Last night, I took my dogs to the dog park. The car was fine on the way over. Upon exiting the park, I heard a low pitched squeal. I opened the windows to hear it better, and it seemed to be coming from under the car. And there was also sound like something loose and rotating or flapping around. At first I wondered if the brakes were squeeling, but when I removed my foot from the brakes, the squeeling continued. I pulled over, to see if it was a tire issue, since the other noise felt like something flapping around, but could see nothing. I drove on down the road a little bit, unsure whether I should be driving, or whether something was going to fall off. Then abruptly, the squeal stopped. The flapping stopped. I made it all the way home. Today I did not hear a squeal, but I think I heard some flapping. The car is a 2004 Acura TSX and I haven’t really had any problems to speak of. I take good care of it.
I guess at this point it is a situation to be monitored, hopefully it was something as simple as a stray plastic bag going somewhere unexpected and all will be well.
I was hoping something similar, but the squealing? who knows…
Have You Got The Same Number Of Dogs That You Started With?
Chevy Chase had a similar experience in a movie. I believe it was titled Vacation.
Have somebody who knows anything about the underhood portion of the car, take a look. I just wonder if a belt is going bad.
CSA
I don’t have a good feel for diagnosing noises over the net (probably get 1 out of 10 right) what I do have a good feel for is how many posts we get about the supposedly “highly reliable” Hondas and Toyotas. These reliabilty figures from CR and satisfaction reports from J.D. Powers carry too much weight, but then what else do we have to go on,the number of posts on CarTalk from people with problem Hondas and Toyotas?
Maybe we hear more about Hondas and Toyotas simply because there are so many more of them.
Back around 2000 while I was still running my rapidly fading '84 Chevy wagon I commented to my kids (about 17 yrs old), “I see a lot of newer cars broken down on the road.” “Hey, Dad,” they said, “there are a lot more newer cars on the road.”
Whoops! We’re hijacking this thread.
We Have Almost No Hondas And Toyotas On The Road Where I Live.
There is no dearler support within a 4 hour round trip. We only have domestic badged vehicles represented. I have taken note that out of 40-50 cars that park at the Country Club during Tuesday night men’s league, two are foreign badged cars. One is a Little Kia of some kind and the other a little Toyota of some sort. All the rest are Ford, Dodge, GMC, cars and trucks. There are lots of trucks and SUVs (men’s vehicles).
I have nothing but unbelievably good reliability from my American badge cars. I always have. I use CU (Consumer Reports) to choose toasters, vacuums, TVs, etcetera, but not cars. Most people in this neck of America wouldn’t buy Asian cars even if they were available. I wouldn’t consider it. Why would I want to?
I too find it amazing when I hear how reliable these Hondas and Toyotas and other Asian makes are and then see all the problems, TSBs, recalls, complaints, and so on that seem to dominate this site.
CSA