put the money into it, so he just left the car with them. They swapped the wheels, which were the extra-wide 15x7 road wheels, and gave them to a friend to use on a horse trailer, and they threw some junky Ford wheels on that had the same bolt pattern, but the center part was smaller so they cut the opening out. And eventually, they sent it to the junkyard.
And as luck would have it, I happened in that junkyard on the very day the car came in, so I saw it, complete and solid, before they started dismantling it and then parting it out. Paid $250 for it.
It actually drove out of the junkyard, and made the trip home just fine, and the transmission never gave any indication of trouble. And the inspection never found anything, but then again, I don't think a transmission is part of a "safety" inspection. However, one evening after work I used it for my part time job delivering pizzas, and it acted up pretty quickly. I tried to get it home so I could get another car, and got within about 1/4 mile. So I just left it along the road, ran home, got another car, and figured I'd deal with it later.
That night, after I got off, I put some transmission fluid in it, and it went into gear just fine. So I made sure to just keep transmisison fluid with me. But, the second time, that didn't work!
The transmission shop only charged me $650 to put in a rebuilt transmission, which seems cheap to me...too cheap to total a car over. But then, maybe the previous owner was just getting tired of the car. And, it did need other work. I bet that transmission shop is happy that the previous owner didn't say go ahead and fix it, and THEN refuse to pay! Also wondered if they thought I was an idiot for pulling it out of the junkyard and then paying to get it fixed?
http://www.searchautoparts.com/motorage/aapex-coverage/motor-oil-matters-comes-b- - ack-market-more-focus?cid=95882
Well that's great, but the reality is we don't make money changing oil and it is likely that it will always going to be a "loss leader". Now we get to pony up another $400 to be licensed to try and prove that we know how to correctly service someones car.
http://www.motoroilmatters.org/
Such a deal. And if you don't pay the $400 a year, someone like that Marsha guy will claim you're incompetent when they sue the shop. :P
Don't forget to top up the tank with some Top Tier gas.
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '08 Charger R/T Daytona; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '08 Maser QP; '11 Mini Cooper S
Even when you win, you lose.
Sort of nice owning older cars that you couldn't even buy an extended warranty for. The trick now will be finding parts and mechanics who can work on them.
Who is Marsha?
BTW we don't use bulk oil. We stock twelve different oils because the "one size fits all" approach has been incorrect for more than a decade.
you are marketing all the time.
People who buy "Fairview Motor Oil" in a black can for .59 cents a quart are the same people who buy $5 used motorcycle helmets. :P
Do the dealers still have those drums of bulk oil hanging from the ceiling? No sure if many consumers ever caught on to that, but the manufacturers might, after they audit some engine failure warranty claims.
That's usually the case, but I know of at least one case where Hyundai denied a warranty claim over a typo in the customer's records...
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport; 2020 C43; 2021 Sahara 4xe 1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica Wife's: 2015 X1 xDrive28i Son's: 2009 328i; 2018 330i xDrive
He said the guy across the street was competent, but there was plenty of work to go around... said the 2-bay guy used to manage a tire store, and decided he could make a go of it... 2-bay guy's mechanic was calling them all of the time, asking for information, and he finally just had to tell the guy to stop... "I pay $500/month for All-Data, and I'll be damned if I'm giving that information away."
He says he gets a lot of business, after the 2-bay guy gets done with them... .. including the guy's sister...
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That's something that I really tried to create in our area. It didn't work as it is clearly a one way street. One shop is so cut-throat they wouldn't admit someone can do anything that they cannot as an independent and sends all of that work back to the dealerships. The other has made some investments into tooling but hasn't done anything in training to speak of beyond the random tool or parts store sales/seminar. They will call to have me help them out when they get stuck. Aside from that it's all price wars and has been for decades.
BTW the first shop mentioned didn't blink when they had a chance to buy a cloned Tech II off of EBAY. Overnight they got to catch up with the investment that I had been making for years that now totals some $20,000 for that one tool and manufacturer and they only spent $1500 to do it. Seems nobody cares how being able to purchase that stolen technology hurts someone like myself.
