I was looking forward to a ride in bro-in-law's Skoda VRS estate. Firstly, because it seems to have 200bhp under the bonnet and secondly, bro-in-law can use his police driving skills to make swift and entertaining progress without scaring the bejasus out of the passengers. Unfortunately my enjoyment was dampened by the piercing drone of a wheel bearing about to expire. Neither bro-in-law nor his missus had thought anything was amiss; they thought it was road noise from the fat tyres and had been present since they bought the car. Sis-in-law thought I was trying to find fault because it was a Skoda and got a bit prickly, but the bearing has since been replaced under warranty.
It made me think of a few noises that I can diagnose by sound alone; driveshafts clicking, propshafts clicking (but differently), worn brake shoes and brake pads grinding, cracked coil spring rattle, door seal whistle, big end rattle, main bearing rumble, timing chain clatter, tappet rattle and exhaust blowing.
Perhaps other Backroomers would like to complete the list ?
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Things that aren't working? - by the lack of noise?
Billy
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I dunno!
I can't hear what's wrong for all the noise ;>)
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My step-son is even worse though.... What I'd notice as a problem and certainly normal he might think it might sort itself out!
A prime example, he's driving to work and smoke/steam (was not there) starts coming out of the front of the car. And it overheats. He stops and lets it cool down (but does nothing else) and then drives to work. So something seriously wrong.
He then wonders if it's sorted itself out so drives a few miles to a friend's house but it's not okay! It turns out to be a broken radiator and he's lucky it was -2 and the car seems okay with a new rad.
It also leaks some oil but he thinks that's okay too... previous car was burning oil and he'd not do anything until the oil light came on and only fill-up.
Some people just do not know how complex a car is... and I keep on at him to check oil, get serviced, etc.!
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my odometer clicks in the cold weather, but having said that the car runs a lot quieter in very cold weather generally, i wonder if thats because all the mounts and bushes are slightly constricted caused by thermal shrinkage .. any boffs in the room to prove me right or wrong?
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High pitched flute-like whine, slightly out of synch with engine revs - timing belt tensioner pulley on Passat 2.0 GL - bearing getting v stiff and about to seize and fry the belt.
Slight notchiness and altered declutching on older GL5 Passat as one cable strand after another fatigued and broke after repeatedly bending and straightening around the RHD conversion pulley arrangement. Caught me out at 40,000, carried a spare from then on, caught it in time around 80, 120ish and 160ish.
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cars cry for help, has any backroomer ever experienced a situation where you develop a noise or a rattle from your motor and its cured itself, i fitted an alternator (scrapyard model) to my car and all was well for 6 months then it got noisy (rumbling at low revs) seems to have sorted itself out now as its silent and i havn't run out of electricity
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On a similar subject about ignorance of things motoring, I was terrified while being driven by my brother-in-law recently at high speed down some country roads at night. I couldn't see very far in front and I was sure he couldn't either. When I asked him about his headlamp height adjuster he wasn't sure what I was talking about. After much searching by him it transpired that it was at its highest setting (i.e. set for heavy towing) and was pointing the lights steeply downwards. "RTFM" springs to mind - maybe a warning message should be attached to those switches.
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