HELP! Stranded in Argentina... car issue

KingMoo

I am curently in Argentina with my wife and baby and about 2 hours from Buenos Aires. Our rental car has a major clutch issue as of last night. The car still works but changing gears often produces god-awful screetching noises.

I´m wondering what might be our best cours of action. I really dont know how long it would take to fix and we have to fly out of BA on the 5th.. also, I doubt the rental company would recoup mechanics charges. I´m thinking the car may get us to BA but I also dont like the idea of potentially breaking down. any ideas?

VisionOfClarity

Call the rental car place and see what they can do for you.

Figgy

VisionOfClarity wrote: »

Call the rental car place and see what they can do for you.

I feel almost silly asking this because it's so obvious, but why haven't you done this already?

Call the rental company and tell them that the car they rented to you has broken down. They should send another car for you. Hopefully they have an office near you to speed things up.

It's not your responsibility to repair a rented vehicle unless it's something you've busted. Did you destroy the clutch or something?

Endomatic

Unless he's a TERRIBLE shifter, I doubt he could have done that in a such a short time period alone. It's probably not properly cared for.

Call the rental service.

KingMoo

can´t get a hold of them on Sundays. just a small time retal agency. The cars in this country are in horrible shape. I ended up driving it home and barely made it. Every time I had to stop it became harder to shift back up but once in a 3+ gear it drove fine. now it will barley shift at all without a lot of effort. I´m worried the´ll try to make me pay for damages now...

KingMoo

my wife just translated some of the rental agreement to me. seems like we are resposible for all mechanical failures...

called the agency today and were told to get their insurance tow company to bring it in. been waiting all day...

Gafoto

I don't know if you've looked into the problem yourself but it sounds like you might be leaking fluid that operates the clutch. If it's low you can fix it yourself, clutches use the same hydraulics as brakes and therefore use brake fluid. It might need to be reprimed and if you don't have the necessary tools (wrench, rubber hose and clear plastic bottle it might be a pain to do. Then again it might not be the clutch fluid at all.

Count Funkula

Sounds more like a synchro issue, since he mentioned that once he got it to 3rd gear or beyond it was ok. 1st and 2nd gear synchros take the most abuse in manual transmissions, since they are used the most, especially with stop-and-go city driving. That isn't the kind of thing you would want to try to fix yourself in a foreign country.