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TL:DR - The Seven Deadly Sounds; What Your Car Is Trying to Tell You · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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  Grand Touring Motorsports started as a social group of car enthusiasts,
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  but we've expanded into all sorts of motorsports disciplines, and we
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  want to share our stories with you.
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  Years of racing, wrenching, and motorsports experience brings
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  together a top notch collection of knowledge and information
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  through our podcast, Brake Fix.
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  What's going on everybody?
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  It's me, back again, your host, Brad, the triple six.
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  With me, as always, is my co host Eric.
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  Hello!
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  For today's episode, we're going to talk about the language of your car.
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  High performance driving requires intense concentration and focus.
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  Often leading to ignoring important signals your vehicle
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  may be sharing with you.
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  Your car is always talking to you.
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  There's a lot of sounds going on in a car.
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  I mean, most people, you know, go down the road not worrying about it.
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  You better listen to the sounds that it makes.
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  We say high performance driving, but also this applies to
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  just street driving as well.
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  But there are Seven deadly sounds much like the seven deadly sins that
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  you should listen out for from your car because they tell you something
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  they tell you about the health of your vehicle and what's going on.
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  So, without further ado, we're going to get into a quick
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  guide about the 7 deadly sound.
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  So we're going to dive into the technical again.
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  This does apply to both your street car and your track car.
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  And remember, we use the term track loosely.
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  It applies to all sorts of different things.
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  Disciplines.
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  And again, this is going to be a quick guide to get you familiar with that.
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  We're going to play audio clips of the sounds themselves.
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  That way you can become more familiar with them and then give you a,
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  an explanation of what they mean.
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  So we're going to start off with coins in the dryer.
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  So if you can identify a sound that's reminiscent of coins in the dryer,
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  they're usually coming from your wheels.
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  And it's a strong possibility that your lug nuts or bolts
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  might be improperly torqued.
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  So what we recommend is you pull off as soon as possible, reduce your speed,
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  stay offline or stay on the shoulder, turn on your flashers and limp to safety.
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  If you feel that a wheel is beginning to wobble, you should reduce your speed
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  immediately and pull off as there is a chance you might have lost the lug
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  or the wheel is now completely loose.
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  Remember, never tighten your lugs while they're hot.
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  You may run the risk of stripping or breaking a lug bolt or a stud.
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  There's one other sound that most people don't diagnose very well.
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  Tire noise.
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  That's an annoyance.
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  I used to drive my dad nuts.
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  Like, he would buy a tire and if it made noise on his drive home, he'd return them.
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  Cause he's like, I can't, these are just going to get worse as they get older.
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  Yes, I've got friends that do that too.
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  And some of it has to do with the tire design.
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  You know, those diagonally siped tires.
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  Tires tend to have a different harmonic than a block tire.
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  Block tire is a lot quieter than some of those high performance tires.
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  So they tend to moan and they tend to get worse the older they get.
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  Now, this isn't true of race tires because they're so soft, tend to not
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  make really any noise at all, unless you're going through a corner too
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  fast and they start squealing at you.
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  But that's a whole nother conversation for another day.
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  Let's say you're on an all season tire.
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  A lot of people probably drive SUVs.
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  It's just kind of like a really low whisper, almost like wind
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  noise, which some cars also depends on how they're put together.
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  There's just that road noise and there's an acceptable amount
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  of road noise in every car.
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  So if that's something that's just often overlooked, I'm actually not a
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  fan of cars that are completely quiet.
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  That's why the first time I got into a Tesla, I was really
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  freaked out because electric cars.
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  Make no noise.
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  So it starts making a noise.
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  It's indicative of a problem, right?
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  There's something going on.
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  There's something wrong going back to tires.
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  If you've got a truck and you, or you've got the either mud terrains or
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  some of the knobby or all terrains, or even some off road tires.
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  Yeah, they make that.
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  Whoa, whoa, It's you, your tires aren't rotated properly.
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  They're not wearing evenly.
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  It's a cupping of the tire tread.
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  So be mindful of your tire rotations, uh, that it can help prevent that.
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  I don't know if there's a way to actually.
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  Fix it once you've you've got it I think if you rotate the tires more
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  often there may be a way to get it to to finally wear evenly again
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  But that's where that comes from.
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  How do you know if you have enough air?
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  How do you know if you have too much, you know things like that?
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  So the manufacturer posts their recommendations for stock equipment
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  inside the door Does that also hold true if you have different
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  aftermarket wheels and tires?
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  Is the tire pressures still the same or where do you get the information on that?
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  The tried and true method is the autocross method of chalking, chalking your tires
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  under pressure, under pressure, meaning under driving pressure to figure out
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  how they're reacting to the air you have in them and all that kind of stuff.
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  But outside of that, there used to be this late eighties, early nineties
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  was like 10 pounds of air per.
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  Thousand pounds of car.
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  And I'm like, yeah, that doesn't really compute anymore.
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  I have a 2000 pound car, so I'm going to run 20 pounds of air.
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  I mean, yeah, I guess.
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  But every tire compound is different.
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  Every sidewall construction is different.
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  We have tires with reinforced sidewalls, even for the street that, and I'm
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  not talking just about run flats.
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  There are some high performance summer tires that you wouldn't be able to tell
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  that they have five pounds of air in them when they're sitting on the ground.
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  So you really have to check them.
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  And I was going to mention your TPMSs, which is your tire pressure monitor
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  system, especially on modern cars, just.
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  Because your TPMS is not going off, doesn't mean you don't have the right
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  amount of air for your vehicle because there's a threshold before they kick
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  on and start alarming you that, Hey, it's time to go put air in these tires.
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  So again, you have to judge that you have to look at the specs.
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  You have to look at the tire you're getting.
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  I have now load rated tires on the Jeep for towing and they tend to shake.
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  Because the sidewall is so much stiffer and I've been playing with
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  air pressure and you know, a couple of pounds here, a couple of pounds there.
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  I've, I've kind of found a sweet spot where they don't cup anymore
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  and I get a better ride out of them.
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  And I'm, you know, I'm not shaking at 60 miles an hour, you know,
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  when I'm not towing the vehicle.
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  So again, a lot of that is trial and error.
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  A lot of it is playing a lot of is talking to other people.
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  We do the same thing for high performance tires where, Hey, what's the recommended.
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  Pressure for a Hoosier 36.
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  If you weigh X amount, plus your Brett and you weigh 9, 000 pounds and drive.
