2012 colorado starts when it wants to - can anyone help?

djshroom

So ive had my truck to 5 different mechanics in last 2 months and no one can fix my issue. My truck has new battery. Truck randomly doesnt start - when you turn key nothing - no crank no noise no nothing .. wait 20-4omins and retry - will typically start up. Truck will go 2-3 weeks no issues , then wont start 5-6 times in a week - every mechanic says truck has no issues - someone help me because this is BS - thank you

thecardoc3

Why is it BS? If the vehicle exhibits a random failure and just happens to be working correctly while the shops have it, then there is nothing for them to find. Any repair attempted at that point is little more than a blind guess and more likely to be wrong than right. By not guessing they are doing exactly what they should do. From their point of view if they guess and you still have a problem then you could demand your money back. If they guess and get it right the only thing you know is that it hasn't occurred again "yet". If they don't have proof what it was and that they fixed it, you end up not really knowing if you can trust it or not.

There is a way to approach a problem like this and after a preliminary investigation and some pre-planning I would send you out with the car and be prepared to come to you (if you are close enough) when the vehicle acts up. By pre-planning the testing I can cover a lot of ground in a very short period of time and even if it happens to start before the testing is completed I would have started to establish where the problem cannot be as well as where it still might be. That would allow for resetting of the test routine to be continued during the next event. It is tedious and usually thank-less unrewarded work which is why most shops don't even try because they lose money for having even tried.

djshroom

Ya sounds like bs bro - you shouldn't have to reduplicate the issue to solve it , but based on your points of view , your thought process is why im f----d - paid off truck that's worthless and unreliable- but thnx - your opinion just solidifies why my truck will never be fixed - unrewarding work - if its  unrewarding to figure it out - get a new job - ivd paid 800 bucks for nothing - at least Firestone doesn't charge if they cant fix - now thats how it should be ... anyways enough chewing you up - thnx for your opinion though

thecardoc3

djshroom said:

Ya sounds like bs bro - you shouldn't have to reduplicate the issue to solve it , but based on your points of view , your thought process is why im f****d

Edited the inappropriate language. The problem absolutely has to be replicated otherwise anything attempted is a guess. I already explained both results of correct or incorrect guesses. When a vehicle owner starts to pressure which is essentially what you are doing here "by chewing on my response" you try and get the shops to take a non-professional approach, a non technical approach, a non scientific approach. That leads to more failures than successes.

djshroom said:

- paid off truck that's worthless and unreliable- but thnx - your opinion just solidifies why my truck will never be fixed - unrewarding work -

Actually it can be fixed but not necessarily by someone who fails to really be disciplined in their approach. It takes a good game plan and a lot of patience. As I described in the previous response the technician needs to pre-plan the testing routine and then wait until the symptom occurs to tackle it.

djshroom said:

if its  unrewarding to figure it out - get a new job - ivd paid 800 bucks for nothing

So you already had someone guessing and tossing some parts. IMO. You actually got what you wanted, best guesses, only they failed. Who knows, maybe one of them actually guessed correctly and just happened to install
a defective part that resulted in a similar symptom occurring. Without proper testing and verification there would be no way to know just where this stands right now.

djshroom said:

- at least Firestone doesn't charge if they cant fix - now thats how it should be

That's the unrewarding part of this kind of work. They take that labor back off of the technician too essentially punishing them for having done exactly what you wanted them to do. They also don't pay the technician for the time that really needs to be invested against a vehicle that presents with a difficult random failure like this.

That tendency exposes the worst part of this. For the technician this isn't a job, it is a career. When someone thinks of being a technician as a person who just has a job they are revealing that they don't know anything about the demands of the work that techs perform as well as just what the individual has to personally invest in order to be ready to help when a vehicle owner has a problem like this.

djshroom said:

... anyways enough chewing you up - thnx for your opinion though

No problem. Until perceptions like the one you pushed here disappear by learning just what it really takes to diagnose and repair cars you're going to end up with fewer and fewer people who are actually capable and qualified to do it. That's another part of the unrewarding side of the career as it stands right now. I've made it a point to stand up and set the records straight about this stuff and many times I wonder just how many of the readers realize just how poorly treated the technicians are. Posts like yours help to make that picture clearer.

FWIW. I absolutely could figure your car out and fix it right the first time by taking a patient, planned approach. I could get lucky and have it act up the first day that I looked at it, or it could take a month or more for it to give me the chance, but I could solve it and it would be easy while it is acting up.