Car making mysterious noises? There's an app for that

Greg Younger/Flickr
The idea behind ClingClanger is to identify small problems before they become big problems. Or vehicular infernos.

You may pride yourself on your ability to diagnose a developing engine problem by sound alone, and then replicate said mystery sound, Click-and-Clack-style, to amuse/annoy your friends and coworkers.

ClingClanger is a new phone app that's designed for the rest of the world -- those who can't identify piston slap by sound and are startled by the clicking caused by a dying battery. The natural impulse is to simply crank up the radio and hope the noise/problem goes away. It doesn't, usually, which is how small problems turn into big problems.

You can get an idea of what's in ClingClanger's sound library at mycarmakesnoise.com. Some of the audio clips, like the failing water pump and worn-out brakes, are grating. Others, like the “engine running without oil” and “engine seizing up,” are deeply disturbing -- they were obtained by torture-testing a car to death, after all. You've been warned.

The next step for the ClingClanger app will use your phone's microphone to listen to your stricken automobile, compare its wounded cries to its sound library and spit out a tentative diagnosis.

As with WebMD advice, it's still a good idea to get a second opinion from a professional -- a mechanic, in this case -- but narrowing the problem areas down should help you avoid being taken for a ride by an unscrupulous garage.

It'll take $1.99 to get ClingClanger on your iPhone or Android devoice right now. It'll cost you more to obtain the sound-recognition version when it becomes available. We searched the Google app store and couldn't find anything comparable to ClingClanger at any price so it still seems like cheap insurance (and a potentially valuable learning tool) for the mechanically un-inclined.

To see how it works, check out the video below. The acting isn't going to win any YouTube Emmys (Yemmys?) but it does a good job getting the concept across.