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Sudden sound when driving and something hanging below car
Something weird occurred today, at very low speed there was a sudden screeching sound and now there’s something hanging down in a central position at the back of the engine bay.
The noise only comes when the car is moving, running the engine while stationary = no noise. So maybe driveshaft? But the car still moves forwards and back and makes a loud noise when doing so.
any advice or diagnosis welcome as it’s not in a location where I can raise it and look under, but I did snap the attached picture, looking across from behind the right front wheel towards left front wheel. What is this?
Thanks. I hope it’s something relatively inexpensive like that. I’m going to drive it (slowly) to a workshop a quarter mile from where it’s currently stranded and they will take a look underneath, so hopefully I will know more by tomorrow.
Thanks. I hope it’s something relatively inexpensive like that. I’m going to drive it (slowly) to a workshop a quarter mile from where it’s currently stranded and they will take a look underneath, so hopefully I will know more by tomorrow.
If you're in Sweden you can go to OkQ8 Do It Yourself and use their car lift and check yourself. Much cheaper and faster than a dealer.
If you're in Sweden you can go to OkQ8 Do It Yourself and use their car lift and check yourself. Much cheaper and faster than a dealer.
Thanks for the tip! I didn’t know this at all, but sounds useful.
Well now I have taken it down the road to a small workshop who will check it out. Curiously it made no noise at all while driving this short distance today, so possibly something temperature related (as car was now cold), or whatever was rubbing yesterday shifted a little bit and isn’t making contact any more.
Well I collected the car today and their diagnosis was “gravel”! We have gravel all over the roads at this time of year here in Sweden as the snow has melted into ice, which is now melting away leaving loose gravel on all road surfaces.
I guess a piece pinged its way into the tiny gap between a wheel and hub and made that horrible howling sound. It would explain why the sound wasn’t present when I made the short drive the next day to the garage.
The pipe which hung down below the car he told me is the exhaust pipe for the supplementary heater. I have googled and see some cars in cold climates have a gas burning aux heater system for fast warm up of the cabin before the engine temp rises, but I am not aware of it being on my car and see nothing in spec codes on the handbook sticker which says there’s a factory fitted heater. Would also be an odd system to have a pipe which hangs down below the car like that to hit any road junk or ramp.
So that part I’m still wondering about, but I’d better get the car up on ramps now it is home and have a look for myself. The workshop guy was kind enough to release the car with no charge for their time, so that’s nothing to complain about.
Well I guess there’s being nice, then there is not charging because you know you didn’t even bother to look at the car….
Now at home having looked under the car, I see the rear half of the underbody shield is missing, and the “aux heater exhaust pipe” which the garage noted was the thing hanging down under the car is actually the last remnant of the cover panel which was clearly ripped away and would have been the source of the weird sound I heard.
The remaining front half of the underbody tray was hanging down completely unsecured except by the front clips, so I have fixed that.
Now I don’t know if if need to buy a replacement rear half cover panel or whether road junk getting onto the transmission and structural members under the car is nothing to worry about?
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Sudden sound when driving and something hanging below car
