In every Christmas families living in towns have a very special urge of wanting to visit their families in rural areas, this makes every family that owns a car to service it(if he cares) and those who do not own, some usually hare vehicles.
I work in Nairobi and God has blessed me with my lovely Nissan B12 manual, as from December 0112.2011, i started checking and serving areas that i know needed re-check.Area of concerns were engine oil, brakes, cooling system, tyres, gear oil, electrical, etc.
On 23/12/2011, at 09.30am, i woke up and checked again for engine oil, water for colling and brake fluid, i also checked headlights which i confirmed were all working.I parked some few things that i needed on the way, i also took my tool box and kept it safe inside the boot.
I passed through a gas station and made sure i had enough fuel to reach me Elburgon, about 200kms away.At the gas station i also checked the tyre pressure, and after confirming that all was good i sent off on my journey.
|I passed through Naivasha and i got curios after i noted a third car with it's hood opened and the driver trying to fix something. By the time i reached Gilgil, about 100 from Nairobi i had seen not less that eight vehicles with drivers trying to fix them along the road.
I was disturbed at Njoro (about 183Kms), when i saw a young lady driver with two young children
stacked with a open bonnet, she was trying to call someone on her cellphone and she looked worked up.
I reversed and decided to ask her what was the problem, the time was now around 03.00hrs GMT, she told me she re-filled gas at a fuel station in Nakuru and asked the pump attendant to check for her water.
After about 15kms she noted the temperature gauge rising up,unfortunately she did not stop or go back to the fuelling station to check what happened, but she proceeded on until she had some fumes coming from the bonnet.
As a trained mechanic, i asked to restart the engine so that the engine will maintain the temperature and to avoid damaging the cylinder head and burning the gasket.
Slowly by slowly i showed her how to control just a situation by adding little by little water water at a time. The whole recovery oparation to cool the engine took me about two and half hours, by now the time was approaching 06.30hrs and good enough the lady was going the same way as me towards Elburgon.
She begged me to trail her behind along the road just in case, but i assured everything was OK, i even give her my cellphone number just in case of anything as she was heading towards Molo while my journey was ending at Elburgon.
To date i have not hard from her which i assume that she had no problem.
Am back in Nairobi and today(09/01/2012), i witnessed a very ignorant driver or maybe he did not know what he was doing, this caused me to write this blog on drivers and vehicles.
Today as i was going to my place of work, i saw a car parked at a petrol station along Kimathi street, a pump attendant was refuelling while the driver was at the hood, he was holding the bonnet with one hand and i think i saw the other hand was at radiator cap. I thought he was just checking if it was properly tighted, BUT La's... i herd a bang and when i looked back i saw the guy running away and boiling water with steam was been blown out from the cars radiator.
I thought of going away, but another thing told me no, i went back and talked to the guy/driver how he was damaging his car engine by releasing the water and temperature from the engine, i asked him to put back the radiator cap and re-start the engine, and refill the spilled water slowly by slowly.
Am saying this to all vehicle owners and drivers, please NEVER EVER OPEN THE RADIATOR CAP WHILE THE ENGINE HAS BEEN RUINING OR HOT, not only will you burn your self but the main thing is that you will damage the cylinder head and burn the gasket, which in turn you will need thousands of shilling to repair, while you needed water and the collect procedure to re-fill the radiator and all would be fine.
Remember an engine and its component is all metals, and every metals expands while on heat,so when you open the radiator cap, you make the hot water that controls the engine temperature to escape, this in turn makes the cylinder head which is made of soft metal(mostly iron cast), to cool down an even, when this happens, you will find water and engine oil mixing due to uneven contact between the cylinder head and engine block.
So my dear drivers. never open an hot engine or add water using the radiator cap,usually you will find a water reserviour near the radiator that you are supposed to re-fii to a mark on the side, do not fill this reserviour to the neck, NO its wrong as when the water will expand after boiling inside the engine ,it will find no where to go, yet this tank is meant for that job.
I hope this small tip on radiator re-filling will help you and your car