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  Well, he runs Pirelli's anyway.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  So it totally doesn't work for him.
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  Again, there's some tried and true methods.
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  The other thing is every time the weather changes, especially in the spring and the
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  fall, where you get the, you know, what they call the Indian summer, where in
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  September it's 80 degrees and then it's.
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  30 at night, and then it'll be 70 the next day.
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  And it's very back and forth.
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  You need to check your tire pressures.
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  If you're not running nitrogen to check those tire pressures, because they
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  fluctuate a lot because the ground heats up, the tire heats up with it.
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  And then at night, when everything cools off and that heat dissipates and radiates
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  off, your tires are cooling down too.
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  Which means that the air molecules inside of there are expanding,
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  attracting, and your tire pressures will fluctuate because tires don't.
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  Exactly.
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  Seal as well as people think they do.
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  And if you drive your car hard and we've tested this, a wheel will rotate on a
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  tire without breaking the bead and you can lose some air while that's happening.
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  Uh, correction.
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  A tire will rotate on a wheel.
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  Yes.
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  Well, we don't, we don't want to get called out in the comment section.
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  So if you're in your car and you hear, boom, boom, boom, boom,
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  boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
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  But you're listening to strong, bad, welcome to 2001.
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  I will say, since we are talking about tires, if you hear a thumping and the car
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  has been sitting for a long time, there's a good chance of those tires are flat
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  spotted and a flat spot can come two ways.
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  One from sitting too long and not having enough air and the tire literally
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  becomes flat and kind of square.
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  And so it has to round itself back out.
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  So you'll get this kind of thumping until the tires round themselves out.
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  Now, in the case of.
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  Putting a flat spot in a tire where you've ground away rubber, you can't add it back.
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  So they become very square and they tend to have the same
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  thumping rhythmic thumping sound.
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  And the only way to fix that is to get rid of the tires.
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  Now, if you've had a, if you've had a car that sat for a long time and say it broke
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  one of the belts in the tire, there's a good chance of that tire is trash.
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  So you're never going to get rid of the thumping.
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  And it's not necessarily a good thing to have a broken belt inside of a
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  tire because that tire will collapse.
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  Next up, squealing, grinding, or growling noises coming from your car.
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  Squealing So what you have there is both a high pitched and low pitched version of
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  the grinding sound or the squealing sound.
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  And this is usually coming from the brakes, but more
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  specifically the brake pads.
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  In everyday conditions, squealing brakes are usually an indicator
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  that your pads are getting close to the end of their effective use.
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  And the recommendation is to replace them very soon.
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  On the track, brakes squeal for a plethora of different reasons.
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  It could be the pad compound, it could be buildup on the rotor, it
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  could be the difference in heat between the rotor and the pad.
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  If you have a race pad, they tend to heat up and cool down very quickly.
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  But that's not the end.
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  In both cases, If you hear a heavy grinding or growling, a more
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  low pitch instead of high pitch sound that's coming from your brakes, this
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  is an indication that you've exceeded the usefulness of those brake pads
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  and you could be running on bare metal or even just the backing planes.
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  If you have a thudding, thumping, or vibration in the steering only
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  while you're braking, it's usually a good sign of brake material deposit,
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  also known as pad material transfer or buildup, and some people mislabel
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  this as warping, which will eventually lead to a possible rotor crack.
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  So you need to pull off as soon as you can, let the vehicle cool down, Before you
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  start inspecting the brake system, brakes run at a very high operating temperature.
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  Even when you're just driving on the street, you'd be amazed
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  how hot those rotors get.
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  Look at the edge of the pad to see if there's any sort of bubbling,
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  because that's an indicator that the pads are actually overheating
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  and beginning to break down.
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  Look for fissures.
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  Micro fissures are pretty common on a rotor because as they age,
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  the metals start to break down and they start to separate.
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  But if you're seeing something that you can dig your fingernail into, into
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  that rotor, there's a very good chance that that thing's going to crack.
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  And you'll hear it by a loud kind of pang or clang sound as that rotor snaps.
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  The effectiveness of the, of the brakes is then is basically zero.
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  And it's advisable that you do not operate the vehicle with a cracked rotor.
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  Again, a Creek bang or a Creek pop coming from the brakes during
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  a cool down period is a sign that the rotor might have just cracked.
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  And with, uh, with our track cars, I mean, I'm.
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  I think I change my rotors every year, whether they're,
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  they need to be changed or not.
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  I keep one of the used ones just as a spare backup, just in case.
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  They're one of our members and some of our listeners will recall this.
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  We were at Watkins Glen and he put the piston through the back of the backing
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  plate and it went right into the rotor.
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  I mean, it damaged everything.
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  Had to get a new brake caliper.
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  Like all sorts of stuff and so you don't want to get to that point with your brakes
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  I mean granted it was stopping because it was still metal on metal But it's all the
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  wrong compounds talking to each other and the sound was was absolutely horrendous.
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  Was that a honda?
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  It was it was a honda.
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  It was one of those big block hondas, too Ah, right.
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  I know exactly who we're talking about next up We're going to talk about a
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  finger snapping popping or clicking sound you might hear from the car
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  Now this sound is really more common in a front wheel drive or all wheel drive
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  vehicle, especially during turning.
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  Usually the sound will disappear when the wheels are straight, and
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  the sound is indicative that a front CV, also known as a constant
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  velocity joint, is beginning to fail.
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  Prolonged use of the vehicle going down the highway, you know, trying to get
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  it home or to the repair shop probably won't leave you stranded, but generally
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  a turn into a parking spot because the steering is under full lock and the
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  CV is completely extended will usually cause the CV to finally give up and snap
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  with a kind of very distinguishable.
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  Pop or snap sound.
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  And then all of a sudden the car will just accelerate and go nowhere.
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  I know a loud pop cruising at 70 miles an hour under a wide open throttle means
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  that you're just broke an axle because you go from 70 to 30 or you've just burned
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  the clutch out and it's revving for no reason because the clutch isn't engaging.
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  So that's a whole nother one.
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  That's true.
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  That's true.
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  That's true.
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  The solution to that problem is generally an axle replacement.
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  Our recommendation is if you feel that your CV joints are suspect, both
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  the inners or outers, generally it's the outers that cause this noise.
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  It's, it's important that you replace both axles so that you know that they're
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  aging together because there's a very good chance if one of the axles in
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  the vehicle is going bad, the one on the opposite side is equally as old
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  and probably ready to give up as well.