BUT. You can't just go and buy any 5W30 off of the shelf and have it meet every manufacturers specifcations. One size fits all transmission fluids cannot possibly meet all of the different specs.
As far as proving if the oil used in someones car actually met the vehicle specs or not that's easier than you might think. The Catalytic convertor collects specific compounds over time and they eventually kill it. These are the ZDPs and the ZDDPs that the cheaper oils use for boundary layer protection. All GM has to do is have an analysis done on the catalyst and they will know without a doubt if oils meeting their specs have been used or not. Both GM and Ford do this on every catalyst returned to them under warranty or not and they have quite a data base built from it. That means its only a matter of time before they start denying catalyst warranties because of the wrong motor oils being used.
As far as the typical engine failures caused by the incorrect oil, they aren't found in the crank and bearings unless you have starvation becuse of sludging. They are found in the piston ringlands, and with cylinder scoring (resulting in excessive oil consumption), timing chain stretch and guide failures, and camshaft failures, especially the Euro's with the flat tappet cams. The failures are well documented and repeatable, proving the wrong products have been used to service a car's engine or transmission is so easy that it is only a goodwill gesture on the O.E's part to not void the warranties.
This is all part of the reason GM requires the dexos approved specification on the front of the bottle. It takes the guess-work out of the equation for the vehicle owner. Oil company statements like "meets the engine protection requirements of dexos" are very misleading.
That GM training exec needs to get into the shops and see what kind of money the techs are really making, and just what they have to do to even get that.
50-60K is more accurate and its one of the hardest jobs anyone could ever try to do for that amount of money.
And to achieve a reasonable standard of living out there demands a wage of????
http://uptimeblog.enigma.com/the-uptime-blog/tabid/50748/bid/91519/Fewer-Mechani- cs-Fixing-Harder-Problems.aspx
I had to laugh when the article mentioned Sears.....
Cars are more like newer Macs, where you can't even replace the glued-in laptop batteries, even if you figure out how to get the cover off with your spudger.
Heaven forbid someone actually gets the training and equipment to truly diagnose and repair a failure.
Certainly cheaper than trying to track down a bad circuit; just replace the whole board or disc drive.
Some people always try to compare what we do to doctors, it doesn't work. Likewise trying to force us to be like the personal computer tech won't work either, there are in fact very few similarities.
Would you be willing to pay for a tryzee on a $600 steering rack if the car is randomly difficult to steer because of a loss of assist? Not to mention there is no risk of personal injury or loss of life if the swapped out video card fails to solve a problem.
The majority of problems the trade has to deal with fit easily into the category of the public trying to force us into being something that we can never be. Then as technology changes and we have to adapt to meet it we get exposed to yet another level of faulty perceptions.
You might as well try and force a tomato to be a watermelon as to try and force the auto repair trade to be like the geek squad.
If a tech with that level of ability has any ambition, he usually will open his own little shop after 5-10 years of wrench-bending at a quality specialty shop. By that time he's learned his trade and something about business and customer relations.
We need guys like that. Us regular folks just can't afford them.
Computer cards run life-critical situations every day. Think of a surgeon looking at a video screen while performing surgery. (Hope your wife is doing good btw).
Comparing us to the medical field is a flawed comparison. If the video card fails in my PC, I can have another one for forty bucks and swap it out in five minutes. Heck the whole PC only cost seven hundred give or take. That equipment the doctor is using cost a little more than that. But that doesn't mean it can develop a problem. So they have to have more than one piece of equipment and be able to simply use a different machine in a few minutes or else stop the surgery.
My nephew repairs those machines. You better sit down before I tell you what the company he works for charges just for him to show up to do his swaptronics.
. (Hope your wife is doing good btw).
Hey, thanks for asking! Guess I forgot to give you an update. The surgery went well and the clusters of bad seizures were gone right away. She has had one minor seizure during the night about three weeks ago. As of now she is struggling with short term memory issues, and has displayed some changes in her personality. But she is far better off than where she was, she just still has a long way to go. Her neurologist even took her down to only one medication and has hinted that he may try to stop all of the meds completely.
