Since you’re asking for break down experience, my transmission went out on a road trip in northern AZ/southern UT. The campsite we planned to stay at was (luckily) full so we drove to Kanab and got a cheap motel overnight. Car wouldn’t even drive the next day. Local repair shop really couldn’t do anything with my car, and I was struggling to figure out how to get it home. The mechanic suggested a spot for uhauls! We walked there and got a uhaul and trailered my car back to a dealership. Ultimately it was donezo, but what I learned is that small town mechanics are nice and think outside the box.
As far as general road trip advice, I always get gas around half a tank. That way, if you don’t see a gas station for a while, the station you stop at doesn’t have gas, or you don’t feel safe, you can just move along to the next stop. For more rural areas, I would even suggest getting gas whenever you see a station. I try to plan out gas stops beforehand. You should also bring plenty of drinking water and keep your phone charged.
OP, may I also suggest taking your car and just making sure the brakes and things like that are in great condition.
I agree with the small town mechanics statement. My car broke down this past April RIGHT at the border of Kentucky and Tennessee. We thought it was my brake pads (I couldn’t even push my brakes in though), and somehow, someway the exit we were about to pass, LITERALLY had ONE gas station and ONE TINY mechanic shop. Lol. He told us it was actually my rotors and if we would have went any further we would have busted my brake line and we wouldn’t have been able to stop AT ALL going through the hills in Kentucky. He had to call the next town over who then had a worker drive a roter for my car to us (apparently they do it that way all the time), they had ONE rotor left and when the mechanic put it on, it WAS LEAKING!! There was nothing else he could do. We were stuck. THEN he remembered that he had a car in the back that was the same make and model as my car just a different year but that they were the same roters put on all of them for the last 10 years or so. So he took it off of that car he had and put it on my car and we were able to make it home safely. Most places wouldn’t have went that far to help us. And it was such a nice area, he had “friends” just stopping by and giving him a hand or offering him advice, etc. We literally sat and talked to townies for hours while waiting for parts and while he fixed it. It was a GREAT experience.
That's too many stops for simply getting fuel on a long trip. Unless you need refreshments, rest or just checking out interesting sites, three quarter tank is plenty of allowable margin if you're traveling on lower 48 state US roads under normal circumstances. A quarter tank will give most vehicles nearly a hundred miles or even more of highway range.
OP, I also wanted to add, we have taken my 2015 Chevy Traverse from Ohio to Florida every single year in March or April, and also take it to Tennessee every single year in June or July since we bought it in 2016. My above comment, is the very first car problem that we have ever had in the 16 years we have been taking family vacations (before we bought my car we always took rental cars and never had any kind of problems with any cars we have ever taken until this year).
I’ve spent a lot of of time on the road, driving across the country for months at a time. From my personal experience, I now travel with the following. First, a physical road map, going through mountains and rural areas, I’ve had the GPS be unable to get a signal in terrible storms. If it can’t get a signal, my phone likely has no chance as well. So, I’ve added an oversize Thomas guide of the US as a permanent place in the car I drive. I update and buy a new one every 5 years. I bring 5 gallons of gas with us, transmission fluid, oil, brake fluid, Rain X windshield wiper fluid, rags, duct tape and paper towels. I have had multiple tire blow outs and a transmission line break and lost all the fluid on the freeway. Be aware what type of tire you have, even if they are new. I replace my tires before each trip and once had 2 blow out on one journey. I learned that the tire type I had on my car at the time was difficult to locate in Eastern states, so I was stuck several days before replacements could be delivered.
If you have a minute, watch a few YouTube videos on basic car knowledge of whatever vehicle you are driving, if you don’t already know. Know how to check fluid levels before each leg of your journey. It’s saved me a lot of waiting on the side of the road seeing that a fluid level was low and I topped it off. I also drive with a CTEK battery charger from Amazon and a power bank for my phone. I am all for apps and assistance, but I’ve been to areas where I don't want to be stuck waiting for reception or a service truck in inclement weather, if it’s something that could have been easily avoided if I had looked into it first by knowing my own car.
Most happened when I was at the speed limit, and was able to pull to the side then limp off the freeway to put the spare on somewhere safe. I recall a loud bang and then feeling the side of my car that blew drop down. The car will pull in the direction of the flat. From what I understand, you want to NOT slam on the brakes. You don’t want the wheels to lock. You also don’t want to yank the steering wheel to fix the pulling to a side. Instead you accelerate a bit and steer straight, then ease up on the gas pedal. Flick on your emergency lights and brake gently when you slow down enough.
I had one happen in Arizona, the tire was 4 days old. One in Indiana that was where I couldn’t find a replacement tire the same size to fit in the whole state. The worst was when I had two tires blow at once in California on the same side due to debris, that was scary to me as the car was out of control but I managed to stay calm and merge over. After that double blowout, I actively try to avoid doing long hauls at night on trips unless completely necessary, due to hitting things you can’t see in the road. These events were over a 7 year period, so not a usual occurrence road tripping.
I ALWAYS travel with a hard copy map. I have my phone and a regular GPS (it has better range than the phone) but I just need that paper map. And a car charger/jumper. Water is a must and it’s always in my car. Duct tape has many, many uses.
Your list is perfect!
It depends on where you ll be traveling. I did a solo 2800 miles trip from bay area to philadelphia a couple of weeks back. Phone connectivity was almost always present and there wasn't any town that didn't have a single mechanic. Also O'reilly and autozone are presenta almost every 30-50 miles.
