Vehicle Maintenance Theory and Workshop Practice
Domain focus
Vehicle Maintenance Theory and Workshop Practice tests how a workshop turns manufacturer requirements into reliable, documented work: maintenance strategy, job planning, tool control, and the distinction between planned servicing and failure-driven repair.
Core rules
- Preventive maintenance follows distance or time intervals, whichever comes first; condition-based maintenance uses oil analysis, vibration, or performance trends.
- The bathtub curve describes early-life, random, and wear-out failures. Scheduled replacement is most defensible in the wear-out zone.
- A job card must identify the vehicle, complaint, authorised work, parts, labour time, technician, and final check.
- Torque values apply to clean threads in the condition specified-dry or lubricated. Torque does not correct a wrong fastener grade.
- Workshop discipline includes calibrated tools, segregated dismantled parts, and contamination control.
Worked example
A fleet of 20 vans each covers 24,000 km per year. The manufacturer specifies oil service every 6,000 km or 6 months. Distance gives 24,000 ÷ 6,000 = 4 services per van per year, so 20 vans require 80 services. If one service takes 1.5 labour hours, planned labour is 80 × 1.5 = 120 hours per year, or 10 hours per month. Four technicians at 40 productive hours each provide 160 hours per month, so capacity is adequate.
Traps
Mixing miles and kilometres, substituting a generic interval for the OEM schedule, and counting only parts cost while ignoring labour load. A service completed without a record is hard to prove and weakens warranty and audit trails.