Spanners And Spark plugs. The I.T experience. III

Over the forth coming days, I would be learning in nit bits, more details about Volkswagen, their products and how to work on them. Over the coming days, I was able to identify parts and components that make up the engine, the suspension and the brake system. I could identify the subframe, tie rods, control arms, shocks and dampers, brake calipers, discs and rotors, air filters, injector nozzles and ignition plugs. There wasn’t a standard orientation setup for I.T students, we were supposed to learn by watching the technicians, asking questions “haha, the guys at Volkswagen would never forget me because of this” and by trying to do some things myself. Initially I wasn’t able to converse well with the technicians because most of them spoke only Yoruba at work “my Yoruba isn’t all that good” but I got on later. I should mention that there were two other IT students there, one was at Porsche and the other was a girl from Delta, her name was Blessing “everybody loved her, not just because she was a lady, but because she worked just as hard as anyone else”. She was part of the people who helped me get along with the other technicians.

 The first major thing I learnt how to do at VW was “standard servicing”. Basically, that entails of changing the oil “removing the engine oil from the oil sump, and pouring a new one; about five liters”, changing the fuel cleaner “it was a bit tricky but I finally figured it out, I think what scared me the most about changing the cleaner was that you had to use screwdrivers with iron tips to undo the clips”. After that I would check the spark plugs, clean em with a bit of spirit, or change them, if need be.  Finally, I would top up the water in the expansion tank to the recommended level, add washer fluid for the wiper blades and check the brake pads for wear *At that time, I couldn’t change the brakes*. By the time I performed a service four/five times, I was done for the day. It wasn’t a lot of work but it made me feel like an engineer for once, and that was a really great feeling. Plus at the end of the service, I would start the car and check the engine to make sure everything was at bay and go for a test drive. After a while, it became my main job, whenever one of the technicians was given a service job, he would hand it over to me.  

Occasionally, I would still go over to the guys at Porsche and watch them work, I really respected those guys especially because of the fine pieces of machinery they got to work with. I mean, I wouldn’t mind working there for a while after school.

Sadly, two weeks after I got to VW, the GM called a meeting where he told us that we were going to be moving our service station to Mile 2 because Stallion Motors “the main company that runs VW, Hyundai and Honda in Nigeria” was expanding their franchise to include Nissan and they wanted to use our current station as Nissan’s service centre. That was  terrible news because Mile 2 was an hour and a half away from where I stayed and increased my transport fare by over 500 bucks. Happily however, it was the beginning of new things for me, I got to know new parts of Lagos, I got to stay with some incredible people, and eat some incredible food; “haha I gained weight like madt”. It was the beginning of a great experience.

**Sorry i do not have any images of myself performing a service, taking photographs at work was frowned upon.