Officer Richard Rubalcaba of the Parlier Police Department said the owner of the car contacted police when he discovered the object under his car Friday evening. The call to police came shortly after 7 p.m.
Police did not want to elaborate on what the device was under the car, except to emphasize it was not a bomb.
Officers evacuated about a dozen homes along Tulare Ave between I and J streets and contacted the Fresno county Sheriff's Bomb Squad Unit.
"If it's a bomb threat, we don't know if it's live or not, so we just got to make sure the safety of the public is in good hands," Rubalcaba said.
The Fresno county sheriff's bomb squad unit arrived on scene around 9 p.m. and cleared the scene in about an hour.
People were allowed back into their homes before 11 p.m.
If you have any information in this case, you're asked to call the Parlier Police Department.