If the car has stopped on the road
Get everyone out and away from the traffic, somewhere safe, and switch the hazard lights on. If you have roadside assistance, call them first: a mobile mechanic is for the repair once the car is off the road. If anyone is hurt or in danger, call 000.
What can a mobile mechanic do on the spot?
More than most people expect. A routine service, a battery, brake pads, a car that cranks but won't fire, a warning light that needs reading: all of these can usually be done in a driveway or a car park with the right gear in the van.
What doesn't suit is anything that needs the car high in the air for a long time, like a clutch, a gearbox or major exhaust work. RAA, South Australia's motoring club, makes the same call about its own mobile inspections: some older or rare cars need a hoist, so it does those at a workshop.
Mobile work around Adelaide
A long, narrow city
Adelaide is only about 20 km from the coast to the foothills, but it stretches from Gawler down to Sellicks Beach. A mechanic can be close across the city and a long drive along it, so give us the postcode where the car actually is, not your home one.
Slopes in the Hills and the foothills
A steep driveway isn't a safe place to lift a car. RAA asks for a flat spot off the public road, with room for a trolley jack, before its inspectors start work, and a mobile mechanic needs the same. If your driveway in the Adelaide Hills slopes, say so in the note.
Forty-degree days
On a 40 °C afternoon a car on black bitumen is hot to touch and hard to work on. A garage, a carport or a patch of shade makes a summer job easier, and it's worth offering one if you have it.
Work car parks
Some office and shopping centre car parks don't allow repairs on site. Check with the building first, so the mechanic doesn't arrive to be moved on.
Have these ready when the mechanic calls
- The make, model and year, and roughly how many kilometres it's done.
- What happened just before the problem, and a photo of any warning light.
- A flat spot off the road, with space to walk all the way around the car.
- The service book, if the job is a service.
- Whether you'll be there, and how the mechanic gets the keys if you won't be.
Where we'd start
We'd pick "Come to me" when the job suits it: a service, a battery, a car that won't start. For anything that needs the car on a hoist, we'd ask the mobile mechanic to say so on the first call, so the car makes one trip to a workshop rather than two.