On the bright side the subject of her finally learning how to drive has come up several times. She needs to be seizure free for a year for that to happen. She's already chosen our Escape to be HER car. :shades:
VW Bug engines could be dropped in less than an hour and lots of guys would plug and play them. The world record was one minute, four seconds.
Enjoy Turkey Day and better start detailing that Escape. :shades:
What car? Say maybe a 1997 Pontiac grand Prix with a 3.4l? How about a Honda Civic with the 1.8l? Either will take anybody longer than it takes to do the alternator on a 2002 Cavalier.
Why couldn't it be more plug and play so a novice could do it as fast?
Aside from being a novice which means they don't have the experience, physical skills, or sufficient training ......
Why aren't they solid state in the first place? If you have to have some rotating mass to keep the battery going, why run a heavy gizmo off a belt instead of incorporating it in some other part that already has to move?
Because the real world doesn't bend to our wishes? BTW I'm thinking the hybrid vehicles are "almost" doing what you are asking, but they are anything but more novice friendly....
Why do you have to attach a voltmeter and ammeter to an alternator to check its performance? That stuff could be built in too. If I'm driving down the road and the headlights start going dim, the dash should tell me that I have a bad alternator. It really should tell me that as part of the initial start diagnostics so I don't leave the house in the first place.
Why don't the engineers work with the designers and bean counters so you can easily get to the parts? They'll have to rethink this as fewer techs enter the trade so the dealers can hire 4 or 5 "novices" and depend on one trained tech to pigeon drop from station to station to follow their work as they pop modules in and out.
The hybrid tech is helping push the limits and it's proving to be pretty reliable too.
I suppose a visit from the snap-on guy, and a shop manual, can handle a lot of the tools/how, but these days, the "what" is still a huge mystery!
and I agree about design. I just had to change the low beam bulbs in my volvo, and it was actually pretty neat (and simple) to do the way they had designed it. That led to a conversation about Saturns, and how you had to dismantle most of the front end of the car to replace a headlight. Classic case of not thinking through the design to account for maintenance down the line.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
When you consider how many of them are actually on the roads to the percentage of significant failures that we do diagnose and repair, you'll find that they are right on par with everything else as far as failures go. Only they tend to be much more difficult to deal with since the decades of familiarity isn't there with them that we have for the more conventional systems. Meanwhile the prices for the components are staggering even to us.
Everything that you are writing sounds like a lot of whining. Why does this and why does that are not in our control. Everytime we turn around there is another new style of fastener to contend with, take TORX for instance. Why did we ever need them, we already had both standard and metric allens to deal with? But if that isn't enough we had to have reversed TORX, tamper proof TORX, TORX Plus, and now tamper proof TORX Plus that are five pointed. Each set of those is a $200 + bill and all we need is for some engineer to design a component that has the fastener recessed beyond the reach of the conventional tool and you basically get to double every one of those tools for a version that has a longer reach. Oh, and no you cannot just buy the longer reach ones because we also have situations that don't have the clearance to use the standard ones and now we have to buy sets of shorties too.
I've lost count of my oil filter wrenches, I have more than thirty of those today.
Why do you have to attach a voltmeter and ammeter to an alternator to check its performance?
Quite simply because a system failure doesn't always add up to just one part failing each and every time and the "SYSTEM" needs to be tested correctly.
How much training do you really need to loosen a bolt and a belt and swap a new alternator in
For some people, that would be none in most cases. Their natural mechanical talents will see them through. It's kind of like singing, you are either born with that talent or you are not. From there practice and lessons can make a significant difference in one's abilities. But if you were born without one of those talents all of the training in the world could never really make you "good" at one of them.
Question back at you. You replace an alternator by "loosening a bolt and a belt and swap a new alternator in" and it doesn't fix the car. So you replace the alternator again and it still doesn't fix the car. So then you do it over and over and over again. If just replacing a part is all that is required to be a mechanic you'd be a superstar at that point wouldn't you?
