Car Trouble

Part One

"We should probably get some petrol," I said as we passed the petrol station, eyeing the fuel gauge reading just over one quarter full. I meant diesel, of course, but old habits die hard. I tend to get antsy when the gauge reads below one quarter, and we often fill up when it gets just below half. "I want to fill up just before we leave," Gopal replied, "so we can better track our mileage".

We're planning on taking a car trip soon, probably to Chennai and Pondicherry, with Bangalore on the way. We bought the car with the intention of doing long trips, but we haven't actually been anywhere yet. The car has been very handy to have for many other reasons, particularly in the rainy season. And spending several hours in traffic in the sun is much less exhausting in the car than on the motorcycle.

Most of our trips in the car have been just across the city (or even just to the local village if it is raining). Our trip yesterday afternoon was typical - 25km through the city, expected to take around 50 minutes. We left just after 5pm though so traffic was pretty bad and we ended up running a bit late.

We were in the middle of very heavy traffic, about 5km from our destination when the engine died. Gopal tried to start it, but it wouldn't start. The engine cranked, and would catch and then immediately die again. We put on the hazard lights and also used hand signals to warn other drivers that we were trying to move across to the left. Traffic was mostly at a standstill so we wound down the windows and explained to the drivers next to us that our car wasn't working and we had to pull off the road. They were all accommodating. We made it to the side of the road by cranking the car in gear and using the lurches each time to make a bit of forward progress. Fortunately we were on flat ground.

At the side of the road, we popped the hood and took a look. Everything looked perfectly fine. The car wasn't overheating, nothing appeared to be wrong, yet it just wouldn't start. Gopal had been all over the car with a fine tooth comb and knew that the engine was solid. There were a few minor issues with the odometer and a slightly worn alternator belt, but nothing that would cause this. The car gave every impression of being out of fuel, yet the fuel gauge said we had exactly a quarter of a tank. Still, not having anything else to try, we thought we would put more more diesel in and see if that helped.

Gopal walked to the nearest petrol bunk and filled up a container of diesel, while I sat in the car and used my pocket knife to MacGyver a funnel out of our water bottle. We added the fuel and, like magic, the car started! We'd only added a couple of litres, so we drove to the petrol station as fast as the heavy traffic would allow and added what should have been half a tank full. The fuel gauge now read three quarters, so there's clearly a bit of a problem there! We were over an hour late reaching our destination, but we did make it. We turned for home, expecting that we would still have time to stop for some food at Nilesh's on the way.

Part Two

We were about 12km from home when I heard a noise from the front of the car. It sounded like a kind of intermittent flapping noise. At first we thought it was something that had gotten stuck to the tyre or in the tyre well but then it got worse and sounded much more like it was under the hood so we stopped to have a look. It turned out to be the alternator belt. It was a little worn, and a piece about 2mm wide and 7mm long had peeled away from the edge and was flapping around, making the noise we heard. Gopal assured me that it wasn't that serious, and that even if the belt broke completely, it wasn't a big problem. We could still drive it home and then replace the belt in the morning (it was almost 9pm by this stage).

We kept driving, the flapping noise accompanying us. A few kilometers further on, the noise suddenly got much louder and it sounded like the belt had given way completely. Gopal pulled over to the side of the road, but as he did so, we realised the engine had stopped at the same time. And wouldn't start again. Once safely off the road, we put hazard lights on and popped the bonnet and had a look. To our surprise, the alternator belt looked exactly as it had done a few km earlier. It hadn't snapped, nor was the peeling any worse than it had been. It turned normally when we tried to crank the engine. And nothing else in the engine looked amiss. We knew this time we had at least half a tank of fuel, so that wasn't it either.

We put the car up on a jack and Gopal slid under it to have a look. I was a bit nervous during that whole process, and not because he was lying down on a filthy road. Although we had pulled well over to the left, there was still a bit of traffic and 2 wheelers would go around the other side of the car to take a bit of a shortcut to get ahead of the other vehicles. We were also just near a big restaurant and function centre and people were pulling off the road trying to park. It was entirely possible that someone could cut in front of the car and not see him lying on the ground, so I stood there to make sure nobody got that close. However, I was still worried about the possibility that someone might bump the car, which would knock it down off the (flimsy) jack and onto him. Fortunately, that didn't happen, but the investigation under the car was fruitless. Everything seemed normal.

Finally, we decided that there was nothing we could do right there and then, so a friend of Gopal's agreed to come and give us a tow home. He would take a while to reach us, so we wandered down the road to a restaurant we quite like to have some dinner (with a quick toilet stop at McDonalds along the way - they're usually good for that at least). We sat down just a few minutes before they closed at 10:30pm.

We killed a little more time after dinner until Prasad arrived with his nephew Naresh. They put the car up on his (very good) jack, and he even had a big piece of cardboard to put down to slide under the car. None of them could figure the issue though, so they started to hook the cars up to be towed, using four thick nylon ropes. A random guy passing helped to tie the knots and twist up the ropes into a bigger rope and they tied the cars about 3 metres apart. We set off on the 7km journey home.

Part Three

We were crawling along at about 10-15km an hour most of the time. Fortunately it was after midnight by this point, so there was very little traffic. There were quite a few bumps though, and bits of broken road where they have dug it up to lay some pipes. Our car's brakes are power assisted, so they didn't work too well with no engine running. Gopal frequently had to use the handbrake to slow us down so we didn't run into the back of Prasad's SUV. We had to be on guard against autos or 2 wheelers that might try to go between the two cars. We had our hazard lights on, and we used the horn to warn off anyone who got too cloase.

For the most part it was fairly smooth, but there were a couple of sections where Prasad slowed down and then sped up a bit fast, resulting in us getting jerked forward. The last time that happened we were just 1km from home, and the tow rope gave way completely! At the point where it was attached to our car, it had just frayed through. With such a short distance to go (and plenty of extra rope), we just hooked it up again and continued. The rest of the journey was super smooth and we managed to park the car off to the side of the lane just outside our building. And there it sits.

Next, we need to get it to a garage (Gopal's friend has a garage, but he was away at a wedding last night so we couldn't take it directly there) and then figure out what is wrong. We had planned to go away in the next day or two, but it's probably going to be postponed until at least next week now. And at least we still have the motorcycle (even if it is a bit dangerous) so we can get out to the shops and the market. Hopefully the car will be fixed pretty soon.