You can imagine that as towing experts, we’ve seen our fair share of awful on-road automobile breakdowns. There’s multiple factors that could cause a driver to need to pull over on the side of the road to contact a licensed towing company; in this brief blog post, the experts at Chicago Towing will detail some of the most worst types of breakdowns.
Battery Issues
Most car batteries should last between 3 and 5 years, but this can be highly shortened if you often drive in extreme temperatures. To avoid getting stranded by your battery, make sure to check your battery every time you get your car checked at a mechanic or dealers, especially if the battery is less than 3 years old. You can spot automobile battery issues when your headlights or interior car lights dim, or your windows are reacting more slowly than beautiful.
Getting Locked Out
This situation really sucks because it’s completely preventable, Make sure to get a spare set of keys copied, and keep them outside your car inside your home or office. If you’re going on a long car journey, make sure to give a pair of the spare keys to another person that you’re traveling with, so if you lose your pair of keys, you’ll have another one readily available.
Engine Issues
These issues most commonly are caused by issues like broken coolant leaking hoses, which in turn cause an engine to overheat. You can inspect hoses and belts by inspecting them for any peeling, cracks, or softening. Make sure to check out transmission and auto fluid levels, with an item similar to a dipstick. You can also prevent engine issues by monitoring your gas mileage on a monthly basis, and if the mileage suddenly drops, it’s likely an engine issue.
Transmission
A sudden drop in mileage could also be due to transmission issues. It’s harder these days to find transmission issues in contemporary modern cars, and what was once easy to spot as a broken transmission might now be revealed to be caused by software or sensor hardware. If you feel a weird jerking or slip when you place automatic transmission in gear, make sure to check out the car’s transmission, and make sure that your mechanic or dealer checks all your fluid during any type of maintenance, especially the transmission fluid.
Brake Problems
Almost no part of the car is more essential for safety than the car’s brakes. Make sure that the brake rotors and pads get check twice a year. The brake fluid should be changed between every 2 and 3 years, depending on the specifications laid out in your car manual. If you pull over to one side when you hit the brakes, hear a grinding or squeaking motion, or your brake pedal feels soft you need to get your brake issues fixed ASAP.