Looking for any insight to the problem I experienced today.
Driving on the freeway, I felt a sudden and loud jolt like we'd hit an imaginary pothole, or like I'd pumped the brakes once very hard.
I stopped the car on the shoulder and checked for a blowout(?) or something maybe hanging beneath the car(?). Looked under the hood and seemed to smell something a little smoky.
Decided to drive the car home about 5 miles. During the drive home, temp guage was fine. The drive was fine too. The only noticeable issue was a engine noise sort of like clicking which occurred in Drive (but not in Park) and increased in tempo as I accelerated - sort of synched with the RPM, I guess. It was raining hard so with the wipers going and the rain noise, it was hard to tell what was really happening.

Any thoughts on what might be the case? I'm taking it to the dealer tomorrow to have it checked out. It was just there a week ago for std service inspection II... we'll see.
I seem to be having a lot of probs with this vehicle!

Thanks for any help.

Sounds like a transfer case failure. Does the ticking sound like it's coming from underneath the car?

Yes - thanks!
The dealer told me that it was the transfer case. They seemed surprised that this happened, but I'm reading on some other forums that maybe it's not so rare. I can't believe that a 5 year old car with 56K miles would have a major drivetrain issue like that. I've followed the maintenance schedule to a 'T'. I'm afraid of what will happen next.
I'm tempted to get rid of this car. Lots of minor problems despite good care and low miles. CPO warranty has been handy but will expire soon.
Do you think this is just a fluke or do you agree that I need to move away from this vehicle?