We’ve all encountered a mysterious car noise that we can’t replicate when we get to the auto repair shop. One woman may have captured footage of an unexpected way a tech may figure out what’s wrong with a vehicle. It requires going above and beyond and possibly putting their health and wellbeing at risk.
TiKTok user Stacy (@stacymariekay) posted a video earlier this week from outside an Audi dealership. In it, she films a white Audi driving around the parking lot with the hood open. A service tech is crouched on top of the front end with his ear to the motor.
“When I say I’m hearing a noise from my car, this is what I’m expecting at the dealership,” Stacy writes in the onscreen text.
In the caption, Stacy adds, “I just hope he figured out whatever was wrong after all this.”
Her TikTok has 10 million views as of this writing.
An Audi Level of Customer Service
In the comments, viewers said this is the type of customer service they would appreciate from their own mechanics.
“I’m gonna show this to my mechanic and tell him I need more passion. More energy,” wrote one person.
“This is peak diagnostic driving,” joked a second.
“I’ll pay that labor fee,” cracked a third.
“Plot twist the sound only start at 75mph,” another said.
Someone who said they work in the industry wrote, “As a dealership employee, I can confirm our techs do this OFTEN.”
Is This How You Diagnose Car Noises?
While it may not be unheard for a mechanic to literally ride under the hood to diagnose a vehicle, this is far from common practice. They can run the engine without moving the vehicle, after all. If they do have to drive it to get an idea of what’s going on, they can typically hear whatever sound it is from inside the passenger compartment.
Plus today there are diagnostic machines that can do much of the work of letting techs know what’s up under the hood or elsewhere in the vehicle.
When your car starts making weird noises, it’s generally a good idea to take it to a repair shop and have it looked at by a professional. That’s because those noises can be related to a lengthy list of potential problems.
Squealing brakes can be a sign of worn out brake pads. That engine knocking could be anything from contaminated fuel to overheating problems to worn-out bearings. That rattling exhaust system could be caused by a slew of different issues. And grinding when you change gears is an alarm that your transmission needs attention immediately.
If you’re more of a do-it-yourselfer, the folks on Reddit’s r/InternetIsBeautiful recommend My Car Makes Noise, which is a blog library dedicated to helping people sort out what’s going on when their car makes various sounds.
“This is like WebMD for cars. CarMD. I honestly just now, in less than a minute, diagnosed the sound I’ve been hearing from my car using this site,” wrote one person. “Thanks!”
Another suggested, “Somebody oughta combine this with a Shazam-like app to provide a diagnosis by listening to your car with your phone.”
Someone else urged caution, “This is sorta cool, but be warned that this is probably about as useful as WebMD if you don’t know what you’re doing. Basically, these can be good guidelines, but you won’t know until you can have a good look at it and maybe start pulling things apart. Always check the most likely or easiest thing first.”
Motor1 reached out to Stacy via TikTok comment and direct message for comment. We’ll update this if she responds.
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