A near miss
I've been out of town and away from an Internet connection for days.
Yesterday as I was driving back from out of state, I had car trouble. Blink (my bro) was with me, having decided to hitch a ride with me back to the city. I'd sent my car for regular servicing with our family mechanic the day before and had the entire drive shaft changed.
Two hours into the journey, the car started making weird noises. I thought I might have a punctured tyre so I slowed down, wanting to stop by the side of the road to check my tyres. But when I tried to come to a complete stop, I had problems engaging the brake and nearly went into the ditch! My brother yelled and I twisted the steering wheel, and somehow eventually managed to stop the car. Whew. I think my life flashed before my eyes or something.
So I called AAM (the Automobile Association of Malaysia), which provides 24-hour breakdown assistance to its members. Then I called Dad, who knows almost everything there is to know about car parts and how a car works. He tried to get me to describe the kind of noise I'd heard the car make. Was it a clunking sound, thumping sound or clinking sound? Gee, I couldn't recall... it had all happened so fast.
I thought it was a brake problem. Turns out it was the left front wheel. When the AAM mechanic took the hubcap off, the wheel bolt, washer and pin all fell out! The pin had broken, the bolt had come off, the wheel had worked loose... and all the rattling around had interfered with the brake system. OMG!!!
The AAM mechanic was speaking Cantonese to me (one of the Chinese dialects) but I don't really speak much Cantonese. I could understand the gist of what he was saying, but when he tried to explain what was wrong with my car, I couldn't get it. So I called Dad (again) and let him talk to the mechanic. Dad would know all the right questions to ask, too.
The mechanic re-tightened the bolt and put in a new pin, and charged me $30 (which I can claim back from AAM, apparently). Then he took the car for a little test drive with Blink, leaving me to tail him in his car. After that, he assured me I should have no more trouble.
I didn't dare drive above 80kph for the rest of the journey!!
So, thank God for safe journeys, and the life He gives us. I received news that an acquaintance passed away in a car accident on Saturday, while on his way home to his family from another city. He was my age. Scary. Very scary. Life is soooo fragile.