Repetition

It seems a lot of times that repetition is a nuance of preventative maintenance. I began looking at it as a way of being accustomed to quicker diagnosis. What I mean is that once you have gone over a piece of machinery multiple times it becomes very evident when something is out of order.  It could be with anything electrical, hydraulic, and mechanical; you just need to try to not let it bore you but see it as an opportunity to find something out of place. For example I was servicing a 2006 f150 when I came across heavy milky build-up on the oil cap. Every other fluid looked good on the truck so I didn’t suspect a blown head gasket; I was guessing poor crankcase ventilation. I didn’t find a PCV valve because it turns out that this ford doesn’t have one, sort of. Ford decided to have constant ventilation and to prevent condensation build up the PCV passage is heated. I pulled it out, connected to power and checked it with my infrared thermometer. Not a degree in variation of temperature, bad PCV tube.  The first time around I was in there for hours, the second week different truck, same motor-same problem. It took me half of an hour this time around. So because of the repetition I was able to identify the problem faster and thus repair it faster. Not so boring now.