There's over 5,000 how-to's just on YouTube.
Does everything that you can find on you tube reflect reality?
Why don't the engineers work with the designers and bean counters so you can easily get to the parts? They'll have to rethink this as fewer techs enter the trade so the dealers can hire 4 or 5 "novices" and depend on one trained tech to pigeon drop from station to station to follow their work as they pop modules in and out
They have been trying to do this in shops long before the day I first stepped into one. At one time the techs made about 50% of the door rate, today that number hovers between 20-25% and instead of being hourly where everyone could help each other flat rate dominates the workplace and it has been a cut-throat way of life for decades.
Today manufacturers are stopping paying diagnostic time in many cases or only paying for a very small amount. .3hrs or eighteen minutes under warranty. Heck that really isn't enough time to locate the car, connect the scan tool, pull the trouble codes and road test the car to try and see if the problem is active. But then the tech still has to check for TSB's, pull up service information and/or a schematic and actually perform the physical steps that resemble some kind of a diagnostic routine. The techs are being pushed by management to try and work in a manner that almost reflects what you seem to think should be involved when in reality that only creates pressure to perform at a level that proves that they (and you) are clueless as to what it takes to genuinely diagnose and repair a problem with confidence.
If you don't allow for and pay for the techs to diagnose a vehicle problem you are training them to skip that phase of the repair event and that only leads to cars not repaired and parts replaced needlessly. The problem is, in the past they (and you) would simply blame the techs for failing but right now you have me standing in the way pointing out that it doesn't matter how much you want magic it still requires hard work at this level and always will. Not paying for it will simply lead to technician and shop failure, that will ultimately show back up as a cost to you the consumer somewhere, somehow.
Why do you want the techs and shops to fail? Do you have to make sure that you have something to complain about?
These forums are full of those kinds of failure stories, yet all you want is to keep that failure string in place.
That's good, since most cars are pretty reliable these days. They just aren't easily repairable.
prices for the components are staggering
Retail customers like me are amazed at $800 "headlights" and $300 BCMs that have to coded to the VIN for another $200. (Yeah, I do like a good whine now and then).
system failure doesn't always add up to just one part failing
But on a diagnostic tree you take it one step (part) at a time, whether you are a tech or a chunk of software.
I can't sing but I can stumble through the national anthem just fine. I'm not building a Formula 1 car, I just want to get my daily driver back on the road. Knowing the scales doesn't matter any more than knowing alternator theory or Nick Tesla's mother's maiden name.
You can find fakes on YouTube. And at your local service center. YouTube, Edmunds Answers, all the dealer and service rating sites offer feedback and the community will help you weed out the fakes. Break down 200 miles from home? Your first stop should be the net. Perfect strangers (just like you) will help you narrow down the possible issues and garner tech recommendations.
I've fixed a lot of different stuff without ever having a "genuinely diagnosis". I want to be able to do a lot of the stuff you describe without having to visit your shop. That should be the last resort for most of us, not the first stop for a fix. The forums are full of failure stories because the design engineering is lousy.
The reason management is pushing the techs is because they can't afford you either. :P
Why do you want the techs and shops to fail?
Who can afford to have a shop do all their work anymore? Why "fix" something when it's faster and cheaper to swap a known good part in and send the core off?
Those of us who are cheap and still able-bodied enough to crawl under there and change our oil don't want to have to go to a shop. (And don't get me whining about vertical oil filters and splash shields that block the drain plug and filter; you'd think topside suction fittings would be standard by now).
When the day finally comes that you wake up and understand that what you cannot afford is us not being there, will it be too late to do something about it?
Cars are too costly to toss, but the younger urban crowd is simply tossing the idea of car ownership. The tariff is getting too high for the value. When you get down to it, no one wants to pay for a simple oil change, much less a replacement alternator.
Figure out? Since when is it in any manufacturers best interest to have a fleet of service ready technicians that can efficiently prolong a vehicles lifespan? That fox has been guarding the hen house way too long.
