I have been out of town for about 3 days, my car was last driven on Tuesday and it is now Sunday night. I started it and it made a weird grinding noise. The lights all came on and I drove it about 5 miles seeing if it would warm up and they would go off. It has been very cold while I was gone and the car was covered in snow. They didn't go off, but when I turned the car off and back on, the grinding noise was not there. Any ideas if it is safe to drive to the dealership, which is about 50 miles away? Thanks!
OK how old is your car, what's the mileage, etc etc etc. Tell us a little more about it. Your profile indicates the car is a 2011. If this is the case then get the car straight into the dealer (I wouldn't want to drive it - if indeed it would start) as it should be under warranty and let them diagnose and sort it out. If it isn't a 2011, then please provide full details of the car, how long you've owned it, whether there were signs or symptoms before the grinding noise.
It is a 2011 and I bought it new from the dealer in October. It has a little over 12,000 miles on it. I am in sales so I am on the road all the time, in Northern VA/DC/MD area. Thanks for any suggestions. I have a meeting at 6am in the morning, about an hour drive away and wasn't sure if I should drive it and then take it to a dealer after my meeting. Do you think it is safe to do that? It seemed to drive ok but the MPG kept going up to 100 and it doesn't normally do that. Thanks!
I did drive it for about 5 miles to see if the lights would go off after it warmed up, but they didn't. It did start two more times without the grinding noise, but the lights stayed on all the time.
If a car makes a grinding noise then it is NOT healthy, especially if warning lights are lit. I wouldn't drive it anywhere unless I wanted to be landed with an expensive repair bill. You might even invalidate the warranty if you continue to drive a damaged vehicle! I guess it depends how important your meeting is. You might want to get a lift, hire a car or find some other means to get there and then have your car looked over later. But warning lights are there for a reason and cars don't grind if they're ok. Hope you get it sorted and hope the meeting goes well. Keep us all updated on what the problem with the car was.
welcome! sounds like cold start knock, but let's wait for steffany to give us the details of the fix.