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  So replace them as a pair.
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  They're generally not that expensive, especially if you're using, you know,
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  Cheaper aftermarket parts instead of OEM.
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  We're used to paying, you know, anywhere from 60 to less than a hundred dollars
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  per axle and on the street, they'll go for years and years and years at the
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  track, they could go one or two events.
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  It all really depends.
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  Obviously, if you're stressing the car out at the track, it's a good idea to look
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  into some higher quality parts, maybe some drag axles or things designed specifically
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  for racing, but for the street.
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  It doesn't really matter the type of axle you get before we move on to the
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  next one eric I want to go ahead and jump in here now for The cv joints and the
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  axles and the sounds that that makes you mentioned front wheel drive or all wheel
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  drive Now, can you explain to the layman?
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  Why?
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  These types of sounds are prone to those cars.
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  And also is there a rear wheel drive equivalent sound that
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  people should listen for?
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  Yeah.
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  The reason on a front wheel drive, it's more prevalent is because
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  as we've mentioned on a previous episode, front wheel drive vehicles.
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  Are doing a lot more work.
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  It's doing accelerating, braking and turning all on those front two wheels.
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  The rear wheels are really along for the ride.
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  We'll talk about wheel bearings here in a minute.
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  The rear wheels are just on, on a spindle on, on a wheel bearing.
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  And they're just, they're just there to keep the car from.
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  dragging metal on the ground in a rear wheel drive car.
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  It's basically the opposite.
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  The front wheels are held on by a spindle with a wheel bearing and they're just
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  rolling around and you're only using those front two wheels for steering.
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  So there is no CV joint there.
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  You have a spindle with ball joints that are turning and those will
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  tend to go and begin to wobble, but they don't make a lot of sound.
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  It's very difficult to diagnose.
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  A ball joint problem or a control arm problem because they don't really make
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  a lot of sound But you'll feel it in the steering There'll be a wobbling
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  sensation or shimmy in the steering that will indicate maybe you need to look
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  into that Also with the rear wheel drive car It's very difficult to diagnose a
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  cv problem in the rear because again the rear wheels are now being driven By the
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  differential which has axles associated with it, which will have inner and
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  outer cv joints They're under different load than a front wheel drive because
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  they're just Used to propel the car.
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  Obviously there's G forces against the suspension that will change the camber,
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  but it's not a constant velocity joint.
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  Like like on a front wheel drive car where they're constantly
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  moving in every which direction.
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  They're really only moving the car forward and spinning in that forward
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  forward in reverse motion too.
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  So it's a lot more difficult to diagnose it.
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  So really you have to get under the car periodically and check the axle for play.
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  See if it starts making noise or is knocking around there.
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  You may hear them knock into the differential or hear some grinding
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  noise or something like that, but it's going to be very extreme cases
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  that you're going to hear that.
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  So much more difficult to diagnose.
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  You're probably not going to hear it from the outside of the car,
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  like you do in a front wheel drive.
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  A sound that you may hear that's similar to this when the car is sitting still
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  after you've driven it for a long period of time, or maybe you've just
• 15:56
  come off track, you'll hear the same kind of popping, pinging, or clanking
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  sound coming from underneath the car.
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  This is generally the sound associated with the exhaust system cooling down.
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  And that's because exhaust systems are usually made of dissimilar metals,
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  especially the catalytic converters, which are full of all sorts of
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  precious metals that heat and expand and contract at different rates.
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  And so the sounds of them cooling down, you'll hear them popping and clanging
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  and banging from underneath the car.
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  It really isn't anything to be concerned about.
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  It's just kind of the normal behavior of those metals as they
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  react to temperature change.
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  Other parts of the drive train to be concerned with, you'll hear
• 16:32
  this kind of rhythmic squeaking.
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  So it almost sounds like a meat grinder.
• 16:40
  It's like a real just rhythmic squeaking, like creak, creak, creak, creak, creak.
• 16:44
  That's generally going to be found on rear wheel drive vehicles, a lot of
• 16:49
  trucks where they use universal joints.
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  center bearings for the differential on the long shaft that connects the front or
• 16:56
  transmission or transfer case to the back.
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  These components send power front to the back of the vehicle.
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  You'll also maybe hear sounds like this on an all wheel drive vehicle
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  that'll have multiple differentials and all sorts of, you know, different
• 17:07
  bearings along the drive train.
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  You can generally continue to drive the vehicle and just
• 17:12
  kind of put up with the noise.
• 17:13
  For a while, however, prolonged abuse will result in a bearing failure,
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  which will lead to more serious issues.
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  It could also lead to universal joint completely collapsing and
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  the drive shaft will just separate.
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  And then you're left stranded because now you can no longer deliver
• 17:27
  power from, you know, the engine.
• 17:29
  To the driving wheels of the vehicle.
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  So it's something you want to get look into.
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  It's a little bit more difficult task because there's more components that need
• 17:36
  to be removed than there is in the case of, you know, changing an axle or changing
• 17:40
  a wheel bearing or something like that.
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  But one of the other things that we didn't really mention is transmission sounds.
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  It's not a deadly sound.
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  So transmissions will make noises.
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  They'll shift funky.
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  They're actually very deceptive.
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  Because they don't tend to make a lot of noise.
• 17:56
  They're all, everything inside the transmission is encased in fluid.
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  And so it's difficult to identify sounds.
• 18:02
  And when transmissions do make sounds, yeah, they're pretty much toast.
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  Now in a race car, it really depends on the kinds of gears you have, because
• 18:12
  I had a trans that had cut gears.
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  And I mean, it's screams like an airplane, but that's pretty
• 18:17
  normal because they're just noisy.
• 18:19
  Right.
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  But it's, it's really nothing to worry about.
• 18:21
  The transmission is going to, especially in a manual is going to give you different
• 18:24
  feedback from the synchros being bad, but you know, you're going to get that
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  grinding force feedback from the shifter where it doesn't want to go in gear.
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  And when a gear grinds, it's kind of like a, you know, but you feel it in your hand.
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  There's a vibration there.
• 18:38
  Right.
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  In the shifter, you're not going to get that in an automatic and automatic.
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  You're just going to kind of feel it shifting hard.
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  And then the motor will rev weird.
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  And when the clutch is going bad or the clutch is burned out, the car will
• 18:50
  accelerate and all of a sudden it'll just rev up and not go anywhere, which
• 18:53
  is similar to what happens when an axle breaks, except that when the clutch is
• 18:57
  burnt out, you still have forward motion.