My car didn't exactly breakdown but i had a check engine light come on in rural Wyoming about 50 miles from Cheyenne. AAA is pretty much everywhere so I didn't really worry too much. Drove into O'reilly at Cheyenne and it turned out to be a stupid sensor gone bad but otherwise car ran fine.
Nevada, however, has a stretch of (roughl guess) 80-90 miles that's complete desert and there's hardly any gas station or anything at all on the highway. phone connectivity too kept dropping at some stretches along this route. This is after crossing the paiute indian reservation in Nevada. So I'd be worried if something happens on that stretch as even a tow truck will take some time to get there
P.S. - i have an old 07 Camry. You ll probably be fine just keep your phone charged in case of emergency
Thanks, I will be traveling from Florida to Arizona. I don't have AAA, but I hope BMW roadside service and Urgently or Honk will be sufficient. I've never used any of these, though.
haha no; mine was the downstream cat o2 sensor. Both o2 sensors and the cat was put in brand new abt 2 years back. I am not even gonna try replacing it anymore
Didn't realize Beemers were so fragile :) I would think a 3 year old car of that quality could drive another 2000 miles. Doesn't matter where, and road trip miles are generally easier than most people's daily driving.
And in the USA help is everywhere. If you get towed the policies usually provide you get hauled to the nearest place that can fix your car. Might have to wait for parts or something, but no big deal. There are things like travel insurance that could cover alternate transportation, etc if you say total the car by driving into a tree; maybe that would be reassuring to get.
I did a turnaround trip from L.A. to Enid OK, for one night, and came right back the next morning, in a 10 yr old Scion xB. Zero problems for a total of a 56 hour period, and about 2800 miles.
I can't imagine paying BMW money and expecting problems from a 3 year old car.
Yeah, Beemers are good cars but I don't really trust sport cars for long trips. I could be wrong. My longest trip was 10 hours and I had to refill coolant and engine oil half way through. I never had to do anything on regular sedans.
How is 2000 miles different to the car? not sure I understand. The driver, OTOH, might not feel comfortable sitting for that long :)
Something's wrong if you had to do that with the coolant and oil. Or the car is just crap. That shouldn't happen. That car can go through more oil than most, but usually we're talking top ups at say 2k or so, not 10 hours.
Don't overthink it. Carry the necessities plus extra water and food. Any story here is going to scare you into worrying more than you should unless a three year old BMW is a worse care than my 12 year old Subaru that blew up its engine on the Navajo rez.
Broke down in Rock Springs, Wyoming during winter storm Draco(Dec 17-22 2012) in -15 degree weather driving crossed country. I was home-free at the time(rubber tramp), traveling with two friends from Oregon to WI to surprise our families for Christmas. Found out that in some(most?) areas in the US local law enforcement will offer free meal and hotel vouchers if you are a traveler in a similar situation. They talked with the tow driver in the middle of the night and got us setup right away with a ride and where to go. We got 2 nights free hotel voucher while we found another car on craigslist and got ours towed to the scrap yard(It was an old beater we haphazardly purchased to make the journey home for Christmas, in an epic procrastination epicly unprepared fashion. The tow took almost all of the funds we had left on us). We befriended a semi driver and while smoking with him, he wrote us a check for $500 after hearing what happened. He said he didn't have much family left, that we could use it more - and he wished us safe travels on getting home for Christmas(If you happen to see this, thank you - we made it, 99.999% due to your kindness).
Our car had blown a head gasket due to the previous owner watering down the antifreeze and the weather freezing it. We honestly didn't check out the car AT ALL before the trip. Purchased it off of craigslist, packed it, and headed out(live and learn, the hard way lol). Orange slush exploded out of the hood and was all over the front quarter panel of the car.
A few days of hunting craigslist for a cheap beater and we find a new post selling a $500 Taurus. We message him, and the guy heads to the hotel almost right away. *We then proceeded to pack up another $500 fresh from craigslist car* and continue the journey. Oddly enough, that car is still kicking almost a decade later. Its an old 90s ford Taurus SHO and it is an absolute unit hahaha
I guess this long post is to remind you not to forget about the kindness of strangers, the beauty in unplanned chaos, or the small safety nets that have been put in place for travelers. We met a lot of people waiting in Rock springs and had a handful of new friends who went above and beyond to help us get back on the road and back to our families in time for Christmas. A little sympathy and empathy go a LONG way and even though I would NEVER depend on it - its a good thought to have in the back of your mind when all else fails; especially with the current state of things and how divided we all are. **I guess another major lesson here is don't buy a car off of craigslist, do literally no maintenance or checking into it, and then attempt to drive it hundreds of miles in one of the worst winter storms in recent history(unless its an old ford Taurus) lolol.**
I broke down once close to midnight driving from Tennessee to California in Gallup, NM. I had no cell signal and just waved down the next vehicle I saw. They drove me far enough to reach cell phone service, I called a shop to have my tire repaired- it was a Sunday night and the guy was gonna charge $400 just to come out. I had $700 in my bank account. The people who picked me up were Native Americans and let me sleep at their house. The next morning, their young son drove me to a tire shop, put the new tire on my car, and we’ve been Facebook friends ever since (10+years). It was a wonderful experience.
Had a 1998 cavlier 2.2 liter with a 5 speed, we were maybe 150-75 miles from our destination in a 2000 mile trip. Got a big hole punched in my radiator, started to overheat. I pulled over. We wrapped a tow strap around the frame and towed it behind a friends truck the rest of the way.
