This is a question I don’t think there’s a definite answer for. When performing a repair, should you take the time to look up and follow the instructions, or should you just follow your intuition? A lot of the time I like to look up the directions, because sometimes my intuition leads me wrong and I end up taking apart more stuff than I have to. On the other hand, sometimes following the repair manual leads to taking apart more stuff than I have to because it doesn’t know about shortcuts that you can take, so sometimes you need a balance of the two.

I find in the shop I work in that a lot of the other technicians don’t look in the repair manual very often. Usually that works out fine cause they have a lot of experience, but I don’t have as much experience so a lot of times it’s better if I look things up. As I’ve been a mechanic for almost four years now I have been doing more and more without the instructions, and it’s always a good feeling.

I want to hear your opinion on this. How often do you look up how to do a repair, and how often do you just do what you think is needed? Let me know in the comments or on social media.

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-Dan