Owning a car can be a lot of fun. It’s the physical embodiment of freedom, and nothing feels quite as good as cruising down the highway with the windows down and the perfect tunes turned up. But sometimes those tunes may be hiding something you don’t want to hear—a squeak or a squeal, a rumble, or a roar. When you drive a car you have a connection, you know how it should sound, and when that sound changes, you want to get it checked out ASAP.
But what if you can’t get it checked by your favorite auto shop out right away? How worried should you be? Luckily for you we have for you a very non-exhaustive list of some of the more common weird car noises and what they mean.
Is Your Noise High Pitched and Squeaky?
If your car starts making high pitched squealing noises, it can be very alarming. Though your first instinct may be to check for large rodents under your hood, it is more likely that one of your belts is getting old. Though there is (probably) only one engine under your hood, it uses a number of belts to run a bunch of important things—like your alternator, radiator fan, and air conditioning compressor. Different engines have different setups as to which belt runs what, as well as how many belts are present in the engine.
If the shrieking happens right when you start the car and then stops once the engine starts running in earnest, it is likely a belt. If it only starts when you turn on the AC, it is probably the belt that is running the AC compressor that is slipping. If the squeaking continues, as the car runs, you can usually pinpoint where the problem is by following your ears as you look under the hood with the engine on. Once you find the belt, a visual inspection can tell you how worried you need to be. If the belt doesn’t look too bad visually, you should be good to go for a little while, or at least until you want to remove your own eardrums. But if the belt is cracking or raggedy, you should go visit your auto repair shop to get it taken care of. Most of these belts are a relatively quick and inexpensive fix.
Bad Noises When You Hit the Brakes? Squealing or Grinding?
If the bad sounds are only happening when you hit the brakes, then it’s usually pretty safe to say that the brakes are the problem. If the noise has suddenly just started and only occurs when the brakes are pressed, your brake pads are probably wearing out. Modern brakes are designed so that a metal clip on the brake assembly that comes in contact with the rotors—making a dragging or grumbling noise—when the brake pads start to get thin. The sound in itself is a reminder to get new brake pads put on your car. You still have a little while a little while before the brakes aren’t effective, but you should probably make that appointment at your favorite auto repair shop for new brake pads as soon as you hear the noise.
If life got in the way and the dragging has been going on for a while, and you suddenly hear the harsh grinding of metal on metal when you brake, your brake pad has probably worn completely through. And, congratulations, you will need to replace your rotors now as well. When the brake pad is worn through, the metal that holds the pad will be hitting the rotor instead of the composite that makes up the pads themselves. Having the metal from the brake pad come into contact with the metal of the rotors will gouge the rotors, and then cause them to heat up and warp. You absolutely do not want to put new brake pads on these rough rotors. Replacing everything at one time is definitely a more costly repair than if you had replaced those brake pads as soon as the clip let you know something was up.
Does The Sound of Your Tires Seem Unusually Loud?
It can sometimes be hard to differentiate the sound of the tires hitting the road vs the sound of a wheel bearing that’s going to go. Some tires can be louder than others, but if you haven’t gotten new tires and if you aren’t running on worn tires, but it suddenly sounds like your Jetta has monster truck tires, it may be a wheel bearing that is going. When there is a grinding or squeaking sound that increases and decreases with the speed of the car—not the RPMs—there is a possibility that one of your wheel bearings is starting to go. You can try to see if it is a front bearing by listening to how the sounds change as you are going around corners in different directions. The louder the squeak or squeal, the more you may be on to something.
Bad bearings are something that really shouldn’t be put off. You may not have any problems immediately, but you should get it replaced sooner rather than later. A bad bearing can give more play to your wheels, which can ruin your tires. And if a bearing gets too bad, it can lock up entirely, which can lead to a very bad day.
Does Your Car Suddenly Sound Like a Race Car?
When your engine noise changes, it is definitely something that will grab your attention. If there is something thumping under the hood that changes with the RPM even when the car isn’t moving, that is very bad and you need to get that checked out immediately, do not pass go, do not collect $200. There is likely something very wrong with the engine (pistons, valves etc.) and any amount that engine runs can only make things worse.
But if your car still sounds like your car—but way louder—there is a chance you have a hole in your exhaust system. Mufflers are called mufflers for a reason. One way to assess whether the exhaust is the culprit is to accelerate while you are on the road, and then let your car coast for a little bit. If the engine noise gets way louder when you hit the gas, but your car sounds almost normal when you let off, the exhaust might be the culprit. Though not ideal, a holey exhaust likely won’t break your entire ride the way a knock in the engine will. That being said, fixing an exhaust line ensures your exhaust goes away from you and your ride, and not where it can do you or your passengers harm.
Is There Thudding When You Hit the Brakes?
If you start to notice a thudding sound when you hit the brakes, especially when going downhill, you may have some new rotors in your future. The brakes and rotors in your car press together when you hit the brakes to get your car to stop. And when they get too hot for any reason—often just because they are getting older and thinner—they tend to warp a little bit. So if you hit the brakes and can feel that thudding noise through the brake pedal, you absolutely need new rotors. And when you get new rotors, you need new brake pads as well.
One way to see if the rotors are warped in the front or the back is right at your fingertips. If it is the front rotors that are going bad, you can often feel it through the steering wheel when you are braking. There is a subtle left and right movement of the steering wheel that coincides with the feeling of the brake pedal. Worn rotors are yet another thing that you don’t want to wait to long to have addressed. They likely won’t fail on the way to the repair shop, but you never know how much is left in your brake pad. Brakes are what keep you safe in your car, and you never want to waste any time having them fixed.
It’s Making a Noise: Take It To Your Auto Repair Shop Already
The thing with cars is, unlike you, there is no way for them to heal themselves. If your car is making a weird noise, the noise is only going to get worse if you don’t either take care of it yourself, or get your favorite car repair shop to do it for you. So do yourself a favor, take it to the shop sooner rather than later. You will probably save yourself time and money in the long run.