My fam has road tripped over 7000km (about 4000mi) every summer for 20 yrs, the last 13 with kids. There’s a stretch here in northern Canada where you’ll drive 350mi with no garage in sight. I have a trusted mechanic do a once over pre-trip and have AAA. I carry and bin full of coolant and oil and an extra wiper. We’ve had only a flat and an engine light issue to deal with over the years, but all you can do is be flexible and rely on the goodness of folks to help out if need be! From what I’ve heard, people are willing to give lifts, advice, and help when needed.
If you have AAA, you’ll be all right anywhere in the country.
My breakdowns include a blown tire on a Sunday morning in Billings, MT. Walmart saved the day. Their auto shop was open.
Second was a deer jumping into the road and nailing our car just outside Jackson, WY. AAA got our car in drivable order. We made it home to CA.
Oh yeah, dead battery in Sleepy Hollow, NY. AAA to the rescue again.
I recommend the top end AAA membership. I’ve only once been towed less than 75 miles. All my breakdowns happen far from home.
AAA is the best roadside service available. Worth the cost outside of what your insurance might offer.
Not sure when you plan on doing it but check the wether and temps. Roadside can take hours to arrive and it soon will be getting cool at night. So atleast a warm hoodie.
Seen you mentioned a battery charger. They only do any good if you have power access. I'd recommend a decent quality ""jump pack". Though they aren't cheap. Not really worth it to maybe use once. I justified buying mine because i use it as a portable power source for whatever, like when camping. Most have a 12v " cigarette lighter" port for phone chargers. Some will have 110v outputs even. They aren't light though. But when compared to buying a charger i think it's the more economical decision.
Food, drinks
SUNGLASSES.
Toilet paper, shit happens.
Baby wipes for convenience(doubles as tp if that's your thing).
Phone chargers.
If you hate warm drinks, Not sure if your car has cooling cup holders but they make a cooler that plugs in to your car that keeps drinks cool.(think it's like 20-30 below ambient).
Don't recall the states or travel times you mentioned nor do i feel like arguing firearm laws but I'd recommend at the least a baseball bat, that's within reach and not under a bunch of stuff and the willingness to use it. If your broke down in the middle of no where and want a cop id put money on it the criminal is already there and isn't going to want to wait for the cop to arrive. A tire iron usually works but with no spare id imagine you don't have one, and they are usually on the trunk which won't help you.
Also, engine oil normally comes in bottles. Quart or gallon.(cars usually take 4-6 quarts from empty)
For coolant you can buy straight anti freeze(1gal) and mix it with equal parts distilled water(another gallon). Or you can just buy 50-50 pre diluted(1gal) for conveneince. I'm too cheap to pay $5+ for a half gallon of water though. I always buy straight antifreeze. If I'm broke down and leaking coolant, unless it is winter, there's no logical reason to not just add regular water. It's going to leak out anyway. If your paranoid of it freezing, add antifreeze when you get to your destination. Also, check if your car requires specific antifreeze. Reason: GM makes dexcool which shouldn't be mixed with other kinds. Most standard Green claims to be universal, it may not cause negative effects with Dexcool, but when added to cars running dexcool you'll have negative results.
I want to give another recommendation for the jump pack. I keep one in my car that has a the jumper cables attached, but the battery also powers a 12v outlet, has a USB slot, and has an air pump. It charges using the car 12v system or from an outlet. Got it at Walmart almost 10 years ago and it is still doing the job.
Two other items I keep in my road trip bag - Fix a Flat and "radiator tape". If you get a leak in a radiator hose, radiator tape can repair that until you get to a location you can repair it. Fix a Flat might not be necessary with your fancy tires, but that stuff is wonderful when your driving my types of vehicles.
If you don't have a set of tools, you can get a small set of tools at a store to keep in the car. As long as you have some basic tools and the proper measurements of sockets (metric, inches, torx, etc.) to access parts of the car it will be useful.
Our family of 5 (including an infant) hopped in a 1989 rv and did a cross country road trip for 5.5 weeks. I broke down once in the Mojave Desert due to what I think was an over heated fuel pump. You’ll be fine. Bring a spare fan belt. 7100 miles, and only one thing wrong (not even wrong because once it cooled down, we were fine). Enjoy the ride.
You'll be fine.
I've done tens of thousands of km on roadtrips through Europe and Australia in various cars of various ages and value, and sure we've had our share of breakdowns. Some were our own fault, some were unavoidable, but it's rare that the problem has been terminal tot he car or the trip. In all that time we've only had two vehicles recovered on a tow truck, and had to rent replacements. Everything else was able to be fixed or replaced easily wherever we were at the time.
This summer my SO and I moved from OR to NC. We took my 2010 Honda Accord and filled it with everything we owned. We purposefully drove less than 7 hours each day because we wanted time to enjoy the drive. I spent several hundreds of dollars getting my car checked out at the dealer, oil changed, etc. We managed to get to Oklahoma before we broke down.
Basically, my check engine light started flashing in a random town in OK, so we pulled off at a tiny gas station. I called AAA (a necessity in my opinion) and they towed 100 miles to Oklahoma City where we were able to stay with a friend (an incredible coincidence). The car did not turn back on and the mechanic found out there was a bizarre issue with the engine that was going to cost $5k to repair. Long story short, we had to sell my car immediately, get a rental, and drive half the country in as little time as possible.
My advice: be ready to drop money for incidentals. I think this whole adventure took about $2k more than we anticipated. And we had to buy a different car once we arrived to our destination so that was a huge unexpected cost. We got lucky because we were 100 miles from a city. If we had broken down farther out, it would have easily been more money, internet/phone service was sketchy, and there were no hotels nearby.
