What Your Car Is Really Telling You When Something Feels Off
There’s a moment in time that every driver with a vehicle inevitably finds themselves in: something’s not quite right. It’s not a dashboard full of lights that everyone fears or a catastrophic breakdown on the side of the road, sometimes, it’s just a feeling. The steering wheel feels slightly heavier than usual, there’s a sound that wasn’t there yesterday, or it takes the car a half-second longer to respond upon acceleration.
These minute differences are easy to brush off; everything works, right? But here’s the thing: a car doesn’t just break overnight; it gives you signs, sometimes for weeks and months, of odd behavior that normally, people let go until something grand strikes.
When Different Is Bad
Fortunately, the human brain picks up on patterns very well, which is why so many people run with their feelings and assume something is wrong. When something doesn’t feel right, it usually isn’t. However, there’s so much technology in vehicles today that unless one inherently knows what’s wrong off the bat, it’s challenging to know what’s wrong.
Is a burning smell a plastic bag stuck on the tailpipe or is it leaking fluids onto hot areas? Is a jolt of vibration when accelerating poor tire balance or an expensive drivetrain problem? We generally get accustomed to how our own vehicles sound, feel and respond over time.
How it idles, how the brakes sound when depressed, how it kicks up when gas is given, and when something changes from this pattern, we should recognize it. Unfortunately, people talk themselves out of it, believing they’re overthinking, or the problem will simply fix itself. It won’t. It only gets worse.
It’s All About Sounds
Without a doubt, odd sounds are probably one of the earliest warning systems vehicles use. If a person’s brakes squeal, it’s time to get the pads changed; many brake pads come with built-in wear indicators that create that obnoxious noise. It may be obnoxious but it’s meant for good. If ignored, eventually the wear will turn to metal grinding on metal, and that’s dangerous and more expensive.
If there’s any clicking or popping sounds when turning, front-wheel drive vehicles have CV joints that allow wheels to turn and get power simultaneously. When they start to go, they scream. The sound gets louder and more frequent until it’s highly annoying. If someone is experiencing weird symptoms, contacting a qualified car mechanic sooner rather than later means small symptoms don’t turn into expensive repairs later.
If there’s a knocking sound by the engine, never good news; it’s either low oil or something internally catastrophic going on. Sometimes you can’t just drive a little longer until something happens; in these situations, it’s complete engine replacement status.
Lastly, whining/humming sounds that change pitch with speed come from wheel bearings failing. These are what allow wheels to spin freely; when they go, or if the wheels are loose, this becomes problematic down the line.
It Doesn’t Smell Right
If your nose senses something that shouldn’t be there, trust it. If there’s an overwhelming burning smell from your exhaust, outside or inside, the odds are something’s wrong. A burning smell after driving downhill for an extended period is common; a burning smell that’s always there is not. Other issues like oil leaking onto heated parts in the engine or electronics going astray are no good.
If there’s a sweet smell in your vehicle, or more commonly when your heat is on, it’s highly likely there’s a coolant leak. Coolant has a sweet smell about it, and breathing it in is bad for someone’s health. More importantly, without coolant regulating engine temperatures, overheating occurs, and this is bad for engines.
If there’s a rotten egg smell going on, it’s probably a bad catalytic converter, part of the exhaust system that’s not working as it should to remove harmful emissions from going into the environment and subsequently into the engine.
Can’t We All Just Get Along?
Sometimes symptoms aren’t loud at all; they’re just uncharacteristic performance changes. If there’s hesitation upon acceleration, check throttle positioning sensors or spark plugs; they’re all part of the same system, and if one is failing upon pushing down the pedal, they’re all failing together.
Difficulty starting, today I just need to give it some time, tomorrow I’ll go buy a new battery, but today I can give it another try. Wrong; if a vehicle takes longer than normal, or multiple attempts at starting, it needs to be evaluated as soon as possible, not when the weather gets colder but in minor conditions.
Performance changes over time should be evident; if suddenly gas isn’t as efficient and driving patterns don’t change, something’s amiss regardless of tire pressure being lower or an inefficient fuel situation or engine situation preventing proper access.
Vibrations Are Different from Just an Unsteady Road
A car that pulls to one side is either out of alignment (which is true more often than not) or there’s uneven brake pad wear or suspension issues preventing proper weight and distribution function under normal operations.
Vibrations upon driving at certain speeds are more than just minor annoyances; they’re visual cues indicating problems with wheel balance, which causes uneven wear and stresses brake components more than necessary.
Wheel vibrations are also often associated with driveshaft imbalances and/or issues with universal joints in rear-wheel-drive cars.
Ignoring Signs Doesn’t Cure Them Either
Unfortunately, people have good intentions; they want things to get better and when they’re busy, they don’t have time to assess problems. People assume when their cars are broken they’ll have time to take care of them then. Cars don’t get better, they get worse.
If there’s a small leak initially, that’s just excess stress on parts and that’s not good. Losing fluid that’s meant for operations only makes parts work harder without lubrication, and that’s bad news bears.
Replacing brake pads is cheaper than going through rotted out pads and rotors; replacing calipers might be due to operator error. Fixing leaks happen many times over serviceable vehicles; fixing them once it reaches critical failure creates new nightmares.
Trust Your Gut
What’s sad about all of this is the instinct that tells people that something isn’t right, that help should be assessed sooner rather than later, is definitely present because over time of driving one similar car they constantly assess how things should run.
When they run different, there’s usually a reason, and vehicles give off signs: sounds, smells, vibrations, and performance indicators that say get help sooner rather than later to avoid bigger problems down the line, or learn to deal with the compounded manifestations of deterioration.