It's a motorist's worst nightmare: breaking down miles from home and no friendly faces in sight. Perhaps nothing is as unsettling as having your car quit in a desolate, unfamiliar spot. While you may not be able to eliminate breakdowns, you can ease some of that fear by preparing for them ahead of time.

PREVENTION IS THE BEST STRATEGY
It is a sad fact that most emergencies are caused by poor maintenance. If a car is properly cared-for it will seldom fail on the road. Despite the fact that you maintain your car well, emergencies do happen--even with brand new cars--so, read on...

Carry an emergency kit.
One of the key preparations you can do is to assemble an emergency kit. Kits are available commercially, but they don't always have a wide assortment of useable items. Besides, you can save money by assembling the items yourself. Your kit should include the following items as a minimum; you can add to these, depending on your particular needs (special medicines, braces, etc.):

• Flashlight (preferably with magnetic attachment)
• Flares (3)
• Can of tire leak sealer/inflator
• Spare fuses&
• Emergency fan belt (available at most auto parts &&stores)
• Jumper cables
• Assorted hand tools (flat and phillips screwdrivers, locking pliers, adjustable wrench, knife, hammer)
• Fire extinguisher (preferably Halon type)
• Blanket (preferably a "space" blanket: lightweight, high thermal efficiency)
• First aid kit
• This book
  

Other items that could be helpful include:

• Replacement lamps (including spare low beam headlamp)
• A set of replacement windshield wiper blades (especially if you have one of the less common makes or models)
• Duct tape
• Insulated solid-core wire (12 to 14 gauge)
• Leather work gloves
• Flat board (for supporting the jack on soft &&&&surfaces)
• Can of liquid tire chain
• Gas can (empty)
• Hand syphon pump
  
• Starting fluid
  
• Water Can
  
• White cloth or sign saying "Help"
  
• Small bag of sand or kitty litter
• Hose bandage(s)
  

With these items, you should be able to deal with most problems short of a catastrophic failure.

Carry Your Cell Phone in the Car
Carry your cell phone and your cigarette lighter recharger with you at all times. In fact, you might want to purchase a separate recharger cable and leave it in your glove compartment at all times. Don't over use your cell phone in emergencies, contacting people who are not necessary to help you out of this situation. A down side is that there are certain outlying areas of the country where a cell phone will not connect.

AAA Can Be Your Best Friend
The cell phone and AAA can be your best friend in an emergency. Whether you need a battery recharge, tire change, more fuel, or a tow to the nearest garage, they will be as close as a phone call away. Sometimes, depending upon the certain hour and day of your breakdown, you may find a long wait for help due to far distance or a busy evening. But still, if your warranty didn't include Roadside Assistance, then AAA might be just the security you need.


TYPES OF EMERGENCIES
Emergencies come in many degrees of urgency. The most dangerous are the sudden, life-threatening type: fire, collision and brake loss. These cases call for quick action and calm thinking.

Flat tires.
Changing tires is perhaps the most common road emergency. It is also a common maintenance chore and was covered in Chapter Four.

Car fires.
In a car, fires are usually electrical or fuel in origin. Either some wiring has shorted, or fuel has started to leak. Although both are bad, a gasoline fire is perhaps more dangerous because of the possibility of explosion. (Fortunately, explosions are relatively uncommon, even with fuel fires, but do not discount the possibility.) Regardless of the source, however, be aware of the toxic nature of many of the plastics used in a car. Inhaling fumes can be more harmful than being burned.

The first thing to do when you discover smoke or flames is to get the car stopped, preferably off to the side of the road, then try to put out the fire. Turn off the ignition and grab the fire extinguisher. Fire extinguishers should be carried as close to the driver as practical, such as in a door pocket, center console, or the glovebox, so as to permit rapid action. Any passengers should get out of the car and as far away as possible unless they can help in some way. The fewer people near the car, the less chance of injury.

If you do not have a fire extinguisher (shame on you!) or your extinguisher fails to function, a blanket or coat can be quite effective in smothering a fuel fire. The cost of a piece of apparel will be small compared to the loss of your automobile.

WARNING: Never try to use water to extinguish a car fire. Water will be useless--or worse. And, needless-to-say, an extreme degree of care will be needed in any attempt to put out a car fire. If you sense it is getting away from you, stop at once and wait for help to arrive. No automobile is worth risking injury or death.

Brake failure.
The loss of brakes has got to be one of the most terrifying experiences in driving, especially if you are going down a grade. Once again, you won't have time to consult a manual, so it's best to be aware of what to do beforehand.

The first thing to determine is if you have actually lost the brakes. You may simply have lost the boost to the power brakes. At first, this will feel like total brake failure, but it isn't. It will make pedal effort much higher, but the brakes will still work and, if you press hard, you can slow the car and bring it to a stop.

Shifting the transmission into the lower gear ranges will enable the engine to help the slowing process (shift into neutral once the car is down to 5-10 mph to avoid having the engine try to move the car at slow speed). Do not turn the key to the off position before bringing the car to a complete stop because this will lock the steering wheel, preventing you from controlling the car.

The good news is that it is quite rare to actually lose all of your brakes because the government has required a split system since 1968. That is, the brakes must be operated by two independent circuits (usually one for the front and one for the rear). This provides partial braking ability even if one system fails.

