| Last day for the placement and its going to be another hectic time for Mazda Reynella, which doesn’t come easy though the last four days was educational getting to know how working as a mechanic is fast pace and sometimes too much down time.
But that’s how life being employed in a workshop offers a different perspective. It may be end of the week for everyone, but not here at Mazda Reynella as they’re opened until Saturday. Though with a bit of short working hours still their dedication to accommodate servicing over the weekend means they’re here to help with your car. |
From the day I arrived in my safety booths and glasses I see Dylan preparing for the work ahead. He was most accommodating and generous to share his thoughts about life as a mechanic in the last four days. He’s got his “zen” on as calm and focused towards the start of a grind.
He was back from a one-day off and he’s refreshed for the tasks at hand. Andy on the other side of the office is back in his long sleeve driving in some of the cars the mechanics will be working on. Some would say its just another day at the office but what you’ll see in the workshops will be new to the eyes who is learning and getting the experience of becoming an apprentice.
Quick First-Time Service
New cars that have lower mileage is like servicing a pre-delivery vehicle, but the difference is just checking the oil and other fluids if they’re all levelled at the same time inspect the wheels if they’re tightened the nuts and bolt. Checking for the air pressure for each tire is also required to first-time service.
So far we went through to two vehicles checking things if they’re in order and had corrected the air pressure in each tires. These are the basic essentials of the first-time service that let’s us know about the car besides the owners themselves and so far they are in tip top shape before we hand them back.
Well-Oiled Machined
A silver bullet colored Mazda 3 was the third car for the day and the concern for this is that the front rotors needs to be machined at the same time need to replace the after market wiper blades. The rotors where a bit of challenge to remove for a learning apprentice but overall its fairly easy once you get the technique in removing them.
From what we see in this car is not bought from a Mazda dealership but from another place where they sold different brands. This was probably bought as a second-hand car as obvious difference with the wipers being installed and the battery was a bit loose that may cause problems with the electronics that has been checked at the same time secured and tightened up.
The rotors where sent out to be machined and while we wait for them we went ahead and see what we can do with an old modified Mazda MX-5 Miata. This one was delivered the other day and has been the next car to be checked on with what concern we’re going to see on this one.
A Wild Red Miata Appears
This old Miata is probably from the late 1990s as obvious appearance and it’s owned by a woman. Based on the little things you’ll find in this care but it’s modified with the safely racing bars installed and the engine looks different. The rims are different as they’re no longer stock as we inspect thoroughly.
Dylan had test driven it to check what’s with the noise in the engine. Under the bonnet we find that there’s some weird rattle in it and what he did was try to analyze that sound when he started tightening the belts which solve some of those noises. The next tasks inspecting the wiper blades and moving it to his bay to have it inspected further underneath.
Moving it to Dylan’s bay we aligned everything before using the lifters to inspect the belly of this beast. Well it wasn’t what you’ll expect why the car has making weird noises in its engine when we finally saw what it appears to be a lot of leaks near the transmission and gearbox that pretty much needs work on.
The diagnostic on this one certainly needs more inspecting but it needs to be re-booked if the customer would agree about the diagnosis for this car. For now we topped the oil levels, checked the coolants, and off to test drive if tightening up the belts would help with reducing the noise issue. The gunk inside the valve was cleaned out and removed as it was thick that blocked from all that racing up the hills.
CX-5 New Engine Block in Waiting
After getting the rotors machined for the Mazda 3 and having it test drive also resolving some of the concerns for that red Miata the next task was the CX-5 that definitely had a lot of mileage. Obviously this CX-5 had a lot of road trip to the winery as dried mud was certainly all over the place underneath.
The main concern for this one is replacing a new engine block towards the late afternoon and pretty much a full-on job. It will take Dylan 2 to 3 days to have everything dismantled and removed the old engine block with a cracked gasket.
I would be interested in seeing this through in assisting him remove the components from the old engine block, but my time for the placement ends here. Everything gets interesting when your about to end the shift at the same time go on a long holiday which is a bummer personally. I got to learn some nifty technique from Dylan and we haven’t gotten to the best part in dismantling a CX-5’s engine block.
This was a full-on job and as Dylan mentioned this one the second time he did this task previously on his own that took him almost four days. He said that he’ll try to get it together in less than three days. I would like to comeback here and do more placements or even volunteer work if that’s possible it’s up to Mazda Reynella.
For now the experience was great knowing the life of a mechanic and how the day to day job at a dealership happens. The metal doors have closed and another week has ended and my colleague who was assigned at Volkswagen thought I left already. It was education while it lasted, but hoping I can comeback and learns more.
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