Mechanic won’t use oil I’ve chosen

are you willing to fire him? if not, what leverage do you really have?

Yes I am. I am going to meet him in the middle for right now. Since I cannot watch over him since he is in another state 2 hrs away and I can’t drive to his shop every day.

Then once his current contract is up, it’s either going to fall in line or pound sand and I’ll find someone else who will use what I say to use.
 
I wonder if the mechanic gets some kind of kickback from the parts store in return for his purchases of overpriced oil? I would definitely take purchasing off his plate as much as possible.

Maybe give in on the viscosity choice for the 5w20 spec'd vehicles. Or meet half way at 5w30. It would be an easy way to offer an olive branch, and would keep the diesel oil out of the vehicles with catalytic converters.

That is a good thought on the kick back.
5 of my F-59’s need air filters. I have been checking the fluids once a week because he won’t do it, so I have to drive 4hrs round trip to make sure it gets done.
I noticed the air filters were all clogged. I told him I was going to buy them, he balked at that. He’s paying $40 per filter, I order them on RockAuto for $12 each. Shipping is $9.
Baldwin is the brand I order.

Why does he care where I get them from?
 
I'm a tech, and I worked for a construction company in the midwest that ran 15w40 Caterpillar bulk diesel oil in everything, from their diesel semi tractors down to their gasser pickups, as according to them: "oil is oil". To that point their entire fleet was full of pushrod Chevy V8s, and they didn't mind it, however they had recently bought 10 or so F250s with the 5.4L 3 valve engine, and I pointed out to them that as the valvetrain, specifically the cam lobes and rocker arms, are splash oiled, that maybe the 5w20 they called for wasn't a bad idea. They didn't think so and kept running the 15w40 until a few months later they were trying to figure out why they'd put camshafts and roller followers in like 6 trucks. As far as the phasers go we never saw any timing issues or codes from the 15w40, but I can tell you from experience the cams don't like it. As far as sludge goes, evidently his "system" sucks for oil change intervals, and maybe stepping up from dino oil to at least a syn blend wouldn't be a bad idea.
 
2 states away... guessing IL, or WI?
is there a meijer near his shop?
Meijer Brand oil is also Warren Distribution... and for $6/qt you can get the Full Synthetic.
But he'd probably take issue with that to... you can't switch back and forth between conventional and synthetic! It'll (insert bad thing here)!

also keep in mind, to meet the Current Specs, there really is no Dino/Conventional oil any more. it's all at least a blend.
 
I’m a fleet manager for a delivery company. Recently we expanded into another state and in this purchase came a mechanic and his apprentice.
He is a old school kind of guy, he uses what he’s been using forever, and it is not working. The equipment that came with this purchase is in rough shape.
A Ford V-10 with 85k on it is sludged up For example.
He has been buying the oil as needed at the most expensive place around. The oil he’s been buying is Mag1 which is a Warren Distributing dino oil and he’s paying $6/qt.
For the diesels he’s using Rotella or Delvac.
He is way over paying for the oil.

So I brought him a syn blend 15w-40 diesel oil and told him to use it in everything, he refuses to use it in the gas engines because, according to him, it will mess up the cam phasers and hydraulic timing chain tensioners.
He also claims it will sludge up the engines and that “they are rated for 5w-20 for a reason“

Now I’ve been using this oil in my gasoline engines for almost a year with zero problems. I have one truck closing in on 50k quickly and I am going to do a oil sample at that oil change.
The very first oil change there was oil consumption. 1 qt in 10k on the factory fill.
Now there is zero oil consumption. In the hottest dog days of summer the trucks used less than a quart in 10k.

The cam phasers are electronic.
I have zero timing/run issues. MPG is good for what we do (~8mpg)

Do I need to put my foot down and say use this or else?
Do I need to switch motor oil?

Also he does not go by miles for oil changes, he goes by “I have a system”

Any help would be appreciated.
This is why you shouldn't hire Scotty Kilmer.
 
Sounds like you have a bigger problem than what oil to use. Time to start documenting. Pick your battles and make sure you are being reasonable.

Make your requirements clear - be specific, ideally in writing. [Can the employee read? Illiteracy is said to be very common.] If/When your requirements are not met, meet with the employee and note the problems. After a few of these meetings, provide a verbal warning that things have to change or there will be consequences (keep a record of the date and content), then a written warning including a reminder of the verbal warning and the caution that there will be further consequences unless things improve - up to and including loss of job, then (possibly) days off without pay, and finally termination.

An important rule of thumb is that an employee should never be surprised that they're being fired. Most people will be horrified and smarten up with a verbal warning. If they don't understand that a written warning is serious (and I've seen it) they're pretty dense.

Assuming the mechanic has enough time to do the work, you should be able to reasonably expect record keeping for all vehicles under his care, oil and filters changed at the manufacturers/oil monitor's recommended interval, air filters changed at reasonable intervals, periodic safety checks, etc. I would either provide him the oil and other parts or specify his budget ($2.50/quart or whatever is reasonable at that location).

Give positive feedback too. Employee management is not just pointing out negatives. If he's doing a good job in some area say so.