• 18:59
  And when the axle breaks, unless you have a really good differential,
• 19:02
  the car isn't going anywhere.
• 19:03
  So next up on the list, we're actually going to talk about howling whining
• 19:06
  or singing coming from your vehicle
• 19:16
  Most of the time it's bearings and the reason you know, it's a wheel bearing
• 19:21
  Especially is because inside the cabin just like you heard in the audio clip
• 19:26
  It will sound like you're inside of an airplane and the sound is pretty constant.
• 19:32
  As long as the car is rolling, it actually tends to get worse.
• 19:35
  The faster you go.
• 19:36
  So you're not going to defeat the sound.
• 19:37
  You're not going to find a speed where the sound is going to go away.
• 19:40
  Once that wheel bearing is shot, it's just going to drive you crazy.
• 19:44
  Bearings are metal components designed to help connected parts,
• 19:48
  usually parts that are pressed together, rotate more smoothly.
• 19:51
  There's different types of wheel bearings, ball bearings, sleeve bearing, et cetera.
• 19:55
  And on most front wheel drive and all wheel drive vehicles, when a CV joint
• 19:59
  fails, a It tends to have a cascading effect and take the wheel bearing with
• 20:02
  it because a lot of wheel bearings are what they call also a split bearing.
• 20:06
  So it's a multi piece bearing.
• 20:08
  And when the, when the CVs start to go, everything starts to loosen, it
• 20:12
  starts to pull the bearing apart.
• 20:13
  And then the bearing will, will fail at the same time.
• 20:16
  CV joint noise can also be confused with wheel bearing noise.
• 20:20
  Because the noise conditions are similar, they're coming from the same space, but
• 20:24
  the sounds change while you're turning.
• 20:26
  And that's the key differentiator between a CV joint that's
• 20:29
  going bad and a wheel bearing.
• 20:30
  A wheel bearing makes noise all the time.
• 20:33
  You can continue to drive with worn bearings, but be prepared to replace
• 20:37
  the hubs and spindles very soon.
• 20:39
  If you have a rear wheel drive vehicle and the sound seems to come
• 20:42
  from the rear of the vehicle while accelerating, and you hear this similar
• 20:46
  sound, there's a good chance it's a problem with the differential and
• 20:48
  not necessarily the wheel bearing.
• 20:50
  Pull everything apart, inspect the differential for signs of leaking.
• 20:53
  If the sound is getting progressively worse, Do not
• 20:56
  continue to operate the vehicle.
• 20:58
  There is always a chance that the bearing wheel sees, and it will lock up a wheel.
• 21:02
  Know your wheel is not going to fall off your car.
• 21:04
  There's, there's big bolts in there kind of keeping everything together.
• 21:07
  It's just not advised to go for long periods of time on bad bearings because it
• 21:12
  does lead to progressively worse issues.
• 21:15
  And again, it's a cascading effect.
• 21:16
  The sage advice here is if the sound results in a vibration of some sort.
• 21:22
  It's indicative of another component failing.
• 21:26
  Remember I mentioned it's very difficult to pinpoint like a ball
• 21:29
  joint that's failing or a control arm.
• 21:31
  Even with spherical hind joint, tubular control arms, even those hind joints
• 21:36
  fail and they knock and it sounds like somebody's knocking on your front door.
• 21:40
  Knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock.
• 21:42
  Every time you hit a bump, you're like, knock, knock, knock.
• 21:43
  What the hell is that?
• 21:44
  You know, the control arms hopping up and down inside there.
• 21:46
  The same is true of a standard controller, not even a race one.
• 21:49
  When the bushing goes, you'll feel this weird kind of hopping in the
• 21:53
  suspension, but you also hear a knocking sound coming from that.
• 21:55
  There's other clangs and pangs that race cars will make because coilovers.
• 22:00
  Tend to just kind of sit there until they have pressure on them.
• 22:04
  Unlike a normal, you know, McPherson progressive spring setup, where there's
• 22:08
  always tension, some coilovers are loose and so you'll hear them rattle and
• 22:13
  clang, especially when you're turning and it almost sounds like an old box
• 22:16
  spring where it'd be like, and you're like, well, what the heck was that?
• 22:20
  And it's usually when you're tight, turn like out of the paddock or whatever.
• 22:24
  And then as you straighten it back out, you hear this.
• 22:26
  And it goes back the other way and you're like, Oh, it's just the
• 22:28
  helper springs doing their thing.
• 22:30
  You don't really worry about it.
• 22:31
  I can't say I've ever actually heard that on track, but driving around
• 22:34
  the paddock, I definitely have heard.
• 22:36
  Yeah.
• 22:36
  It's low speeds.
• 22:37
  Yeah.
• 22:37
  Exactly.
• 22:38
  Because once the car has pressure, be it aerodynamic
• 22:40
  pressure, load from driving, etc.
• 22:43
  The coils are, let's call them activated at that point.
• 22:46
  And so there's, there's the adequate amount of pressure to keep everything
• 22:48
  together, but for whatever reason, at low speed, when the car settles,
• 22:52
  everything just tends to sag a little bit.
• 22:54
  And those they're just free floating, but just a little bit.
• 22:57
  And this is also true if you have camber plates.
• 22:59
  Because they tend to just kind of knock a little bit until
• 23:02
  they settle back into place.
• 23:03
  And then you go about your business.
• 23:05
  None of this is true on a street car, because for instance, if
• 23:09
  you have a strut bearing go, it's going to be a similar knocking to
• 23:13
  if you had a control arm go bad.
• 23:14
  So again, anything that's knocking from the front.
• 23:17
  Is usually suspension related.
• 23:19
  So next up is what we call under hood squealing.
• 23:22
  And there's a couple of different things to listen to there.
• 23:33
  So you've probably heard that sound before it's indicative of a belt.
• 23:38
  You hear it during startup and then maybe it goes away after the engine warms
• 23:41
  up, or you hear it under acceleration, especially in the rain, or maybe you
• 23:45
  just turned on the air conditioner and you just get this squealing sound.
• 23:48
  You really need to look at the pulleys.
• 23:50
  You need to look at any accessory belts if you're in a multi belt
• 23:53
  system, and you need to check on the serpentine belt and its tensioners.
