'Life is fun because work is fun': The perspective of a mechanic on his job

I am a mechanic. I do vehicle inspections, general maintenance, and so on. In terms of workflow, customers bring their cars in when they notice something unusual while driving, or for vehicle inspections. For inspections, I check if there are any bad parts and fix them. In case of a breakdown, I investigate to find out what's wrong and then fix it.

Since various parts can break down, it's often unclear what's broken when you're driving. When a car is brought in, I first investigate to find out what's wrong, otherwise, I can't identify the broken part. I use diagnostic machines, but I don't rely solely on them; I also use my past experience to determine what might be broken.

I learned by observing my seniors. Nowadays, though, there's more of a tendency to teach directly. 'This part is bad, so it's like this,' they say. In the past, it was more of a 'watch and learn' style from the Showa era, but now, if you do that, people won't join, so it's gradually changing to a more instructive style.

The trigger was, 'I want to do this,' and 'I want to make my hobby my job.' In my case, it seemed to be a good fit. So, even though it's my job, I also like working on my own car personally and always enjoy doing it. So, this, some people might get tired of it just in the workplace.

Until then, I had only worked on my own car, so working on other people's cars, or installing dashcams on new cars, I was anxious about not damaging them. Especially with new cars, it's wrong for them to be damaged. So, there's a lot of consideration about not damaging them.

For vehicles that come in for inspection, we do on-the-spot inspections. There are also inspections where we take the car in, but for on-the-spot inspections, we check it once, and if there's a bad part and we have the part, we can replace it on the spot. But if we don't have the part, we take the car in for a while and proceed with the work. For on-the-spot inspections, the flow is 9 AM, 10:30 AM, 1 PM, 3 PM, 4:30 PM, and at each time, different cars come in. If it's 9 AM, we finish the inspection of that car between 9 AM and 10:30 AM, do an oil change or brake oil change if nothing's wrong, and return it on the spot. We finish it within that time before the next car comes in, and then it's the next car. We usually finish the last one around 5:30 PM, and then we clean up. Every day, inspections come in, not just on-the-spot inspections but also inspections where we take the car in, and general maintenance where someone says 'this part broke' and brings it in by tow truck or drives in because they have a puncture and want it fixed.

It's a job that requires physical strength. Even removing one tire, it's very easy with a small car, but not all cars are small. With cars like the Land Cruiser, Alphard, or Vellfire, the tires have gotten bigger lately. So, having to remove them for every inspection is physically demanding because each one is heavy, so that's quite tough.

When you fix a car, there's a sense of achievement. The customers don't know why it's broken, but we have various knowledge and understand a lot of things, so when we finally find out and fix it, there's a sense of achievement.

When you're chamfering brake pads, iron powder comes out as you grind, and it gets on you, so it's a dirty job. Also, when you look under the car, customer cars are almost always dirty underneath, so it's inevitably a dirty job.

I don't really recommend them. It's fine for customers to go for user vehicle inspections, but in the end, it becomes a car that hasn't been maintained. Even cars that we think are dangerous, at the land transport office, if they can'stop, turn, and go,' they almost always pass. So, even if they haven't been maintained, they can pass. But there are quite a few dangerous parts that we notice. Also, even if there's an oil leak, they can hide it. With user vehicle inspections, they might spray it with parts cleaner and pass. If the inspector thinks 'there's no oil leak,' they'll pass it. But if we see 'there's an oil leak,' it won't pass. So, if they hide it, the inspector probably won't know, and it'll pass.

In the end, new cars keep coming out, so if you don't adapt, you won't be able to fix them. When a new car comes in, it's not just about skill improvement, but thinking about how to fix it.

For me, it's for money, but also because I like it. I really enjoy working on cars. When I think about life, if work is fun, living is fun too. If work isn't fun, then what I'm doing isn't fun either.

Yes, I want to continue. Because I like what I'm doing.

Like me, failing is normal. Even if you fail, don't be discouraged. If you learn from it and try not to fail again, your skills will improve. Don't be discouraged by one or two mistakes; use them as fuel to try not to make mistakes and you'll become a great mechanic.