We were on my Dad’s truck halfway on the way from Iligan to the airport in Cagayan De Oro when we smelled fuel fumes. James took a look at the engine temp gauge and it was high so we pulled over and opened the hood. The engine was smoking so we suspected a cooling system problem right away.
We opened the radiator cap (which was breaking apart) and found little water in the radiator. There was water in the overflow reservoir but it was muddy. We added water from James’ water bottle into the radiator and immediately it started trickling to the ground. We checked for a leak and found a 2-inch gash on the radiator hose!
My dad asked for some rubber strips from a nearby vulcanizing shop. He also learned that there’s an auto supply shop just a bit ahead. We patched up the gash best we could. We then asked for some clean water from a kind lady at a nearby house and filled up the radiator. The water seemed to be holding so we went off to look for the auto supply shop.
After a few minutes of driving, we still didn’t see the auto supply shop so we pulled over at a roadside store and asked for direction. A guy there said there’s indeed an auto supply shop a bit further along but since it is a Sunday, it is closed. He offered to take a look at the problem.
We found out our patch worked loose and the water was trickling down again. But it looked like the guy got some auto repair experience: He removed the hose with the intent of patching it up better. He found out that the leaking portion can actually be cut off and still be long enough. So that’s what he did, reinstalled the hose, off we went to the airport, and got there just in time.
Now that’s twice lucky!