So i was driving home today around 11:00 a.m. and i was at a stop light and all of a sudden i hear this weird screeching sound. Sounded like a belt or something. Well i look around to see what car it was and i noticed it was my car. I turned the car off at the light and turned it back on and the screeching came back and all of a sudden some smoke came out of the back of the car, maybe from the mufflers i dont know. After that, it stopped and the whole ride home, about another 45 minutes the sounded didnt come back. I pulled over and checked all the fluids and they are all good. Any ideas?

 

Yeouch, smoke?? What color?

 

Did you check your belts? You could have thrown a belt hence the sound didn't come back.

 

it was white smoke, and the belts are all there. Also the engine only has 38k miles on it. It's weird it hasnt done it the rest of the day. Maybe it just had to get something out of its system, stupid as that sounds.

 

Did you have the A/C on? It could be the compressor tried to cycle on with too much head pressure and locked up, causing the belt to sqeal on the pulley.

 

yeah that could be it cause the A/C was on but would it also account for the smoke too?

 

If the ac clutch got stuck with the engine turning, yes. It literaly smoked the belt. Check it out. Remove the belt and try to turn the a/c clutch by hand, it should turn with some resistance. If it's 'glued' in place, then your clutch froze and that's what caused the screeching.