[Qmulus]

IMO, the key to being prepared in the case of a breakdown is to maintain your vehicle and routinely inspect it to catch problems before they strand you. If you see or hear a problem, fix it BEFORE it totally fails. Check tire pressure at every fill up. I keep a nice digital tire gauge in the door pocket for this. I have caught a lot of nails or screws in tires long before the tire lost enough pressure to be noticeable when driving. The new mandated TPMS are a good idea. I try to do a comprehensive check at every oil change. Check the cooling system for evidence of leaks (especially the reservoir - look for cracks), check the serpentine belt for cracking or noticeable wear, check the CV boots for cracking, check the battery terminals for evidence of corrosion, check all fluid levels, check brake pad thickness, check suspension for play and check the engine for fault codes. One of the most important things to check is that the spare tire is fully inflated (how many people actually bother checking the spare...?). I over-inflate mine to 65 PSI (should be 60 PSI) just to make sure that it will be full if/when I need it. Having a flat spare in the car is just carrying around useless weight. I will always take a spare tire over a can of Fix a Flat. Ask the guys in the tire shop what they think of Fix a Flat and I doubt you will ever use it. Personally, I would call a flat bed before I used it. It would likely be faster and cheaper in the long run. It does sell tires though... Oh, and make sure that your wheel lug bolts/nuts are properly torqued. If you can't remove a wheel because the kid at the tire shop tightened the lugs to 400lb/ft with his impact wrench, you will be stuck on the side of the road if you have flat with the little bar you get in the tool kit. BTDT, not fun. I now ALWAYS check and re-torque lugs if someone else pulls the wheels on my car. I do all my own work now, so that really doesn't happen anymore other than during front end alignments.

Rarely do problems that will strand you happen without warning. The exceptions to this are things like fuel pumps and crank sensors and maybe alternators. Jumper cables or jump boxes are good if you leave your lights on and run the battery down, but don't help if your alternator is dead. Coolant reservoirs usually crack and start to leak long before they totally fail. Water pumps tend to get noisy or leak before they go out. Catching those is especially important on these M96 engines. CV joint boots crack and spew grease before CV joints dry out and fail.

I have had two failures that kind of stranded me in the last 20 years (more before that when I wasn't as diligent and didn't have a garage). One was a failed fuel pump, and one was a broken battery cable. I was able to fix the battery cable with a new end after a ride to an auto parts store, and the fuel pump ran enough to get me home (less than a mile luckily) after I kicked the tank a couple of times. Once I turned it off in the garage, it wouldn't start again. I was lucky... I should have caught the corroded battery connector (common problem on that era of GM cars), and I knew the fuel pump would go out at some point (150k miles, 14 years).

In my business I deal with European auto repair shops all over the area. The number one thing that kills cars is people who try to limp their cars home after losing coolant or oil pressure. If the oil pressure light comes on, turn off the ignition IMMEDIATELY. Running the engine for any period of time without oil pressure WILL destroy the engine. If you lose coolant and cannot find the problem and refill the system properly, park it and have it towed. I can't tell you how many people try to limp their cars home, especially with no coolant thinking that because the gauge shows just a little warmer than normal they are OK, only to have the engine seize or destroy heads. What most people do not know is that coolant temperature sensors only read properly when in coolant. I saw one car that got so hot that it melted the intake manifold, engine covers and wiring harness before it seized. What could have been a minor inconvenience ended up totalling the car.

I have also seen a few lately where people mix the wrong coolant ending up with filling the entire cooling system with sludge. One shop has even made a sticker for their customer's coolant reservoirs that says something to the effect of "A tow truck is far cheaper than using the wrong coolant. Use only XXXX." They just had one car (an Audi A4 2l) where the customer used "what they had at the gas station" which ended up turning the whole cooling system into a solid mass when mixed with the OE coolant. It needed a new heater core, radiator, oil cooler and a complete cooling system dis-assembly and flush. They still aren't confident that the head and block are clear.

Sorry for the long winded post...