I have never been to Boston, and much to the chagrin of Mrs. Murphy (who went to New England Conservatory, www.newenglandconservatory.edu, my first visit to her college town was without her as a guide. Alas.
About 20 miles outside the city, the car developed a mild vibration. Did a wheel weight fall off? Probably. Because of the Brougham’s rare and unusual all-aluminum wheel (yep, it’s a wheel, not a hubcap), the weights must be placed on the inside of the wheel. Not the optimum spot for stickiness.
So I drove on–the ride was a bit bouncy, but I rolled into Boston about 40 minutes later. As I slowed down, I heard the thwub-thwub-thwub of the front tire. Dang, that sounds like a flat, I thought to myself. So I got out, checked all four tires. None were flat. But the left front tire was a tad low. Yet that tire had been a tad low the entire trip. The other tires would have 24 psi and that left front would have 20 or so. By the way, Cadillac recommended 24 psi in 1958. Mushy, eh?
Just to be on the safe side, I rang up my trusty mechanic Mark at Impatient Creations in Birmingham, www.impatientcreations.com. Mark rolled through a few basic questions. “Is the noise intermittent or constant?”
Intermittent. “Then it’s probably not one of the new wheel bearings wheel put in. Those tend to be a constant groan.” (The only constant groan in the car is me.)
“Does it increase with vehicle speed?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“If you rev the car in park or neutral, do you hear it?”
“No.”
Like me, Mark’s initial gut was a tire that had gone out of round or a wheel weight that I lost somewhere on I-95. So I limped into Boston and parked the car at the hip Onyx Hotel for the night.