Help! My cordless impact wrench is making a weird grinding noise and won't hold charge

Hey everyone, I'm having a weird issue with my DeWalt DCF887B impact wrench. It started making this grinding noise yesterday when I was tightening some lag bolts, and now the battery won't charge properly. The charger light just blinks red. I've had this tool for about 2 years and it's been perfect until now. Anyone else experience this? I'm hoping it's not the motor...

Sounds like you might have debris in the gearbox or a worn bearing. I've seen this happen when people don't clean their tools after working in dusty environments. First thing - try blowing out the air vents with compressed air. If the noise persists, it's probably internal. As for the battery - DeWalt batteries sometimes get memory issues if you don't drain them completely before recharging. Try leaving it on the charger overnight, but if it's still blinking, you might need a new battery pack. Pro tip: always buy genuine DeWalt batteries - the knockoffs will ruin your tools.

Oh man, I feel your pain! My Ryobi impact did something similar last month. Made this awful screeching sound when I was building a deck. Turned out a little piece of wood chip got stuck in the mechanism. My husband took it apart (against my better judgment lol) and cleaned it out with some WD-40. Works fine now! For the battery - have you tried the battery reset trick? Sometimes if you leave it off the charger for 24 hours it resets. Also check if the contacts are clean!

Thanks for the suggestions! Paul - you're right, I was working in my dusty garage. I'll try the compressed air first. Wendy122 - I'm nervous about taking it apart myself since it's still under warranty (barely). Maybe I should just take it to the DeWalt service center? Though that's an hour drive... The battery reset is a good idea - I'll try that tonight. Do you think using my backup Milwaukee battery with an adapter could have caused this? I only did it once when my DeWalt was dead.

DO NOT use battery adapters! That's probably your issue right there. Different brands have different voltage regulation and can fry the electronics. If it's still under warranty, definitely take it in. They'll probably replace the whole unit. In the future, stick with one battery ecosystem - it's cheaper in the long run. I've been Milwaukee M18 for 10 years and never had a single tool failure. Let us know what the service center says!