#2616: Non-traditional Repair Materials
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Car
Honda Cord
The 1986 Honda Accord is a popular car from the 1980s that many people used because it was reliable and didn't use too much gas. It's a good example of a car that helped Honda become well-known.
Part
carburetor
A carburetor is a part that mixes gas and air so your car's engine can run. Older cars use it instead of newer fuel systems.
Part
needles and floats
Inside the carburetor, needles and floats help control how much gas goes into the engine so it runs right.
Term
gas additive
Gas additives are liquids you put in your gas tank to help clean it and make your car run better.
Part
fuel pump
The fuel pump is a part that sends gas from the tank to the engine so the car can run.
Term
resealing gas tank
Cleaning and resealing the gas tank means fixing it so gas doesn't leak and stays clean for the engine.
Part
gas filter
The gas filter cleans the fuel so the engine doesn't get dirty or clogged. Some filters you throw away after use, others you can clean and use again.
Part
transmission
The transmission helps your car go faster or slower by changing gears, kind of like a bike with different speeds.
Part
fuel filter
The fuel filter catches dirt and bad stuff in the gas so the engine runs smoothly and doesn't get hurt.
Term
fog up
Fogging up means the windows get covered in tiny water drops inside the car, making it hard to see outside. This happens when the air inside is wet and the windows are cold.
Term
recirculate
Recirculate means the car uses the air already inside instead of bringing in new air from outside. This helps the car cool or warm up faster and keeps outside smells out.
Term
outside air mode
Outside air mode means the car brings in fresh air from outside instead of using the air inside. This helps keep the windows from fogging up and freshens the air inside.
Term
defroster
The defroster helps clear fog or ice from the windows by blowing warm air on them. Cars often turn on the AC automatically with the defroster to dry the air and clear the windows faster.
Part
air conditioner condenser
The condenser is a part of the car's air conditioner that helps get rid of moisture by turning gas into liquid, making the air inside cooler and less wet.
Part
air conditioner evaporator
The evaporator is a part inside the car's air conditioner that cools the air by soaking up heat and moisture, helping to keep the car's inside cool and dry.
Car
Saturn SW2
The Saturn SW2 is a type of car called a station wagon made by Saturn. It has features like windows and doors that you can control with buttons.
Part
door panel
The door panel is the inside part of the car door you see and touch. It can be taken off if you need to fix something inside the door.
Part
friction type connector
It's a plastic clip that holds parts of the car together by being pushed into a hole and staying there because it fits tightly.
Car
Mitsubishi Colt Vista
The Mitsubishi Colt Vista is a small car from the 1980s. People like it because it is simple and reliable, making it easy to keep running.
Part
spin-on oil filter
A spin-on oil filter cleans the engine oil by catching dirt. If it gets too dirty, it lets the oil go through anyway so the engine doesn't get hurt.
Term
built-in bypass
If the oil filter gets too dirty and blocks oil, the bypass lets the oil go around the filter so the engine still gets oil and doesn't get hurt.
Term
oil change
Changing the oil means putting fresh oil in your car's engine to keep it running smoothly and stop it from getting damaged. It's like giving your car a fresh drink to keep it healthy.
Part
clutch
A clutch helps you switch gears in a car with a manual transmission by connecting and disconnecting the engine from the wheels.
Part
calipers
Calipers are parts that press the brake pads to stop the car when you push the brake pedal.
Term
bleed the brakes
Bleeding the brakes means getting air out of the brake system so the brakes work well when you press the pedal.
Car
Mazda MX-5 / Miata
The Mazda Miata is a small sports car that is fun to drive and easy to handle. It has two seats and is popular among car fans.
Term
bleeders
Bleeders are little screws on your car's brakes that let out air and old fluid so your brakes work well and feel firm when you press the pedal.
LIVE
This is Hourglass. On This American Life, we look for stories that are surprising and
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Hello and welcome to Car Talk from National Public Radio with us, Click and Clack, the
Tappet Brothers, and we're broadcasting this week from the Mouths of Babes Division here
at Car Talk Plaza. Now, this was sent to us by an eighth grade teacher named Mrs. Angstrom
of Northfield, Minnesota.
