My car has been sitting in a parking lot for a week. I go to turn it on and as I’m turing the key, it starts to squeal. The engine does turnover, but it continues to squeal and starts smoking as well. I immediately turned the key off but wasn’t sure opening the hood at that moment was the best idea. After awhile, though, I looked under the hood and I have no clue what caused the smoke or where it came from. Any ideas? The car has about 133,000 miles on it.
Thanks!
Probably something turned by a belt has seized, such as your air conditioning compressor or your power steering pump.
Thanks. Come to think of it, a while back my air conditioning was making a faint murmuring sound, but it eventually stopped. Unfortunately, I know nothing about cars, though - what could those things set me back to fix?
Since nobody knows from afar exactly which component may have seized, it is really not possible to give you an estimate. I suggest that you have the car towed to a reputable independent mechanic for examination, and in the meantime, assume that you will be spending at least a few hundred $$ on repairs, maybe more.