Further down we tell about some general experiences with the police, military, the "green angles" but first here's some of our most important experiences of having Your car repaired while travelling:

1. Attend the work that someone is performing on Your car. 

This not only involves work in countries like Mexico or Belice. We also experienced this in Canada and the U.S. If You don't spend this effort, You can almost be sure, that bolts will be missing or they are not tightened enough, that things were not put together completely or even wrongly(!). We f.e. paid it badly that I trusted "Nissan" in San Diego that my transmission oil was ok. Only 10'000 km's later our transmission was ruined because of bad oil. Another time we almost had an accident as the steering was blocked because of missing bolts.

2. Is the person/mechanic qualified to do this job?

Many (many!) times we encountered people in Mexico that call themselves "mechanics" and claim to be able to help You with almost any given problem of Your car.

Now this is very important... - if not the most important: Take Your time to find the right person or mechanic to help You with Your given problem. If You don't, the problem You are in could be the beginning of a real nightmare.  

Depending on different possible situations You will have to act differently, and sometimes You will need to use Your senses to decide if You want to accept an offered help of a person that calls himself mechanic or not. Worst case is, if You have a breaktdown and You cannot drive anymore. Let's get to this later as it involves additional thoughts and problems.

In most cases You will have the chance to somehow get Your vehicle going again and this gives You the chance to get to the next place to find the right mechanic for a good permanent solution by asking Your way around and check different alternatives. Always find out who is really qualified to help, by asking a lot of questions before You let anyone rip things apart on Your car. Try to keep cool... - and take Your time!

Once in the garage You have some hints to find out about the work and the speciality of the garage. 

The following questions/checks might help You to get a picture of the qualification of a mecanic:
1. Good mechanics mostly have a lot of work. Does Yours too? What cars with what problems is the mechanic working on?
2. Does he have the necessary tools to do the work? Look around!
3. Does he seem to be organised?
4. Who will finally work on Your car? If You don't say anything it could be not the mechanic himself but an employee who does not qualify at all.
5. Will the same person be putting the things together again? Ask to be sure! We often suddenly found someone else - really unqualified(!) - working on the job. Halleluia.
 
3. Always plan a test drive and check all possibly influenced parts and functions

Check it out closely! Listen to Your vehicle... - check all the possibly influenced parts and functions too. In bigger cases like the changing of the clutch, work on the engine, the transmission a.s.o. You can almost be certain that You will find something, that was not properly done. Even if it's just a sensor for one of the status lamps on the dashboard.

In many cases bad or uncomplete work shows up fast. Fast is: within the next 100 km's of driving. Before You head out into the wilderness again, take the necessary time to perform this "virgin-drive".   

3. Carry Your own COMPLETE set of tools, bolts and at least the most important spare parts

Many times, so many times(!) I was able to repare things myself as we are fully equiped with all our tools and a lot of spare parts. Very important and many times missing with people that we met are a good electrical volt-meter, different electrical fuses, an electrical drill, a file, one - or better - two jacks (if possible a highjack), and all kinds of different bolts and screws. "Duck-Tape" - this robust plastic and tissue inforced tape is always handy and the famous 4W-Spray is very useful as well.

We used our starter cables, shovel, towing rope, electrical drill many times and depending of how adventurous Your plans are, a winch and sand panels could be very important.

We also carry the mechanics handbook of our truck and many, many times this was very helpful and I would strongly recommend this.

4. Always tell them that You want to keep the old parts

If You have work done on Your car and if it might be necessary to replace something always tell the mechanic that You will keep the old part (to maybe repair it later on and use it as a spare Yourself). If You don't do that, You might be paying for parts which have not been changed or You'll have a new part, even though the old part could have been repaired. The latter case happens a lot with expensive parts like alternators, starter engines where rebuilding and selling used parts is a big and well paid market. 

5. Accompany the mechanic to the places to get new parts, or to fix it

I always tried to accompany the mechanic to buy the new part myself, or to the specialist that he visited to fix this part. This allowed my to learn why it did not work and take appropriate decisions (repair, exchange with old, replace with new). At the same time I was sure not to pay too much in either case of them.

6. Speaking the language

Of course in Central- or South America speaking and understanding a little spanish is a must, if You want to participate in this process and discuss possible alternatives or even if You just want to make sure, that things are done correctly or with some important features that You need. In our case f.e. in order to be able to drive through rivers, we need the things to be done in a way that no water can enter. Without You telling them, they won't seal things, screws might not be tightened enough, or ventilation hoses (transmission, clutch, differential) will not be put back; many times, because they don't know these features or can't remember them when they took it apart. 

The spanish speaking people in our experience generally show great patience in trying to understand what You're saying. Even a little Spanisch and carrying a good dictionary helps!

7. Prices, Price offerings

Work in Mexico was cheap and this will be the same in other Central American countries. Belize seemed to have close to double the prices for the same work. If there was not this general problem and our fear of bad quality of work I would suggest having all possible work done in countries like Mexico.