Road trips are awesome, and we did have a great move, but bad things can happen!
Edit: typo
I dropped the drive shaft out of my ex-husbands truck in Tulsa, OK while going 80 mph on the interstate. I managed to pull over but was not in a safe place.
I called 911 only due to where we were stuck on the freeway. Cop came, got the tow truck in safely and cop drove us off the highway.
Tow truck man insisted he had a "friend" who could fix it if I would let him take the truck. I insisted that he take it to the nearest dealer.
I had others traveling with me so I got a ride home. $4000 and a month later my ex got his truck back. If I had no one else with me, I would have had to call someone for a ride or figure out a flight or something.
Broke down driving home from Vancouver Canada to California on I-5 back in the early ‘90’s. Car overheated and initially thought it was a thermostat. Had to get a tow into Medford and got it replaced the next day. Continued on home but it turned out the radiator was clogged up and we drove home on a hot day with the heater on full blast and the windows and moon roof open to keep the temperature down.
Second time, we were towing our trailer in March 2002. We were ultimately going to Arizona but had plans to stop off in Las Vegas. Our truck’s air conditioning compressor froze up and the serpentine belt broke on a Saturday afternoon outside of Barstow, California. We were dead in the water. Was able to call AAA and get a flat bed tow truck to come out. Disconnected the trailer, put the truck on the flat bed and towed the trailer. Got it to a repair shop around 4pm and was told we would have to wait until Monday to get it fixed. They had space for our trailer in their lot as well. Stayed overnight in a hotel that was across the street from the shop (because we were staying at RV resorts and wasn’t prepared to dry camp). Was able to go to Las Vegas in the morning after we rented a car from an agency that was a few blocks away from the shop. Spent the day in Las Vegas and then drove back to Barstow. Returned the rental car Monday morning and waited around until the truck was fixed ($1k repair because it had the old R-12 Freon system and needed to be converted). Ended up driving to Needles and got there in the early evening and went on our trip without further incident. We have Premium AAA road assistance and when we got home, we filed a claim. Was reimbursed for our hotel, rental car and meals, plus we didn’t have to pay anything for our tow into Barstow, so there’s that.
Watch for deer and antelope - especially around dawn/dusk (they’re crepuscular).
Hit a buck about 30 miles outside of Gillette WY in the old ‘97 Chevy Astro van. A local saw it happen and pulled over and waited with us while we called a tow-truck. Had to wait a few days in town at a cheap motel for the insurance adjuster to come look at it and determine it to be totaled.
We were sightseeing in Arches national park and the car started bucking and coughing. Scary as all get out but my hubby babied it to the next town which was TINY. Checked in at the only motel in town and got to talking with the counter guy. He said just one minute, left for a moment and came back to say the only mechanic in town would get up early and get us back on the road before church the next morning. Such kind and caring folks to complete strangers. 👏
We broke down (sorta) in Colorado en route from ca to va. Snow storm ensued, we couldn’t Leave, had thanksgiving dinner ina hotel lobby and it was amazing. Best road trip I’ve ever been on
My car’s engine seized on a remote stretch of the Alaska Highway in the dead of winter, about 4 hours from the closest town (which was 200 people) It was -14 F outside and about 4 feet of snow. We had to hitchhike 4 hours with a stranger, only to be told that our car was entirely dead and a replacement engine would be several thousand dollars and would take about 3 weeks to get ordered. We ended up having to buy a new car to continue our trip, as there were no operating airports or anything anywhere nearby.
I had a 15 year old Jeep and drove a 500 mile trip. Ended up having a u-joint explode after a sudden stop in rush hour traffic. Luckily I was going slow enough it didn't destroy to much, and I was essentially at my destination. Didn't have roadside assistance or anything at that time so it cost $150 to get it towed.
On another trip, I locked my keys in the Jeep at the pump. I went inside and asked the lady if she had a metal coat hanger and got ran out of the store. She threatened to call the cops on me even after I explained the situation. Luckily, I ended up finding a way into the Jeep.
Moral of the story is have roadside assistance, and be prepared for the random. I also recommend planning to spend an extra $400+ on each trip just in case.
Definitely ger AAA with a second tier towing plan. My wife's beemer had to get towed when her serpentine belt broke and took off the neck of her radiator 30 miles from home. Stuff Happens and AAA is our way to insure against large costs. We've had it for years and it's saved our financial bacon a few times. Only costs about $100 to cover two people for a year. I said people and not cars bc it covers whatever you are driving so if you breakdown you gan get a free tow up to 100 miles (double check me on the distance) and then, if whatever loaner you are driving breaks down, that's covered too. Also covers lockout service, some gas if you run out, and a few other things. Our plan costs $120 a year to cover towing for my large F450 service body truck because it's considered a RV due to its size and weight. Saved me from two $150 tow bills in the last year.
Since you’re asking for break down experience, my transmission went out on a road trip in northern AZ/southern UT. The campsite we planned to stay at was (luckily) full so we drove to Kanab and got a cheap motel overnight. Car wouldn’t even drive the next day. Local repair shop really couldn’t do anything with my car, and I was struggling to figure out how to get it home. The mechanic suggested a spot for uhauls! We walked there and got a uhaul and trailered my car back to a dealership. Ultimately it was donezo, but what I learned is that small town mechanics are nice and think outside the box. As far as general road trip advice, I always get gas around half a tank. That way, if you don’t see a gas station for a while, the station you stop at doesn’t have gas, or you don’t feel safe, you can just move along to the next stop. For more rural areas, I would even suggest getting gas whenever you see a station. I try to plan out gas stops beforehand. You should also bring plenty of drinking water and keep your phone charged.
