Quote:
I know that Mr. Dyson is well respected by many and to gain this respect he must be extremely competent. I've sent off several oil samples before (to other companies), but, I just want to know what I can expect for the additional cost? I'm not asking for specifics, just generalities.
Javaman,
I've used Terry twice and been impressed senseless both times.
It's hard to explain, but my observation is that he has a troubleshooting and diagnostic heuristic for interpreting used oil analysis similar to what a good mechanic has from inspecting your car.
It's like on one of those silly doctor shows on TV where a famous surgeon walks through a floor of the hospital briefly and tells the duty nurse that the patient in room 209 smells distinctly like "sweating geese" and therefore has [fill in the name of obscure disease here].
The guy has read so many UOAs that it's sick, he remembers gobs of specific formulas for oils, and he doe better root cause analysis for wear metal counts than anyone else I've ever seen.
I can't tell you WHAT he told me, but he told me something about my Mercury Sable's oil that is absolutely NOT stated in the UOA, but absolutely *was* the case on further reflection.
Bottom line, when I use him, I know my UOA will be thoroughly interpreted by a professional who can make as good of a use of the information I gave him as anyone out there.
It's to the point where I wonder if it's worth doing a non-Dyson UOA at all; by the time you pay for the TBN with somebody else, you're already most of the way to his price. If you don't have him or someone else just as skilled interpret it properly, you might overlook something important.
Lastly, he works with you to figure out any problems and if needed prescribes ways to fix your problems. He's gladly answered my questions in the past on anything I asked about the UOA, and we've exchanged emails back and forth quite a few times over the same UOA.
Not the best money I've ever spent, but it was close; the only better deal I've gotten from a mechanic was the guy who I paid $35 to inspect a 4-cylinder stick shift '86 Taurus wagon, who told me that one of the cylinders was at 45 PSI when he did the compression test while the rest were at 110. [A shame, too, how cool would that rare machine have been? Would have come in handy, too, when I was dealing computers out of my house a couple years later...]