Angstrom. Is that the size of your brain?
One Angstrom.
That's A-N-G. Those are A-N-G-S-T-R-O-M's. An Angstrom is a million of those.
Anyway, she apparently taught a little lesson on radio and she had her students listen to
various radio programs and analyze them. And here are some of the comments about our show.
Well, they're probably babes. They're eighth graders.
Well, but here are some of the things. This is an analysis that they did.
And brutally honest, I might add.
Here's one from Josh. I thought the Car Talk show was the best show we listened to in class.
When those two guys started talking, it was funny because they talk about nothing.
This is Emily. I like their voices. I don't want to see them because I just like listening to their voice.
Seeing them would ruin it.
She's right about that.
Seth, I like Car Talk. I think the show is a good idea because people like listening to idiots.
Karsten says, I like the format of the show. It keeps your attention but doesn't involve much thought.
Our sentiments exactly.
Oh, and that's it.
We'll find out who these little twerps are. We'll hang a beating on them when we can.
Eighth graders. Yeah.
Don't you have an eighth grader?
I have an eighth grader and I would have to say, although she has never listened to the show,
there's no interest whatsoever, I would say that she would say all these things about me personally.
But you're the idiot thing.
Bill and Ray were funny in a stupid way.
Bill and Ray.
Well, if you'd like to talk to Bill and me, the number is 888-CAR-TALK.
That's 888-227-8255. Hello, you're on Car Talk.
Hi, my name's Kelly.
Hi, Kelly. With an I at the end.
Oh, an IE.
All right.
I had it with a J-E.
Well, that's the Rickivik spelling.
Yeah, the Icelandic. Where are you from, Kelly?
I'm from Detroit, Michigan, but I go to school at Miami University in Ohio.
Oh, yeah.
That was a cruel choice. Miami University in Ohio.
Yeah, I always have to say in Ohio.
And why Praytel is it named Miami University? Just to screw people up and confuse us?
Well, actually, I think it was named after an Indian tribe that was living in Ohio.
What, the University Indians?
I guess so.
Oh, no, the Miami Indians.
The Miami Indians, yeah.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
Well, they were living in Ohio.
Yeah.
Oh, they just went north in search of cold weather.
Oh, they just went to Florida in the winter.
That's kind of funny.
So anyway, so here you are stuck in Ohio someplace.
Yes.
And you're calling us for what reason?
Well, I have, at home, I have an 86 Honda cord.
And it's been having problems since August.
I came to, I thought, you know, I'm going to drive it down to school this year.
It'll be okay.
My drive is about, you know, four and a half hours.
After about two hours, it started bogging out.
And like, it started doing what?
Like, bogging out, it would start to shut itself off like around 65 or 70 miles an hour.
So we would pull over and turn it off and then turn it back on.
And it would go for a little more.
And then it would shut itself down again.
Okay.
So it just kept it just slowing down and slowing down.
Yeah.
Well, and then it just cut out.
You know, it'd be like at 50 and it would just cut out and die.
And you would coast over to the side of the road.
Right.
Exactly.
Very dangerous.
Who's we?
My dad and I.
He was driving down with me.
Why?
Why was he coming down with you?
Oh, to take me to school.
And luckily my mom was following too.
So it came something really bad happened.
Right.
So your father just dumped you off at my university and said, good luck Kelly.
Exactly.
Call me if you ever get it to run again.
See you at Christmas.
Yeah.
All right.
So the mechanic I went to rebuilt the carburetor and put in new needles and floats.
That didn't work.
So at Christmas I brought it home and I switched cars with my dad and we tried using a gas
additive to put it in it to clean out the gas tank.
And that didn't work.
And then he took the fuel pump out and put a new one in.
Taking the gas tank out, clean, you know how you clean it and you reseal it.
Yeah.
Who did this now?
My dad.
Yeah.
Good.
I like it.
You have the classic symptoms of a bad fuel pump.
Yeah.
And that's what he said too.
He's been reading the manual and looking at it.
And he changed the filters too.