If both systems fail at the same time, you should still be able to use your emergency brake. While keeping the lock-release button pressed (or if you have a foot-pedal type brake, hold the brake release lever out with your hand), gently apply the emergency brake. If you hear the wheels start to squeal, you've locked the brakes. Quickly release them and reapply gently. Continue to modulate the brake lever until you've brought the car to a stop.

There are other ways to stop if you have the time, such as steering the car up a hill to lose speed. If you try this, just make sure you you can stop the car before it starts to roll backward!

If you have absolutely no brakes, you are faced with the likelihood of crashing the car. That doesn't mean you don't have options. Remember these rules of controlled crashing: 1) try to hit something going in the same direction in which you are going before hitting something stationary, 2) hit something stationary before hitting something coming at you, and, 3) if you must hit something coming at you, try to hit a glancing blow rather than head-on.

HANDLING LESSER EMERGENCIES.
Fortunately, most emergencies are not life threatening, like the ones just discussed. These lesser emergencies allow time for thoughtful action.

The cardinal rule in these types of situations: don't drive, or continue to drive your car, until you determine whether it is safe to continue. If something goes wrong, it is easier (and cheaper) to fix a small problem, such as a broken fan belt, than to risk catastrophic engine damage by continuing to drive even a few miles.

The first thing to do is try to assess the extent of the problem. If you packed your emergency kit, you may be able to fix it if it is minor. There are, however, some things you can do while waiting that might save you the delay and uncertainty of rescue. They depend, however, on your having obtained and packed some items in your car.

First, try to determine what's wrong. Before you can try to fix it, you have to know what's broken.

Running out of fuel.
If the car just coughed and died, check your fuel gauge. If you're out of gas, there's not much to do except try to get some. You should not carry spare gas in your car; experts warn of the dangers of carrying flammable liquid because of potential leaks and fires. You can carry an empty can and perhaps a siphon pump, so if anyone is kind enough to let you have some from their tank, you're back in business.

Cooling system failure.
Did one one of your gauges or warning lights come on? Which one? If it was the temperature indicator, it means you've either lost coolant or the coolant has stopped circulating through the engine. If there's escaping coolant vapor, it's a sure sign of a ruptured hose or other break in the cooling system. Open the hood and see if you can determine if and where you are loosing coolant. Be careful because hot liquid could be spraying from a leak near the opening of the hood.

With this type of breakdown, you have two choices: "limp" the car to a repair shop or try to make a temporary repair. If you choose to "limp," allow the engine to cool down, then you can drive for a short while before the engine overheats again. Shut down and let the engine cool down again. Repeat this procedure until you reach either your destination or a repair shop. One word of caution; this method puts an extreme load on the engine oil. Have the oil and filter changed as soon after doing this as practical.

If you have the ability, you might as well make the temporary repair before continuing; it will save you some time in the long run. If the problem is a ruptured hose, you can make a temporary repair with a hose bandage. These are available at any auto parts shop or auto sections of department stores and should be part of your emergency kit. The repair should hold long enough to get you to a repair shop. If you don't have a hose bandage, you can make do with duct tape, winding it securely several times around the rupture. This is not permanent but, if you haven't lost all of the coolant, it should hold long enough for you to get to a repair shop. If your radiator is dry, you can get by with just plain water in a pinch, but be sure to replace it with proper coolant as soon as possible. (Water freezes at a relatively high temperature and boils at a low one in terms of a car's operating temperatures, so don't leave it in long.)

Drive belt failure.
If no steam is escaping, check your drive belts. One of them may have broken. There is a worthwhile product on the market called a universal temporary belt, also available at auto parts stores and a handy part of your emergency kit. It can be cut to any length and installed without any tools and without having to remove any other belts, since it is coupled together once sized and put in place.

Oil system failure.
If the oil light came on, or your oil pressure dropped, you are either low on oil or the oil has stopped circulating. You can determine a low oil level by checking the oil dipstick. If it's low, be sure to look under the car for leaking before bothering to put more in. A blown gasket, ruptured oil pan, or split oil filter will just dump the new oil out like it did the old. Call for a tow truck in that case. If your oil level is all right, then something major in the system has failed. Again, call for the hook.

Loose or broken parts.
If none of the warning lights came on before the car quit, most likely something came loose or broke due to the normal vibration in the engine. Once you've opened the hood, look for something loose lying about. Be careful of touching things, because the engine and many components are quite hot. You might spot a wire that is just hanging, or perhaps one of the many tubes and hoses has popped loose. See if you can find where it came from and re-attach it. That could be all that is needed to get you under way again.

Fuse failure.
If you can't find anything loose, check your fuse box. Many of today's cars, especially imports, have parts of the ignition systems and fuel injection systems wired through there. If the fuse is blown, replacing it could have you underway in a few minutes. Keep in mind these few rules, however.

• Never replace a fuse with one of a higher rating, such as putting a 20-amp in place of a 15-amp. The engineers designed fused circuits to protect the really important parts. If you allow the fuse to carry more current, you could be saving a 50-cent fuse by destroying a $300 fuel injector pump.
• If the fuse you install blows right away, don't fool around. You have an electrical short somewhere and a potential electrical fire. Get the car towed to a competent shop to have it fixed. It will be cheaper and safer than replacing a burned-up car.
  

Summary.
No one wants to have an emergency on the road. Even so, an emergency can be dramatically less dangerous or bothersome if you are prepared to deal with it in advance.