Marinucci: Simplest precautions often save time, money

Bosses should recognize that technicians' preliminary safety steps prevent costly blunders during maintenance and repair tasks.

Contrary to what some tire dealers and service shop operators have told me, precautionary measures are not a waste of the company's valuable time. Instead, several "safety" minutes are a proven investment in completing jobs correctly the first time — not to mention on time.

As I have stressed in previous columns, fixing a vehicle correctly the first time and meeting a repair deadline are essential to meeting customers' expectations.

Over the years, I have heard bosses criticize sensible precautions as a needless waste of time. Because time is money, I understand their concerns about maximizing efficiency and productivity out in the bays.

But based on my shop experience, capable and conscientious techs only spend several minutes on prudent precautions borne of experience. A classic example is covering passages so stray objects cannot fall inside a partially disassembled engine.

Undoubtedly, monitoring techs' time is an important aspect of running a successful automotive service facility. But maintaining a business' hard-earned reputation is an equally important goal.

When techs invest several minutes here and there in proven precautions, the results eventually bolster the business' bottom line. Mistake-free repair jobs create repeat customers and generate word-of-mouth advertising.

Furthermore, techs' preliminary precautions may enhance time management in an unexpected way. After monitoring these steps, for example, a savvy service manager may incorporate them into certain tasks and then update the labor fees for those jobs accordingly.

Here I will discuss two very simplistic but valuable job precautions.

Cover up for safety

Covering open passages during engine repair is a timeless precaution. Typically, this maneuver takes a few minutes and costs pennies.

Sooner or later, engine repairs require removing parts for some period of time during the job. Removing parts often leaves passages wide open. Unprotected passages and ports are vulnerable to foreign debris of one kind or another.

I began helping neighborhood car freaks work on engines in the mid-1960s. Fortunately, I did not drop anything into an unprotected engine passage.

Eventually, though, I saw both backyard mechanics as well as professional wrench-turners make that mistake. They gambled by leaving passages uncovered and then had to retrieve a foreign object that landed in an engine's cylinder.

In some cases, this person retrieved the object using a "mechanic's magnet," a swiveling magnetic head attached to a long handle.

Other times, the person grabbed the foreign item with "mechanic's fingers," a set of claw-like fingers operated by a long, flexible tool shaft.

Occasionally, someone even removed foreign debris by pumping compressed air or chassis grease into the cylinder.

Sometimes, however, removing a cylinder head was necessary in order to reach an item that fell into the engine.

The top photo, at right, shows a Honda Odyssey engine on which I covered the lower intake plenum passages with blue masking tape. For some techs, masking or duct tape have been convenient, effective coverings.

For other techs, clean shop towels or wipes are routine coverings.

Service personnel may debate the practicality of each method here but shop experience has shown that some kind of covering is much better than none at all.

Patiently covering engine openings takes substantially less time than tearing an engine apart to retrieve a stray object.

Blown fuse fiasco

A short length of electrical tape may save the life of an expensive, difficult-to-reach fuse. Here's why.

Some readers envision a fuse as being a 50-cent part that is readily available as well as easy to replace. But today, some popular Asian imports such as Honda, Nissan and Toyota use fuse assemblies that may cost $20 or more.

Compared with the simple fuses of bygone days, these elaborate components may house as many as 10 individual fuses. This modern genre of fuse may be called a fuse block or multi-fuse.

If just one fuse within that assembly fails, you must to replace the entire fuse block or multi-fuse. The blue component in Photo 2 is a fuse block in a late-model Toyota Camry.

Replacing the assembly on some Asian vehicles takes only a few minutes, but a fuse block such as the one in Photo 2 is buried inside an underhood fuse center on many Camrys.

Replacing the fuse block on one of these Camrys is a tedious, time-consuming task that requires disassembling the entire underhood fuse center.

One mistake that damages a fuse block is someone boosting a battery with the jumper cables reversed. Another is a hurried alternator replacement job.

Imagine that a tech is replacing a worn-out alternator on a Camry. To save time, the tech does not disconnect the battery cables first.

Skipping this routine step means that a husky wire running from the alternator to the positive battery terminal is live or "hot."

Imagine that this hurried tech takes another shortcut by disconnecting this wire from the alternator and shoving it aside. A more-cautious tech would cover the end of the wire with electrical tape.

During the alternator replacement, the tech bumps this live, unprotected wire. The end of the wire arcs against the engine, blowing the alternator fuse inside the Camry's fuse block assembly.

For one thing, your business owes this customer a 20-buck fuse block. Plus, the tech has to figure out how to dismantle the underhood fuse center — without causing any more damage — in order to replace the damaged fuse block.

A sharp service manager or shop foreman maintains a dialog with the techs regarding prudent preliminary precautions on repair jobs.

These steps continually will evolve as techs gain more experience with certain vehicles and as vehicle technology itself develops.