Summer breakdowns on the coast: why February is our busiest month

Ask anyone who runs a tow truck in Perth which month is busiest and you will get the same answer: February. Not because anything happens in February, but because by then the heat has had two solid months to find whatever was already marginal in your car and finish it.

Scarborough on a 39-degree Saturday is the clearest example of it. A beachfront car park full of cars that have sat in direct sun for four hours, then get asked to start.

Heat kills batteries, and not the way people think

Most people associate flat batteries with cold mornings. In Perth it is the opposite problem. Sustained heat degrades a battery internally over months, and the failure then shows up on the first cool morning or the first time it is asked to crank a hot engine.

The warning signs are almost always there for weeks first:

• Slower cranking, particularly first thing in the morning.
• Dash lights dimming noticeably while the starter turns.
• Electric windows moving more slowly than they used to.
• Stop-start systems that stop working — the car quietly disables the feature when the battery cannot support it.
• A battery over about three or four Perth summers old. That is not a rule, but it is a good prompt to have it tested.

Cooling systems: the one that becomes expensive

Overheating is the failure worth taking seriously, because the difference between stopping immediately and driving another two kilometres can be the difference between a hose and an engine.

If your temperature gauge climbs above where it normally sits, or a temperature warning light comes on:

1. 1Turn the air conditioning off. It removes a significant load from the engine straight away.
2. 2Turn the cabin heater on full. It feels absurd at 39 degrees and it genuinely pulls heat out of the engine.
3. 3Get off the road and stop. Do not try to make it home. Distance is what turns a cheap repair into an expensive one.
4. 4Turn the engine off and leave the bonnet closed. A hot cooling system is pressurised. Opening a radiator cap or a hot expansion tank causes serious burns, and people are burnt this way in Perth every summer.
5. 5Call. Do not top it up roadside and carry on — if it has lost coolant, it lost it somewhere, and that somewhere has not fixed itself.

The other summer regulars

• Tyres. Hot roads and underinflated tyres are a bad combination, and it is the one thing on this list you can check in two minutes in a servo forecourt.
• Air conditioning failures. Not a breakdown, but the number of people who discover a failed compressor in January is remarkable.
• Keys locked in cars at the beach. Extremely common, and worse when there is a dog or a child inside — that is a 000 call, immediately, not a locksmith call.
• Sand. Beach car parks, soft edges and someone who thought a front-wheel-drive hatchback would be fine on that bit.

The three-minute version of prevention

1. 1Get your battery tested before summer, not during it. Most workshops do it free and it takes minutes.
2. 2Check your coolant level when the engine is cold, and look at the colour. Brown or rusty is a conversation with a mechanic.
3. 3Check tyre pressures monthly, including the spare — the spare is always the one nobody checks.
4. 4If something has felt slightly off for a fortnight, it is not going to fix itself in a heatwave.

If you are already stopped, roadside assistance covers the things fixable on the spot, and breakdown towing covers the rest. Coverage for the coastal strip is on the Scarborough page.