We found that You should always ask for a precise price offering on smaller jobs as these often were comparatively expensive. Especially in touristy places You might otherwise get ripped off.

Its probably wise to always have a price offering, but on the bigger jobs I was mostly amazed, of how little we were asked to pay - especially when we trusted the mechanic, and I was attending the job and helping myself. This might be a matter of luck and I used my feelings to decide of how to behave in a given situation. I was mostly prepared to be able to argue a given price by knowing how much others wanted for the same job, but we never had to do it. Mostly I was able to heartily give a tip on top of the given price.

8. Quality of Work

We found that the Mexican mechanics are artists to get You rolling again. They are very creative in fixing problems and we were many times amazed with what basic tools they are able to work and solve problems. 

On the other hand the reliabilty and the quality of the work is a real problem. Many times it was also a problem of education or experience but most of the times it was just this general "take it easy" and "no problem" work style that created a lot of our problems. Because of this, we strongly suggest putting enough time in finding the right garage and persons to help You and then attend the job.

Alcohol is another general problem in these countries. We can just say "beware of alcoholics" or You're garage might be the last station that You're car was driving to; unless You finish the job Yourself.

Some more thoughts.... (getting towed, military, police...)

As I mentioned earlier it could happen that Your car needs to be towed by a special vehicle to get it fixed. This makes the following our hints&tips more difficult. Questions like "How to find someone who can tow You", "How to evaluate a good mechanic", "how to behave, if it is too late to organise this at the same day", "can You leave Your car alone", "can You leave Your partner alone", "whom can You trust" will come up and there will be a lot of things that have to be considered to make the right steps, not to make things worse, or even to get You or Your partner in danger.

Take a situation like this very serious and work Yourself up through the worstcases before You make quick and possibly wrong decisions.

When our transmission failed north of mexico city and we stopped right along the highway we were offered help by some young fellows but declined it, as we had a bad feeling. I would be very careful of accepting offered help close to big citys, along highways, and close to touristy places; but generelly we found the people we met in the countryside very trustworthy and very kind.

This probably will be the same while travelling through the other Central American countries.

Mexico has the so called "Green angles" - a government paid highway-patrol institution, with heaps of well equiped green "pick-up trucks" travelling back and forth the main routes. We never used them but according to many stories they are a great help and really good mechanics. Cheap too!

A great help throughout the whole of Mexico was always the military. While we heard some bad stories from former times we can definitely say that nowadays the military in Mexico is probably the best and safest institution to get help from. Most incredible for us was, that they never accepted any presents even if we wanted to say "thank You" and offer some cigarettes or fruits for their help. Their job at the many roadblocks all over the country is to check cars for weapons and drugs. Stay friendly and their check will just take a minute. It's because of them that travelling in Mexico nowadays is much safer than years ago.

Unfortunately we've heard different stories for most of the other countries in Central America.

The police in Mexico is another story. While we heard that the current regime in Mexico is trying hard to get the corruption under control we had many situations where we were pulled over and should have paid a fine for something we did not do. There is two kinds of police: "The Federales" and "The Municipales". The Federales are well educated policeman patrolling along the highways. We never had a bad encounter with them. The Municipales working in the citys are many times not educated at all; they are badly paid, and many times try to make a living with sueing frightened tourists for all kinds of things. I would generally only trust the Federales. 

If a Municipal police car pulls You over in Mexico and tries to sue for something that You didn't do DON'T PAY! You might lose some 30 minutes argueing - but please, don't pay and stay hard! A lot of Americans tend to tell You to always have some money ready for this case and pay them. It's because of this, that it has become really popular amongst the police to earn money this way.

Many times they try to make You follow them to a quiet area so that there side business is not seen by the public or by the "Federales"- their enemies. Best thing to do is to stop where there is still a lot of people (- insist to stay at this place -) and talk loud enough so that other people can hear what's going on. 

Important: The Municipal police can not give You a fine in the street. It's against Mexican law. In case You did something wrong, they try to take and keep Your drivers license and/or vehicle documents and You then should go and get it the next day at the police station and pay for the fine there. So first: Don't show them Your original documents. If they insist to see originals, don't let them take it out of Your hands. Just show them, otherwise they mostly try to get money to "clear things" right away, without going to the police station. Don't do it! In all our cases they finally just left, probably to find another stupid tourist to get money from...

Now..., in case Your really did something wrong insist paying for Your fine at the police station, as they then mostly just drive off, as this is a hassle for them too. This includes red lights, speeding up to 25km/h, parking, wrong turns aso. 

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Well, there will be surely more things getting in my mind to write down on this page later on... 
But for know, we wish You GOOD LUCK with Your vehicle and hope You won't encounter our kinds of experiences with getting stuck so badly!

Click on pictures to get a closeup.... (German: Fuer Grossbild auf Bild klicken!)