subject: Easy Ways To Avoid Breakdown Disaster [print this page] It is not a nice thought at all and yet it happens all the time. Someone is on the road, heading to their destination without too many cares in the world. Then a clunk, a thud or some other portent of disaster quickly has that driver realizing that their car is about to fail on them. They are facing the prospect of being stuck in a very tight spot unless they can take some kind of quick action.
In this situation a driver is often left with two basic choices. Let the vehicle die and then face either sitting stranded for hours waiting for help to arrive or worse still walking for miles, leaving their car unattended, to get help or try and find a way to get a few more miles out of it until they are in a safer spot.
While the latter may not always be an option there are some things drivers can try to squeeze a few extra miles out of their ailing car in some breakdown scenarios:
Chewing Gum and Twigs Can Save Your Engine
Even the best kept roads have all kinds of debris on them and sometimes all it takes to pierce or puncture a fuel tank is a stray rock hitting just the wrong spot.
If a fuel tank springs a leak the fuel can be lost far more quickly than you realize and the common esult is a seized engine. Once an engine seizes the fix is often far more complicated than a simple trip to a car parts retailer. and often the only solution is replacing the engine altogether.
To plug a leak in the fuel tank you can use a simple piece of (chewed) chewing gum. It won't last that long but it will get you a few more miles.
An oil pan crack is another potential engine killer. In this situation packing the hole with twigs can help. Just make sure that you pack the crack or hole tightly but take care not to use long twigs that will hit the road when you drive on as that could cause even more damage.
Do a Relay Swap
Another common problem that motorists experience unexpectedly is a failure of the fuel pump relay. As they are very small components a relay will often wear out long before the component itself, but as small as they are a fuel pump relay that stops working can lead to engine seizure in minutes.
Swapping out the bad relay with the still functioning one can buy you a little extra time. Its a very short term solution - you should find a car parts retailer and get a replacement relay as soon as possible - but trick should at least get you a few more miles down the road.