This thing is carb rated so it has, this has two gas filters.
Yeah.
He changed the screens with carb cleaner on the gas filters.
Both of them.
Well, the gas filter, the rear one is a plastic filter that you just throw away.
Oh.
And the front filter is a metal filter.
He may not know, he may not know there are two.
He cleaned the screen inside the tank.
Right.
Exactly.
But he did not clean the little plastic filter that's outside the tank.
Yeah.
And the way you clean it is you throw it away and you put a new one on.
There's one under the car, right near the gas tank.
It's a white plastic filter.
And then there's one under the hood which is a bronze looking metal filter.
Okay.
And both of those should be changed because either one of those can give you the same
symptom as a bad fuel pump.
And boy, he's going to be ticked if he finds out it's a six dollar.
We've done all this stuff and it's just, it's not even helping.
So close.
I mean, he should have.
Well, it doesn't matter now.
But I mean, what you, the classic theory is you always replace the cheapest and or
easiest thing to replace.
Oh, that's not the way we do it.
No, no, unless you're charging people.
Oh, right.
I'm talking about.
Let's get that clear.
Let's get that clear.
If you were doing it on your own car, that's what you would do.
If you were doing it for money, you would first replace.
And in your case, I think my brother would have first put in a new transmission.
And when that didn't work, he'd throw in the six dollar fuel filter.
So have Daddy O check the fuel filter because it could easily be that one of these fuel filters
and the more likely one, there's actually three of them, right?
Well, there's no, they're all, there were five of them.
There were five.
But there's one, there's one inside the gas tank, which is supposed to filter out stuff
like rocks and milk bottles in case they wind up in the gas.
And then there is a finer filter on the opposite side, on the other side of the pump, which
is this plastic one, which I've referred to.
And then there's the one under the hood, which is the last line of defense before the carburetor
catches you figure with all these filters.
Yeah.
You got to catch everything.
And the reason they put so many filters is that the passages in this carburetor are so
small.
And that's the way they get the thing to be so fuel efficient.
Right.
They really miserly meter out the gasoline.
Which is why the guy, when he rebuilt the car, the first guy rebuilt the carburetor,
although that was, although it was a nice thing that he did.
He was following the rule of let's do something expensive rather than let's do the thing.
Exactly.
Because you may never come back again.
Exactly.
And I probably won't.
And he learned that, I'm sure, at one of our seminars.
Charge first, apologize later.
Thanks.
Thanks a lot, guys.
But have dad try those filters.
Okay.
Great.
Thank you so much.
They help.
Hopefully that'll work out.
Kelly, what are you studying at Miami University?
I'm studying microbiology.
Microbiology.
Oh, yeah.
I love the bacteria.
Really?
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's really interesting.
And anything that you've stumbled upon that you want to share with us?
Well, I'm doing some research with adenovirus, which is like what causes respiratory infection.
Really?
So, yeah, if I get anything new, I'll let you guys know you'll be the first ones.
Well, thanks.
Keep us posted.
Okay, great.
A pleasure to talk to you, Kelly.
Yeah, you too.
Thanks a lot.
Bye.
Bye-bye.
She'd probably love to roam around my basement.
She can catch any number of diseases.
Talk about microorganisms.
Woo!
Oh, boy.
We'll be right back with the answer to the puzzler right after these very important messages.
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And the little and the woman who was driving buying the car, the prospective buyer said,
ah, ah, ah.
How's that?
Hey, I actually remember this puzzler.
I'm blown away.
Well, you get most of the facts right.
Yeah, I don't really remember the details.
But she and her husband looking at the car and the salesman says,
oh, my fourth grade teacher or some such thing, Miss Johnson drove this car and she only drove it back and forth to school.
She never left town with it and she drove the church on Sunday and on Saturday at Saturday driveway.
And anyway, they look over the car.
My fourth grade teacher was Miss Cain, S-K-A-H-A-N.
But that was the first time.
That was the first time.
The second time, fourth grade.
Oh, second time.
Yeah.
I did all the great stuff.
Anyway, they look over the car.
That was because my teachers liked me, my mommy said.
