Mechanic won’t use oil I’ve chosen

I agree with Arco. This is micromanaging. If you are not happy with his performance that is another matter entirely but worrying about what products he's using is micromanaging. I would only question something like that if you're having actual repeat failures on the vehicles.

Either he is in charge of buying, or you are, figure it out and delegate it as necessary. If he is, let him do his thing and bring it up during the next contract negotiation. If he's not over his budget, you don't have much ammo.

Just about every company on earth deals with employees spending company money unnecessarily, or taking supplies, etc. The reality is it's a drop in the bucket in the grand scheme.
 
Why? It’s a push rod V8. Over head cam V10. When using the thinner oil, oil consumption is through the roof and the engines are nosey when hot.

Note that a more viscous oil can actually increase oil consumption if the thicker oil film increases transport past the rings. I've seen that happen a couple times in engines with coked rings.

I think you need to get in touch with @High Performance Lubricants who isn't far from you just down in Illinois. They specialize in quality oils for fleet vehicles, and their oils clean very well.
 
So what does his contract say? Does it for instance have some requirement to perform service in accordance with a defined schedule?
 
My understanding of cam phasers is complete. They are hydraulic with electric servo assist.
And they are not operational on our trucks, commercial applications come with the cam phasers turned off. Yes they are there, but they do not do anything.

i never said Mag1 was a bad oil, what I said was he is over paying and going WAY to long between oil changes.
I have never heard of that and have not thought that possible given the design of the system.
Please provide a link to this information. Thank you.
 
After reading your post here is my take. I have owned a fleet of my own. I have had a garage that managed and repaired fleets.

Your job from what i gather is to manage the fleets. You have a contractor that does your maintenance.

Instead of micromanaging oil brands and viscosities i would first start a fact finding investigation.

Each Vehicle should have a service history along with every invoice on each vehicle.

You should be able to pull a vehicle folder and see when the last time it had brakes, air filter, oil change, etc. You should see that that vehicle had 4 sets of brake pads installed in the past 2 years or not.. You should see that a vehicle is due for spark plugs or possibly trans service by the mileage.

IF not then you and the mechanic are throwing darts blind. The driver sure as heck doesnt care or know.


For all that you know the contractor is buying parts and selling them on marketplace or ebay. Or to a local shop.

Your job is to manage the maintenance- buying oil filters cheap or worrying about a certain brand of oil could be the least of your worries.


How many miles are you getting off a set of tires? Your folder or spreadsheet will tell you in short time.

How much did it cost to maintain vehicle X for one year? Why does one vehicle cost 2X as much to maintain as the other?


IF you are the manager then ALL of the info on each vehicle needs to be in front of you.


And to be brutally honest you and the mechanic seem to be involving personal thoughts or feelings in a business situation.


Since he chooses the $6/qt oil and brand that you dont like- What is the actual cost of an oil change for your company using the current model? Is he getting paid by the hour to do these? Or do you have a certain agreement?


So in summary i would sit down and get an overall picture of your fleet in his hands. In short time you will see where the money is being lost or wasted- then you can do your job and fix the problems.

Financially manage the fleet first. Labor/Parts/Fluids/Supplies/Maintenace Schedules.

You are someones bottom line.. and the contractor and fleet is your bottom line.
 
Since you asked. Is buying 2 weights of oil really that big of an inconvenience ? just buy and stock the correct oil, it isnt that hard. If you dont like the way he does purchasing then take control of it. The simplest system we ever had (and the least costly) was our relationship with the local NAPA. We had a standing agreement that when oil went on sale we stocked up. We used Delvac 1300 in all our diesels and NAPA full syn in all the gas engines. (we had an issue getting some people to make their vehicle available for service so the full syn gave us a little extra time, some thought we should be able to run alongside the vehicle as they were driving it and do the service :rolleyes: )
 
That’s what it’s looking like so far. The contract is up next year.
I have never heard of that and have not thought that possible given the design of the system.
Please provide a link to this information. Thank you.

