my first tow truck ride

It was like every other Saturday morning for me yesterday. Woke up early to get breakfast, get ready for my weekly rock climbing sessions. I felt pretty good yesterday since I managed to sleep the night before so I was feeling very energized and upbeat about my climb session. I might have spoke too soon though because my car decided to pull a fast one on me.

I found it surprising because I always went on preventive maintenance for my car so I really wasn't expecting any breakdowns especially I didn't hear any sound symptoms, neither did I saw any signs of an impending breakdown. After all, it is only logical that mechanical parts would give out some form of symptoms to let you know it's about to go.

I was actually driving myself to rock climbing, feeling all geared up and gung-ho about it. As I approached an uphill climb and right bend, I realised I was losing compression and the car was starting not respond to my pedal work on the accelerator. To make matters worse because I was driving pretty quickly on the fast lane with a car following me quite closely, the danger of being rear ended was really flagging itself when I suddenly lost compression.

As I limped the car to the slow lane carefully trying not confuse traffic coming from behind me, I barely managed to get the car to the side of the main road and then my car just shuddered thereafter the engine just went quiet. I could only think one immediate possibility at that point in time, I thought the car overheated especially the weather was so hot yesterday. No point in panicking since the car wasn't going anywhere it is current state and I knew I had to keep calm if I was going to get the car back on its feet.

Checked the radiator water, was alright; checked the ground for any engine oil leakages, no leaks; check all related cables, all good; checked vacuum hoses, all good. Couldn't figure out what could have gone wrong. I was standing in front of the open bonnet scratching my head, wondering what on earth just happened. I made weekly routine checks on my car so I knew what was about to give way and would make the necessary replacements of parts. I was really, really perplexed.

Nothing much I could do by staring at an open bonnet under the rain, so I called my dad so I could get a ride and at the same time gave a call to a tow truck buddy to get haul my car back to my mate's workshop for further inspection. By the time my dad arrived, he shot me questions on my troubleshooting steps and concurred I covered everything but one - "any fuel going to the carb?". That's when I went, "sh*t! I missed that one out!". Sure enough, there was no petrol getting from the fuel pump to the carburetor and hence, the inability to get the car started despite the engine cranking.

With the problem identified, all it took was to get the spare part and for the tow truck to get me and the car back to the workshop.

The tow truck eventually arrived, and it took surprisingly quick to get the car on the tow. Thereafter, I had my very first two truck ride. It was pretty interesting to say the very least. There was no air conditioning, not even seatbelt. On the entire way back, I heard the wind blowing in my ears from the open windows, the roaring tow truck engine and the rough sounds coming out from the walkie talkie of the driver. Not to mention, you can even smell the typical grease smell you'd get in workshops! The entire ride probably took 20 minutes or so, with me sitting in the truck taking occasional glimpse at my car paralysed on the back of a tow truck. It was painful for me to see my car in that state leaving the back of mind putting some blame on myself for not noticing the fuel pump was about to give way.

By the time I reached the workshop, I was awed by how the tow truck driver skillfully maneuvered the truck in reverse to get my car in a good position in the workshop. I was amazed and how flawless he did it! Seriously!

Once the car was down, I worked very quickly with my mechanic to replace the fuel pump and in under the 30 minutes the car was good to go........ tiring and frustrating as it was, I learned a bit more about troubleshooting car problems and I got a pretty good experience in a tow truck!