| If your car breaks down at the side of the road | | | | If you detect an unusual burning or petrol smell, |
| it will certainly be an inconvenience and will delay | | | | or see signs of fire pull over immediately and get |
| your journey, but unlikely to be life threatening. If | | | | all of the vehicle occupants out of the car and to |
| however your car breaks down whilst it is still | | | | a safe place as soon as possible. If the fire is |
| moving the consequences could be entirely | | | | inside the engine compartment do not open that |
| different, especially if you are travelling at high | | | | bonnet, because the sudden rush of air will cause |
| speed on a motorway, requiring you to react | | | | the fire to flare and burn even harder. Stay well |
| correctly and decisively to ensure your car is | | | | back and call the fire brigade to handle it. |
| brought safely to a stop without causing an | | | | Engine Overheating |
| accident. | | | | The first signs of an overheating engine will be on |
| Engine Failure | | | | the rising temperature gauge inside the cockpit, |
| Most modern cars now come with power | | | | which if left unnoticed can lead to steam coming |
| assisted steering and brakes, so if the engine fails | | | | out from under the bonnet. As soon as you |
| it is very likely that these systems will be | | | | suspect the engine is overheating pull over, switch |
| affected too. Therefore you will need to be | | | | on your hazard car bulbs and stop the engine as |
| prepared to use extra force to turn the steering | | | | soon as possible otherwise the engine could be |
| wheel and place extra force on the brake pedal | | | | seriously damaged. |
| to bring the car safely to stop. | | | | Allow the engine plenty of time to cool before |
| Most engines are now governed by an electronic | | | | investigating further, especially if you are going to |
| control system that have a limp home mode if | | | | remove the engine coolant filler cap and top up |
| they detect a fault, and this could mean your | | | | the fluid level. The reason for this is that the |
| speed is suddenly limited to under 30mph, even if | | | | coolant system is a closed system and so whilst |
| you are travelling at a much higher speed. If you | | | | still hot will release scalding hot steam. |
| suddenly experience a loss of power switch on | | | | Modern car engines are normally extremely |
| your left hand indicator lights and use gaps in the | | | | reliable, however faults do occasionally occur, so it |
| traffic to safely pull over to the side of the road. | | | | is important to know how to react safely and |
| Engine Fire | | | | correctly if they do. |