There are two different ECU’s, one for commercial with the VVT turned off, one with it turned on.
I never knew this until I was researching after talking to the mechanic.
I took the VIN and went to the dealer and confirmed that at least one of my trucks has the non VVT ECU.
 
After reading your post here is my take. I have owned a fleet of my own. I have had a garage that managed and repaired fleets.

Your job from what i gather is to manage the fleets. You have a contractor that does your maintenance.

Instead of micromanaging oil brands and viscosities i would first start a fact finding investigation.

Each Vehicle should have a service history along with every invoice on each vehicle.

You should be able to pull a vehicle folder and see when the last time it had brakes, air filter, oil change, etc. You should see that that vehicle had 4 sets of brake pads installed in the past 2 years or not.. You should see that a vehicle is due for spark plugs or possibly trans service by the mileage.

IF not then you and the mechanic are throwing darts blind. The driver sure as heck doesnt care or know.


For all that you know the contractor is buying parts and selling them on marketplace or ebay. Or to a local shop.

Your job is to manage the maintenance- buying oil filters cheap or worrying about a certain brand of oil could be the least of your worries.


How many miles are you getting off a set of tires? Your folder or spreadsheet will tell you in short time.

How much did it cost to maintain vehicle X for one year? Why does one vehicle cost 2X as much to maintain as the other?


IF you are the manager then ALL of the info on each vehicle needs to be in front of you.


And to be brutally honest you and the mechanic seem to be involving personal thoughts or feelings in a business situation.


Since he chooses the $6/qt oil and brand that you dont like- What is the actual cost of an oil change for your company using the current model? Is he getting paid by the hour to do these? Or do you have a certain agreement?


So in summary i would sit down and get an overall picture of your fleet in his hands. In short time you will see where the money is being lost or wasted- then you can do your job and fix the problems.

Financially manage the fleet first. Labor/Parts/Fluids/Supplies/Maintenace Schedules.

You are someones bottom line.. and the contractor and fleet is your bottom line.

There are ZERO records of what has been done, when it has been done and how much it cost.
For the fleet in MI I have all of those records. For the fleet in IN there are ZERO RECORDS OF ANYTHING BEING DONE TO THE TRUCKS.

I’ve went through and checked the fluids in all of the trucks Tues of this week, every single truck was low on fluids.
I added 4 gallons (total) of oil to 18 trucks, 5 gal of coolant, 1 gallon of power steering fluid and 2 gal of transmission fluid and 6 gal of washer solvent.
Every single truck has a clogged air filter.
The oil bath hubs are all leaking and low on oil. I can only imagine what the rear diff’s are like. I’m surprised the $5,000 rear ends are not grenading with them being served who knows when in the last 400k and on their 3rd engine.
In case you didn’t know, Cummin’s engines are not cheap.

He is salary, he gets a check for $X.00/wk.
Having him buy the supplies a PM is $60. I do them for $30.

I do the maintence and repairs on the fleet in MI.
 
The Cam Phasers are Hydraulic that are controlled by a Electric over Hydraulic Solenoid. I take care of a fleet of 5.4L 3V Modular Fords which are the same as 6.8L 3V engines.
I run Supertech full synthetic 10w30 with great results, Though I wouldn't be opposed to using 15w40 year round in Texas, Might be a tad thick in areas with an actual winter??
Mine has a mix of 3 quarts 5w20 MC5K SM and 4 quarts 10w40 QSHM, it's what I had lying around in my stash. Seems quieter than when running 10w30, but that's purely anecdotal. I may try Xw40 next time, it's just that I have so much 5w and 10w30 in my stash. Maybe put a jug of 10w30 in and the last two quarts Supertech 20w50. Or sell some of my stash and buy some M1 Euro car.
 
