Safety of Towing Cars

What did it sound like?

Hell, it could have been a plastic bag stuck on your rear axle, or maybe your car is about to fall apart. Without a description, how can anyone tell?

When you checked your tire, WAS it low? Or did you just put air in it anyway without measuring it? And were the other tires okay?

--scott

You almost had a flat tire?

Shit happens, but it's pretty hard to blame a flat tire on a tow.

Mike

Well, I'm not quite sure if it was a flat or not. I just know that it was a weird sound that wasn't their the night that I parked my car. I just know that this morning was the first time I had driven it since I picked it yesterday from the Tow company. It was pretty loud noise that sounded like it was coming from the back. It was like a little humming noise almost. I can't really explaine the noise though. But, I am going to listen a little more closely to it today while I am on my home from work.

Mike Roma> You almost had a flat tire?

Like I said before, I really don't know about cars but, I don't really think that the pressure was too low but, I did add a little air to the back two tires. And, its really hard for me to give a description of the noise I was hearing but, it sort of sounded like a humming noise or even that noise that is made when something is sticking out of your car door when you close it and then you drive fast and it makes that little noise. But, like I said, its really hard to describe. And my car is brand new so... I don't know why it would be making that noise. The other tires were ok.

Scott Dorsey wrote:

Humming, whining, or flapping? Was it coming from the center or one side? Did the pitch change when you changed speed? Or did the pitch change with the engine speed rather than the wheel speed? Or did it just stay constant?

If you stopped the vehicle, did the noise continue?

If you know where middle C is on a piano... was it higher or lower than that?

--scott

Why was your car towed? Was it broken? Maybe whatever was supposed to be fixed wasn't.

Describe the noise... flapping? twang? bang? thump-thump-thump?

They could have broken something, you could have a broken car, you could have ran over something....

need more info.

Ray

If your tire was low that could make an annoying sound. If you didnt hear the noise again after putting air in the tire then its a good bet that thats what it was.

You 'really' need to use a tire pressure gauge on your tires or they can easily be at an unsafe level. Too low can make a noise, too hard can cause loss of traction and poor handling or explosions (the tire can explode).

A low tire hums sometimes. Usually the steering will feel 'soft' too if a back one is low and even pull.

Mike

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote:

is it possible it was just the pavement? Drive over it again, see if it does it. Where I live there's one stretch of new concrete that makes all sorts of funky noise when you drive on it - it "whistles."

Ray

MY PSYCHIC POWERS DIVINE: you have a fuel pump failing.

Or maybe not. But it fits the symptoms.

--scott

Is it front- or rear-wheel drive? Given that in the US it will probably have automatic transmission, I wonder if the towing company might have commited the cardinal sin of towing it with the driving wheels in contact with the road and therefore driving the torque-converter "in reverse". Let's hope this is not the case - although it if it, the damage is their fault!

Thinking of other things. Check that none of the tyres have bulges in hte sidewalls. I had problems with an intermittent thrumming noise from the back of the car which was worst when turning and which varied with speed. I thought it was going to be a wheel bearing but it turned out that one of my tyres had a bulge on the inside wall (ie out of sight).

So the sound went away after you pumped up the tyre? Looks as if it was the cause - unless you were driving on a noisy surface (eg a concrete road with drainage ridges moulded into it) before pumping up the tyre and a quieter surface (eg tarmac or surface-dressing) afterwards.

Yes, that's a fairly crucial question. If the tyre pressure *was* more than a few PSI low, that could result in tyre noise. With modern cars, you can drive with an almost flat *rear* tyre and not feel much difference in the handling of the car. I hope when you pumped up the tyre, you did so to the correct pressure (and checked/inflated all the other tyres at the same time) rather than just thinking "I'll put a bit more air in it" ;-)

I drove several miles with a tyre that was about 5 psi (gulp!) by the time I got to a garage. This was in a Peugeot 306 (about the size of a Ford Focus or a VW Golf) with front-wheel drive. The only thing that made me suspicious, and stop to check by eye, was that something felt "not quite right" with the back end, though so slight that I wondered whether I was imagining it - if I hadn't driven the car every day for 7 years, I'd never have noticed the symptom. The tyre didn't look to be bulging or to be sitting any lower than one on the other side, so I drove cautiously to the nearest garage. I was horrified when the tyre pump said that the tyre was about 5 psi - it should be about 35. I was amazed at how little effect such a low pressure had on the handling and the tyre noise of the car.

one other thought is damage from the tow. Since your ride is an '06, very possible that something mechanical went wrong at some time, after the tow.

I'm thinking, how did the car get towed? Was it winched onto a flatbed hauler? Or was it hooked with tow hooks off of a crane wrecker? With either method, was it winched or hooked from the front or rear of the vehicle?

I don't know, because obviously I wasn't there, lol, but did the wrecker driver put the trans. in neutral, [I

one other thought is damage from the tow. Since your ride is an '06, very possible that something mechanical went wrong at some time, because of or after the tow.

I'm thinking, how did the car get towed? Was it winched onto a flatbed hauler? Or was it hooked with tow hooks off of a crane wrecker? With either method, was it winched or hooked from the front or rear of the vehicle?

I wonder how the car was hooked or winched. Did the wrecker use the towpoints in the body to attach the cables, hooks, or did they just hook onto whatever they could easily see? [e.g., a swaybar, strut or shock mount]. The method used to tow and how the force was applied [the hooks, cables] to whichever area of the car could likely be a reason for the noise you began experiencing after the tow.

Is the noise repeatable? Since the car is under warranty, one option would be to take it to your dealer to have it checked.

Gary