Courtesy of Auto Super Shoppes
Here is some common auto mechanic slang:
- Aftermarket – Parts made by companies other than the original manufacturer.
- Baldinis – Heavily worn/bald tyres.
- Bench – A heavy metal platform used to restore a car’s structural geometry to factory specifications.
- Breathing – Refers to an engine’s ability to fill its cylinders with the air-fuel mix and then expel exhaust.
- Dive – The dipping of a car’s nose when brakes are applied.
- Dyno – Short for “dynometer,†a device that measures an engine’s horsepower.
- Gas Axe – Cutting torch.
- Grease Monkey – Mechanic.
- Hemi – Term that describes any engine with hemispherical combustion chambers on its cylinder head.
- Kickdown – The downshift in an automatic transmission caused by depressing the throttle.
- Knock – High frequency vibrations caused by inefficient fuel detonation in the engine.
- LKQ – “Like Kind and Quality,†meaning a salvaged replacement part that appears to be as good as the original.
- Menu Pricing – A bundled price for a repair job that includes both parts and labour.
- Oversquare – An engine whose bore is larger than its stroke.
- Pent-Roof – A combustion chamber whose upper surface resembles a shallow peaked roof.
- Pickle Forks – Ball-joint separators.
- Toe-In – The intentional non-parallel orientation of opposite wheels.