Breakdown Kilkenny: where cars stop, and what to do when yours does

The ring road and its roundabouts

The ring road is where tired cars give up. The roundabouts, from the Dublin Road and Bennettsbridge Road round through Bohernatounish Road, Waterford Road, Kells Road, Callan Road, Castlecomer Road, Hebron Road, Johnswell Road and New Orchard Road, mean constant stop and start. A battery or alternator on its last legs, a clutch that is nearly gone or a car running hot in summer traffic will fail here before it fails anywhere else, usually while pulling out onto the roundabout.

A car that dies on the roundabout itself is in a live lane. Hazards on, and if you can roll it or push it to the kerb do that, but do not stand in the road to do it. If it is stuck where it is and blocking traffic, ring 112 or 999 and then ring us. If the battery warning light comes on while you are driving the ring road, pull in before the next roundabout, not on it, because once the alternator stops charging you have minutes, not kilometres.

The N10 to the M9 at Paulstown

The N10 out of the city to the M9 at Junction 8 is fast, and three things stop cars on it. Fuel, because people leave the city on the warning light meaning to fill at the Applegreen at Paulstown, one junction further north, and do not make it. Tyres, because this is the first stretch where the car is at full speed after weeks of town driving and a soft or worn tyre lets go. And heat, because an old car that has sat in ring road traffic finally gets a run and the temperature gauge climbs.

Parts of the N10 have a hard shoulder and parts do not. Get the car as far off the road as it will go, hazards on, and get out on the side away from traffic. If there is a barrier, stand behind it. If the car is still moving and you are near Paulstown, the Applegreen at Junction 7 is a safe place to stop and wait, and it has EV chargers if the problem is a low battery in an electric car. On the N10 and the M9 we always recover first and look at the fault at the next safe spot, never at the side of the road.

The Castlecomer Road and the hills

The N78 climbs steadily from the city up onto the Castlecomer plateau, and it sorts out cars that are marginal. In summer the ones with a weak water pump, a tired radiator or low coolant boil on the climb. In winter the plateau freezes first and the shaded stretches around Clogh hold ice until midday. Coming back down, heavily loaded cars and vans ride the brakes and arrive at the bottom with the smell of hot pads.

Windgap, in the hills in the south west of the county, is the same climb in miniature, with a cold gap at the top. On either hill, if the temperature gauge heads for the red, pull in on a straight stretch where you can be seen, not on the brow, and switch the engine off. Do not open the coolant cap while it is hot. A car that has boiled over needs the cause found, not just a top up, so if it is anything more than a loose hose it is a flatbed job to the garage.

City car parks: MacDonagh Junction, Market Yard and Ormonde Street

Flat batteries. That is the car park story, nine times out of ten. A day's shopping with the lights or the interior light left on, a weak battery that managed the morning start but not the cold evening one, or a car that has been sitting all week while the owner was away. The jump start is the quickest job we do, and in the city we are usually with you in 20 to 30 minutes.

The complication is the building. A flatbed does not fit into a multi-storey or under a height barrier, so if the car is on an upper level and a jump start will not shift it, it has to come down to a level we can reach. We carry skates for a car with a seized brake or locked steering, and we will talk to the car park staff about the barrier and the ticket. When you ring, tell us which car park, which level, and whether the car is in a bay or blocking a lane, and we will tell you what we need you to do before we arrive.

The train station and St Luke's Hospital

Sunday evening at the train station beside MacDonagh Junction is a regular. Someone has been in Dublin all week, the car has sat for five days, and the battery was already weak. Then the last train in and a car park full of people with the same problem. If you know the battery is doubtful, park nose out and leave nothing switched on. We do a lot of Sunday night jump starts there and we know the car park well enough to find you from a bay number.

St Luke's Hospital on the Freshford Road is the other one. People park in a hurry, visiting hours end in the dark, and the lights have been on since they arrived. The car park is tight and busy, so tell us which car park or entrance you are at, and if the car is blocking an ambulance route tell hospital security before you ring us. We can meet you at the car park entrance so you are not standing out in the cold.

Match days at Nowlan Park and race days at Gowran Park

On a big match day at Nowlan Park the roads around the ground are closed or jammed for an hour either side of the game, and cars are parked on every verge and in every yard within a kilometre. The breakdowns are the usual ones, flat batteries and cars that will not start after a long sit, but the problem is reach. A recovery truck cannot get near the ground until the crowd clears, and a car on a verge is often boxed in anyway. Ring early, tell us where you are parked relative to the ground, and expect to wait for the traffic to move.

Gowran Park is the same with grass. Race day parking is in fields, and after rain a car on ordinary tyres on a trodden field is going nowhere. The lanes into the racecourse off the R448 jam at the end of racing. The good news is the M9 at Paulstown is five minutes away, so a car that comes out of the field can be on the motorway quickly. A car that cannot come out is a winch job, and we do a lot of them on wet race days.

Mount Juliet, Jerpoint and the tourist roads

Thomastown, Mount Juliet, Jerpoint Abbey and on to Inistioge bring visitors in hire cars onto roads that are narrower than they expect. The breakdowns here are kerbed wheels, cracked alloys and tyres torn on the stone edges of the R700, wrong fuel in a hire car at a filling station the driver has never used before, and the odd car in a ditch on a bend above the river. If you put petrol in a diesel, do not start the engine, which is the single most expensive mistake on this list.

Visitors rarely know the Eircode of where they are, so give us a landmark we both know: the gate at Mount Juliet, the car park at Jerpoint Abbey, the bridge in Inistioge. We will meet you there. If the car is a hire car, ring the hire company's line as well, because they will usually want their own say in where it goes.

What to do when it is your turn

Wherever it stops, the routine is the same. Get the car as far out of traffic as it will go, hazards on, everyone out and away from the road if the road is busy, and a high visibility vest on. Note where you are, with a roundabout name, a junction number, a car park level or an Eircode. Then ring 087 288 2280. We will try a roadside fix first, a jump start, a tyre, a belt or a fuse, and if the car needs to go on the flatbed we will agree the price before the truck leaves the yard. No call-out fee, no membership, and card, cash or bank transfer when it is done.