Common Auto-shop lingos in Nigeria

Driving in Nigeria is extreme sport, what is more extreme is trying to understand the street terminologies used by the mechanics that fix our cars for tools and parts. Sometimes it’s really funny some other times it just makes buying replacement parts very tiresome. Here you are being a sharp person having used Google to give yourself a clue of what may be wrong with your vehicle hoping that it’ll correlate with what the mechanic would tell you when you analyze the symptoms to him and boom he comes at you with a part that does not in any way sound like all you read online, it takes patience and a lot of arguments before you guys can eventually reach an agreement about what needs to be replaced on the vehicle.

Over the years having been around workshops and mechanics for long, I have compiled a list of slangs and lingos used by our beloved technicians in Nigeria, this slangs are in no particular order as they are just basic languages in the workshop.

·         Boris (Bearing) - a part of a machine that allows one part to rotate or move in contact with another part with as little friction as possible.

·         Aksofa(Damper) - A friction device sometimes called a shock absorber . Used for controlling and damping spring oscillations.

·         Indomie (catalytic converter) - A catalytic converter is an exhaust emission control device that converts toxic gases and pollutants in exhaust gas from an internal combustion engine into less-toxic pollutants by catalyzing a redox reaction (an oxidation and a reduction reaction).

·         L & K (Allen key) - a tool used to drive bolts and screws with hexagonal sockets in their heads.

·         V4 (straight engine or I4) – Engine configuration based on cylinder arrangement most 4 cylinder engines have their cylinders arranged in a straight line some BMW arrange 6 cylinder engines on a straight but it is most common to see 6-8 cylinder engines arranged in a V-shaped configuration.

·         Sensors – A sensor is a device, module, or subsystem whose purpose is to detect events or changes in its environment and send the information to other electronics, frequently a computer processor. You must understand however that all sensors no matter their functions are called sensor by our mechanics, to get the specific name for the sensor he is referring tto might be rocket science.

There are lot more street lingos used by our beloved mechanics, so next time you are in a workshop, take time to pay attention to all that is being said and discussed, they would crack your ribs as well as educate you on their understanding of parts and tool. BE MOTOSMART.