Yeah.
They liked you so much, Tommy.
They want you to stay another year.
Okay.
Anyway, come on.
You're killing valuable time here.
There are people out there that need to speak to us.
All right, I'm sorry.
Anyway, they look over the car and, of course, it looks magnificent.
And the woman asks the obvious question,
well, why did Miss Johnson sell the car to the dealers as well?
As luck would have it, she was called out of town on very short notice
to care for a sick relative in the Midwest someplace.
And so she came in here last week and sold us the car.
And, of course, it's your good fortune that it's here.
So the woman gets in behind the wheel and starts up the engine
and sounds great and her husband gets in the passenger seat.
She fills with the controls on the dashboard
and the husband is saying, oh, gee, hon, let's get it.
It's really cute.
I love it.
I love it.
It's a nice color.
Turns on the heater.
She plays with everything.
She blows the horn.
Everything works perfectly.
And the husband says, gee, hon, we've got to get it.
Let's do it.
And she says, I don't think so.
The salesman is lying to us.
A salesman lying, the husband says, incredulously.
And the question is, how did she know the answer?
Because he opened his mouth because his lips were moving.
That wasn't the answer that his lips were moving.
Well, she did fiddle with everything.
The wipers and she blew the horn and she turned on the heater and all that.
And she also turned on the radio.
Yeah.
And when she turned on the radio, she noticed that it was not set to a local station.
In fact, there was noise coming across.
So she tried another station and another and another.
And in every case, the presets were set to stations that were not local stations.
So this car clearly was from out of town.
And if the story were absolutely true that Miss Johnson never left town, then how could
she have listened to these stations?
Man.
So who's our winner, Tony?
What a clever woman, huh?
Indeed.
Wow.
Our winner this week is Andy Perala from Kamuela, Hawaii.
Kamuela.
It sounds like.
Kamuela.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's actually Hawaiian for calm weather.
Yeah.
Man.
Kamuela.
As a matter of fact, my pal Dusty Chalk went to Hawaii the other day and he sent us a postcard
saying, I'm never coming back.
And I cable them.
Can I have your table?
I wanted his Lexus.
Andy Perala lives there all the time.
And for having his answer selected at random from among the thousands of correct answers
we got, Andy's going to get a $25 gift certificate to the Cartok Shameless Combat Division with
which he can practically dress himself.
I mean, as long as he only dresses from the waist up.
Hey, is it Hawaii?
Yeah.
You don't need much?
You don't need much.
Congratulations, Andy.
Anyway, we'll have a new drug related puzzle coming up in the third half of today's show.
So stay tuned for that.
In the meantime, you can call us and ask us questions about anything you want.
We do best with car questions, but barely.
The number is 888-CART-TALK.
That's 888-227-8255, a lawyer on Cartok.
This is Andrea.
Andrea.
Andrea.
Yeah.
Not Andrea.
No.
Not Andrea.
Andrea.
But I'll answer to anything.
Andrea.
Right.
Okay.
Call me anything except late for dinner.
Exactly.
And where are you calling us from, Andrea?
I am calling from Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
Williamsport, PA.
Nice to meet you.
I'm from Little League Baseball.
Really?
Yes.
Oh, is that what the Little League World Series has played?
Absolutely.
Who wins the Little League World Series nowadays?
Whoever pays the umpire is the most.
Thank you.
No comment.
I don't want to start a rant and rave, but I am violently opposed to Little League Baseball.
Oh, I am too, for a lot of different reasons.
Well, here's one of my main reasons.
Okay.
Little kids are perfectly capable of organizing their own baseball game.
They don't need adults and parents to do it for them.
You throw 15 kids out on grass, and if they want to play baseball, they'll figure out where
the bases should go, who's going to be the umpire.
And better than that, if they don't figure it out, they may invent a new game.
They may invent a new game or whatever.
I mean, who are we to tell them to play baseball the way and when we want them to play it?
Well, back off.
In fact, the parents should be present only to take kids to the hospital if they're injured.
One parent can handle that.
Or to instruct them as to the rules of the game.
They should not interfere in any other way, and there should be no coaching allowed.