• 23:57
  Sometimes, It's a bearing like let's say in the power steering pump or one
• 24:03
  of the other pulleys and a quick shot of you know White lightning or some
• 24:07
  lube or wd 40 will make it go away, but that's not the end solution There's a
• 24:12
  there's a lubrication problem with those bearings there But if it's a belt problem
• 24:16
  where a belt is slipping on a pulley again that same sound you're going to
• 24:20
  hear that As the system is operating.
• 24:22
  And in some cases when it does warm up, maybe the belt gets
• 24:25
  a little bit more flexible.
• 24:27
  It tends to lose the rigidity when it has, when it's cold.
• 24:30
  And that's also indicative that your belt is getting too old and
• 24:33
  it might be time to replace it.
• 24:35
  You know, new belts are going to be a lot softer.
• 24:37
  They're not going to have these types of squealing issues.
• 24:39
  Now, if you did just put a brand new belt on and it does start to
• 24:42
  squeal, there's a good chance you've over tightened the belt tensioner.
• 24:46
  So maybe relieve a little bit of pressure on there.
• 24:48
  Check the specifications by your manufacturer of how
• 24:52
  tight that belt should be.
• 24:53
  There are some easy tests about, you know, twisting the belt and squeezing the belt
• 24:57
  to see what kind of give it has it, you know, if there's not a lot of resistance
• 25:00
  coming from the belt, it's too loose.
• 25:02
  If there's a ton of resistance and it doesn't want to budge, it's too tight.
• 25:06
  You have to find that sweet spot where a, it doesn't squeal and B
• 25:09
  it's being effective and you're not prematurely wearing out that belt.
• 25:13
  If you don't think it's the belt is the culprit.
• 25:16
  There's another sound you may want to listen for, and it's
• 25:20
  going to be more of a hum.
• 25:21
  And alternators are prone to do this.
• 25:27
  And it kind of sounds like you have a pump under the hood that's running.
• 25:30
  I mean, you get that, that real.
• 25:32
  Low kind of a buzzing sound that could be it's the fuel pump
• 25:38
  when the car first starts up.
• 25:39
  I mean, if you don't hear the fuel pump priming, that's a good sign
• 25:43
  that maybe the car won't start or it could already be primed.
• 25:46
  Maybe you just turned the car off, turn it back on, whatever.
• 25:48
  But that same kind of sound.
• 25:51
  Is the windshield washer pump when it's running, let's say you're cleaning your
• 25:54
  glass here that you're like, okay, cool.
• 25:56
  In the race cars, I listen to my fuel pump all the time.
• 25:58
  You can actually hear it when it's running.
• 26:00
  It's just kind of just that low and you know, it's working.
• 26:03
  A lot of EFI systems will run the fuel pump for anywhere from five to eight
• 26:08
  seconds when you unlock the door.
• 26:10
  So you're still walking up to the car.
• 26:11
  It's already primed the fuel injection system.
• 26:13
  So you may not hear it, but it's working.
• 26:15
  But there's maybe that one time you're like, you walked up the car and you
• 26:18
  open the door and you're like, what is that sound buzzing from underneath?
• 26:21
  It's just the fuel pump.
• 26:22
  Now, if the sound of the fuel pump changes, it gets higher pitch.
• 26:26
  It means it's stressing out and it's, there's a blockage and
• 26:29
  it's trying to deliver fuel.
• 26:30
  You're also going to notice that because the motor's not going to run right.
• 26:32
  If it starts to sound like it's slowing down.
• 26:35
  The fuel pump is actually aged out and it's pretty much
• 26:38
  ready to die at that point.
• 26:40
  In the case of an alternator, you just get this electric whirring, and usually
• 26:44
  that's indicative of a bigger problem with that particular pulley driven device.
• 26:49
  In this case, we're talking about our alternator.
• 26:51
  Air conditioning compressors will also make noise.
• 26:54
  The water pumps tend to make noise.
• 26:55
  They also tend to squeak a lot of older German cars, BMW E36s, Porsche
• 27:02
  944s, even the VW Corrados when they started up and they were cold, the
• 27:05
  water pumps would make a ton of noise.
• 27:07
  And once they warmed up and fluids got up to temperature, the noise would go away.
• 27:11
  In those days, you kind of knew it was running right when it made those noises.
• 27:14
  And when it, when you didn't hear it.
• 27:15
  You almost knew it was time to do a water pump at that point.
• 27:18
  So again, it's hard to pinpoint some of these issues.
• 27:20
  There's some tricks to doing that.
• 27:22
  There's some guys that almost use like stethoscopes or, you know, a
• 27:25
  screwdriver as a set stethoscope to be able to pinpoint, you know, which
• 27:29
  one of the devices is making that, that vibration, you know, is making
• 27:33
  that squeal, et cetera, to try to.
• 27:35
  pinpoint where the problem is.
• 27:36
  Again, you can squirt some WD 40 in there or some other sort of liquid
• 27:40
  grease to try to dissipate the sound.
• 27:42
  But again, you're just really putting a band aid on the problem
• 27:44
  and you need to investigate and make sure that it isn't a bigger issue
• 27:47
  with that particular peripheral.
• 27:49
  Because let's say it is alternator and the alternator fails, now your
• 27:52
  battery is not charging and you might be stranded on the side of the road.
• 27:55
  The other thing to check Is there might be a possibility that this sound is
• 27:59
  also coming from the power steering.
• 28:02
  And so you may want to get a friend to help you check a couple of things.
• 28:05
  For instance, if you get in the car and turn the wheels lock to lock left to
• 28:09
  right, and you hear a moaning sound, it's kind of like, Ooh, and I've heard
• 28:13
  that on a lot of cars where people are, you know, kind of turning into the, you
• 28:16
  know, Target parking spaces and whatnot.
• 28:18
  It is a sign that there's an issue with the power steering, either
• 28:21
  with the rack itself, the pump, or maybe it's just low on fluid.
• 28:25
  First check to make sure that you do have fluid and that it is topped off.
• 28:28
  Please follow your manufacturer recommendations that are in your.
• 28:32
  owner's manual or in your handbook, etc.
• 28:34
  Next up is clunking, banging, rhythmic tapping, pinging, anything that
• 28:42
  doesn't sound normal coming from underneath the hood of your car.
• 28:45
  And one of the most common things we joke about is rod knock.
• 28:49
  And so here's what that sounds like.
• 28:56
  So realistically, your car shouldn't sound like a tractor,
• 29:00
  shouldn't sound like a lawnmower.