If you do your job things will improve. Either the work will become satisfactory (probably never great, but at least satisfactory), or he'll quit or be fired.

In my experience other employees will be annoyed that "nothing is ever done about XXX" but when you do something about it, they'll be shocked. But over time employees will notice that the problem areas are getting cleaned up and morale will actually improve. Been there, done that.
 
If you want to use only one oil in everything, what about a dual rated 10W30? This would be cost effective, offer better MPG when cold (isn't Michigan quite cold?) and suit every engine quite well. The Diesel UOAs i've seen were fantastic on stuff like Delo or Rotella 10W30.
 
I’d tell him to take the valve cover off so he can see what’s happening.

If he still refuses, fire him. Might be hard finding a replacement though.
 
Wal-Mart sure is a great place for Warren made oil too (Super Tech), even cheaper than Meijer. 3V Ford modulars are a special case-recommending 5W20, but slightly thicker seems better on old ones. 15W40 is too thick, though, they have orifices (more like restrictors) in the oil passages leading to the heads, I personally wouldn't go thicker than 10W30 in them. There's some really good HDEO 10W30s, like Rotella T5 or even T3 (by the drum/bulk), Delvac 1300, and Delo-that's the way I would go.
 
15W40 wouldn't be my year round pick in a cold climate. Having said that the OP is the boss and the guy changing the oil should do whatever the boss tells him, period. Right or wrong. Years back I made suggestions to bosses, if they were met with opposition I did exactly what they said for me to do. If there was a problem later on, the problem was theirs, not mine. Oh and I had a good when I felt the time was right, if a problem did occur. ;)
 
He will not stay within a budget. I can’t even get him to write down when he does what.

Put it in writing that improvement is expected in both by the end of the year, and clearly detail what you expect. At the same time, provide the consequences if they *don't* improve. Then be ready to do it.

There's no excuse for not keeping records, and no excuse for the unknown OCI's. At a bare minimum, it requires a 10 cent ink pen and a 88 cent notebook.

In a way, you've already screwed yourself by demanding that he use 15w-40 in gas engines spec'd for 5w-20, in the upper Midwest. That was not the best of ideas, and I can see why he doesn't want to use it. My trusted mechanic of two decades would immediately question me on a decision like that. That one is on you. That's a big change, and I don't blame him for not taking you seriously. I can see where he likely felt that you were intentionally trying to throw him "under the bus".

The whole mystery OCI thing has to be fixed, ASAP. That's a huge issue. It sounds like he's doing something like changing the oil, running it until it is a quart low, and adding a quart. Then the second time it is down a quart... that's when he's changing it.
 
That is a good point. Currently, with me anyway, the only blame he is getting is for not doing things on time and severely neglecting the equipment.
BUT, in his defense, his old boss always told him to do things as cheaply and as late as possible.
I have family members who maintain their vehicles with that attitude.
Like others here, I'm just the opposite.
 
I tend to agree with him on not running the 15/40 in a modular motor.

Are your delivery trucks that you are using it in V10s as well?

To me the bigger issue is his "system", that needs to sort and right away... if the equipment is in that bad of condition i wouldn't be above pointing out that his "system" has your equipment in terrible condition and he should be embarrassed.

As for the oil, are there enough trucks to use bulk oil in a reasonable time? Can you supply him with 2 different oils?

It seems like this guy is accustomed to doing mostly what he wants and being for the most part autonomous. Having the mechanic making parts runs is terribly inefficient too - is there no NAPA / OReily / ETC that will deliver?

Perhaps you already have but maybe an expectation setting might be in order, there is no telling what his old boss told him that he is holding on to.

In the end you're the boss and he should do what you want, but you may find that if he feels like he has some input or is being heard things may go smoother.
 
Do I need to put my foot down and say use this or else?
Do I need to switch motor oil?

Also he does not go by miles for oil changes, he goes by “I have a system”

Any help would be appreciated.

Put your foot down. In my crazy hey-day years ago, my wife and I owned a garage while maintaining our current careers. It was tough but fun.

I had guys that wouldn't listen and let them go. Heck, even in my current position, I recently had a guy tell me he wasn't going to a site and was always delinquent on paperwork and arriving on time. Gave him a few chances, but now he's gone.

In a nutshell, if you don't establish a clear chain of command, they will squeeze in and try to do what they want, not what you want.
As far as maintenance, there are likely so many other things for you guys to worry about, the viscosity war is trivial.

Regarding the viscosity, there are thousands of those engines (5.4L/6.8L,etc.) running fleet 15W40 all over the country. It may not be ideal for winter use, but as you stated, it's stored in a heated garage after hours. It will be fine.
 
BTW, just some friendly business advise for long term savings - If you have a small fleet, I recommend working with a local lubricant distributor and using a bulk oil tank with scheduled deliveries. A pattern will develop and you'll save money and time as you won't have to go to the store and buy off the shelf at retail. In my area, I used Dennison Lubricants out of Worcester MA. I kept two tanks of bulk Pennwood 5W20 and 5W30 syn-blend. It worked out well.
 
Either you have the option to can him and get someone else in there that will follow your directives, or you have to live with what he does.
 
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