No, no, you don't need to even need that.
How did you not figure out what the rules were?
You made them up.
I played Little League.
You make up the rules.
Someone says, wait, you can't run when there's a pop fly.
Someone else says, ah, shut up.
Of course you can't.
And that's why you only got 16th all those playground arguments.
I played Little League and they taught me the rules.
But the arguments are good.
That's what I mean.
The kids are growing up.
Back off.
Well, Andrea, I wish we could talk to you, but we're so violently opposed to play competitive
sports at that age.
No.
In my humble opinion, of course.
So Andrea, what's up?
Wait a minute.
I have to catch my breath.
Well, she brought up.
Did I bring it up?
Yeah.
Why the hell did you say that stuff about the Little League?
We didn't even know where Williamsport, Pennsylvania was.
God's sake.
Little League.
Yeah.
So what's up?
You got a car?
Okay.
Or a boyfriend.
It's a car or boyfriend problem.
It would be husband or I would really be in trouble.
Well, that would be a problem then.
It certainly would be a problem.
Okay.
The question is actually two-fold.
My car has a tendency to fog up pretty bad, like the front, the side, the back, and I
can't see out of it.
Japanese car?
Honda?
Oh, yeah.
Honda.
Yeah.
So right away, you know, you're going to get the right answer from us because you didn't
even tell us what kind of car you had and we zapped right on it.
Okay.
All right.
So strike one for you guys.
One for us.
Okay.
So my first question is why does this happen?
Why does this happen?
I'm going to write these down one.
Why does it happen?
I've been told that, you know, when the temperature inside the car is warmer than outside the
car.
Yeah.
That was the engineer guy who told you that.
Probably your husband.
Right.
What's your boyfriend told you?
Or I...
I'm going to get you in trouble no matter what.
No comment.
No comment.
Question two.
Question two is how do you get rid of it?
How to stop it?
What do you do?
Well, the reason your car fogs up is, is that you get moisture that's in the passenger compartment
condensing on the cold glass and it's more likely to happen in the wintertime because
the glass is wet in the winter.
Cold.
Cold.
Just like moisture in the air condenses on your glass of iced tea in the summertime.
Okay.
But no, why does it have it inside my car?
Because the moisture is inside the car.
Coming out of your lungs.
Because you're in there.
I mean, I can't produce this much fog.
Put a panting dog in your car for five minutes.
And you won't be able to see.
It'll take you a week to scrape the stuff off the window, most of which is saliva.
So, so there's no question that, and plus the fact that you introduce moisture to the
car in the winter by getting into the car, for example, with snow and ice on your shoes.
Okay.
And then that stuff melts, but becomes part of the ecosystem of the interior of your car,
along with the other things that are growing in there like the mushrooms and the, you know,
the trees and whatever.
See, this is the reason that most of us don't drive our cars in the winter.
My heavens.
Most of us civilized people.
So, so the way you get rid of this, you on your dashboard.
Did you take the bus?
Are you listening?
Did you call us?
She's probably watching some damn little league game on television.
Okay, I'm listening.
On your dashboard, you have various controls for the heater, one of which shows a little,
there are two little buttons next to each other, which one of which shows a, a U with
an arrow on it.
And the other one is, is a.
Recirculate versus press.
Right.
Which one, which one do you have it on?
You know, she's tried them both.
It all depends on who I consult.
Well, you're consulting the so-called experts now.
Yeah.
And you've got it on the wrong setting.
Okay.
You have it on recirculate.
Probably.
Yeah.
And recirculate is, is death.
Okay.
Because all you're doing is recirculating that same moisture, round and round and round
again.
My own breath.
There you go.
And more and more of your breath comes out because you keep breathing until you pass out.
And there's no place for it to go except stick on the window.
Even when you are on the recirculate mode, you do mix in some outside air, but not anywhere
near as much as you mix in when you're on the outside air mode.
But even better than that.
Okay.
Is turning on the AC, which most cars do automatically when you turn on the defroster.
Okay.
The function of an air conditioner, the reason the air conditioners work is they remove moisture
from the air.
