Car trouble for Lynn – too much heat under the bonnet

The weather had turned wintry, and snow was expected in the next few days. It seems like my car got wind of it too because it started to overheat last week.

Perhaps it's reaching that age where it experiences "hot flushes," but it certainly caused me a lot of anxiety last Friday as I tried to drive home from Dublin. The first warning message popped up on the car dashboard, instructing me to top up the coolant. "Oh, oh," was my immediate response, "I just refreshed that last week; there must be a problem." I have a habit of talking to myself when I’m in in trouble and on my own; it helps me think through the issues.

The next message warned of the car overheating, displayed in urgent but not critical (yet) orange writing. Fortunately, a filling station was approaching on the left, so I pulled in. I topped up the car's water reservoir with a hose outside, bought two large bottles of water in the shop, and kept the extra water bottles just in case the light came on again. Continuing my journey, as I approached the motorway, nervous thoughts surfaced. I told myself that if the car overheats again, I'll have to pull off the motorway and refill with water. What if it happens again? I’ll only have empty bottles and no way of refilling them. I thought of the responsible boy scout and decided I needed to “be prepared”.

I turned off and drove to Leixlip to get more water. The light came on again, and with no place to pull in, I drove into a business yard. I filled the two bottles into the reservoir and became very anxious. Leaving the bonnet up, I decided to call my mechanic for advice. Stephen, being knowledgeable about cars, advised me to keep it topped up and bring it to him when I get home. He'd attempt to find the leak. His tip was to fill it above the max since I was obviously losing water, making sure it overflowed, and it was important to make sure that the warning light didn’t turn red!

After talking to the mechanic, I thought of the song "Spirit in the Sky" by Doctor and the Mechanics. Figuring it couldn't hurt, I said a prayer – something we all tend to do when in trouble. "Please God, get me home; let the car make it home." I got back into the car, saw a Lidl shop, and pulled in. I needed lots of water, so I filled a trolley with trays of the stuff, I had over 50 litres of Irish spring water. At the till I saw the Euro Millions Jackpot was €80million so I decided my luck had to change and I invested in three entries.

I threw the bottles of water on the front seat, ready to head to Loughglynn and then the Dome for the Leitrim Galway match at 7 p.m.. This was going to be an interesting journey.

As I was about to leave the Lidl carpark a voice in my head said to add water, so I popped the lid and started pouring. It took two litres and still wasn't satisfied. Oh God no. Fearfully, I opened a second bottle, with a shaking hand I started to pour again, it took about another half a litre. Not too bad. “Please, God, let me get home”.

Down the motorway, all seemed well. The heater was on, blowing out very hot air. I wasn't going too fast (the slowest I ever drove on the motorway) but still overtaking trucks, trying to stay around 100 without going faster. I safely reached the toll plaza and decided to pull in again where the road was wide to fill up. It only took about a litre and a half of water, and it was overflowing. Maybe I was in luck. “Thank you God”.

I was in Athlone and no danger signals, Knockcroghery and all was fine. When I arrived in Roscommon, I stopped to buy coolant, not wanting the car filled with water if a freeze was coming. Continuing home, I arrived safe and sound without breaking down. I popped the bonnet, let the car cool down, waited five minutes, and opened the reservoir. I poured in two and a half litres of coolant, to the point of overflowing. I was feeling a wee bit more confident – obviously, the Spirit in the sky had helped.

That was only the start of things, I drove to the Dome and home, dropped my car to the mechanic Friday night so he could look at it Saturday morning.

He did and rang me to tell me there was a leak, a pipe seems to be cracked, “it’s in an awkward spot so we’ll have to take lots out to get to it, the hose has to be ordered, I have two other cars of your make with similar problem and the hoses are slow coming.” These hybrid cars it seems are producing too much heat under the bonnet and making the pipes very brittle. We’ll have to grin and bear it, at least I have loads of water so I’ll be topping up regularly. As for the Euro Millions I won absolutely nothing!