The car is a 2016 Subaru Crosstreck; it is only 3 months old and has less than 2000 miles on it. When I drive the car it makes a screeching / metal grinding sound, almost like I’m dragging a piece of metal under the car; it gets worse the slower I drive. I checked under the car, there isn’t anything loose.
When I wash my car, I spray water high pressure water under the car at a slightly upward angle. It is consistently 0-30 degrees F where I live.
I believe that there may be ice somewhere in my engine or breaks causing the sound? However, the engine should get hot enough to melt the ice while driving. It often gets louder when I turn, so maybe there’s ice in the suspension system? It has been happening for 3 days now.
A few years back a small rock got stuck between the heat shield and the rotor on the front disc brakes on my 2000 Blazer. It made an ungodly screeching noise. I had to pull the wheels off and check each side before I found it. Once the rock was out the brakes were quiet and no harm was done.
Some problem w/the brakes or suspension, best guess. Could be ice, but if so it should go away if you stop washing the underside of the car for a couple weeks. When I lived in Colorado I washed my cars and truck just as you are sayjng, but never had this noise problem for ice forming however. But maybe it is colder where you live than in north western Colorado.
In any event, this is a new car so no need to guess. Schedule a warranty appointment with your local dealer shop. This isn’t something you want to just live with, as it could be damaging something, or might in fact be dangerous.
Thousands for a new car with at least 3 year or 36000 mile warranty and someone is on the internet asking strangers what is wrong with the vehicle. This happens all the time and I just don’t understand why.
I urge you not to try to diagnose or address this problem yourself. Any attempt to do so may void your warranty for related problems in the future. You really need to let the dealer fix this under warranty.
“Thousands for a new car with at least 3 year or 36000 mile warranty and someone is on the internet asking strangers what is wrong with the vehicle.”
Maybe because things like a rock stuck behind the dust shield – or some other inflicted damage – would not be covered by the warranty, and the OP just wants to heed advice to avoid dealership except for warranty work.
Folks post here for a variety of reasons I suspect. For example, one is that they’d like to have some add’l info and opinions up front before going to the dealership. So they could be better able to communicate with the staff and get the most from their visit.
I think it is not a problem dealing with the warranty but a curiosity of what might have happened before one takes it to the dealer for repair, so if they tell one just need a new cabin filter they will have enough info to say BOGUS