Sound of Car Door Slamming

[JimL]

We recently moved the country to an old homestead.

Normally we like the quiet, but we are really starting to get freaked out by the sounds of a car door slamming.

Every time it happens, we go the front of the house and look out in our driveway which is a quarter mile from the dirt county road and there is nothing there. It is half a mile to the nearest neighbor.

We contacted the previous owner said she said it spooked her, too.

This has been happening at least once a day for the last 3 months and we are frustrated.

Any ideas?

[RayV]

Must be tough parking your car when your driveway is a quarter mile from the road.

Try going to the back of the house.

[Dan Espen]

Look in the direction of the prevailing wind.

[Me]

JimL wrote in news: [e-mail]:

A ghost car.

[digitalmaster]

sound has a ways of traveling long distances that you would not expect.Are you near a creek or gulch?

[HeyBub]

Earplugs. Fifty cents. Problem solved.

[lee houston]

it's amazing how sensitive our hearing is. especially when things are truly quiet. train car coupling can easily be heard for miles. as can the dropping of a dumpster by it's handler truck.

of course, if you have kids, they're likely the cause. :-)

lee h

[David Martel]

Jim,

Unlike the other posters I'm not convinced you are hearing a car door. Start keeping a diary of time, room, wind, weather, et c. Collecting a bit of data may localize the noise and help you locate the cause. Look for loose stuff around the house and secure it. Make sure gates shut tight. Look in the crawl space and attic. Is something expanding and contracting during the day?

Dave M.

[EXT]

Cheap car, tinny rattley sound or an expensive car, solid dull thunk. Maybe your neighbors are closer to you than the road, either beside or behind you, or there is a cliff, wall or something solid to bounce the sound. Damp days make the sound travel long distances, I can hear a train go over another rail crossing on foggy days, and it is about 2 miles away.

[Sacramento Dave]

As mentioned it sounds like it could be something with climate Something expanding from heat and just a coincidence it sounds like a gar door ( and now you have told yourself it a car door) What time of day dose it happen? Has it been hotter than usual?

[Bob M.]

I'm thinking it's not a car either. From the water heater maybe? Too much sediment in the bottom of the tank creates bubbles that burst when they get heated. You can hear that happen.

[maradcliff]

The neighbors cows are stealing candy or cigarettes out of your car.... or for that matter, they might even be trying to drive your car. Dont leave the keys in it, or your car might start MOOVING...

I have a pony in the back yard that sometimes likes to use the corner of the house as a back scratcher. That tends to spook the crap out of me in the middle of a good sleep, particularly when she uses the corner right next to my bed. Of course that still beats the noise I dealt with when I lived in the city.

[Lisa BB.]

It's most likely my next door neighbor. She's constantly slamming her doors for no reason. OMG, it's over and over ten thousand times. She likes to creep around late at night and make noises. A real mental, that one.

[Dan_Musicant]

:JimL wrote: :> We recently moved the country to an old homestead. :>

:> Normally we like the quiet, but we are really starting to get freaked :> out by the sounds of a car door slamming. :>

:> Every time it happens, we go the front of the house and look out in :> our driveway which is a quarter mile from the dirt county road and :> there is nothing there. It is half a mile to the nearest neighbor. :>

:> We contacted the previous owner said she said it spooked her, too. :>

:> This has been happening at least once a day for the last 3 months and :> we are frustrated. :>

:> Any ideas? : :Earplugs. Fifty cents. Problem solved.

Yeah, I gotta laugh too. 1/2 mile from the nearest neighbor and you are freaked out by noise! I guess it just goes to show you can never have enough peace. I consider myself lucky when it's quiet where I live and I guess it's one reason I get up so early in the morning. It's about the only time you can depend on it being quiet (well, almost depend!).

I was feeling sorry for myself until I had a conversation with a woman I know who said she grew up in Brooklyn, NY. She told me about the ambient noise problems there and I quickly realized it was 10x worse than what I have to put up with. She said to keep her sanity she got into listening to the radio all the time. It gave her an anchor amidst the chaos. She and I volunteer at a college radio station.

[dpb]

...snip story of noise...

Surely I'm not the only one thinking "tree", "woods", ..., am I? :)

[Dan_Musicant]

: Any ideas?

Yes, I agree with the others that it isn't a car door slamming. Quite unlikely, anyway. Scout around until you figure out what's making the noise. Some day you may be lucky enough to be right next to what's doing it when it happens, and then you will probably know immediately. Don't start believing in ghosts!

[Mikey]

[Oren]

(Hope the voices in my head don't bother you)

Do you have wild hogs or an exotic animal farm in the area?

Had you said it sounded like a "crying baby", I would say a panther.

Oren

[Grandpa]

Got any livestock nearby? Could be something like one of these:

They can lift up the door to chow down and when they withdraw, that door slams down sounding just like a car door.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

See the post about aerosol rooms and send her to one.