“I’m just a girl…”
When you hear a weird clanking in your car, that’s when you know that it’s time to take it to the mechanic (and try not to assume the worst).
Turns out that your car making weird noises might not necessarily mean that something is wrong with it. The problem could be entirely human.
One woman’s car started making weird noises, so she headed to her mechanic. This led to her learning an embarrassing lesson. Now she hopes her experience can serve as a learning experience.
In a trending video with more than 720,000 views, content creator @flowerlover568 explains what happened.
“I take my car to the dealership and tell them there’s something wrong with my car, keeps making noises, and this is what they sent me,” the text overlay reads.
The video flowerlover568 uploaded was apparently filmed by the mechanic. They ever so politely let her know that the sounds she was hearing could be an issue of her own making—not a problem with the car.
The mechanic doesn’t flat out poke fun at her or make her feel bad, but his ultra-professional tone does add quite a bit of humor regardless.
“I did find that some things in the rear of the vehicle were causing some noise,” he says.
In the video, you can see that her trunk is full of cardboard boxes and an air fryer. The mechanic went so far as to open up some of these items to track down the noise. He found a few culprits.
The air fryer has a tray that could be moving back and forth when she’s accelerating and decelerating. There was also a bottle rattling around in one of the boxes, a fork wedged under the hood, plus a spray bottle in the passenger side door and a hair clip in her glove compartment.
To be fair, most people probably aren’t expecting their mechanic to be quite so thorough when looking for the source of a strange noise, but it seems his intentions were sound.
“Yeah, I’ve never been so embarrassed in my life… brought my car up at Universal Toyota thinking that something was wrong with it to find out what’s wrong with it through the video. I’m just a girl… with all the boxes I was getting rid of,” she says.
In a follow up video, she showed that she finally got rid of all the donation boxes in the trunk, adding that she “didn’t realize they were gonna look in my trunk for the problem.”
If your car is rattling, that likely means something is loose, broken, or parts are touching that shouldn’t be, AutoZone explains. While some things are DIYable, others need to be taken to a professional.
It can be hard to locate what exactly is making the noise, since sound travels and can seem further away than it is. You’ll want to pay attention to when the sound is happening. Is it while the car is idle, when you accelerate, hit a bump, or at certain speeds? That’ll help you or a mechanic better diagnose the issue.
For example, Meineke notes:
Meineke also advises that you check your oil because low oil can cause a rapid ticking or rattling from the top of the engine. This will only take a few minutes and may save you a trip to the mechanic.
If it needs a different repair, fixing it can cost anywhere from $50 to do it yourself to a few hundred or even a few thousand dollars.
People who commented on flowerlover568’s video were largely empathetic. Some shared similar experiences of their own.
“This reminds me of when I brought my laptop to IT because it was making a crackling sound and they swiped the screen over and it was my live fireplace widget,” one wrote.
“Had a noise in a Nissan juke come in just like this. It was his 16 year old daughter’s car, she complained about a noise. It was an empty bottle of vodka under the rear floor hitting the spare tire and body,” someone else shared.
A third felt for flowerlover568, writing, “I don’t think I would even pick my car up at that point. The fork sent me.”
“He was hella professional about it tho,” another wrote.
Motor1 reached out to @flowerlover568 via TikTok direct message and comment. We’ll be sure to update this if she responds.
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