Several years ago, I was on a business trip in the Oklahoma City area. I was traveling with a coworker from another of our company’s locations. We arrived at the Oklahoma City airport on the same flight and planned to share a rental car since we were staying at the same hotel and would be in meetings together. She had rented the car but wasn’t feeling well so she asked me to drive. When I started the car, the engine seemed to be louder than what you would normally expect from any car. I asked her if she thought we should say something, and she thought it would be ok. It was late and she was ready to get some rest. We proceeded to our hotel which was close to the airport.
The next morning, we got in the car ready to go to our meeting which was about an hour away from the city. When I started the car, she said it sounded louder but I think it was about the same. Other than the noise, the car seemed to be running ok. The noise we heard was a loud rattle, like something was extremely loose. The sound seemed to be coming from the motor, closer to the driver’s side of the car. My coworker looked up the number for the rental car company and called them when we arrived at our destination. The rental car company said we could exchange the car when we were back in the city that evening. This would work for us since our meeting lasted several days.
I was still driving when we were going back to the airport that evening. As we were approaching the airport, we suddenly heard another sound from the car. My coworker said, “What the hell was that?!” I replied, I don’t know but whatever it was is spinning in the road behind us. The new sound was like something coming loose and falling off the car. Part of the new sound was just the part hitting the pavement. The original loud, rattling sound also went away. From where the part was spinning in the road, it appeared to have come from the driver’s side. We didn’t stop to get the part. We were within eyesight of the airport. We went to the rental car area and told them that the sound had gone away and described the general location where it had been coming from. But we didn’t mention the part that fell off the car. They exchanged our car and we never heard anything else from them about the car.