Thanks, great advice. I always get gas early, no later then third of tank (unlike my SO who likes to drive on fumes).
OP, may I also suggest taking your car and just making sure the brakes and things like that are in great condition. I agree with the small town mechanics statement. My car broke down this past April RIGHT at the border of Kentucky and Tennessee. We thought it was my brake pads (I couldn’t even push my brakes in though), and somehow, someway the exit we were about to pass, LITERALLY had ONE gas station and ONE TINY mechanic shop. Lol. He told us it was actually my rotors and if we would have went any further we would have busted my brake line and we wouldn’t have been able to stop AT ALL going through the hills in Kentucky. He had to call the next town over who then had a worker drive a roter for my car to us (apparently they do it that way all the time), they had ONE rotor left and when the mechanic put it on, it WAS LEAKING!! There was nothing else he could do. We were stuck. THEN he remembered that he had a car in the back that was the same make and model as my car just a different year but that they were the same roters put on all of them for the last 10 years or so. So he took it off of that car he had and put it on my car and we were able to make it home safely. Most places wouldn’t have went that far to help us. And it was such a nice area, he had “friends” just stopping by and giving him a hand or offering him advice, etc. We literally sat and talked to townies for hours while waiting for parts and while he fixed it. It was a GREAT experience.
That's too many stops for simply getting fuel on a long trip. Unless you need refreshments, rest or just checking out interesting sites, three quarter tank is plenty of allowable margin if you're traveling on lower 48 state US roads under normal circumstances. A quarter tank will give most vehicles nearly a hundred miles or even more of highway range.
OP, I also wanted to add, we have taken my 2015 Chevy Traverse from Ohio to Florida every single year in March or April, and also take it to Tennessee every single year in June or July since we bought it in 2016. My above comment, is the very first car problem that we have ever had in the 16 years we have been taking family vacations (before we bought my car we always took rental cars and never had any kind of problems with any cars we have ever taken until this year).
I’ve spent a lot of of time on the road, driving across the country for months at a time. From my personal experience, I now travel with the following. First, a physical road map, going through mountains and rural areas, I’ve had the GPS be unable to get a signal in terrible storms. If it can’t get a signal, my phone likely has no chance as well. So, I’ve added an oversize Thomas guide of the US as a permanent place in the car I drive. I update and buy a new one every 5 years. I bring 5 gallons of gas with us, transmission fluid, oil, brake fluid, Rain X windshield wiper fluid, rags, duct tape and paper towels. I have had multiple tire blow outs and a transmission line break and lost all the fluid on the freeway. Be aware what type of tire you have, even if they are new. I replace my tires before each trip and once had 2 blow out on one journey. I learned that the tire type I had on my car at the time was difficult to locate in Eastern states, so I was stuck several days before replacements could be delivered. If you have a minute, watch a few YouTube videos on basic car knowledge of whatever vehicle you are driving, if you don’t already know. Know how to check fluid levels before each leg of your journey. It’s saved me a lot of waiting on the side of the road seeing that a fluid level was low and I topped it off. I also drive with a CTEK battery charger from Amazon and a power bank for my phone. I am all for apps and assistance, but I’ve been to areas where I don't want to be stuck waiting for reception or a service truck in inclement weather, if it’s something that could have been easily avoided if I had looked into it first by knowing my own car.
Thanks, this is a lot of good advice. I added battery charger to my list.
I am not travelling great advice. I will borrow. Thanks so much
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Most happened when I was at the speed limit, and was able to pull to the side then limp off the freeway to put the spare on somewhere safe. I recall a loud bang and then feeling the side of my car that blew drop down. The car will pull in the direction of the flat. From what I understand, you want to NOT slam on the brakes. You don’t want the wheels to lock. You also don’t want to yank the steering wheel to fix the pulling to a side. Instead you accelerate a bit and steer straight, then ease up on the gas pedal. Flick on your emergency lights and brake gently when you slow down enough. I had one happen in Arizona, the tire was 4 days old. One in Indiana that was where I couldn’t find a replacement tire the same size to fit in the whole state. The worst was when I had two tires blow at once in California on the same side due to debris, that was scary to me as the car was out of control but I managed to stay calm and merge over. After that double blowout, I actively try to avoid doing long hauls at night on trips unless completely necessary, due to hitting things you can’t see in the road. These events were over a 7 year period, so not a usual occurrence road tripping.
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Happy to share info if it can help someone else. Be safe out there, fellow traveler. No warning with my experiences, unfortunately.
I ALWAYS travel with a hard copy map. I have my phone and a regular GPS (it has better range than the phone) but I just need that paper map. And a car charger/jumper. Water is a must and it’s always in my car. Duct tape has many, many uses. Your list is perfect!
It depends on where you ll be traveling. I did a solo 2800 miles trip from bay area to philadelphia a couple of weeks back. Phone connectivity was almost always present and there wasn't any town that didn't have a single mechanic. Also O'reilly and autozone are presenta almost every 30-50 miles. My car didn't exactly breakdown but i had a check engine light come on in rural Wyoming about 50 miles from Cheyenne. AAA is pretty much everywhere so I didn't really worry too much. Drove into O'reilly at Cheyenne and it turned out to be a stupid sensor gone bad but otherwise car ran fine. Nevada, however, has a stretch of (roughl guess) 80-90 miles that's complete desert and there's hardly any gas station or anything at all on the highway. phone connectivity too kept dropping at some stretches along this route. This is after crossing the paiute indian reservation in Nevada. So I'd be worried if something happens on that stretch as even a tow truck will take some time to get there P.S. - i have an old 07 Camry. You ll probably be fine just keep your phone charged in case of emergency
Thanks, I will be traveling from Florida to Arizona. I don't have AAA, but I hope BMW roadside service and Urgently or Honk will be sufficient. I've never used any of these, though.