• 29:01
  I mean, unless it's powered by a Briggs and Stratton or
• 29:04
  a Kubota diesel of some sort.
• 29:06
  Sounds like that are metal on metal sounds, you know, piston hitting a
• 29:09
  valve, bearings are loose and the rods hitting inside the crankcase,
• 29:13
  you know, things like that.
• 29:14
  Things are hopping around the way they're not supposed to.
• 29:15
  Engines are supposed to be relatively smooth, especially at idle.
• 29:19
  And in that sound clip, you heard the car start up and idle and you hear this.
• 29:23
  Almost hammering sound.
• 29:24
  And that was a rod knock and we've heard plenty of cars have that.
• 29:28
  That's really indicative of that engine being on its last leg.
• 29:32
  Unfortunately, sounds like that mean there's a serious problem with the motor.
• 29:36
  Look for any mill lights or check engine lights that are on your
• 29:39
  dashboard and pull off immediately.
• 29:41
  If you hear sounds like that, especially while you're driving very
• 29:44
  good chance, you turn that motor off.
• 29:46
  It's not going to start back up.
• 29:47
  And that thing is toast.
• 29:49
  I mean, there's, there's really no go great to put that, but that's, that's.
• 29:53
  Again, it could be a multitude of things.
• 29:55
  It could be valve train, it could be connecting rods, it could be pistons.
• 29:58
  It's not a problem that's often diagnosed easily, but again, do not continue
• 30:02
  to operate the vehicle unless you're driving directly to your mechanic.
• 30:05
  And that's the last time it's going to drive you there, but there's a
• 30:07
  good chance that that motor is going to have to be replaced, or you may
• 30:10
  have to make some other considerations with respect to the vehicle itself.
• 30:14
  Most people think when a motor dies, you know, that we played that rod
• 30:17
  knock sound and cock, cock, cock, cock, cock, cock, cock, you know, that's
• 30:20
  I mean, there was that Chevy S 10 at some point that he must've driven that
• 30:24
  thing for 15 years, if not longer with a rod knock and it just can't run him.
• 30:28
  It's like, whatever, Testament to that thing.
• 30:30
  But I've blown up a couple of motors and I will tell you, it is completely.
• 30:35
  Anticlimactic when a motor goes, it just basically shuts off.
• 30:39
  Like you think you ran out of gas and those sounds that they play, like in
• 30:42
  a movie, like an old, you know, Buick.
• 30:45
  And it's like the guy like turned off the motor and it's still running.
• 30:49
  That's not what happens when a motor dies.
• 30:51
  It just basically shuts down and it locks up.
• 30:53
  So, you know, you're driving along and You're like, uh, excuse me.
• 30:59
  And I've blown up a diesel and a blown up a gas motor and they sound identical.
• 31:03
  So there's no difference there whatsoever.
• 31:06
  So what about the people that claim that they shot a rod out of the
• 31:10
  side of the block, this stuff like that actually happened and what
• 31:12
  can cause something like this?
• 31:13
  So I actually had that experience with the student.
• 31:16
  We talked about it in a, in a episode two, as a matter of fact, where we
• 31:20
  talked about the TT that RS that caught on fire and he blew a hole in his.
• 31:26
  And, and blew a rod and the oil that shot out of the motor caught on fire.
• 31:30
  The same thing we're, we're humming along and he goes from third to
• 31:34
  fourth gear, just like any, you know, and then it just died.
• 31:39
  And that was it.
• 31:40
  And you get out and the car's on fire.
• 31:41
  And I mean, I completely anti climactic.
• 31:44
  It's not like, uh, you know, it's not like the, the expendables
• 31:47
  movie where stuff's blowing up.
• 31:49
  You're like, Oh my God, it's going to be amazing.
• 31:51
  No, it's not.
• 31:52
  It's It's actually really sad.
• 31:55
  I would say one that we didn't cover that we probably should have mentioned
• 31:59
  is what a misfire sounds like.
• 32:00
  So let's say a coil pack or a spark plug goes bad or a coil wire
• 32:04
  or part of your ignition system.
• 32:06
  So basically let's just say, and I'm going to try to do my best impression here.
• 32:10
  Let's just say your motor tends to hum.
• 32:13
  It's just like, right.
• 32:15
  If you have a miss, it's going to be like, and you're like, Why all of a
• 32:20
  sudden is it idling like a lawnmower?
• 32:22
  And the reason, and I use that analogy a lot.
• 32:25
  The reason is one or more of the spark plugs is no longer firing.
• 32:28
  So you don't get that nice purr anymore.
• 32:31
  You're getting these odd firing patterns where you're just
• 32:34
  dumping raw fuel out the exhaust.
• 32:36
  And that's one indicator also that the ignition system isn't working.
• 32:39
  Cause all of a sudden you're going to smell raw fuel.
• 32:42
  Coming out of the exhaust or the vehicle may start to backfire.
• 32:45
  And I know we used to get that a lot in the old carbureted days.
• 32:49
  It's still a thing, even with programmable fuel injection, just
• 32:52
  because you lost spark, the computer doesn't shut off the injector and say,
• 32:55
  well, you got an eight cylinder and now it's only going to run on six.
• 32:59
  Cause you're, you know, you don't want to go buy spark plugs for it.
• 33:01
  You're going to notice the misfire and on more advanced computers, it's
• 33:05
  going to tell you right away, misfire on cylinder X, and you just need to
• 33:08
  replace that spark plug or that coil.
• 33:10
  Now, if you have a Harley, those sounds just mean that it's
• 33:14
  operating, you know, properly.
• 33:16
  It's completely intentional.
• 33:17
  The piston slap, the loping sound, etc.
• 33:20
  So, I've got a question I want to throw out at you.
• 33:23
  All of our track cars are gasoline, but some of the tow vehicles are diesel.
• 33:29
  Are there any particular sounds that would be specific to a diesel?
• 33:33
  Because I know they're engineered a little differently.
• 33:35
  There are some things inside the motor that are completely
• 33:37
  different than a gasser.
• 33:39
  Is there anything specific to them?
• 33:41
  Yeah, so the diesel's not to get in the goddamn dirty rabbit hole there.
• 33:47
  Clean, clean diesel, right?
• 33:49
  But blue energy, blue energy, pure energy.
• 33:52
  I hear Leonard Nimoy's voice in my head now.
