Wait For It… a blog by Andy Ross

Car Talk

Excuse me, are you Mike? The sign outside said Mike's Garage. Can I ask you a question about my car?

It's been making a funny noise for a while now. Maybe two weeks? At first, it was kind of a "whrrr whrrr krickk," but lately it's making a sound like "chrck chrck chrck kkkkillllll thhhhemmm. Kkilllllll thhhhemmm alllllll." Do you know what that might be?

At first, I thought it was the fan belt, but I don't really know anything about cars. I wouldn't recognize the fan belt if I saw it. Maybe the alternator?

Here, I'll do it again. The noise is coming from the right towards the front, and it sounds a bit like "chrck chrck chrck kkilllll thhhhemmm. Waaaattch thhhemm bleeeed."

Do you think it's the alignment? I just had it realigned last spring. I hope this is an easy fix, because it's starting to keep me up at night. Even when the car's not running, I still hear this low "crrck crrck kkilllll" in my dreams.

I had this same, exact problem with my previous car. That was back in Omaha, before I moved and changed my name. Back then, though, it was because I still had fingerprints. That can't be the problem now.

Mike, are you backing away slowly? Oh, Mike, don't do that. You don't want to make the car angry, do you?

I had a thought that it might be something rattling against the drive shaft. Like possibly some unclean souls? But, like I said, I don't know much about cars.

Here, I've got AAA. Sorry if the card's a little sticky.

Do you take Visa?