[Yoda]

I've been awake close to 24 hours now. Nothing unusual there. Son wanted food. So at 11am we set out to Burger King ~3 miles from home. I'm in mismatched PJs but whatever, I went through the drive through and then got a gallon of milk from the gas station beside BK.

I have a 2005 Audi A4 that I bought in 2007 and I still have it under 100K miles. (yay, me) The low oil light came on 2 days ago. I had not driven it more than 10 miles since then; I need to start stocking oil for this as it usually runs low a time or two between oil changes. No leak, it just eats oil.

For the past few months I can hear what sounds like metal rubbing metal when I am at slow speeds and the sound stops when I apply the brakes. I mentioned it to my mechanic awhile back and he found no problem.

So this morning we were headed home on our country road and I hear a new sound and that was when I said, "oh, sh---". I was not sure what went wrong but only could think of what it might cost to repair and how I don't have $$$. I was more than a mile from home and I debated driving versus tow and what the heck could it be anyway? My son wanted to look under the car and he said I was dragging a big stick. What stick? I didn't remember driving over a big stick. It's a country road in rural WV, says son. He asked if he could try to dislodge it with another stick and I said, ok, I guess so. Then I was starting to worry, will he get run over, I had my hazard lights on but still I am his mom, it is my job to worry, yes?

The good part - he dislodged the stick from the car and we lived happily ever after. Or something like that...

I'll buy oil next time out and will get another mechanic opinion on the metal grating sound. Stupid stick be gettin' all up in my way and stuff.

Grrr... even a mediocre mech/tech should be able to tell what that noise is. Maybe wheel bearings or races but most likely it's actually in the brake system. An Audi shouldn't be burning oil after just 8 years. That would be piston rings most likely. Very expensive fix. Watch out for sticks

[unaluna]

I hate when that happens!

i know it's probably not the sort of response you wanted, but actually found that story a good laugh. lol.

hope you get the metal thing fixed though

[lizardlady]

Yoda, I had a similar experience awhile back. Driving down the road and heard a horrible noise coming from the truck. I pulled over to check it out. A nice police officer pulled up next to me and told me it was a stick underneath. I climbed out to check anyway. Stick?!?!? The dang thing was the size of a tree branch! I had not seen any tree branches in the road or I would've gone around it. I have no idea where the dang thing came from.

I do have a theory about instances like your and mine, though. I think the branches/sticks lurk along the side of the road , then throw themselves under cars as they go by. Kind of like squirrels who run in front of cars. Only the sticks wait and go under as they are going by.

[gma45]

Good thing it was just a stick....I was thinking drive shaft or something bad! Hey at least you had wheels to drive on... I went out the other morning to get in my car and it was on blocks...someone had stolen my wheels! Talk about OH S*%T!!! And a few other choice words came out of my mouth!

[lizardlady]

Originally Posted by gma45

Good thing it was just a stick....I was thinking drive shaft or something bad! Hey at least you had wheels to drive on... I went out the other morning to get in my car and it was on blocks...someone had stolen my wheels! Talk about OH S*%T!!! And a few other choice words came out of my mouth!

Gma, I can't imagine what would come out of my mouth if I found my truck on blocks because someone stole the wheels. Two weeks after I bought my truck I came out of Wally World to discover someone had keyed the length of the passenger side. I went redneck crazy, with absolute vileness coming out of my mouth. Some woman had the nerve to walk by an tsk-tsk me. Some small rational part of my mind thought "Are you crazy lady!?!?! You see some wild woman in the parking lot and you say tsk-tsk!?!?! You fool keep your mouth shut and give the crazy woman a VERY wide berth!!!!"

[eskielover]

Yoda......as I was reading your post....I also thought broken drive shaft.....not a tree branch......thought wow, how lucky it was just a tree branch though.....Interesting how the point of view can change when something so much less serious than it possibly could have been.

LOL....here in KY....it's the stupid possoms that keep going under my truck.....I'm able to avoid the squirrels...possoms are so stupid....I slow down to a stop to let them go back....but they keep coming & waddle right for under my truck instead of turning around. I stopped right in the middle of the road for one late at night...was going to get out & make sure it had moved off the road, but heard another vehicle coming....so slowly moved on with my emergency lights on....I didn't hear a clunk or a crunch....so it seems he must have moved on.

Can relate to the angry keying also....except my truck ended up with the WalMart parking lot shopping basket into the side dent.....I was steaming mad...my truck was also a 2005 that I bought in 2007 & looked beautiful with NO DENTS.......but it's a truck & that's JUST NOT NORMAL.....since that dent.....stbxh didn't get the tail gait up when he was throwing stuff into the truck bed to make room for picking up our daughter at the air port as we were driving in from Calif....& the tail gate slammed down right onto my horse trailer hitch.....think I'm going to demand the money to fix that in my divorce...lol. My other major dent came during the ice storm something I had never experienced before....I had to get to the pharmacy & get my meds so I wouldn't end up in withdrawal....so I wasn't thinking to clearly in the first place....ended up chipping off about a 5 inch circle on the driver side & thought I could melt the rest with the defrost.....tried to inch my way out my gravel driveway, missed & slammed into my mail box that I couldn't see for the ice.....took out the side of my own truck with the mail box......& got stuck in the ditch next to the driveway....needless to say, I didn't make it to the pharmacy.....but when I went out to flag down the next vehicle heading toward town.....it was my pharmacist (now that was what I call a miracle). He was going to bring my prescription when he got off that evening...but ended up sending of over about 1 hour later with another neighbor that had been able to get out & go to a Dr's appointment & needed to pick up meds at the pharmacy.....that whole morning was one miracle after another....as my poor truck sat there with even 4x4 not making it possible to move without some major help.