Right to repair may wake them up a bit on that score. For all the enthusiasts that post on this site, the vast majority of people are appliance drivers
Then maybe its time to come up with a new logo and marketing phrase. When I look at the top it says "The Car People" but what I'm often seeing here is anything but people who are totally into cars. There is a lot of the fluff stuff and what its like to own another one for a year but that really isn't getting into cars the way we do. We are coming up to the end of this year, and I'm counting pennies to decide what software packages I'm going to add to increase my vehicle support. I now have Suzuki for my Tech II, and I just aquired the Toyota Techstream. It would have been nice to put a new roof on the house but there isn't any more money. Maybe next year I'll be able to spend some on the house.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/25/magazine/skills-dont-pay-the-bills.html?pagewa- nted=1&_r=0
For us we virtually own our own businesses inside someone elses. If yo go to work at one of those manufacturing jobs, you don't have to purchase your own machinery to do the work. The cost to replace my hand tools today could buy me a McDonalds franchise and have some money left over. Yet when I'm gone my daughter might just as well haul it all to the scrap recycler.
Ford and the rest are supposed to have a fleet of service ready techs already - they are called dealer franchise employees. That's worked out great - the dealer wants to maximize profits so they overcharge the customers and the manufacturers want to squeeze the dealers so they whack warranty dollars.
People won't buy cars that break down in three to five years (they'll go buy Toyota and Honda) and at some point they won't be willing to pay for diagnostic fees. Especially to find out something they already know, like their door actuators that 100 other people are posting about online are broken.
It was a brilliant move for AutoZone to drive traffic to their stores with free code reading. The manufacturers just need to shortcut that process so we don't have to leave our own garages.
Following up on your NY Times article, maybe the solution is fast shipping of our cars off-shore since no one wants to go through the rigors of training for $10 an hour just to see their job get sent to India. Too bad the freight would be a killer because the repair by highly trained Chinese techs would be lots cheaper than what you'd have to pay at the neighborhood dealer.
There's a business opportunity for you - freight up nice older cars and get them completely rehabbed off-shore from the frame up. Bring 'em back and resell them. Profit. Currently lots of those older cars just go to Mexico or Saudi and don't come back.
There is perception, and then there is reality. Today AutoZone shows up and puts up a great big booth at the aftermarket trade shows and tries to talk to shop owners and techs about doing business with them. The top shops and techs walk right past them. We don't buy parts off of them because of their past (and in some cases still present) practices. Auto Zones in California got busted and paid significant fines for their claims of performing diagnostics and now no longer offer that in their stores in that state.
Ford and the rest are supposed to have a fleet of service ready techs already - they are called dealer franchise employees.
I've been here for more than a year now trying to make people aware of what is really going on. I'm really starting to believe that it's been a waste of my time.
So for a car under warranty with problems, one just selects a similar replacement from the stock of remanufactured cars at the local area dealers, turns in their bad lemon/egg, and drives away. Then their car goes to China, cheap repair work off-shored there, and the car comes back. I'd say buy stock in the shipping lines.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Cardoc, I've seen stories about California shutting down AutoZone and the other parts stores and preventing them from pulling codes.
Sounds like protectionism to me; the US dealer lobby is strong everywhere and this is likely another example of a way the car dealers and existing shops try to protect their sales by shutting down competition. Of course, being California, they have an agency to regulate the auto shops and "protect" consumers.
At least ODBII readers are getting cheap enough so that Californians can pull their own codes and then head to AutoZone for a new O2 sensor.
Sounds like protectionism to me
They were cited for seeling parts that the customer didn't need, and others that didn't repair the problem with the car. Essentially it was a version of the same kind of a sting operation that Edmunds was involved in with NBC last year only this was carried out by the California Bureau of Auto Repair.
So if they were out to protect someone, it was the consumer, not auto techs and shops.
I'll take the protectionism aspect as a large reason as well. Indeed, dealership lobbies are very strong here in Ohio as well. Even to the point of having a law that seems to add on $250 in fees to a sale as a documentation fee. But I read fairly well and I read the revised code and found it applied to paperwork for "time" transactions which means a fee for selling a loan to the buyer. It did not apply in full necessarily nor did it apply at all to cash sales to buyers. But the stores try to use the idea they have to charge one and all the same "documentation fee."