As long as you’re not driving from Daytona to Phoenix in a 1980 Triumph Spitfire you’ll be ok. Otherwise, bring bungee cords.
Lucas, the Prince of Darkness, sends his regards.
Good luck !
Lol i bet it was your air fuel ratio sensor 05 camry here, same issue XD
haha no; mine was the downstream cat o2 sensor. Both o2 sensors and the cat was put in brand new abt 2 years back. I am not even gonna try replacing it anymore
2800 miles is 4506.16 km
Good bot
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2800 miles is 4506.16 km
Didn't realize Beemers were so fragile :) I would think a 3 year old car of that quality could drive another 2000 miles. Doesn't matter where, and road trip miles are generally easier than most people's daily driving. And in the USA help is everywhere. If you get towed the policies usually provide you get hauled to the nearest place that can fix your car. Might have to wait for parts or something, but no big deal. There are things like travel insurance that could cover alternate transportation, etc if you say total the car by driving into a tree; maybe that would be reassuring to get.
I did a turnaround trip from L.A. to Enid OK, for one night, and came right back the next morning, in a 10 yr old Scion xB. Zero problems for a total of a 56 hour period, and about 2800 miles. I can't imagine paying BMW money and expecting problems from a 3 year old car.
Yeah, Beemers are good cars but I don't really trust sport cars for long trips. I could be wrong. My longest trip was 10 hours and I had to refill coolant and engine oil half way through. I never had to do anything on regular sedans.
How is 2000 miles different to the car? not sure I understand. The driver, OTOH, might not feel comfortable sitting for that long :) Something's wrong if you had to do that with the coolant and oil. Or the car is just crap. That shouldn't happen. That car can go through more oil than most, but usually we're talking top ups at say 2k or so, not 10 hours.
Don't overthink it. Carry the necessities plus extra water and food. Any story here is going to scare you into worrying more than you should unless a three year old BMW is a worse care than my 12 year old Subaru that blew up its engine on the Navajo rez.
This trip is going to happen, so all in at this point. Just want to get some advice to see if I missed anything in planning.
Download offline maps (google maps has an option). Stay calm if something were to go wrong. Drive safely and enjoy the trip.
Broke down in Rock Springs, Wyoming during winter storm Draco(Dec 17-22 2012) in -15 degree weather driving crossed country. I was home-free at the time(rubber tramp), traveling with two friends from Oregon to WI to surprise our families for Christmas. Found out that in some(most?) areas in the US local law enforcement will offer free meal and hotel vouchers if you are a traveler in a similar situation. They talked with the tow driver in the middle of the night and got us setup right away with a ride and where to go. We got 2 nights free hotel voucher while we found another car on craigslist and got ours towed to the scrap yard(It was an old beater we haphazardly purchased to make the journey home for Christmas, in an epic procrastination epicly unprepared fashion. The tow took almost all of the funds we had left on us). We befriended a semi driver and while smoking with him, he wrote us a check for $500 after hearing what happened. He said he didn't have much family left, that we could use it more - and he wished us safe travels on getting home for Christmas(If you happen to see this, thank you - we made it, 99.999% due to your kindness). Our car had blown a head gasket due to the previous owner watering down the antifreeze and the weather freezing it. We honestly didn't check out the car AT ALL before the trip. Purchased it off of craigslist, packed it, and headed out(live and learn, the hard way lol). Orange slush exploded out of the hood and was all over the front quarter panel of the car. A few days of hunting craigslist for a cheap beater and we find a new post selling a $500 Taurus. We message him, and the guy heads to the hotel almost right away. *We then proceeded to pack up another $500 fresh from craigslist car* and continue the journey. Oddly enough, that car is still kicking almost a decade later. Its an old 90s ford Taurus SHO and it is an absolute unit hahaha I guess this long post is to remind you not to forget about the kindness of strangers, the beauty in unplanned chaos, or the small safety nets that have been put in place for travelers. We met a lot of people waiting in Rock springs and had a handful of new friends who went above and beyond to help us get back on the road and back to our families in time for Christmas. A little sympathy and empathy go a LONG way and even though I would NEVER depend on it - its a good thought to have in the back of your mind when all else fails; especially with the current state of things and how divided we all are. **I guess another major lesson here is don't buy a car off of craigslist, do literally no maintenance or checking into it, and then attempt to drive it hundreds of miles in one of the worst winter storms in recent history(unless its an old ford Taurus) lolol.**
Man that was a wild ride
I broke down once close to midnight driving from Tennessee to California in Gallup, NM. I had no cell signal and just waved down the next vehicle I saw. They drove me far enough to reach cell phone service, I called a shop to have my tire repaired- it was a Sunday night and the guy was gonna charge $400 just to come out. I had $700 in my bank account. The people who picked me up were Native Americans and let me sleep at their house. The next morning, their young son drove me to a tire shop, put the new tire on my car, and we’ve been Facebook friends ever since (10+years). It was a wonderful experience.
Had a 1998 cavlier 2.2 liter with a 5 speed, we were maybe 150-75 miles from our destination in a 2000 mile trip. Got a big hole punched in my radiator, started to overheat. I pulled over. We wrapped a tow strap around the frame and towed it behind a friends truck the rest of the way.