Right.
By condensing that moisture instead of on the windshield, on, you ready for this?
The condenser.
The evaporator.
Yeah.
And then dumping it out onto the street.
Okay.
Isn't that interesting?
Okay.
Yeah.
But turning on the, just pressing the button that says new air.
Right.
Yeah.
Well, might do it.
That's what it's there for.
Okay.
Cool, huh?
Andrea, it's been a pleasure talking to you and your secret is safe with me.
Oh, thank you both very much.
I really, I hope this works.
Okay.
Well, we hope so too.
None of our other advice works.
This may work.
See you later.
See you later.
Bye bye.
One eight eight eight car talk.
That's eight double eight double two seven eight two fifty five.
Hello, you're on car talk.
My name's Steve.
I'm calling you from Los Angeles.
Steve from Los Angeles.
Are you involved in the movie business?
No, sir.
I hope not.
There are a bunch of morons.
He's on everyone's case.
I am.
Did you take your pills today?
Geez.
No, the people in Hollywood days.
All right.
But that's all there.
I'm not going to rant anymore.
I'm not going to.
What's up, Steve?
I got a 97 Saturn station wagon.
The SW2 with the power windows and the power door locks and drive at night.
I can flip the rear view mirror for the shade to block the glare, but I get the glare from
the side view mirror.
So I got a great little shaded piece of plastic with a suction cup on it that I put on the
inside of the window.
Cool.
And that blocks the glare from the side view mirror.
So you suction cup this to your driver's window and your passion on the inside.
Right.
Yeah.
Right.
I got it.
Great.
A little while ago, I went into a parking lot where you got to get the ticket so I lower
the window.
And you smashed it.
Oh, no.
I don't want the suction cups.
I raise the window.
I get the ticket.
I raise the window.
I go to park the car and I realize it's not there.
The suction cups aren't there.
Oh, the whole thing's gone?
The whole thing went down into the inside of the door.
And it stayed there.
Cool.
And what I want to know is, can I get this panel off and retrieve this plastic thing with
your guidance, or do I have to go to the dealer?
Well, does the window go up and down?
It won't go all the way down.
So I know it's under there.
Well, do you mind that it doesn't go all the way down?
Of course it does.
And Steve, you've got to fix this.
Yeah.
I don't want that thing back if it's not broken.
Well, it's like they'd be mangled.
Okay.
Yeah.
But I guess if it bothers you, I mean, if it didn't bother you, I think it would be perfectly
safe to just leave it where it is because it's obviously down at the bottom.
No.
I think you, Steve, we're going in.
No, most door panels, and Saturn included, actually pop off.
They're held on by a friction type connector, which is basically a piece of plastic that
gets pushed into a hole in the door frame.
Yeah.
And when the plastic goes in, it's kind of swaged in.
And the way you get these things out is you put a screwdriver between the plastic trim
of the door and the metal part of the door.
And you pry the thing.
And you pry it, and you'll see one pop off.
All right.
And that will encourage you.
All right.
And then you'll pop off the next one and the next one and the next one.
Now, it may require that you take off the armrest or the door handle, which may require
some tools.
No problem there.
Like screwdrivers, but you have tools, right?
Yeah, yeah.
But you may be able to pry off the bottom of this just enough to lie on the ground and
look up in there.
And you will see, when you do that, you will see the window mechanism.
You'll see the window from a vantage point that you've never seen it before.
And you'll see your piece of plastic with the suction cups.
And you may not have to do anything.
It may well be that when you pry the bottom of the door off, the thing just falls out
onto the ground.
No, you're going to have to liberate this thing.
I'll bet you not.
You want to make a side bet?
A hundred bucks.
A hundred bucks.
That's why the window won't go down.
No.
It's down at the very bottom.
He's going to pry that panel off.
And this little device is going to fall right out onto the floor skin.
You're going to need the SWAT team to get this thing out.
But you can do it.
It is not going to just fall out, but you'll be able to extract it.
And that was going to make a recommendation, actually, that you nix the suction cups.
You can get a piece of this plastic that will adhere by static electricity or some such thing.
