Anthony, I realize that you have gotten beaten up a bit the last few days for not following Art's advice, and it cannot be easy to read reply after reply criticizing you for it. I think we are just frustrated, taking the problem on as a personal failure because we are unable to fix it from afar. Also, we have all, I'm sure, been taken advantage of by mechanics, and we fear that the same is happening to you.

You do not have to do your own work to study the problem, learn, be very well informed, and speak intelligently about the problem. In your position, you should treat your relationship with the mechanic who does the physical work as if you are the brain and he is the hands. You are hiring him, employing him, to do physical work you cannot. You are the boss. You tell him what you think the problem is, what you would like done about it, and if that doesn't work, study the problem some more. He is working for you, you should never have to be 'at his mercy.'

This board is for people who want to understand the car and how to fix it. Asking for advice to feed to a mechanic is the wrong way to use the resource. Especially since most mechanics will never take online advice seriously, and for good reason: the Internet is 99% misinformation and outright crap. That includes most of the auto advice online. The Brickboard is different (we're only 10 or 15% misinformation and crap), but a mechanic won't know that. In addition to the fact that mechanics rightly ignore people who say, "these people online told me what the problem is," most mechanics are full of themselves to the point that they will not take anyone's advice but their own.

To summarize, use our collective knowledge to understand the problem thoroughly, do some simple tests if you can (if you can drive a car, you can do some simple diagnostics) then go to your mechanic and say, "this is what I have observed, this is what I think is wrong, I want you to do the following..."

Good luck, and I'm glad your problem is finally fixed. It must be a relief.