She says...

Press, 2 September 1977, Page 8

She says...

For almost as long as I can recall, our car has had a distinct "clonk” somewhere in the drive-line. Every time the clutch was let in, other than with the utmost delicacy, there was this sound of something loose or sloppy “taking up.” It was most noticeable when parking or manoeuvring slowly. In time you become rather used to this sort of thing, and ignore it. But then the looseness — which the experts had not been able to trace — became a bit worse. Then there was a grumbling noise, which caused the man of the house to become very agitated, until the garage assured him that the differential was in perfect health. Quite suddenly, the looseness became accompained by a musical tinkle-tinkle-tinkle which, like so many car noises, vanished without trace as soon as we made any determined effort to trace it. But finally the tinkle came when there was an expert on hand, and the villain was immediately revealed: a mangled propeller-shaft universal

joint. It must have been slowly digesting itself for the last two or three years — quite slowly, but then the car’s annual mileage has not been high. Now the universal has been replaced, the sloppiness has almost completely gone, and the odd clonks and tinkles have vanished. To me, it proves again how hard some small noises and annoyances in cars can be to trace — and how we become used to small defects to the point where we no longer notice them. But sooner or later, of course, something has to be done. With such a thing as a universal joint, it isn’t likely to be dangerous. But small faults can develop unnoticed in things like the brakes, too. And it’s not until someone else drives the vehicle, until there's a possibly disastrous failure, or until there’s a warrant of fitness check that the fault is noticed. In many ways the warrant check is a nuisance, but this sort of problem shows one good reason why it can be so important. _ — Barbara Petre