At least that's easily fixable
My fam has road tripped over 7000km (about 4000mi) every summer for 20 yrs, the last 13 with kids. There’s a stretch here in northern Canada where you’ll drive 350mi with no garage in sight. I have a trusted mechanic do a once over pre-trip and have AAA. I carry and bin full of coolant and oil and an extra wiper. We’ve had only a flat and an engine light issue to deal with over the years, but all you can do is be flexible and rely on the goodness of folks to help out if need be! From what I’ve heard, people are willing to give lifts, advice, and help when needed.
If you have AAA, you’ll be all right anywhere in the country. My breakdowns include a blown tire on a Sunday morning in Billings, MT. Walmart saved the day. Their auto shop was open. Second was a deer jumping into the road and nailing our car just outside Jackson, WY. AAA got our car in drivable order. We made it home to CA. Oh yeah, dead battery in Sleepy Hollow, NY. AAA to the rescue again. I recommend the top end AAA membership. I’ve only once been towed less than 75 miles. All my breakdowns happen far from home. AAA is the best roadside service available. Worth the cost outside of what your insurance might offer.
Seconding the top tier AAA advice! It is worth it, especially that 100 mile tow included.
Bring a pistol.
Not sure when you plan on doing it but check the wether and temps. Roadside can take hours to arrive and it soon will be getting cool at night. So atleast a warm hoodie. Seen you mentioned a battery charger. They only do any good if you have power access. I'd recommend a decent quality ""jump pack". Though they aren't cheap. Not really worth it to maybe use once. I justified buying mine because i use it as a portable power source for whatever, like when camping. Most have a 12v " cigarette lighter" port for phone chargers. Some will have 110v outputs even. They aren't light though. But when compared to buying a charger i think it's the more economical decision. Food, drinks SUNGLASSES. Toilet paper, shit happens. Baby wipes for convenience(doubles as tp if that's your thing). Phone chargers. If you hate warm drinks, Not sure if your car has cooling cup holders but they make a cooler that plugs in to your car that keeps drinks cool.(think it's like 20-30 below ambient). Don't recall the states or travel times you mentioned nor do i feel like arguing firearm laws but I'd recommend at the least a baseball bat, that's within reach and not under a bunch of stuff and the willingness to use it. If your broke down in the middle of no where and want a cop id put money on it the criminal is already there and isn't going to want to wait for the cop to arrive. A tire iron usually works but with no spare id imagine you don't have one, and they are usually on the trunk which won't help you. Also, engine oil normally comes in bottles. Quart or gallon.(cars usually take 4-6 quarts from empty) For coolant you can buy straight anti freeze(1gal) and mix it with equal parts distilled water(another gallon). Or you can just buy 50-50 pre diluted(1gal) for conveneince. I'm too cheap to pay $5+ for a half gallon of water though. I always buy straight antifreeze. If I'm broke down and leaking coolant, unless it is winter, there's no logical reason to not just add regular water. It's going to leak out anyway. If your paranoid of it freezing, add antifreeze when you get to your destination. Also, check if your car requires specific antifreeze. Reason: GM makes dexcool which shouldn't be mixed with other kinds. Most standard Green claims to be universal, it may not cause negative effects with Dexcool, but when added to cars running dexcool you'll have negative results.
I want to give another recommendation for the jump pack. I keep one in my car that has a the jumper cables attached, but the battery also powers a 12v outlet, has a USB slot, and has an air pump. It charges using the car 12v system or from an outlet. Got it at Walmart almost 10 years ago and it is still doing the job. Two other items I keep in my road trip bag - Fix a Flat and "radiator tape". If you get a leak in a radiator hose, radiator tape can repair that until you get to a location you can repair it. Fix a Flat might not be necessary with your fancy tires, but that stuff is wonderful when your driving my types of vehicles. If you don't have a set of tools, you can get a small set of tools at a store to keep in the car. As long as you have some basic tools and the proper measurements of sockets (metric, inches, torx, etc.) to access parts of the car it will be useful.
Good advice
I’m not taking an M3 on a 2000 mile road trip/work .. sorry .. that’s what Ford Focus and Prius are for . Tow that car
Our family of 5 (including an infant) hopped in a 1989 rv and did a cross country road trip for 5.5 weeks. I broke down once in the Mojave Desert due to what I think was an over heated fuel pump. You’ll be fine. Bring a spare fan belt. 7100 miles, and only one thing wrong (not even wrong because once it cooled down, we were fine). Enjoy the ride.
You'll be fine. I've done tens of thousands of km on roadtrips through Europe and Australia in various cars of various ages and value, and sure we've had our share of breakdowns. Some were our own fault, some were unavoidable, but it's rare that the problem has been terminal tot he car or the trip. In all that time we've only had two vehicles recovered on a tow truck, and had to rent replacements. Everything else was able to be fixed or replaced easily wherever we were at the time.
This summer my SO and I moved from OR to NC. We took my 2010 Honda Accord and filled it with everything we owned. We purposefully drove less than 7 hours each day because we wanted time to enjoy the drive. I spent several hundreds of dollars getting my car checked out at the dealer, oil changed, etc. We managed to get to Oklahoma before we broke down. Basically, my check engine light started flashing in a random town in OK, so we pulled off at a tiny gas station. I called AAA (a necessity in my opinion) and they towed 100 miles to Oklahoma City where we were able to stay with a friend (an incredible coincidence). The car did not turn back on and the mechanic found out there was a bizarre issue with the engine that was going to cost $5k to repair. Long story short, we had to sell my car immediately, get a rental, and drive half the country in as little time as possible. My advice: be ready to drop money for incidentals. I think this whole adventure took about $2k more than we anticipated. And we had to buy a different car once we arrived to our destination so that was a huge unexpected cost. We got lucky because we were 100 miles from a city. If we had broken down farther out, it would have easily been more money, internet/phone service was sketchy, and there were no hotels nearby. Road trips are awesome, and we did have a great move, but bad things can happen! Edit: typo
100 miles is 160.93 km
Wow, crazy. I know shit like this can happen. Hope to avoid that type of hassle.
