DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A WEB BASED VEHICLE REPAIR AND MAINTENANCE INFORMATION SYSTEM

1.1 Introduction

The Vehicle Repair and Maintenance Information System is a guide with an interactive tool which provides drivers with comprehensive and convenient information which are meant not only to help them whenever they meet with an unforeseen incident on the road or at any point in time, but also to guide them in preventing them. Familiarity with the maintenance tips contained in this system would always assist drivers in providing self-aid when they encounter breakdown. The system also prints out the vehicle information and saves in a database for future reference. Vehicle software for car faults diagnosis is a system that detects information about car faults and provides possible solutions to fixing the problem. It works by entering the type of fault your car is giving you, and then it will retrieve the information of the possible fault and also display the result of how you can solve the problem without the presence of an expert. This web-based software is hoped to help those who are in need of guides to deal with their cars problems.

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

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1.2 Background of Study

Vehicle maintenance describes the act of inspecting or testing the condition of car subsystems (e.g., engine) and servicing or replacing parts and fluids. Regular maintenance is critical to ensure the safety, reliability, drivability, comfort and longevity of a car. During preventive maintenance, a number of parts are replaced to avoid major damage or for safety reasons, e.g. timing belt replacement. The actual schedule of car maintenance varies depending on the year, make, and model of a car, its driving conditions and driver behavior.

Faults occur in vehicles or vehicles very often than not. This can be due to several reasons. The ability to detect and isolate these faults in complex technical systems such vehicle is important in order to fulfill dependability requirements. Fault detection and isolation in vehicles is very important because it helps to maintain high vehicle operational efficiency, low exhaust emissions, high vehicle uptime, fuel consumption reduction or fuel economy, high vehicle safety and it guarantees efficient repair. These factors are very important because they help to reduce overall life-cycle cost of a vehicle.

Car makers recommend the so-called extreme or the ideal service schedule based on impact parameters such as:

1. Number of trips and distance traveled per trip per day;
2. Extreme hot or cold climate conditions;
3. Mountainous, dusty or de-iced roads;
4. Heavy stop-and-go vs. long-distance cruising;
5. Towing a trailer or other heavy load.

Experienced service advisors in dealerships and independent shops recommend schedule intervals, which are often in between the ideal or extreme service schedule. They base it on the driving conditions and behavior of the car owner or driver.

In present time most households own at least one car. This figure shows that a car is very important to people’s lives as it completes the cycle of living. Having that we are in the era of computer age and internet application, it would be nice if a web-based expert system can be developed to diagnose mechanical and other related faults in our vehicles. This web-based software is hoped to help those who are in need of guides to deal with their cars problems. Although it might not give a complete guide and help as a human expert, namely mechanics, at least it can give temporary assistance to those who are in need of instant help, as a result of the limitation of time and distance.

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1.3 Statement of Problem

Investigation revealed that sudden breakdown resulting from poor maintenance measures or irregular fixing of appropriate parts are the most often encountered problems associated with vehicles. Other occasions may be problems associated with the engine oil, oil filters, fuel filters, wear and tear of tire, brake pads, air filter, etc as a result of incompetent hands to tackle the problem. However, acquaintance with the necessary vehicle maintenance tips would definitely increase satisfaction level in the long run as cost of repair would be reduced especially for new cars and used cars significantly. All of these measures are embedded in the online concept of vehicle maintenance.

In dealing with problems of a car and troubleshooting, vehicle repairers are those who can help to solve them. The use of a computer expert system is beneficial in different ways. It gives a temporary and instant guide to car owners in different situations like:

1. Assistance in the absence of vehicle repairers.
2. Being an alternative considering the distance of vehicle repairers.
3. Situations where vehicle repairers diagnosis wrongly, etc.

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1.4 Aim and Objectives of the Study

The aim of the study is to design and implement a Web based Vehicle Repair and Maintenance Information System. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows to develop an application software that will:

1. Help vehicle repairers diagnose serious faults and repair vehicles at a faster rate through the pre-diagnosis and advice a web-based software.
2. Provide recommendations in cases of vehicle break down.
3. Provide maintenance advice to users in order to avoid future fault from occurring.
4. Test and validate the performance of the proposed system.
5. Develop appropriate representation architecture to the proposed car failure and malfunction diagnosis assistance system.
6. Develop a system for car maintenance and troubleshooting that is capable of assisting car owners in dealing with their cars problems and troubleshooting them whenever time is limited and the human experts, also known as mechanics is not available at that very time.

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1.5 Significance of Study

The proposed system can help inexperienced vehicle repairers or drivers in diagnosing the fault of the car. In addition, the system has the following benefits:

1. It is significant to programmers and web designers in showing them the areas to focus when designing and coding a web based program.
2. It will encourage prompt feedback from the public and vehicle owner particularly.
3. It will bring the management of the establishment close to the internet and computer operations.
4. Improvement of Productivity: Having this system will enable mechanics to do more work in less time.
5. Places expert knowledge into machine readable form, where it can be summoned at any time.
6. Reduces the Need for Skilled Mechanics: The repairs of a car require a high level of expertise. With this system, inexperienced mechanics can be guided to find the fault.

This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.

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1.6 Scope of Study

The scope of the research is focused on the Design and Implementation of a Web based Vehicle Repair and Maintenance Information System.

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1.7 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this institution to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
3. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
4. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
5. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet).

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1.8 Definition of Terms

Registration: This means to keep records received from the management for reference purposes.

Management: It is the co-ordination of all the resources of an Organization through the process of planning, Organization, directing and controlling