Then the day arrived when we had to start our trip. All things are ready. After picking up my friends, we started our journey at 3.30pm to Murree through motorway. Took CNG from Sukheki and moved further. I drove till Sukheki then give the drive to my cousin Farrukh (skullcandy) till Bhera. We again changed the seats at Bhera and I took over the driving onwards. At about 6pm we were in the salt range driving the steep road. I was concentrating on my driving when I suddenly felt some burning smell. I looked at the heat gauge and it was touching the H mark. I instantly parked the car alongside the road and turned off the engine. Opened the engine bay and an extreme burning smell came out of it.
Everybody was asking “ kia hua, kia hua” and was speechless seeing the condition of the engine bay, thinking ‘lagta hay kam par gaya hay, hun ki karye’.
It was too much depressing. Waited for the car for about 2 hours to cool down then filled up the radiator (which was empty) with water and started the engine. Thanks to Allah that the car has started. Before we moved further, I noticed that there was some water leakage from the engine bay. On scrutinizing it was transpired that one of the heater pipe is leaking. In this condition we can’t move further. So we called the motorway helpline (130) and asked for help.
Motorway mobile workshop arrived after about half an hour. They made a Jugaaar and closed the heater water inlet and outlet through a stopper and after checking the leakage and making the fan direct they said “lo gi hun befikar ho k lay jao, assi kam pakka kar dita ay”. This gave us some relief and we started moving further at about 10pm slowly slowly.
When we were about 15km short of Chakri, I smelled the same issue. Parked the car alongside the road and opened the engine bay. To my surprise, the engine bay is showing the same situation as it has shown previously. I was thinking ‘lo gi hunk i ho gaya ay’. The radiator was empty again and there were no signs of leakage. It was around 11pm. It was clod out there and suddenly the rain started. What to do now in the middle of the road at that time. Finally we again called the Motorway Helpline (130) and the mobile workshop reached in about 45 minutes. It was raining cats and dogs and we were inside the car.
After their ANARI mechanic checked, he stated that ‘sir gee, tohadi head gaskit ud *** jey. Oil v sar gaya ay tay engine pani bahar sutt raya ay. Hun tay gadi tow karni payay gi’. I asked ‘where to’ and he replied ‘til chakri rest are where they had workshop available 24/7.
We got the oil changed, leakage checked, toped up the water in the radiator and move further at about 1 am. After reaching chakri rest area, which was just 15 km ahead, the car heated up again. We took a stop there. Had dinner and after discussion with the local restaurant guy, topped up the water in radiator and went to the motorway workshop (as earlier told by the motorway mobile workshop). Mechanic was sleeping. We made him awake and asked him to check the car. After a slight checkup he diagnosed that head gaskit was blown up and advised to get it changed through him. On asking about the charges, he said “Paa g, 7k hon ***, 2k di gaskit (desi) and 5k his labor. It was shocking and I asked for any other remedy to take out the car from there. He gave us the contact number of ‘MADADGAR SERVICES’ for towing the car to Rawalpindi. It was 2am in the night at that time. I called at the given number and to my surprise and shock the guy demanded 5.5k for towing the car from chakri to Islamabad exit of motorway, which was just 40-45km from there.
What to do then, thinking of this I called a friend in Pindi for help and he told that he will arrange someone in the morning for towing the car from chakri to pindi. So we have to spend the night at Chakri. We went back to the rest area and loosen up there. After spending about 15 min on their chairs, we felt that there were a lot of mosquitos out there. So we decided to come back to the car for spending the rest of the night. It was raining throughout till morning.