This is the second time this happened. After I washed the car I would usually drive it around a bit to get rid of the excess water. But while pulling off, I start to hear this crackin', breakin' sound. I have no idea what it is but this is the second time it has happened. I notice that it'll happen when I leave the car one place for a while after I wash it. This is really startin' to scare me!

 

is it a constant noise when you pull off or just once and done?

 

Well...my guess is you got water on the exhaust heat shield or some other part of the engine that heats quickly and you are just hearing the crackle of water evaporating quickly. Or the metal of the engine expanding as it goes from cool and wet to hot and dry.

 

It's just once when i pull off.
it's like the car is stuck at first because I can feel something holdin' it back then when I moved forward, I'd hear the crackin' noise like something's breakin'.

I don't know about the heat shield thing but I doubt it's water evaporating quickly or the metal of the engine expanding as it goes from cool and wet to hot and dry.

 

Can you tell us were you hear it, front back?

 

i think it comes from the back

 

Man that stumps me. There shouldn't be any thing in the back that a car wash can mess up. Let us know if you find it.

 

Do you normally drive it before you wash it. Let me rephrase if you drive it alot before you wash it your ebrake can still be hot or something and when you dissengage it it could be your noise maybe not happens to me sometimes though

 

I wonder if it could be that (ebrake) because the last and only two times that happened is when I washed it just after I came home.

I'll try to wash it before I drive it, like early on a saturday or sunday morning or something and see if I get the same crackin' sound.

 

I have also experienced this noise. When you wash your car a film of crud (rust?) forms on your rotors. You can actually see this greenish film form about 10 minutes after a wash. The crud sticks your calibers to the rotors and the cracking sound you hear is the rotors breaking free as you pull off. The car seems sluggish the first few feet because the crud is being scrapped of the rotors. If you hit the brakes hard at all, you will see the rotors will be the normal silver color. anyway, hopefully this is what is happening to you.

 

Well I haven't checked anything yet, but I think it is the brake.

 

I wonder if any of that stop brake squeak spray would help prevent this at all

 

Ok I did a test to see if it was the ebrake as 94protolx said.
What I did was I drove the car really hard (kinda had to because I was in a hurry), came home, washed the car.
While washing, when I wet the tires I notice that vapor was coming off of the tires. I know this is normal because the brakes would be hot and would evaporate the water quickly.
Anyways, after washing instead of parking the car with the ebrake up, I parked it in 1st gear, ebrake down (is that what you guys really call it, 'cause we call it the hand brakes).

Had a bite to eat, took a shower, got ready and proceeded to drive the car to test the theory. About 30-40mins elapsed when I entered the car, started it and proceeded to drive off.

And then...nothing! I didn't hear the sound! I didn't hear the nerver wrecking, face squinching, what-the-hell-was-that-did-something-break-off-the-car sound!

So I guess it was that.
Next time I'll just park it in 1st, hand brakes down if I wash it after I just came home.

 

I washed my car yesterday and the same thing happened to me....CRRRRRRRREAAAAAAAK!
ugggggh....but it's just the brakes/rotos freeing themselves or whatever.

 

you washed your car??? does that mean we get to see some clean pictures of your car?