Automotive Workshop Safety and Tools
What this domain tests
Workshop Safety and Tools checks whether a candidate can set up a bay, choose the correct tool and use it without injury or vehicle damage. Expect questions on PPE, fire classes, lifting and supporting, hand tools, precision instruments and torque practice.
Core rules
- PPE: safety boots, impact goggles for grinding and compressed air, nitrile gloves for fuel and oil (never near rotating shafts), ear protection where noise exceeds about 85 dB.
- Fire triangle is heat, fuel and oxygen. Class A solids: water or foam. Class B flammable liquids: foam, CO2 or dry powder, never water. Electrical: isolate the supply first, then CO2 or dry powder.
- A jack only lifts. Axle stands and wheel chocks support. Never go under a vehicle held on a jack alone.
- Ring spanners carry high torque and protect rounded nuts; open-enders suit tight access; use the correct socket drive and never extend a ratchet with a pipe.
- Precision tools: vernier 0.02 mm, micrometer 0.01 mm, feeler gauge for gaps, Plastigauge for bearing clearance. Zero-check every instrument.
- Torque wrench: clean threads, tighten in stages in the manual's sequence, and release the setting to zero after use.
Worked example
A head bolt is specified at 35 N·m but the workshop wrench is scaled in kgf·m. Since 1 kgf = 9.81 N, the setting is 35 ÷ 9.81 = 3.57 kgf·m, so set 3.6 kgf·m. Tighten in the specified centre-outward sequence in two stages, then apply the angle stage if the fastener is torque-to-yield. The reasoning is a pure unit conversion; never estimate torque by feel.
Traps that cost marks
- Throwing water on a petrol or electrical fire.
- Using a torque wrench to loosen rusted fasteners.
- Storing the wrench loaded, which drifts calibration.
- Opening a hot radiator cap before the system is depressurised.