"Bang"
 

Call from my wife a few minutes ago, fifty miles away from home, after parking her C30 T5.
"Whilst in a thirty limit there was a loud explosion from somewhere in the car that scared me. I hadn't hit anything and the car seems to drive okay, so I carried on to work" (another ten miles).

She is now on shift at a hospital and the next chance to talk to her will be this afternoon but I am puzzled as to what might have happened; she had performed a walk round of the car and found nothing obviously broken but had not lifted the bonnet.

The car locked fine (keyless entry that needs electricity) so the battery hasn't exploded and the only other thing I can think of is that the expansion tank cap has blown off.

Other ideas?

Maybe a bird hit a body panel... or ran over a bottle out of view?

Thanks for that, and for the PM from another forum member who suggested the same thing; the plastic bottle has it, in my view.

I'm just back from a hundred mile round trip to check the C30 during daylight and then drive it home, leaving her with my V70 for tonight.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the C30; everything is as it should be. Phew. Must be a bottle or plastic bag, now blown away (no debris visible on or near the road at the location where she said it happened).

2.4TSE is now relaxed again! :)


Thanks for taking the time to post and to PM.

"bang"
 

When I used to be a postie, I had an issue with a "bang" once. Got out to deliver, and no sooner had I shut the door when BANG. Turned out it was the explosive device in the seatbelts thad had gone off. Only found this out when trying to put on the belt and found the floor mounting part a lot further away. Very odd.

Hmmm, very strange, this. A few months ago I was driving along ('56 S40 SE D) & had the same thing (30mph area). A loud bang which sounded like it came from front nearside. I couldn't stop there so drove to a safe stopping place, got out, went all round the car, under the bonnet...nothing. Have been driving with no probs ever since. Didn't see anything on the road & am still at a loss to explain it!

The first generation of these devices were mecanical as on the volvo 400 series , if you slid the seat back hard against the end stop they could go off !

"Bang"
 

Another thought. Could it be a suspension coil spring? As I said, just a thought.

Hi Everyone,

I had opportunity yesterday evening to lay an old blanket on the driveway and have a proper look underneath the car before it got wet in today's rain. Doing so with a torch I found an obviously very new metallic scuff mark on the horizontal face of the R-Design plastic side skirt where it is wrapped underneath the floor pan.

Streamed away after it up in to an area of floor pan void normally in shadow was a sticky mess.

Finger.
Tongue.
Coca Cola.

We have an answer.


Cheers again for the ideas,
2.4TSE

"bang"
 

Glad you go that sorted.

reminds me talking of plastic bags about an incident a while ago with the wife.she came home from work and said there's a terrible smell of burning in the car as i pulled on the drive! checked inside (was an astra by the way---sorry)sure enough there was a burning smell bit like plastic.lifted the bonnet could'nt see anything but smell stronger on checking under front end saw a plastic carrier bag melted onto the front pipe---solved so the moral of the story is dont drive over plastic bags blowing about in the road if you can avoid its liable to set panic stations going.