Auto repair physicians get to the bottom of unusual sounds coming from your car

Is that a whistle from under the hood? Maybe it’s more of a grinding noise? Whatever it is, it’s annoying, isn’t it? What if it’s more than annoying? Well, maybe it will go away.

It’s never a good idea to ignore unusual sounds coming from your vehicle. A car is designed with the expectation that it will make certain noises. When unusual noises are heard, they’re clues to something mechanical. Unexpected thumps, whistles, hums and grinds can indicate all kinds of problems.

A sound that is not customary could indicate a mechanical problem with your ca that could leave you stranded on the side of the road. Worse yet, the sound could come from something more critical than that – something that would put you and your family at serious risk. For instance, what if you hear a slight clanking noise? It’s not that loud so you ignore it.

One day, you approach an intersection and apply the brakes almost without thinking about it. You assume the car will stop, as usual. Instead, your foot pushes the pedal all the way to the floor and the car careens out into traffic speeding by in front of you. You don’t have to consider that situation any further to realize that it’s not good.

Hopefully, you come out of it OK. Better yet, hopefully, the sound you hear is not that serious. But how do you know? The only real way to make sure the sounds you hear don’t indicate a serious problem with your car is to have an expert check it out.

The driver who heard the sounds mentioned in the first paragraph – the whistle-like grinding noise, brought their car into a trusted auto repair shop. The auto repair technician could tell that the sound came from under the hood so he popped the hood and grabbed his stethoscope.

Looking just like a doctor, he carefully touched the stethoscope to parts of the engine. In short order, he was ready with his diagnosis – a pulley for the serpentine belt tensioner was bad.

The pulley is is a metal wheel on a bracket. It presses against the serpentine belt, which drives the alternator, power steering pump, water pump and other essential parts. The pulley has bearings inside. As is usually the case with a faulty pulley, the bearings inside were failing.

Fortunately, the driver brought the car in soon enough. If not, when the bearings got too hot and locked up, the pulley would have chewed up the serpentine belt. In the case of this vehicle, there were two belts. When the first belt came apart, it would have destroyed the other belt.

That’s the other issue with ignoring unusual sounds coming from your car; if you ignore them, they often develop into even more costly problems.

Is your antifreeze safe from freezing this Richmond winter

You still have time to have it checked Well, there’s no denying it – winter tends to get chilly here in Richmond. We have to deal with snow and ice on the roads, scraping the same off our windows and windshield, and staying warm while we drive. Of course, you had your antifreeze checked before winter rolled into town. What?! You didn’t have your antifreeze checked before winter clamped down on Richmond? So, how’s your antifreeze doing? If you haven’t had it checked, there’s really no way of knowing, is there? This car has overheated in the middle of a Richmond winter. But, on the other end of the spectrum, the antifreeze can also freeze if it's not up to its job. Hopefully, you haven’t had a serious problem with your antifreeze already. If you did, you’d probably know. When antifreeze fails, it’s a potentially catastrophic condition for your vehicle’s engine. You could have hoses that have burst because of freezing antifreeze. Worse than that, your engine block may have crac...

Blocks of ice falling from cars in McHenry could cause accidents or damage

We’ve all seen those blocks of snow falling from behind the rear tires of a car when the snow rolls into McHenry . Fortunately, they’re just packed snow that will disintegrate under your vehicle’s tires as you simply drive right through them, right? Don’t count on it. Those blocks of snow are often packed so tight, condensed by the thaw-and-freeze cycle, that they’re anything but oversized snowballs . They’re often more like boulders. Hit one of those blocks and the collision between the block and one of your tires could send you careening off the road or into oncoming traffic. In some cases, they’re so solid you could pound them with a sledgehammer with little effect. They truly can represent a serious road hazard. The problem is that it’s difficult to tell how solidly they’re packed when you see them on the road, left their unwittingly by another driver. Either way, your best bet is to try to avoid them. But you want to be careful dodging blocks of ice in the road, too. You need...

October 20 Hootenanny will benefit veterans with PTSD

Been to a Hootenanny lately? When you read that question did you ask, “What?” Well, if you have gone to a Hootenanny in a while, or if you don’t know what a hootenanny is, we have an event for Oct. 20 that will clear up either question. From 6 p.m. to Midnight, Saturday, Oct. 20, MC3, the McHenry Area Chamber of Commerce business networking group, is helping to host an inaugural Veterans R&R Wild Horse Hootenanny at Beyond Stable Farm (11129 Rte. 176, Woodstock). The event will benefit Veterans R&R Operation Wild Horse. Operation Wild Horse serves veterans with PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). Working with the horses has proven to have an incredibly calming effect on the veterans. And, it’s good for the horses, too, rescued wild mustangs. This means that the hootenanny is for a very good cause. But, it’s also a lot of fun. So, what is a hootenanny? According to a Google search, a hootenanny is “an informal gathering with folk music and sometimes dancing.” The V...

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