Vehicle Maintenance, Servicing and Troubleshooting
Planned maintenance
Servicing follows manufacturer intervals and includes oil and filter changes, fluid checks, brake inspection, tyre rotation, belt replacement and battery checks. Scheduled maintenance prevents failures; condition-based maintenance uses measurement and inspection. Keep records; they support warranty and resale.
Systematic troubleshooting
Use a structured method: confirm the complaint, gather information, form a hypothesis, test it, then verify the repair. Ask when the fault occurs (cold, hot, under load, at speed) because this narrows the cause. Use the split-half method to isolate circuits, and compare with a known-good vehicle where possible.
Common traps: replacing parts without testing, ignoring intermittent faults, and confusing cause with effect. For example, a misfire may be caused by a spark plug, coil, injector or compression loss; test each in turn rather than guessing.
Inspection points
Tyre tread depth (legal minimum commonly 1.6 mm), pressure and wear pattern; brake pad thickness and disc condition; fluid levels and condition; belt cracks and tension; suspension play; lighting and wipers. Record measurements so deterioration can be tracked.
Worked rule of thumb: the five-step diagnostic loop, confirm, gather, hypothesise, test, verify, keeps you from jumping to conclusions. Always road-test after a safety-related repair.