Car trouble times four

Last night, Jodie got a phone call saying that a friend was stranded a little way outside of Arusha. It was 9 PM, but we both immediately got in the car to help out. We left another friend alone at our house and told him we'd try to be back shortly.

We grabbed some diesel for the friend in case that was the problem and set out towards Maji ya Chai (literally "tea water", which I believe is a reference to the brown river nearby). Unfortunately, Jodie and I weren't actually sure how far it was to Maji ya Chai. And the road is not well lit at that hour. Also, our friend was out of phone credit, so we kept calling him to make sure we hadn't passed him yet. We took turns trying to keep each other calm about the whole situation. Our big concern was that the gas light kept going on and off (especially when we were on a hill) and the gauge was right at E. We passed a few gas stations, but we really wanted to get to Maji ya Chai first because we weren't sure what kind of situation our friend was in.

Finally, the gas light started staying on consistently, however, the gas gauge started rising. It jumped to a quarter tank and then slowly climbed to the halfway mark. At this point, Jodie and I had no idea what was going on, so we finally just decided to stop for gas at the first station we passed (the car took petrol so we couldn't use the gas can we had picked up for the other vehicle). The gas station was slightly more expensive than some of the others that we passed, but there was an attendant to wash the windows (there's always an attendant who puts the gas in the car, which makes me feel like I'm in New Jersey or something). The window-washing actually made a huge difference, as the glare through the windshield was almost gone and it was a lot easier to see speed-bumps as we drove on. However, we started laughing when we realized that adding gas (we weren't traveling with much money, so we only put in 1.5 gallons) had actually lowered the gas gauge.

At 9:40, we found our friends and discovered that there was a ton of liquid on the road next to their Land Cruiser and vapor coming out of the radiator. We learned that there was a problem with one of the belts and that they were waiting for the engine to cool down (they had been there for an hour). We also saw that there was a completely broken down car in tow that looked like it might get turned away at most junkyards. I asked one of the passengers and she said that they had had quite an adventure. They were towing the car from Dar es Salaam (which is over 500 km away) and had initially chained it badly, so that the beat up car got a dent in the fender when it slammed into the Land Cruiser. She further explained that the car had managed to turn on a few times and even drive a few feet while they were in Dar, but that it was definitely far from being drive-able.

About ten minutes later, the engine had cooled down and we were back on the road, feeling like we had come all that way and done nothing. After about 10 km, the Land Cruiser pulled over and they explained that the vehicle didn't have any more strength to pull the car, so we had a rather complicated Chinese fire drill where we all switched cars and attached the beat-up car to the one with the funny gas gauge. They explained that the problematic belt was the one that connected to the alternator, which is why the battery wasn't charging. Then Jodie and I hopped in the tired Land Cruiser and started driving. We just hoped for the best.

It was another 20 km to get home, and we realized that we couldn't actually stop or the Land Cruiser would probably stall again. Pretty soon, the truck was barely crawling along. We were amazed how much more juice it had after switching off the hazard flashers and headlights. Of course, that also meant that it was even more difficult for people to see us and realize how slow we were driving. But at least we were moving. I was watching the front window for speedbumps and the rear window for oncoming traffic to tell Jodie when to brake and when to flicker her lights, while she was concentrating on just keeping moving.

Mercifully, the Land Cruiser didn't die until we were going downhill towards our house. We managed to roll all the way to the entrance to our driveway, but that was uphill. I had advised Jodie not to park at the nearby gas station, since I wasn't sure it was a good idea to leave the Land Cruiser there over night. Unfortunately, as I soon discovered, even with four people, we couldn't push the Land Cruiser into the driveway (it was partially blocking the street). Our friend who was still at the house had been there for two hours at this point. So much for a quick trip.

The other cars arrived shortly after us and we opened up the hood and started cooling the engine again and trying to let the heat out of the radiator. We realized that the battery was dead and the old pick-up was blocked in so we wouldn't be able to jump it. So, in the end, we took the battery out of the pick-up and put it into the Land Cruiser. Once the Land Cruiser had cooled down sufficiently (another 30 minutes or so), we drove it the last twenty feet and parked it.

Jodie was pretty tired at this point (it was after 11:30 and she had done all the driving), so I volunteered to drop the passengers who had switched to the car with the bad gas gauge back to their house and bring the car back home. It was nice to be behind the wheel at this point, although once I started going up the hill, the gas light started up again. I made it home with the tank on E. And I was just in time for my weekly IDDS meeting, which mercifully ended after only 40 minutes.

Phew. Hopefully tonight is going to be an early night.