Has your car broke down in a far away place?

[swordsman]

It has always been a dream to drive all over the Philippines - north & south. Maybe visit the Pagudpod area up north and Cebu/Visayas area in the south and drive around. Take the RORO, and the likes.

For those who have actually did this or part of this, have you ever experienced having car trouble in these travels? Like in the middle of nowhere, in between cities? And if so, what did you do in these cases?

I know we should make sure the car is in tip-top shape, and we should travel prepared. But sh!t happens sometimes.

[skyglider]

Thank God! I haven't experienced one yet.

Make sure you have a set of tools just in case...

[cardo]

I have A few years ago. Paakyat ng baguio... So somewhere in the middle of marcos highway, I think an hour pa to baguio... my car went up in smokes nag overheat sya. So I tried to call up a towing service from baguio but they took advantage of my helplessness, an mahal ng singil. mga 6k daw. but good thing I have a friend who was an army official and he was generous enough to lend me his 6x6(with a driver and a mechanic to check the car) to tow the car up. since this event i have learned to really really check the coolant, glance at the temp guage. dati kase i did not think of these items.

tapos in the middle of cavite, papuntang tagaytay... after a snack at a restau, pagsakay sa car ayaw magstart yun car. yun pala, patay na yun batterya... good thing there are some tricycles in the area, and I asked them around for a shop that sells car batteries. there are tricycle shops near the area.

but the good thing is that, these happend during the day. atleast calling for helpis much easier. mahirap kapag gabi, worse if umuulan or may typhoon.

and one time during my teens, my father encountered a flat tire while coming up to baguio. it was raining and it was late at night. he just drove all the way home with the flat. well, though unsafe driving with a flat mas risky if he had tried to fix it on the road, raining late at night. baka maholdap or carnap pa sya. buti na lang malapit sa sya sa bahay namin.

kaya plan your route(mahirap yun mga areas that have low population), your timing or schedule and your support structure(mga towing service kung meron ka or covered ng insurance or kunin mo numbers ng mga friends lalo na yun may mga connections hehehe) lalo na kung may history of breaking down yun kotse mo.

[ssaloon]

yup, just the other day at BRC. nag crack yung oil seal and nag foul up yung plugs ko. buti nalang may spare plugs kami and minor crack lang at nakauwi kami ng maayos.

[zero]

naputulan ng clutch cable in the middle of the night along cagayan valley highway in nueva ecija. have to wait pa for 9 a.m., may bukas nang auto supply sa cabanatuan city. ang pinuputok lang ng butchi ko nuon ay MALAMOK!!!

[JohnM]

Awa ng Diyos di pa naman although di naman ako lumalabas ng Metro Manila hehe

Nasiraan ako ng alternator while na-trapik along Valero St. Makati mga 7PM. Buti na lang umabot pa ako sa office ni missis. Buti na lang ok kausap ang mga guard sa building nila. Iniwan namin ang oto overnite. Dun ko na rin pinalitan ang alternator.

[ghosthunter]

Never happened to me yet. My friend's car overheated along the expressway but a simple stop at the service station got him going again.

My worst was a big rock punched a hole in my engine's under-tray which made it leak. Stopped at a service station and had it patched up. My downtime was 1 hour 30 minutes, mostly waiting for the epoxy steel to harden.

[niky]

That's scary... a punctured oil-pan? Could lead to serious engine trouble...

Worst I've had was a flat tire in the mountains of Nueva Ecija while in convoy with a local who was going way too fast for me to be comfortable with. In trying to keep up with him, we hit an inopportune pothole and got a sidewall-tear flat.

It's only when we unloaded the luggage that I realized that all I had was a safety spare (full-sized one was at home because it had no tread and a bubble, to boot). Even worse, we were still about 100km from our destination. I had to walk almost half a kilometer to get enough cellphone signal to call Mr. Sebastian Loeb (who was nearly twenty kays away by then) back to assist us, and thankfully, our cars had the same 5-stud mounting hardware, so I ran the rest of the night on one Accord rim and three 17" mags... on a Mazda. :lol:

The worst part of it all was, when we got to Tugegarao... I found out that not only is gas over 1 peso more expensive there, but that I would be paying Bridgestone money for a cheap Federal ($#%%^!!!) or Gajah Tunggal tire.

[ghosthunter]

That's scary... a punctured oil-pan? Could lead to serious engine trouble...

The thought crossed my mind.... lucky for me there was a service station less than a kilometer away.

[johnart]

going down from baguio 5-6years ago at pampange area na bigla pumotok yung front tire ko was running at 100kph. Was able to stop safety but took me an hour to change the tire and init sobra ng tire at mags.
Another time was going to tagaytay while going palang biglang may narining akong clonk clonk ( isang bolt and nut pala) di ko pinansin bigla umilaw ang battery light hinto ako patay bolt and nut pala ng alternator yung panghigpit. Kaya naghanap nalang ako ng mga bato para tuloy ang biyahe paunta at pauwi ng maynila. Walang ng mga shop dahil gabi na yun.