He does not have time to shop for oil. He is going to the place 5 min from the shop, walking in and saying “hey Bill, I need 8 qts of…” and then walking out the door and handing me the bill for the oil.
He is going to do what is easiest for him.
He will not stay within a budget. I can’t even get him to write down when he does what.
Put him on a "performance improvement plan". That's ridiculous.
 
I agree with Arco. This is micromanaging. If you are not happy with his performance that is another matter entirely but worrying about what products he's using is micromanaging. I would only question something like that if you're having actual repeat failures on the vehicles.

Either he is in charge of buying, or you are, figure it out and delegate it as necessary. If he is, let him do his thing and bring it up during the next contract negotiation. If he's not over his budget, you don't have much ammo.

Just about every company on earth deals with employees spending company money unnecessarily, or taking supplies, etc. The reality is it's a drop in the bucket in the grand scheme.

No micro managing. Trying to get things under control.
$60 for a oil change is twice as much as it should be.
There are ZERO service records for any of the fleet in IN. I have no idea when they were last serviced. I know he’s not checking fluids once a week. All of the air filters are clogged.
Transmission fluid is black. Hubs low on oil. Wheels are black instead of white because they are covered in hub oil and road grime.

it’s kinda hard to micro manage from 2hrs away.

Me-“I’d like you to use this oil please”
Him-“no, because…”
Me-“let me look into it, carry on as normal”

if that’s micromanaging, I’d hate to see actual micromanaging.
 
This^^^^. Let him use the spec grade but switch the oil to synthetic to help with the sludge issue. See how it goes.
 
He’s playing you.

Start looking for his replacement now. Hopefully his contract ends early in 2022.

There’s a much bigger issue than viscosity going on here. You’ve got a lazy arse person who knows he’s under contract, knows the money flows to him each week and that it will continue to flow until the contract ends.

Personally, I’d toss his tail out the door this afternoon but it doesn’t sound like you’ve kept detailed documentation as to his ultra low job performance. Otherwise, you might have a solid basis for sacking him now.

Is the contract with him personally?
 
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Micromanaging? Are you people for real? Refusing to use the oil and weight specified by management is insubordination.

And yes I have people that report to me, but they are amazing, unlike this guy. They bust their rears every day and I hardly ever have to say anything.
 
He’s playing you.

Start looking for his replacement now. Hopefully his contract ends early in 2022.

There’s a much bigger issue than viscosity going on here. You’ve got a lazy arse person who knows he’s under contract, knows the money flows to him each week and that it will continue to flow until the contract ends.

Personally, I’d toss his tail out the door this afternoon but it doesn’t sound like you’ve kept detailed documentation as to his ultra low job performance. Otherwise, you might have a solid basis for sacking him now.

Is the contract with him personally?

I’ve only just started managing THIS fleet in the last couple of months. The fleet in MI for a year.
We had driver issues we had to take care of first. Kept asking him for maintence/repair records…nothing. What there were was not complete.
Trucks with tires that were not legal. Tackling things as we can. Important safety/theft issues first.
Those are now under control and improving. We have replaced half of our drivers and send management from MI week on-week off to help their management who are overwhelmed.

His contract is a business contract, he owns the shop, we lease the building and pay him and his helper a fixed salary.
In return we get “free” labor and priority on our equipment.

The few invoices we have gotten, he is marking up his supplies and parts he buys. Which would be totally fine if he was not contracted to us.
If it was your shop doing work, parts mark up would be totally expected.

He’s been buying the parts/supplies, marking them up, then getting reimbursed from us.
 
This^^^^. Let him use the spec grade but switch the oil to synthetic to help with the sludge issue. See how it goes.

That’s what I’m doing right now. I just bought 3 cases of full syn from Costco. I’m going to send it down, along with the air filters, with the manager heading down there on Monday.
She will make sure he installs the air filters ASAP and put that oil in the storage truck.

Then we tackle getting stuff done on time and baselining ALL of the equipment and keeping meticulous records from there on.
 
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