singing quattro?

[Henry Harper <hah@srv.net>]

Driving home in the rain last weekend in the 3B. It was raining harder than it 
usually does around here, so the interstate proper was quite wet without 
actually having any standing water and the offramp was beginning to accumulate 
a bit of water in the ruts. Stopping, ready to leave the offramp, I heard a 
singing noise "laaaaaa". Hmm? Wet brakes? No, stopping okay but no effect on 
the noise. Manipulating the clutch does not change it either. Not the stereo. 
Sounds like the resonance made by a good wine glass rubbed around the top with 
a wet finger.

I played with the brakes and clutch for the next couple of lights, the noise 
doesn't seem to be directly affected but gradually went away anyway. Ok, noise 
went away. Being a goofball, at the next light I decided to drop/slip the 
clutch from about 3k to see if I could get any wheelspin (since it's all nice 
and wet out, you see). Waaay more slippage than I wanted, and a waft of burnt 
clutch lining drifts through the cabin. Felt like the urabuS Justy ECVT that I 
was all the dealer had left for a loaner one day. Maybe I should not do that 
again? I drove more normally the rest of the way home, no such antics from me 
or the car since.

My theory is that the 1/4-1/2" of water on the offramp ruts (no submarine 
impressions here) got into the clutch/freewheel area and wetted it, so that's 
why it made a noise like rubbing a wet glass. Has anyone else's car sung to 
them in this way before? Perhaps it is merely a mark of affection between a 
vehicle and its maintainer.

Two trips up to Bogus Basin from Boise this weekend, best no-traffic times of 
25 min up, 20 min down. Whee! Wonder what the P-car club's records are for that 
hillclimb...

Henry Harper
http://www.srv.net/~hah
1991 200 quattro, 91k, lalalala (car makes this noise sometimes)
1988 GTI 16v, 179k, whinewhinewhine (I make this noise sometimes), still 
sitting with busted tranny