My Car's Making This Sound; What Does It Mean?

When absolutely nothing happens and all you hear is click, click, click, you have a dead battery. You can charge it or jump start it to get your car running, but I suggest you find a way to test the battery. If you have a battery tester at home, great! If not, you can drive your car to a mechanic shop and have them test it for a fee and most likely, you will need a new battery for them to make some money. In my area (actually where I used to work), Advance Auto Parts will test your battery for free.

It's important to test the battery because you may not need to replace it. Often times, this may happen because you fail to latch your door completely or leave the headlights on overnight. This will simply drain the battery and require you to charge it. If the battery is old and nothing has drained your battery such as a high end sound system, you may need to replace the battery. Make sure whatever is being used to test your battery has a deep cell scan option on it. This will tell you if you have a bad cell in the battery. If there is just a bad cell in the battery, it may test as a good battery, but it will never be able to hold a charge for very long. It may start your car once or twice, but it gets annoying having to put your car on the charger every night before you go to bed.

The squealing is usually the drive belt slipping on one or more of the pulleys. Depending on the cause for the slipping it can be a simple and inexpensive fix, or it can be costly and possibly dangerous. If you hear a squealing right after you run through a really big puddle of water, it's just water getting on the belt. It will dry. Go on your merry way.

However, if you are driving down the road and you hear the squealing, please find a place to pull over, turn off the car and call a tow truck. It may be simple and not very damaging, but you don't want to take that risk.

The first thing you want to do is open the hood. Don't touch anything, it's hot! The first thing you want to look for is twigs or leaves or other debris from rascally rodents who try to make a nest in your engine while you are sleeping. You think I'm joking?! I've had it happen to me! The biggest problem with this is you could have a fire. Not the way you want it to go, is it?

The simplest problem is glazing on the drive belt. You can run the car with this problem, it's just annoying and you will still need to replace the belt. It's most likely old and has a few cracks in it if it's glazed. Cracks means, it will break soon (a few days or weeks) from the stress which could cause some serious damage. Please, replace the belt!

The next problem could be an idler pulley or tensioner pulley. The bearings on these pulleys do go bad and is usually the most common problem associated with a squealing drive belt. Again, this is usually not very expensive or very dangerous, but the heat from the friction of the belt dragging across a metal pulley that is no longer spinning will cause glazing on the belt and a weakening of the belt. Replace the pulley and the drive belt.

More serious problems associated with a squealing belt would include and alternator pulley going bad, an A/C compressor with a bad pulley, a harmonic balancer going bad, or a timing issue. Again, pulleys go bad and they stop spinning causing drag for the belt and friction which creates the squealing noise. An A/C compressor or alternator are usually expensive fixes but no more dangerous than the previous problems. If the harmonic balancer is bad, they can be pretty affordable if that's all that's wrong. The harmonic balancer is run off the crankshaft which is one of the most major components of the inner workings of your engine. You can only pray that the harmonic balancer is the only problem. If the crankshaft has a problem, the parts are affordable, but the labor will cost you almost as much as buying another car. A timing issue can be a simple fix with some moderate costs if caught in time and the repairs are done correctly. If the timing is off, pulleys will spin out of sync causing the squealing or even jumping of the belt which may mean instead of squealing your car hesitates or acts likes it wants to stall. Many things can cause this such as a stretched out or old timing belt or chain, a timing tensioner pulley could go bad causing friction under the timing cover which affects the drive belt. Other timing components could go bad and affect the smooth rotation of the timing belt or chain thus affecting the drive belt. Timing components can be moderately costly, but you should be able to afford it instead of getting a new car. Fix it promptly and you will be spared additional costs.

This lens was blessed by WereWolfCustoms on August 4th, 2011! Thanks so much for the honor!

This lens was blessed again by SquidAngel Tipi on November 15th, 2011. I'm blushing.

If you get to speeds of 25mph or more and it sounds like a bi-plane, it will continue to get louder over time. It will start out faint and quiet so taking a day every week and turning off the radio and blower motor for a quiet ride to listen to your car is a good idea. Who knows, you may find there are other sounds you needs to address.