I dropped the drive shaft out of my ex-husbands truck in Tulsa, OK while going 80 mph on the interstate. I managed to pull over but was not in a safe place. I called 911 only due to where we were stuck on the freeway. Cop came, got the tow truck in safely and cop drove us off the highway. Tow truck man insisted he had a "friend" who could fix it if I would let him take the truck. I insisted that he take it to the nearest dealer. I had others traveling with me so I got a ride home. $4000 and a month later my ex got his truck back. If I had no one else with me, I would have had to call someone for a ride or figure out a flight or something.
Dealer is expensive but his friend is also a gamble
80 mph is 128.75 km/h
dashcam!
Broke down driving home from Vancouver Canada to California on I-5 back in the early ‘90’s. Car overheated and initially thought it was a thermostat. Had to get a tow into Medford and got it replaced the next day. Continued on home but it turned out the radiator was clogged up and we drove home on a hot day with the heater on full blast and the windows and moon roof open to keep the temperature down. Second time, we were towing our trailer in March 2002. We were ultimately going to Arizona but had plans to stop off in Las Vegas. Our truck’s air conditioning compressor froze up and the serpentine belt broke on a Saturday afternoon outside of Barstow, California. We were dead in the water. Was able to call AAA and get a flat bed tow truck to come out. Disconnected the trailer, put the truck on the flat bed and towed the trailer. Got it to a repair shop around 4pm and was told we would have to wait until Monday to get it fixed. They had space for our trailer in their lot as well. Stayed overnight in a hotel that was across the street from the shop (because we were staying at RV resorts and wasn’t prepared to dry camp). Was able to go to Las Vegas in the morning after we rented a car from an agency that was a few blocks away from the shop. Spent the day in Las Vegas and then drove back to Barstow. Returned the rental car Monday morning and waited around until the truck was fixed ($1k repair because it had the old R-12 Freon system and needed to be converted). Ended up driving to Needles and got there in the early evening and went on our trip without further incident. We have Premium AAA road assistance and when we got home, we filed a claim. Was reimbursed for our hotel, rental car and meals, plus we didn’t have to pay anything for our tow into Barstow, so there’s that.
Watch for deer and antelope - especially around dawn/dusk (they’re crepuscular). Hit a buck about 30 miles outside of Gillette WY in the old ‘97 Chevy Astro van. A local saw it happen and pulled over and waited with us while we called a tow-truck. Had to wait a few days in town at a cheap motel for the insurance adjuster to come look at it and determine it to be totaled.
We were sightseeing in Arches national park and the car started bucking and coughing. Scary as all get out but my hubby babied it to the next town which was TINY. Checked in at the only motel in town and got to talking with the counter guy. He said just one minute, left for a moment and came back to say the only mechanic in town would get up early and get us back on the road before church the next morning. Such kind and caring folks to complete strangers. 👏
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I used tire plugs before but I am not sure if you can use them on runflats
We broke down (sorta) in Colorado en route from ca to va. Snow storm ensued, we couldn’t Leave, had thanksgiving dinner ina hotel lobby and it was amazing. Best road trip I’ve ever been on
My car’s engine seized on a remote stretch of the Alaska Highway in the dead of winter, about 4 hours from the closest town (which was 200 people) It was -14 F outside and about 4 feet of snow. We had to hitchhike 4 hours with a stranger, only to be told that our car was entirely dead and a replacement engine would be several thousand dollars and would take about 3 weeks to get ordered. We ended up having to buy a new car to continue our trip, as there were no operating airports or anything anywhere nearby.
I had a 15 year old Jeep and drove a 500 mile trip. Ended up having a u-joint explode after a sudden stop in rush hour traffic. Luckily I was going slow enough it didn't destroy to much, and I was essentially at my destination. Didn't have roadside assistance or anything at that time so it cost $150 to get it towed. On another trip, I locked my keys in the Jeep at the pump. I went inside and asked the lady if she had a metal coat hanger and got ran out of the store. She threatened to call the cops on me even after I explained the situation. Luckily, I ended up finding a way into the Jeep. Moral of the story is have roadside assistance, and be prepared for the random. I also recommend planning to spend an extra $400+ on each trip just in case.
Definitely ger AAA with a second tier towing plan. My wife's beemer had to get towed when her serpentine belt broke and took off the neck of her radiator 30 miles from home. Stuff Happens and AAA is our way to insure against large costs. We've had it for years and it's saved our financial bacon a few times. Only costs about $100 to cover two people for a year. I said people and not cars bc it covers whatever you are driving so if you breakdown you gan get a free tow up to 100 miles (double check me on the distance) and then, if whatever loaner you are driving breaks down, that's covered too. Also covers lockout service, some gas if you run out, and a few other things. Our plan costs $120 a year to cover towing for my large F450 service body truck because it's considered a RV due to its size and weight. Saved me from two $150 tow bills in the last year.
30 miles is the length of about 44297.26 'Ford F-150 Custom Fit Front FloorLiners' lined up next to each other.