About Kylami Truck Worx
Real-world knowledge. Real-world experience. No unnecessary nonsense.
Kylami Truck Worx is an independent, specialist technical knowledge resource built around one simple idea:
Understanding how things work is the key to understanding how to fix them.
The platform focuses on Volvo, Renault and UD commercial vehicles, covering everything from basic mechanical and electrical principles to advanced diagnostics, fault finding, ECU electronics and programming.
This isn’t about simply reading fault codes, replacing parts and hoping for the best. It’s about understanding the systems behind those fault codes, following the logic and working towards the actual cause of a problem.
Whether you’re a truck owner wanting to understand your vehicle, an apprentice learning the trade or an experienced technician looking to expand your knowledge, there’s something here for you.
What you’ll find here
- Basics: Understanding the fundamental mechanical, electrical and electronic principles behind modern truck systems.
- Advanced: More detailed technical information, diagnostic procedures and practical fault-finding approaches.
- Nerds: For those who want to dig a little deeper into system operation, electronics, communication protocols and the finer details of how things actually work.
- Quickies: Interactive fault diagnostics for quick on-site or roadside repairs.
The website offers a combination of free and premium content, with new topics and information being added continuously.
Kylami Truck Worx is an independent resource and is not an official Volvo, Renault or UD manufacturer website.
About Me
When I reached my early teens, I realised that school and academics just weren’t for me.
I moved from a conventional high school to a technical high school, where I studied Petrol and Diesel Mechanics alongside the usual languages, mathematics, science and technical drawing.
Even that wasn’t quite what I wanted. I wanted to get out into the real world and get my hands dirty.
Some unplanned circumstances eventually gave me exactly what I wanted.
I left school before completing Standard 9 (today’s Grade 11), at the age of 16, and started working at a local auto-electrical garage. I later moved to a larger operation covering auto-electrical, petrol and diesel mechanics, panel beating and spray painting.
I spent a few years there before being offered the opportunity to manage the garage. I was only 19.
Unforeseen circumstances eventually sent me down the self-employed route, and there was no looking back.
During those early years, I learned something that has stayed with me ever since:
Everything is fixable until it’s not!
I’ve always had an almost obsessive curiosity about how things work. Not just how to replace a component, but how it works internally, why it fails and what actually causes it to behave the way it does.
I wanted to understand things at component level, sometimes even down to the manufacturing level.
That curiosity shaped the technician I became.
My approach has always been:
Understand → Diagnose → Repair → Replace only if absolutely necessary.
A conversation that changed my future
At 20, I was running my own show. A year later, a conversation with my signboard designer, customer and friend, Pat St Pern, helped shape the way I looked at the motor industry.
We were discussing the industry as a whole and how mechanics, generally speaking, had developed a rather poor reputation.
He said something that has stayed with me ever since:
“I don’t see why an honest mechanic cannot be a millionaire.”
To this day, I can still hear Pat’s voice saying those words.
By 35, I had made my first million. By 42, I had built a multi-million Rand business based on integrity, openness and, most importantly, HONESTY.
My philosophy has always been simple:
“Customer satisfaction is my guarantee”
The Legacy Continues
Unfortunately, it seems that not much has changed in the motor industry over the past three decades. And with AI becoming increasingly prominent, I sometimes feel things are heading in the wrong direction.
There is an enormous amount of technical information available today, but finding information is not necessarily the same as understanding it.
And that’s where Kylami Truck Worx comes in.
There isn’t a single piece of information contained in the website that I do not fully understand myself. In fact, if I do not understand it I won’t publish it. If I cannot understand what I’m saying, how can I expect you to.
Everything published here is built around real-world experience, practical knowledge and years of research and development.
The technical explanations, diagnostic approaches and conclusions come from my own knowledge, experience and research.
The illustrations are either drawn by hand (yes, in Paint) or sourced from existing technical material. I prefer real-world references over fancy graphics that look impressive but don’t necessarily explain anything correctly.
And what about AI?
I won’t say that all AI is bad. In fact, I use it myself from time to time.
In the interest of complete honesty, there may be occasions when I use AI to help improve the flow of an article, refine some wording or organise my thoughts when I can’t quite get something to sound the way I want it to.
But there’s a difference between using AI to help communicate an idea and asking AI to create the technical knowledge in the first place.
I don’t use AI as the source of my technical knowledge or to write my diagnostic explanations.
The knowledge, experience, ideas, technical reasoning, opinions, character and occasional questionable humour are all mine. AI simply helps me get some of those thoughts onto paper in a way that satisfies my objective.
That’s a collaboration.
I’m not trying to create another website full of generic information. I’m trying to share the sort of knowledge that comes from years in the workshop, solving problems, making mistakes, learning from them and occasionally wondering why on earth somebody designed something the way they did!
Questions and suggestions are encouraged and always welcome.
Please use the contact us page or visit my socials and drop your comments there. I look forward to hearing from you.
Welcome to Kylami Truck Worx.
UNDERSTAND → DIAGNOSE → REPAIR
That’s the KTW way!