Diagnostic tools do not always lead to efficient repair

It is important not to put your whole trust in your diagnostic tools. Like every man made device, these can also lead to diagnostic errors. However, there are times when the problem is not from the tool but from erroneous setting of the tool.

To develop a feel for accuracy, you must have sufficient knowledge on the subject matter in question, therefore, there will be times when your intuitive judgment must override the information reported by the tool.

Being committed to providing quality and affordable services is a sure way to improve your repair skills. This is because you might be reluctant to change a component and so carry out more time consuming tests if you are emphatic about your customers repair problems.

Few people take kindly to unexpected expenditures when repairing their vehicles. It is therefore necessary to put yourself in the position of the customer before recommending the replacement of expensive components.

This type of empathy can bring about the insight required to solve previously intractable diagnostic problems.

Tool quality is critical for cost effective repair

When buying tools, ensure they are of the highest quality. Low quality tools often lead to a lot of unanticipated problems during repairs. Most personal injury sustained during repairs can usually be traced to low quality tools.

In some cases serious damage to some sensitive components can occur because of tool quality. Spend more to buy higher quality tools whenever possible because you are likely to diagnose and repair the vehicle much faster thereby increasing your overall profit margin.

Never change a part without a confirmatory test

The cost of replacement parts for most vehicles is quite high. Diagnosis by replacement is rarely an option except you are repairing only a particular brand of vehicles where you can find a replacement component from another similar vehicle.

Before you replace any component, ensure you understand and carry out the test procedure for confirming if the component is still operational .

Replacing a component that is not faulty can make the customer question your technical competence as well as reduce your profit margin if you persist in this approach for any length of time.

You can never have too many tools

It is wise to allocate a particular percentage of your earnings to the purchase of tools. New and improved tools are continuously being produced all the time so it is important you keep abreast with the latest in the field in order to improve the quality of your work.

Certain tools can actually reduce the time required for a particular operation by up to ninety percent. You do not have to wait to need the tool before purchasing them. Make a habit of researching on tools.

Some new types of wrenches can be used to access bolts and nuts in very tight spaces. Ordinarily, this might have involved removing several obstructing components before reaching the bolt or nut.

By using this type of wrench, the possibility of injury and damage to some components is reduced drastically.

Every Job is a new Job

Regardless of whether you have performed an operation several times, it is always important to remember that every job is really a new job. Expertise often breeds complacency and this is why experts make the most disastrous mistakes in every industry.

Always be in the beginners’ frame of mind if you are performing any repair or diagnostic operation and resist the temptation to perform diagnosis by experience. For example, if a vehicle is idling roughly, it is easy to just tell the customer to get a new set of spark plugs perhaps because you have encountered similar situations before.

From experience, the more you refuse to really think about what you are doing , the more the vehicle will consume your time. Never think you know it all when it comes to vehicles. Some problems that appear very trivial can be major traps that can bring a lot of complications if handled wrongly.

Refuse to believe that you are an engine guru even if your customers or peers believe it. This is usually an unconscious scheme to trap you into making costly mistakes

Information is everything!

Modern vehicle repair is not unlike cell phone repair. The basic technology remains the same regardless of the manufacturers’ advertisements. However, every person involved in the business of repair must understand that ample time must be spent not on repairs or diagnosis, but on acquiring new information.

Manufacturer recalls are being issued all the time in various Technical Service Bulletins to alert both the customer and the technician of problems related to the vehicles released by the company.

Often, many technicians or consultants are so busy with business that they fail to update themselves on current information. In this field, there is new information virtually every hour and it pays to find at least thirty minutes in a day to communicate with other people in the business either through email or the various bloggs and forums on the internet.

Share knowledge to know more!

It is ironical that it is usually when you want to give out information that you often discover that you are not even very sure of what you are talking about. This forces you to learn more. Also sharing knowledge empties your mind of what you currently know allowing you to gather more information.

The tendency of people in developing nations not to share information is quite high. Usually, after having been trained abroad or by expatriates on a specific field , the local guru assumes the status of a god .

Technical manuals and training manuals left behind by the trainer are usually hidden from fellow employees in order to make the ‘guru’ indispensable. In many instances , simple operational codes are known only to this one person and every other person appears quite incompetent because of hidden information.

However, experience has shown that such people usually know much less than is assumed. This problem is very hard to solve because in most cases it has become habitual and a kind of survival strategy for the individual.

The good thing to remember is that you really gain by teaching people what you know. Make this a kind of mantra or prayer in order to help you break the habit of hiding information: ‘You really gain by teaching people what you know!’

It is also good to remember that some people live by picking other peoples brains and giving nothing in return. This also helps perpetuate the problem of withholding information.

However, since everything has a price, it is best to place a value on the information you have and demand that price if necessary or insist on paying rather than begging when ever you require critical information .

Even after paying for information, most people will either not divulge the information or distort the information out of habit. Early perception of this problem can go a long way to reducing the frustration you might encounter in acquiring new information

Never work when you are in a bad mood

That emotion affects perception is not in doubt. You only have to review your actions when you are angry to confirm this. Working when you are in a bad mood leads to many types of problems and injury. If you are upset, in a hurry, late for an appointment (with a girlfriend), please reschedule whatever job that you are currently doing till you are in a better frame of mind.

You are likely to skip washer during tightening, omit tightening some bolts or tighten them incorrectly, you might even get irritable and abuse the customer all because of your mood. Some of the damage incurred when you are in a bad mood can never be repaired when you are in a good mood. If you need to stop work for a whole day or a whole week please do so.

Customers are not always right, and you too!

Only those who have dealt with clients for many years understand the fact that customers are curious creatures. This should not come as a surprise since at some point in your life you have been a customer to some other businesses.

In the automobile repair business, meanness, stinginess and falsehood are just some of the attributes you expect from some customers. There are even those who will not allow you to do your job as they claim to know everything, while at the same time grossly undervaluing your services.

This is very common among professionals in other fields especially lawyers and architects. However, one must admit that even though some customers are not technically competent, some have very acute observation skills and often prove to be correct in tracing the source of some problems related to their vehicle.

A perceptive customer is the best diagnostic tool you can ever have because with him a lot of unnecessary work is eliminated. Always listen to the customer because in a lot of way, he knows more about the behavior and failure pattern of the vehicle than you.