It was a regular Monday morning as I left house for work this morning at 8am. The traffic in front of Phoenix Plaza was kind and I swiftly made my way to the fifty sen toll of Bandar Tun Razak. The regular jam was there, right at the toll up to the convergence at Mid Valley.
Ten minutes into the stop-and-go routine of moving a few inches a minute, I notice my air conditioning was not behaving like it should. I was running as a fan. I tried to turn the switch on and off but nothing changed.
"Time for her regular check up and service at the workshop" I thought.
A few minutes later I saw smoke coming from under the hood.
"Shit! My car is smoking!"
Thank God I was still by the Petronas petrol station. I quickly flicked the indicator and made my way through five lanes. I reached the petrol station ground in less than five minutes. 'Any longer than that my car would have caught fire', I dreaded. Thankfully, people were kind enough to give way. Heck, with that kind of smoke, no one dared to be near me for fear of fire and explosion.
I parked at the bays behind the station and took a look under the hood. The radiator reservoir was boiling, hissing and steaming! The radiator fan was not running! Damn! No wonder the air conditioning was not working.
I decided to hang around at Petronas station to wait for the jam to clear and then look for a workshop nearby.
Now I know why the air condition was not running properly since yesterday, on my way back from Penang. I remember when I stopped at a petrol station with the engine was running, the air condition did not function. Then when I continued the journey, it was cool again. Thank God I made it safely at 8.30pm last night.
This means that the radiator needs cooling, either by the fan or by air flow while the car is moving. You'd say 'duhh' but that also means I can still drive to work as long as there is no stalling. As far as waiting at the traffic light is concerned, I'll just turn off the engine till it's time to move again.
Yeap, that's the plan. There's a workshop at my office area. I'll drop my car there and walk a few blocks more to work.
Ah... the road must be clear now. It's 10.30am. Everyone's at work already. Time to go.
Gosh..that would set you back by a few hundreds. But at least no need to call tow truck.
ReplyDeleteNeed to keep a bottle of water in the car for such emergency. Pour water on the overheated engine.
WOrkshop next to RHB? We use that workshop. Not bad.
Yup, 200+, includes normal service and gasket change, coz my engine oil leaks as well. But it's time to change anyway. The fan has been with me for 6 years. I didn't think about cooling the engine by pouring water to it. I shud have. Maybe because I planned to wait till the jam clears, that gives one hour plus for the engine to cool down. And also time to write this post, hence updating my blog. Hehe... turned out to be a productive morning nonetheless. I reached that workshop next to RHB at 11.15am just now. Funny that you guessed it correctly. But yeah, I guess they are good, judging from the number of clients they have.
ReplyDeleteYa their service is quite good. There was once or twice the car need to be "hospitalised", the staff sent us home.
ReplyDeleteHubby always put a bottle in the car coz worried about things like these. Said if don't cool it down fast the car might caught fire.
We kena radiator problem before. He pour on top of the engine. Then when the engine cooled down, he pour the water into one of the tank. I forgot which tank is that. He said water the circulate and temporary cool the engine while drive to workshop. No need to off engine at traffic light each time. Have to monitor the tempreture.
well...good news is now your car will be purring smoothly like a cat after service ya. Hahaha..
Mine was also admitted one night, many months ago coz they couldn't finish it in time. I was given their rental car, proton iswara. Very convenient and friendly.
ReplyDeleteThankfully you're safe! Be careful. :)
ReplyDelete