If this sound is really noticeable and loud and gets louder as your speed increases, it sounds to me like you might have a bad wheel bearing. These take more time to actually break and they cost from between $35 to $235 depending on your vehicle. The labor shouldn't cost very much so if your mechanic tells you it's going to cost you $500 for the job, find a new mechanic. The average labor cost in the U.S. for this job is $60.

This problem is not a very serious one if dealt with promptly. You can drive the car, just spend a couple days finding the best price for the parts and the labor and then get it fixed. If you fail to replace it and decide to ignore the noise, eventually the bearing will seize and the wheel will stop spinning. Try to picture what could happen to your vehicle if you're driving on the freeway at speeds around 70 mph and suddenly you have a wheel become fixed instead of free-spinning. Not a very pretty picture is it? This could cause, most likely, a roll over type accident.

Again, if the noise is quiet still, please don't panic, but don't ignore it either. Do your homework and get it fixed before it becomes a problem.

Clunks and squeaks when you make turns means you need to pay attention to your front end. The front end chassis system is integrated with ball joints, tie rod ends, control arms, end links, and the steering rack. There are several ball-in-socket and swivel type joints that make up this system to allow smooth and controlled turning for your car.

Clunks would most likely be the cause of a bad ball joint or tie rod end. These links have a rubber boot around the socket filled with grease. If the grease dries out, you may have squeaks. The dryness could lead to damage of the joint and eventual degradation. Make sure that these joints get greased at regular servicing intervals. These parts are not very expensive and the labor isn't either. If you're just starting to hear these noises, you're fine, but I would recommend getting them replaced very soon. I ignored the problem and had my wheel come off. Luckily I was in the parking lot so I didn't get into an accident or have serious damage to my car. The wheel coming off is the cause of a ball joint letting go. It doesn't completely come off but the wheel will fall under the car and it looks like it comes off, unless the upper and lower ball joints let go at the same time. Then the whole wheel will come off. It will only happen when you make a turn since these components control smooth turning. If the tie rod lets go, you will have difficulty turning and controlling the car.

Squeaks when making turns with bumps may be the end links. These are a simple rod of metal with bushings on either end. If the bushings are worn out, the turning of your car may feel sloppy. If these are worn, they are old and the end link can snap. If you hear it snap you have lots of loud clunks when you make turns. You can still drive the car with a snapped end link, but don't let it go. Get it fixed.

You're driving down the road on your way to your buddies house with the radio blasting and the A/C blowing. Suddenly, your radio shuts itself off. You mess with the buttons and try to turn it back on and then the A/C shuts itself off. You begin to wonder what is going on and start sweating so you try to use the power windows to open them for some air and once they open about half-way, they stop working. What in the world is going on here? Is my car turning on me? Am I going to die by the hands of my car? Is it possessed? After you're done asking these questions, look at your dashboard. Is the battery light on? If it is, pull over, the car is going to die very, very soon! If not, pull over anyway that dash light might be out.

Once you've successfully escaped from the clutches of your possessed car, you can now call a tow truck and have them take your car to a trusted mechanic.

So what happened? The battery in your car is used for starting your car then goes dormant while you're running the car. The alternator or generator charges itself and the battery while you drive the car. What happened while your car was possessed was that the alternator went bad and no longer produced the energy needed to keep the car running. The car started to keep the car running by running off the battery which only lasts so long. To keep the car running as long as possible, the car will have emergency cut offs to cut power to unnecessary accessories such as the radio and a/c. This is why things start shutting off, the car is trying to conserve energy long enough to give you enough time to pull over safely.

You will definitely need a new alternator but the drain on the battery may have killed it. You may simply need to recharge the battery and you will be fine, but I strongly recommend having the battery tested after this type of episode. The cost of this repair will stay along the same range as having a wheel bearing replaced costing no more than $500 including the cost of labor. Don't get swindled! $500 is worst case scenario of a $250 alternator and a $100 battery.