Why Aftermarket Documentation Matters More Than You Think

A mechanic’s day is stressful enough

If you have ever worked in a workshop, you know the feeling. You have three or four vehicles lined up for the day, each with its own deadline, each with a customer expecting things to be quick and smooth. Then you open the aftermarket documentation and realise it does not actually help you. It is unclear, too technical, or simply missing the steps you need.

And in that moment, everything slows down.

Mechanics do not avoid repairs because they are difficult. They avoid them because the information does not make sense in the real world. We just want instructions that guide us through the job in a way that fits a workshop’s reality.

The real cost of unclear documentation

Most people do not see what happens behind the scenes. When a vehicle sits stuck in a bay because the instructions do not align with what a mechanic can actually do, the cost is real.

When a vehicle stays in the workshop because we cannot confirm whether a fault is in the vehicle, the charger or the grid, everyone loses.

• A vehicle off the road means a business loses money.
• A taxi not repaired means someone loses a day’s income.
• A private customer becomes frustrated because they expected to drop it off in the morning and pick it up after work.

Bad documentation hits harder than people realise.

And it is not just a workshop problem. As highlighted by TecAlliance and Motor Magasinet in their article on data quality: Read it here

Poor or inconsistent service information creates friction across the entire aftermarket. When the data upstream is unclear, the burden lands on the mechanic, not the people who wrote it.

What good documentation actually looks like

In a perfect world, one fault code would point to one root cause. I know it is not always possible with today’s complexity, especially in electric vehicles, but the logic still stands.

Good aftermarket documentation should:

1. make sense to someone who works with their hands
2. give steps that are actually doable in a workshop
3. reflect what mechanics can safely test and what they cannot
4. avoid repairs that require tools or expertise we do not have

If the instruction tells me to test something that only a grid electrician can do, then the instruction is not helping. It is just wasting time.

Where manufacturers often get it wrong

The gap usually comes from teams working in silos. The people designing hardware, software and components are not always speaking to the people who fix them.

You see it in the small details. A photo that points at a tiny sensor on a PCB as if we are expected to desolder it. A test sequence written as if a workshop can simulate a city grid.

It is not that the engineers do not care. It is that no one is talking across the table. If both sides understood each other better, the documentation would be miles ahead.

How everything changes when documentation is right

When instructions are clear, repairs become smoother.
The vehicle comes in, we diagnose it, we repair it, and we feel confident calling the customer and saying:

“Your vehicle is ready. It was a simple fix. It did not cost much. And it is back on the road.”

That moment matters. It builds trust. Trust in the workshop, trust in the brand, trust in the whole service chain.

A real example from the workshop

We have seen this a lot with electric vehicles and charging issues. The customer says it will not charge. For them that is a huge problem because the vehicle needs to be ready for the next shift.

We plug it into our workshop charger and it works fine.

So where is the fault:

• The vehicle?
• The charger?
• The grid?

Mechanics are not electricians. We cannot test the city grid. If the documentation does not help us narrow it down, we are stuck. And while we are stuck, the customer is losing money.

Why this matters right now

Electric vehicles are still early in their lifecycle. We are building the foundation today. If the documentation is not strong now, everything built on top of it will wobble later.

This is also reflected in industry analysis. As noted by Adlib Software in their commentary on electric vehicle service documentation: Read more here

EVs demand far more precise guidance. Workshops are expected to open components, repair modules and work under stricter safety conditions. Without clarity, guesswork becomes a risk for both the mechanic and the customer.

At the same time, the pressure on workshops keeps increasing.

• Customers expect faster turnaround times.
• Fleets want more uptime.
• And with component level repairs becoming the norm, the instructions will need to be even sharper.

The core message

The aftermarket may be the last link in the chain, but we are the ones who feel the problems first. If the documentation is wrong, everyone suffers. The brand, the mechanic and the customer.

So listen to the aftermarket. We are closest to the real issues, and we are often the first ones who know what needs to be fixed.