• 33:56
  So with a diesel, a lot of times it doesn't have an ignition system, right?
• 33:59
  Everything's completely based on compression in the old days.
• 34:02
  You know, if you ever heard an old Mercedes diesel from like the late
• 34:04
  seventies, eighties, it sounds like a marble crunching factory.
• 34:07
  Like it's just there.
• 34:09
  It's just a rhythmic and that's the sound that they make.
• 34:13
  If your gas motor sounds like a diesel, you got big problems.
• 34:17
  And obviously, you know, we're talking about that in the Rodnock section there.
• 34:20
  But again, if your Harley sounds like that, it's operating properly.
• 34:23
  A hundred percent.
• 34:24
  So if you have a turbo diesel and you don't hear turbo whistling or
• 34:28
  blow off, it's indicative of the, maybe the turbos failed and all of
• 34:32
  a sudden you feel like it's under power and it's not really moving.
• 34:35
  And that turbo whistling is that, you know, that.
• 34:38
  And then, you know, that you get, I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm doing my best.
• 34:41
  I can hear, I hear lots of Subaru's do that duck calls too, but, uh, if you
• 34:47
  don't hear that turbo failure, that's true on a gas motor as well, the diesel.
• 34:51
  The other thing is if it starts to rev up.
• 34:54
  And sound more like a gas motor, you've got some bad fuel in there.
• 34:58
  And I've, I've messed around with some of the VW diesels where you're trying
• 35:01
  to clear out the intake and stuff.
• 35:02
  And if you've ever shot any gum out in a diesel intake, all of a sudden
• 35:07
  completely change your sound because the combustion is so much faster
• 35:11
  because diesel has a different burn than gasoline, all this kind of thing,
• 35:14
  not to get into all those details.
• 35:15
  So the sound of the motor will completely change.
• 35:17
  It's almost the opposite.
• 35:19
  Of when you have a misfire and a gas motor, diesel starts to smooth out.
• 35:23
  All of a sudden you're like, wait, that's not right.
• 35:25
  And a gas motor starts to sound like a diesel.
• 35:26
  So I know that doesn't sound right, but the best description I can come up with.
• 35:30
  So changing gears just a little bit.
• 35:32
  Oh, you see what I did there?
• 35:33
  Well, electric can make some noises.
• 35:36
  Yeah.
• 35:36
  Fizzing popping, you know, I don't know.
• 35:39
  I mean, if you hear a sizzle pop.
• 35:41
  Or smell smoke that just means your steak is done.
• 35:43
  Bing fries are done, but But yeah, that's gonna be fuses I've heard
• 35:48
  stuff go off in my fuse panel before where I've had cascading fuses go off
• 35:52
  and it sounds like fourth of july.
• 35:54
  They just start popping and freaking out It's, you know, across the wire
• 35:58
  or two, somewhere along the line, it's more common on British cars, but, but
• 36:01
  they, wait, wait, wait, they have fuse boxes, two fuses around the whole car.
• 36:06
  And I think the Prince of darkness stuff there, left side, right side.
• 36:09
  Pretty much.
• 36:09
  Yeah.
• 36:10
  If you hear anything that sounds like popcorn, it's usually electric.
• 36:13
  And it's from the interior of the car.
• 36:14
  Another sound that people may hear coming from the interior of the car sounds like
• 36:19
  what they would say, carts, you know, baseball cart in a, in a bicycle spoke, or
• 36:23
  like you're fanning out a deck of cards.
• 36:24
  That's usually the, uh, the blower motor for the HVAC system.
• 36:28
  Because they will make a clicking, like there's a card in a wheel, that
• 36:32
  little hamster wheel that's constantly turning because nobody opens their
• 36:35
  windows anymore, running AC, you know, automatic AC and heat, the
• 36:39
  bearings in that start to go bad.
• 36:41
  They just start to click.
• 36:42
  It's, it's pretty, pretty normal.
• 36:44
  But talking about the seven deadly sounds, is there anything else that the
• 36:48
  listeners need to know about opening the floor to discussion at this point?
• 36:51
  I mean, I've had some people tell me that they couldn't identify
• 36:55
  that they're windshield wipers.
• 36:58
  And if you've ever heard nails on chalkboard, your
• 37:01
  windshield wipers are toast.
• 37:02
  I mean, if you hear that it's raining, they're done.
• 37:04
  They're there's metal scraping on the glass at that point.
• 37:07
  So I think one of the other things, you know, we talked about exhaust.
• 37:10
  If your exhaust suddenly breaks, you'll hear a huge sound difference coming
• 37:15
  from the engine where the car gets.
• 37:17
  It's astronomically louder.
• 37:18
  Some of us actually prefer the way it sounds after the exhaust
• 37:21
  is broken or the muffler fell off, you know, by softball or magic.
• 37:25
  I mean, unless you're running at Lime Rock, I've heard plenty of
• 37:29
  cars with broken exhaust out there.
• 37:30
  And one of the reasons I bring it up is that it's not good for you and
• 37:34
  it's not good for everybody else.
• 37:36
  A, the decibel levels are way too high for all of us.
• 37:38
  Your car's muffled for a reason unless you're in a race car.
• 37:41
  And even there, we're actually limited on the amount of decibels.
• 37:43
  We can't go over like 110 at the, at the most, on some tracks, and
• 37:48
  I think it's 1 0 3 is like really the minimum at, at most places.
• 37:52
  The other thing is carbon monoxide poisoning.
• 37:54
  It is the deadliest of, of all the things that you could get from a car.
• 37:59
  And so with a broken catalytic where it's like right under your feet.
• 38:03
  And you're breathing that in.
• 38:04
  You have to remember your floor pan and a lot of the stuff
• 38:07
  in the car is not airtight.
• 38:08
  If you're driving in the summer, maybe with, or in the spring with the windows
• 38:11
  down, you all of a sudden you're breathing this in, you get a headache.
• 38:14
  You're like, I don't understand why I get so tired behind the wheel.
• 38:17
  Maybe it's carbon monoxide.
• 38:18
  I actually run a carbon monoxide detector.
• 38:21
  In my time attack car, because I'm always worried with the turbo
• 38:24
  having so many different exhaust components that there's a leak.
• 38:27
  And so I don't want to get carbon monoxide poisoning.
• 38:29
  I've actually gotten it before.
• 38:30
  It makes you really, really sick.
• 38:32
  So I've got a question for you regarding carbon monoxide poisoning.
