Car repair and maintenance

Car repair and maintenance is the basis on every thing a car need. However, when we talk about car, it comes back to the memory of my dad who is very strict on eating inside the car. No food allowed at all, under any circumstances. That is his mantra, and my mom went along with it and so did the rest of the family members. So, for us as a family for any long road trips means one thing, no food in the car, no eating in the car, no drinking in the car, or do stay hungry until we arrive at the destination or stop overs somewhere.

Mind you as well, these were in the 80es and early 90es, where there is not even a large highways that connects between cities across the country in Malaysia, compared to nowadays. For those who have visited the country in different times they could comment on this.

What happen was we stop over at the side of what ever shop available in the long winding truck road. It took 8-12 hours to arrive during a festive season from my parents house to my grand parents house during those years. Now its 5 hours. Imagine the different. But, why to I started this story? I just wanted to put a point that long journey for me is interesting and may at times challenging during my younger age. But, my dad did give me a good start on ensuring that the car is clean and in good order. He checks that often even till now.

Why 5S?

What does it have to do with the 5S that I am giving throughout this journey. The idea is different people have different philosophy when it comes to car “hygiene”. My wife and I loves to eat in the car, we ate almost everything during the travel from simple snacks like Doritos, to full meal as in McDonald’s and 2 course local dishes. Imagine the different ideas that my kids will get comparing me and my dad. By the way, somehow, my dad did mellow down at this age with the grand kids. I am not so sure why, but somehow, as if there is a flip switch between my dad as a parent and as a grandparent. This is a topic that we’ll discuss later as well.

So, coming back to the 5S. How to maintain you car condition inside and outside then This depends on how you value the car, as a transport agent, as a prestige or as mode to engage the family. For me, it is the last one. So, in this case, as long as the car is running in good condition, and the inside is reasonably clean, I am happy with it. There are others who see is as a prestige, thus sent the car to be waxed on a weekly or monthly basis and those who see it as a transport agent, thus checking the car engine and other condition to make it an excellent condition. This are the ones that make the car loud and noisy I would say. I am not commenting on this, since everybody is different and I always accepted that.

CLR

Cleaning, lubrication and re-tightening for you car, should it be weekly, monthly or daily? For me it depends, on what and which part, which is the 5S way. There is a need to have the cleaning, lubrication and re-tightening standard for this.

Teaching reliability engineering, I usually will ask the student to figure out what is the best way to improve reliability of the system, either theoretically or through some case studies. In this case, assuming that we want to improve the reliability of the car. Then definitely we need to follow the guidelines of the manufacturer. Sending the car for regular car repair and maintenance is one of the may that we managed the lubrication and re-tightening standard for the car.

Moving parts require that lubrication and re-tightening is performed on an specific intervals. This is important if we were to make sure that we are happy within the space that we are in. Yes, it may cost us more but unless you start to do predictive and proactive maintenance, running does the car till it fail causes everybody more head ache that its worth. A car repair and maintenance is key to reduce the head ache.

At least the lubrication and re-tightening has their own standard from manufacturer that could be followed, but what about cleaning. This is where we need to be creative and resourceful. We need to create one standard for the car, a daily, weekly and monthly schedule on what needs to be clean, We could even move it to biannual or annual schedule for cleaning.

Schedule is important

This is what I do, but don’t follow me, fit into your own way of life. Think as well if you could put a mark on the needed schedule and this could help you to reduce your car repair and maintenance especially due to cleaning neglect.

• Daily – Cleaning all the carpets and removing trash. Bare in mind I allow the kids to eat in the car. I usually do this right after I sent my kids to the nursery before going to my office.
• Fortnightly – since I am staying in an apartment, I usually sent my car to a car wash every two weeks depending on the weather. I sent in more frequent in the hot weather. The service also include thorough vacuuming and cleaning by the way.
• Biannual/Annual – this is where is sent my car for waxing. Yes, it is lame, some sent in every month. For me the main reason for waxing is to maintain the paint. So, I feel that once a year or every 6 months should do the trick in this hot weather.
• Vacation – this is a must. Every time that I come back from vacation or from a trip, I would definitely need perform deep cleaning by sending it to a car wash. You see we will definitely eat a lot during the trip and this will be a hygiene issue if I did not clean them immediately.

Ultimate routine

That is mostly what I’ll do for cleaning, so there is always a daily routine for me on cleaning. I would seriously suggest that. Ah, by the way I have a bin inside the car as well, to make sure that my kids throw away their rubbish in a specific container. On arrangement, we have two containers. One is inside the car and for my books (I like to read while traveling and my gym workout list) . The other for the car emergencies (jumper cables etc). Since, every car is different and every family is different do have one for yours.

By the way, it is also important to check those spares and tools in the car on a regular basis, just in case. Lastly, as in any activity, let’s the family join in as well on the 5S cleaning day activity. This would improve the family life as well as train everybody the important of 5S. Please do not do this alone. Ask somebody else to do it solely, a mix is important to make is consistent.