After 32 years in the business, having worked for four of the international OEMs, I'm a consultant, primarily because I grew weary of being asked to misrepresent conditions to clients who trusted me to shoot straight. I'm hoping this forum will provide me a place to submit the questionable claims companies occasionally give my clients and have a knowledgeable, experienced technical person help me determine if the claim has any potential basis in fact. I know technical matters well enough to know that the answers aren't always obvious and that problems, especially intermittent ones, are difficult to diagnose. Still, I sense that many of the company reps, whether of new equipment, maintenance, repair or modernization, sometimes provide answers that sound far-fetched, but I don't have the technical knowledge to say with certainty that they're blowing smoke.