According to the Oxford dictionary Life Hack means: “A strategy or technique adopted in order to manage one’s time and daily activities in a more efficient way”
Life hacks in the mechanic world happens all of the time with shortcuts and special tools being developed all of the time to make mechanic life easier. Working on a problem there is always that little voice in your head saying there must be a better way of doing this. Every time you turn around there’s a new tool that works better than the last “latest and greatest” one out there to save time and improve ergonomics.
Removing obstructions on a vehicle is another way of getting a job done with ease. We’re always pulling fenders to access the wiring harness or a hood to get to the front end of an engine. It’s just straight common sense even though it adds time to the job you save that time by not struggling to remove a part or laying over a radiator standing on your head to get the job done.
A life hack is experience talking telling you to use certain tools or following a sequence that saves time the second time around performing the same job. My motto has always been to fly like the wind at the basics and take care with the technical stuff. I guess that’s advice I would give an apprentice who wants to make an impression. The physical re and re jobs are the ones you want to give your all to keep the time down. This will help with the final time on a job even if you run into a snag some where along the way.
With multiplex wiring and engine emissions you can easily “hack” into those problems with diagnostic software that has been developed to seek out the problem that comes with troubleshooting steps built in. Read the code and the description then follow the troubleshooting. It’s not a slam dunk every time but you certainly have the advantage. You have in your hands software developed by the manufacturer to get in to the nitty gritty and blast that problem code out of the water!
Cambridge dictionary’s definition of a “problem” : a situation, person, or thing that needs attention and needs to be dealt with or solved”.
God knows there a lot of problems that occur in our world everyday. The saying if it’s got tires there’s going to be trouble is so true. That’s why mechanic life hacks are a valuable resource that are going to be changing as future technology changes. The mechanic life is far from an assembly line with different challenges happening every day….I say bring it on!
