Owning A Car Can Get Quite Embarrassing: A Mechanic’s Tale 101

Can I be honest? Owning a car can get quite embarrassing. Wait, let me elaborate:

A few months back, my father and I were traveling a distance of about a full 5.2km. We were going to see a client at his workplace—and I feel this is the right moment to complain.

Some clients are too damn much. If you’re a young person wanting to go into the blue-collar industry, I just want to warn you of the havoc that comes from the industry.

People heavily respect those with white-collar jobs. They’ll treat you like a pest if you look messy. They’ll respect those that look more “worthy” and treat you as dirt, and f-ck me if they care about you keeping their lives afloat.

Most clients will look you down before scrunching their nose in disgust at your presence. Only a few will appreciate you, but still, I’d recommend you growing a backbone before joining the industry. It will save you from a lot of mental mishaps.

I’ll also advise you to not worry on their thoughts of you. You don’t have to prove anything to anyone, but rather to yourself. They’re challenging you, and if you use that fuel as encouragement—honey, the world is yours to take.

So, back to what I was saying before—owning a vehicle has its moments.

We were driving to see a client and we were halfway there when the car began to overheat—and we were in a queue, driving down a railway line. 

Yoh, I was flabbergasted. My father quickly took charge and parked to the side. People stopped to stare as we got out of the car quickly.

We got the hood open before my father unscrewed the radiator cap—wait, don’t do that sh-t. If your car is overheating, DO NOT FOR THE LIFE OF YOU TRY TO OPEN THE RADIATOR CAP.  

Water within the radiator evaporates and will for sure burn you. If you’re not familiar with vehicles, I’d advise you to park to the side when your vehicle shows any sign of overheating. 

Trying to drive it a distance will damage your engine. 

Here’s what you do when you sense or see signs of overheating:

• Do not panic
• Park your vehicle to the side before stepping out
• Open the hood if possible
• Wait for 1hr-2hrs for the engine to cool down for a bit. If by chance you choose to unscrew the radiator cap(I strongly advise you not to do this), make sure your hands are covered as that part of your vehicle is hot after a drive. If you remove the cap, water will splash out of the cap—be very careful.
• Look for any leaks on the ground. If you can’t identify the particular item leaking – call your mechanic
• In fact, calling your mechanic should be the first thing you do. What are you waiting for?

Anyway, we were in luck because we parked in front of a manufacturing company. Because we also use water in our radiator, I went inside the manufacturer’s premises to ask for water. Thank heavens the supervisor agreed to let me fetch some water. I HAD TO GET MORE THAN 5LTRS.

We were reluctant to go to the client’s office, but we really couldn’t turn back. We were halfway there.

We slowly drove to the client’s office, and thank goodness there was no traffic. We got our business finished before driving back to our workshop.

Let me get it through that months prior to this, the car did overheat and we had to change one of the water hoses. But here’s the thing—that wasn’t the main problem. The car was heating up because the water pump was damaged. 

Crazy.