Q: Car will not stay started

I often hear about getting an oil change then something is wrong afterwards. I can say from experience that that the oil change itself won’t cause your car not to start. I explain coincidental failures by relating them to a light bulb burning out. We don’t know when it will, but we know eventually it will, and there is no way of knowing what caused it to burn out at the time that it did. The light bulb was simply at the end of its life.

More often than not, a failure such as this is just a coincidence. The only factor I have been able to attribute to such failures is someone else has been in your car and did things a little different. The way they put it into gear, what accessories they used, the hood has been opened and shut which takes some force. The seat was moved, etc, etc. These simple actions that are normal use, can push whatever is ready to fail over the edge. It is not the fault of the oil change crew, it is simply a change in the routine for the car. The vibration from the hood being shut, the seat being moved or steering wheel being adjusted. They will activate systems that have been sitting unused and these simple actions are like the butterfly addition to the barbel.

As for diagnosing your car, this is like any other diagnosis. A technician will first need to start at square one. Being it began after an oil change, my first suspicion is the security system. This will have certainly been used differently by the oil change crew. Following that is a close look at all the items every internal combustion engine needs to run. I would test fuel pressure, check for spark, injector pulse and connect a scanner to check for codes and read the relevant data. These actions will determine the diagnostic path I take next.

Have a certified technician, like one from YourMechanic, diagnose your starting issue firsthand. They will have the tools and experience to pinpoint what’s at fault and make the necessary repairs to get your car going steady again.

Good luck!