Auto Repair Safety

Auto repair safety is very important when you work on your Acura Integra Type R. Your car weighes over 2000 pounds  and could cause you permanent injury or death if you are not careful.  

You should use your common sense (hopefully you have some) and wear the proper safety gear when necessary.

Discaimer !!

You should use this auto repair safety article as a guide, but it is by all means NOT a complete manual for safety. You should use your common sense and be safe whenever possible.  This article is still a work-in-progress. 

If you would like to add information to this page, please e-mail me with the important auto repair safety information.

Before lifting your car on Jack Stands

Make sure your car is on a level hard surface such as concrete. Jacking your car up on soft ground may cause the car to sink and eventually crush you to death.

Put the car in Park if its an automatic or in a gear if its a manual. Then firmly apply the emergency brake.

Use wheel chocks on both sides of the wheels to prevent the wheels from rolling. 

Make sure you use high-quality jack stands. Remember, price is no object for safety. Do NOT depend on your jack to hold your car up. Always use jack stands. Jacks can slip or fail and you do not want to be underneath a car that is only held up by a jack.

Before take your car off of Jack Stands

Make sure that there are no tools on the ground and that there is nothing underneath the wheels.   Keep all your body parts away from the car and make sure that there are no people near the car when you lower it.

Working with liquids

When you are working with anything liquid, make sure you wear your chemical resistent gloves. Obviously, cloth gloves will allow liquids to seep through and make contact with your skin. 

Wear splash proof chemical goggles! These are different from the normal safety glasses because they have a rubber lining that creates a seal around your eyes.  You defintely don't want gasoline, oil, or anti-freeze coolant to get into your eyes.  You could go blind ! So make sure you wear the proper safety googles around liquids.

No liquids present

If you won't be working around liquids, you may want to wear safety glasses instead.  They are easier to take on and off, but they do not provide the same level protection as safety goggles.  You want to wear some type of safety glasses to keep out dirt and debris and prevent auto parts and/or tools from nailing you in the eye.  When you are cranking away at bolts underneath the car, you have the risk of dirt, oil, and parts falling in your face.    Safety glasses are cheap insurance from injury. Personally I was happy that I was wearing safety glasses when my torque wrench slipped and feel right towards my eye.  It bounced off the safety glasses and onto the ground.  Saved me from a black eye or worse!

Working in the engine bay

Things like radiator fans may turn on by themselves while you work in the engine bay.  Its a good idea to disconnect the battery before you do any engine work.  This is especially important if you are working on any of the fuel components.  You want to minimize any ignition sources for the fuel.   Keep your tools away from the battery to prevent it from shorting the connection. Also keep a fire extinguisher handy.  If you do not have a fire extinguish, then go out and buy one before working on the fuel component.  You will want to have a class B fire extinuisher to extinguish liquid fires such as petrol fires.   Many fire extinguishers are good to extinguish more than one type of combustible.  You can find ones that are class A, B, and C. 

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