I'll have to ask if the local Autozone pulls codes.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Well THAT would put just about every dealership in America in jail.... :P
I wish the government would hold themselves to THAT high standard...
RE: AUTOZONE TESTING---in California, it's "in-store" testing only, not testing on the car. So i think you can bring your alternator in, but not the whole car.
A 2010 Fusion was towed to the shop yesterday. While it was still on the way there the owner showed up and announced that she knew exactly what was wrong with the car because it lurched, then the wrench light came on in the instrument cluster and then it wouldn't accelerate.
Now if you want to look up the TSB related to the trouble code P2111 go right ahead and you will see the Fusion listed, with the 2.0l engine, plus you will see cut-off dates that before and after which the TSB doesn't apply. Her engine is the 2.5l, so the TSB doesn't apply. So why did her car shut down on her stall and wouldn't restart? There is a charging system issue and she was driving on the battery until the car simply lost power and quit. She had low system voltage codes stored in the IPC, ABS, PCM, FICM, FIDM, SRS, (which also lost comm with the OCS) and the GEM/SJB. She does not have any codes set for Genmon, and Gencom circuits.
After charging the battery no problems were detected with the charging system, the alternator was charging at 14.3v, and could be commanded down to 12.6v, and then up to 14.6v.
She drives the car about eight miles to and from work.
There was a P2111 stored in the PCM's memory, it was not an active code.
You have one shot to diagnose and fix the car, what are you going to do? (and I even spotted you codes from modules that you wouldn't have been able to retrieve with any tool other than the Ford IDS)
http://www.arcamax.com/automotive/automotivenews/s-1237662
Another tech found this article sunday. I already sent the author an e-mail with direct links to show him where to get up to date information.
Substituting a 5W30 for a 5W20 can result in piston and cylinder wall scoring, micro-welding of the piston rings, deposits forming in the ring lands which leads to the rings sticking and excessive oil consumption. It causes variable valve timing system response errors which will in turn cause the PCM to shut that system down and generate a MIL resulting in a loss of fuel economy and/or power. Approved 5W20 products have a significantly lower volatility than non approved versions. Typically a bulk 5W30, will use high levels of ZDDPs, (which degrade O2 sensors and catalysts) while approved products have to use other additives that cost a little more but are actually more effective because they don't flash off and go out the tailpipe in the first 500 miles after the oil was changed. Pricing pressure and advertising helps make the company mentioned in the article get a larger market share but it's based on a lack of proper consumer education. Then in this case even a high school automotive instructor who wrote that article is a decade behind with his education on this subject.
That's just about par for online advice in both of these examples. Given enough chances someone just might guess what was wrong with the Fusion, but this job isn't about guessing, it's about education and taking a disciplined approach to test the vehicle correctly, each and every time. When there is no trouble found initially, it often demands patience and some creative thinking in order to figure out how to test so that the source of the trouble can be found.
A 2002 Lincoln was brought to the my shop by another shop. The Check Engine light is on. The customer reports that the car is "slow to start".
What I observed. His slow to start means that it cranks, and cranks, and cranks and then might finally fire up. You can turn the key off and then re-crank the engine during the attempts to start the car, you can try manipulating the throttle with nothing appearing to actually help. (it's not even trying to fire) It simply just starts when it can finally start. How would you diagnose this one? Do you have a plan or do you just want to guess and throw parts at it? Oh, I should mention it's already had four attempts at google guesses and they all failed to fix this to the tune of $700 that he has already spent. The other shop found that out and decided they didn't even want involved and simply scheduled the car with me for tuesday morning. I had to move it from where it was parked and got to observe the described condition before we went home monday.
FWIW, I'll have about fifteen seconds to try to completely diagnose the issue, that was how long it cranked before it started for me. That should easily be enough time.
You're saying that using an oil with more VI improvers in it can cause all those things you mentioned - everything else in the oil being the same?