The Intermittent Blues

Feel at the end of your rope?
Welcome to one of the most frustrating issues for the consumer and the technician.  An intermittent condition is something that only occurs once in a while, and/or without any regularity.  When you bring your vehicle in for testing / analysis, some special rules may come up.

What? No guarantee?
No technician can ever guarantee to find and / or fix a problem if it is intermittent.  First off, the technician NEEDS to be able to duplicate the symptoms before he can get a direction to pursue. If your vehicle only shows it's intermittent problem once a month, be prepared to hear that they can't find anything wrong. In a case such as this, you may want to wait until it gets worse. If it happens only 2 -3 minutes after first starting it in the morning, don't expect a technician to find a problem if you just drove it in. You may want to make arrangements to leave it overnight and then be there to point out the problem WITH him in the morning.

Information is valuable
Ask your shop if they have a checklist that you can fill out before you bring your car in for an intermittent repair / analysis. It is easier to have a checklist to follow and note the what / when / hows of the situation, than to wait until a week later after they are no longer fresh in memory. The more information a technician has concerning intermittent problems, the better (and cheaper) it may be for you, but keep in mind, if you want the car checked out, and the technician does not find a problem, don't get angry when it comes time to pay the bill.   Would you spend tens of thousands of dollars on equipment and work for free? Please don't ask your technician to either.