• 38:35
  It's just a little scenario I'm going to throw out there.
• 38:37
  Say I'm in a racetrack and I don't have proper tools, but I've got
• 38:40
  an exhaust leak, can a Budweiser can repair that exhaust leak?
• 38:44
  Oh, you remember BIR 2014.
• 38:49
  No, it cannot, you know, visit your local parts store and try to find
• 38:55
  some sort of metal to sleeve things together, some clamps and whatnot.
• 38:58
  We did fix it the next day, but yes, in a pinch, a couple of
• 39:01
  Budweiser cans do not work, but you know, Hey, we got to try, right?
• 39:05
  Does the exhaust tape work?
• 39:07
  It does in conjunction with the appropriate components.
• 39:10
  So again, if you could find.
• 39:12
  A piece of metal sleeve over the broken section.
• 39:15
  And then a couple of clamps, the tape helps seal the gases so that they
• 39:20
  continue to flow rather than have an opening where they can gap out, even
• 39:23
  though let's your muffler fell off.
• 39:25
  And it's further behind you.
• 39:27
  It's not an excuse to say, Oh, well, I'm not getting carbon monoxide.
• 39:31
  Because what most people don't realize is there's a, I want to call it a
• 39:36
  Venturi effect underneath the vehicle.
• 39:37
  And that's probably the improper aerodynamic term for it.
• 39:40
  But basically there's There's cavitation that occurs underneath the vehicle
• 39:44
  where there's a good chance that that air, because it needs to exhaust out
• 39:48
  the back of the car, if it doesn't make the entire length of travel that it
• 39:52
  needs to, it will, it will swell from underneath the vehicle and you're still
• 39:56
  breathing in that carbon monoxide.
• 39:57
  So having a broken exhaust is bad on multiple levels for your ears and
• 40:02
  for your respiratory health as well.
• 40:04
  Are there any of the sounds that we've talked about or haven't talked
• 40:07
  about yet that are more dangerous than others as far as driver safety?
• 40:15
  I guess obviously the ones in the, in the drive train where a wheel can
• 40:19
  be affected because that can affect your steering and stuff like that.
• 40:22
  Obviously the motor stuff, it can affect your wallet, but as far as
• 40:25
  like driver safety, unless something catches fire, you tend to be okay.
• 40:29
  I would say the biggest one is the brakes.
• 40:31
  If the brakes are growling and you're, you're, and if you're in a newer car and
• 40:36
  it has brake sensors and the brake lights been on for a while, you really need
• 40:40
  to not ignore that because what they've done is they actually add a metal hook
• 40:44
  in there that grinds along the rotor.
• 40:47
  And it's telling you the pad is gone.
• 40:49
  You have nothing left.
• 40:50
  And so the dangerous part there is you got to go stop, make an emergency stop on
• 40:54
  the beltway or in traffic or something.
• 40:56
  And now you're brushing your teeth in the rear view mirror, the guy in front of you.
• 41:00
  I mean, that's, that's the worst.
• 41:01
  The rest of the stuff's pretty much going to leave you stranded on the side of
• 41:04
  the road, minor repair, a couple hundred bucks in parts, you know, stuff like that.
• 41:08
  Again, I encourage people to do both sides for aging purposes, not just the left.
• 41:13
  And then all three months later, I had to do the right.
• 41:15
  Just, you're already in there.
• 41:17
  They're already doing the labor.
• 41:18
  Just, just get it done.
• 41:19
  So let's talk about getting help.
• 41:21
  Do you mean roadside assistance?
• 41:23
  Because I've used that a few times.
• 41:25
  So admittedly, not everybody is a mechanic or has a fantastic mechanic.
• 41:30
  And it's really hard to tell what, what some of these
• 41:33
  sounds are and what they mean.
• 41:35
  And it can be very tricky or deceiving, but if you're ever in doubt, just
• 41:39
  pull over, either pull off the road on the shoulder, a safe distance
• 41:43
  from, from traffic, or if you're on the track, pull off of the track,
• 41:47
  if you can, and ask around for help, a little trackside tip for you.
• 41:51
  There are plenty of folks in the paddock with past experience
• 41:53
  and willingness to lend a hand.
• 41:55
  Some folks might urge you to run it until it breaks.
• 41:57
  Then, you know, what's broken.
• 41:59
  I know I've heard this several times, even from my, my cohort over there on the, in
• 42:04
  the other mic on the other microphone, uh, and that's totally within your right.
• 42:08
  Personally, I don't like to subscribe to that dogma, but you know, you
• 42:12
  do you buddy, it's your money, it's your wallet, but without getting
• 42:18
  into track etiquette or an ethics discussion here, remember to do what
• 42:22
  makes sense, but don't go back out.
• 42:24
  If you feel it may cause problems for other drivers, remember
• 42:27
  safety is your number one concern.
• 42:29
  Secondary to that is to not.
• 42:31
  Impede anybody else's good time.
• 42:33
  Uh, and lastly if you're ever stranded on the side of the road Having a good
• 42:37
  emergency roadside assistance can help you get to home or back track or to safety
• 42:41
  in general very quickly Check with your auto insurance company A lot of them
• 42:45
  have little disclosures or options that allow you to do this AAA is probably
• 42:49
  one of the biggest ones out there.
• 42:50
  I know I have it, uh, my wife has it.
• 42:52
  Our parents have it, our parents parents had it, our parents
• 42:55
  parents parents I mean, AAA's been around since, I think, the car was
• 42:58
  invented, so they've got you covered.
• 43:00
  I think you could get AAA for the Conestoga wagons, you know, back
• 43:03
  when they were going west, so yeah.
• 43:05
  Plans often cost pennies a day.
• 43:07
  I think AAA is like a hundred and Or not even that.
• 43:10
  I think it was like 70, 70 to a hundred dollars a year.
• 43:14
  I mean, that's nothing you pay more for that and cell phone service.
• 43:17
  So yeah, make sure you do that.
• 43:19
  And as always, I'm your host, Brad, and I'm Eric.
• 43:22
  Don't hesitate to reach out.
• 43:23
  If you have a question, good luck and remember to keep your ears tuned for all
• 43:26
  of these sounds while you're driving.
• 43:28
  And I think we covered just about everything at this point.
• 43:31
  Yeah, I think so.
• 43:32
  Be safe out there.
• 43:37
  Hey, listeners, did you enjoy this particular episode?
• 43:41
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• 43:43
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• 43:50
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