We used to have a second-hand car and we were happy because it was our very first family car. I believe it was a Mazda Familia 323 2007 model. My husband was confident he could fix its issues because he used to be an auto mechanic. But there are just some things that even an mechanic couldn't fix by himself. There were plenty of times we needed to bring our car to a repair shop.
Common Car Problems
So let me share with you some of the things we experienced with our second-hand car that needed attention :
- Water on Passenger side. Water was coming out of the car air con vents causing flood in the passenger seat floor. I really panicked when this happened because my shoes were getting wet! Of course, if there’s flooding inside the car, that’s not normal anymore so we needed to bring it to a car shop immediately. The flood should stay outside as far as I know.
Cause: Clogged car air-conditioning drain.
The guys from the car shop just unclogged the drain and it’s fixed. You can also check this article from Kia Motors about possible reasons for wet floor mats.
- Oil leak. This is probably very common problem to every car and indeed we experienced it. My husband says it’s possible to fix it at home, but it’s better to bring it to a car repair shop with automotive lifts to make the job faster and easier. After watching too much videos about car lifts gone wrong, I got too scared of them so I really hope all repair shops have reliable lifts like Best Buy Automotive auto lift or the ones form Bendpak although most of the accidents are man-made.
Cause: Degraded engine gasket
The guys from the car shop simply replaced the engine gasket and it’s good to go. You may also check this article from Goodyear about possible causes of engine overheating for your reference.
- Radiator Leak. We have experienced this once on the road and it’s not pretty; smoke coming out of the hood and you need to find water if you don’t have water with you. Radiator leaks (aside from broken fan belt) often causes sudden overheat to the engine. So when this happened, we had no choice but to go to the repair shop again.
Cause: Old (corroded) radiator.
The only way to fix it is to replace the old to a new one. It’s a bit expensive, but we really had no other choice if we want to keep the car running smoothly.
So these are some of the car problems we have experienced when we still had our vehicle. We currently don’t own a vehicle right now because we realized we don’t need one because the whole family is currently staying at home due to the pandemic. If you plan on buying a second-hand car, just one advice: never buy a vehicle that's 10 years older. It has an underlying reason why they're cheap.
Thanks for reading, guys. If you have any comments, please leave them below.
