breaking down

Humnn! If you are depending on your car under these circumstances and if your car does give problem like this, it is better to get familiar with the broad functioning of a car and what we can do to reduce the risk of break down. It is not very difficult if you take a little interest to understand these things by going through the owner's manual that would have been given along with the car when you bought the car. With the older generation cars, it is necessary to open the hood and check at least the following: a) water/ coolent level in the radiator (top up if required) b) level of engine oil in the engine sump (top up if required) c) level of brake fluid in its reservoir (top up if required) These are not only essential for proper functioning of the car, but also for the safety of the travel. If you have less brake fluid in the reservoir, your brakes may fail causing an accident. Please either you check these yourself or get it checked by a mechanic. Initially you could take help from a mechanic to understand. Since you say the car was towed, looks like there was low level of water in the radiator and the engine got heated up and probably seized. Or, may be this happened due to low level of engine oil in the engine sump. I have a feeling that there is damage to the engine and it would cost good amount. Did you watch the temperature gauge reading? It is very important to watch all the instruments at the dash board for nornal functioning of the sytems at regular period while driving. Please pay some attention to these aspects that, in my opinion, are part of driving.

If my husband is with me then he looks to see what is wrong. If it's not something he can fix, then we call AAA. We have jumper cables and a small set of tools in both cars just in case one of them breaks down. If my husband isn't with me, I call him to come and help. If he is out to sea (he's in the Navy) the I fall back on AAA and hope a neighbor can help. If not, the car will sit here until my husband can fix it or until we can get it in to the shop. Since money is tight, I have to play with bills to find the money. Since we have two cars, though, if one breaks down it's not as bad as when we only had one car.

I have a membership with the RV road service. There are others out there too, like AA. I know nothing about cars, so would have a fit if I were alone and the car broke down. So now, I just need to call for help, and I know that they are honest and will take care of the situation.

I try and find out what is wrong, and then see if I can try and fix it. If not I have to ring my hubby and he has to come and fix it for me.

Right now, I am real worried about my car because my transmission is leaking and I know it needs a new hose for it; Plus at the same time, I got a bill that is worrying me and can't deal with both. A big worry for me.

I used to drive a beetle before but eventually I stopped because I hit another car that scared me of hitting anothe again. Since I'm a girl, I'm not used to doing things that are related to cars.. hehe I think that's one thing that I couldn't answer that much but I've seen in several situation that people manage to change tires or do something to make it work again after a reheat. Actually I've been in a situation that my friend's car broke down but when they decided to call someone helped push it, we manage to arrived to our desired destination..

Well that usually happens on these hot days. I dont like it either but it hasnt happened to me since Ive gotten a new car. My husband is the car business so I got a great deal. So when your driving a new car I dont have to worry about breaking down. And if it does happen I just get on my nefty little cell phone and have someone pick me up. Hey its better then hitchhiking.LOL

If it's anything like here where you live Kay, it's probably got mud cloggong something....lol. It could be your thermstat, they wear out. Worst case scenario you could be up for a new water pump or radiator or both, Hope you get it back soon. I was stuck in Tamworth out of town for six days recently while my car was being repaired. I'd only taken enough clothes for 2 days....grrr. To make things worse, it cost me $1100 and to make things even worse...I still have the problem.