On the drive home, I began hearing this squealing noise in the car. I thought “oh no, is it the belts?” I thought about the expense in the wasted time to take the vehicle to have the belts inspected and possibly changed.

I couldn’t tell if it was hissing or squealing. I wondered if perhaps a hose might have gotten loose under the hood. I looked for signs of escaped fluid, but didn’t see any smoke or unusual emissions. That noise had me worried until I got home and pulled into the garage.

When I turned off the engine, a continued hearing that noise.

I eventually figured out that the noise was the hissing of gas from a half finished bottle of diet Cherry Coke. I guess the motion of the car and the bottle rolling around on the passenger seat caused gas to expand and escape from the not-tight-enough cap.

The moral to the story… I should make sure to firmly tighten the cap on any soft drink that I may have in my vehicle. Also, leave the soda upright in the cup holder, not rolling around sloshing in the passenger seat!