Friday, January 8, 2010

First you hear it, then you don't

My venerable 1985 Honda Accord started making an intermittent squealing noise a couple of weeks ago. I'd notice it when I'd first start it up, couldn't pinpoint exactly where it was coming from, and, up until earlier this week, would shortly forget about it because it would stop after I'd driven for a bit. But last Sunday, it was really making a racket and that time it didn't go away, so Wednesday evening I took it to my mechanic so that on Thursday morning, he could start it up, hear the noise, find it and fix it. Except he couldn't hear it. The car never made a peep.

There must be a name for this kind of phenomenon. It's the same one that causes that twinge in your back that's been bothering you for weeks to disappear totally when at last you make it in to see your doctor about it, or that alerts your cat to the fact that you plan to take him to the vet later in the day and even though you haven't even gone near the cat carrier and have acted perfectly normally around him he crawls under the bed to the very center and can't be reached no matter which side you try.

I've dug out my tape recorder and am going to keep it in the car. Maybe Click and Clack can figure it out.

1 comment:

The Fevered Brain said...

Oh yes! Call the Tappit's and I bet they'll know exactly what it is. And the diagnosis will be free. I've never known anyone who talked to them. It will be a new line on your resumé!