Car Broke Down

This is the first time I encounter car broke down. Still clearly remember that when I was turning into the petrol station, my instinct told me that my car going to broke down soon, so I decided to turn into a parking lot which both left and right side parking lots are empty in order to spare some space for any action taken afterward. When I pressed on the accelerator, my car’s engine died instead of accelerates. At that very moment, my heart start beating faster and faster and I started panicking. But I still managed to park my car.

When I got down from the car, I opened the hood for the engine to cool down. At the same time, I heard a Toyota Hilux engine’s sound (I always wanted a 4x4 so I’m quite familiar with the engines’ sound) then a Hilux came into the petrol station to pumped petrol. By the time I looked at it, I already knew that Hilux belongs to a car workshop because in the car boot contains a huge air compressor and a few tires. So I went to ask for help from the driver. Fortunately, he is kind enough to help me out a bit although he said he was rushing. So after he pumped petrol, he drove towards the parking lot on the left side of my car but the jump-start cable is not long enough to connects both batteries, so we have to push my car out of the parking lot. We both tried our very best to push the car out from the parking lot. After that, he moved his car near enough to jump-start my car. After all hard works and sweats, my car finally started. He suggested me to go to the nearest car workshop to do some maintenance. Then he drove away without asking for any charges.

After I pumped petrol with the engine on, I drove to the nearest workshop to seek for “car doctor”. When I parked the car outside a workshop, my car broke down again due to lack of engine coolant. Then this guy named Hafiz who works at the workshop came to me and start checking my car’s engine. He waters the engine compartment to cool the engine down. Then he opened the coolant tank with cares. The moment when the cover lifted, puff and puff of white hot steams rush out from the tank, obviously shown that the tank is dry and boiling hot! He poured some water into the tank and other parts of the engine then let them cool down. He repeated the action for a few times until it is safe for me to handle then he ask me to do that action for another 20 minutes. After that, he refilled the water tank to full but within 1 minute, the water tank empty again due to some leakage where not been found yet. Hafiz is an experienced car maintainer, he immediately knows that the leak should be a rubber stopper near the bottom of the engine. He grabbed his tools and start disconnecting the rubber stopper. And yup!!He was right, the stopper had a big hole in it which cause the leakage. So he suggested me to get my dad’s permission to change the stopper which only cost RM 10. After I gotten the permission from my dad, Hafiz helped me to change the stopper and recharged the car battery.

After 3 hours of suffering, my car had back to live again. I went to the counter and paid RM 10 for the stopper only but not Hafiz’s hard work. Then I drove back home.

After this incident, I finally knew the importance of RUTIN PEMERIKSAAN KENDERAAN (RPK).

I will always check the conditions of the car every time before I start driving. At least check the coolant once a week.

#ContextualStudy