You could rub it on your toupee even and get it to stick to the window.
And then it could go up and down, maybe with the window.
Yeah, it might be able to, at least you wouldn't gum up the works.
But I like the suction cup because it's a perfect nighttime TV product.
Yeah.
Steve, we are your ticket out of this dump.
Oh, Steve, you ought to call Ron Popeal.
He'll have this on TV in a week.
This is a great idea.
From a company that went out of business.
Oh, you bought it.
I thought you made it.
No, no, I bought this.
Oh, but if they went belly up, this is your chance to cash in.
Yeah.
Maybe they just had the wrong marketing strategy.
They tried to sell them.
Well, they sold it to me and it's great.
Good luck.
All right.
Thanks for your call, Steve.
Thank you, guys.
See you later.
Bye-bye.
Don't go anywhere.
Stick around for more calls and the new puzzler coming right up.
Greenland has said it is not for sale.
Denmark has said it can't even legally sell Greenland.
And whether Trump can or will or should try to control or purchase a territory
that does not want to be sold is one question.
But on Planet Money, we are more interested in how we even got to this moment
and how we might gracefully get out of it.
Listen to Planet Money on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
The hottest technology for Hollywood filmmakers is more than 70 years old.
It's kind of like starting up a lawnmower.
It's like...
On The Sunday Story, what this vintage film format can help us understand
about Hollywood's past and even its future.
Listen now on the NPR app to The Sunday Story from the Up First podcast.
This week on Up First, the State of the Union Address is a civic ritual and a political event.
We'll be watching to see how a president with low approval ratings handles the moment.
We are also watching the United States confrontation with Iran.
Listen each morning for overnight developments.
Up First on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Is there an acquaintance in your life that you'd love to turn into an actual friend?
And have you thought about saying, hey, we should hang out sometime.
Maybe think again.
The more specific you are, the more likely it is that you're actually going to get together.
You know, pull out your calendar, pick a time, pick a thing to do together.
And actually follow through.
Listen to the Life Kit podcast in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Ha! We're back.
You're listening to Cars With Us.
Click and collect the tappet brothers and we here to discuss cars, car repair and the new puzzler.
I can hardly wait.
Well, I think you'll like this.
This is a recent submission from a guy named Scott Crass.
And I like it because it's my brother didn't get it.
Here it is.
Yeah.
Pay careful attention.
You're placed on a medication regime in which you ought to take daily one tablet of A and one of B.
Got it.
You got it?
So you have two little pill, what do they call them?
Containers.
Yeah.
One says pill A and one says pill B.
You must be careful taking two or more B's can have unpleasant side effects or can even be fatal.
In order for the B to be effective.
Does my wife know?
In order for the B to be effective, it must be accompanied by the A pill.
Yeah.
So you got to take one A and one B.
So you open up the A bottle and you, as people do, you tap the bottle and one A pill kind of jumps out into your palm.
Yeah.
You open the B bottle and you accidentally get two B's falling out of the bottle.
But here's the problem.
They look exactly the same.
Oh, they don't have little A's and B's on them?
They're just on the container.
But they're both blue.
They're both blue.
They're the same size, the same weight.
And as soon as they fell in there, they got mixed up.
So now you have three pills, but you can't tell what the heck you got.
Oh.
Now, of course, you could just throw these pills away.
That's my first thought.
My first thought was don't make this into a puzzle and throw the pills away and start again.
The pills cost a hundred bucks a piece and you can't throw them away.
Yeah.
But how can you make sure that you get your daily dose of A and B without wasting any of the pills?
Got it?
Yeah, I've got it.
Well, you didn't have it earlier, but you've got it now.
No, I understand the question.
I can't remember the answer.
If you think you know the answer, write it on the back of a $20 bill or a stale Pop-Tart.
Wow, great idea.
Pop-Tarts are pre-stailed.
They're pre-stailed.
They are.
You destail them when you pop them or when you toast them or whatever you do.
I never realized that before.
I had one together.
I don't like to toast them.
You could reshingle your house with these.
If you ever got enough of them on sale, you could reshingle your house with Pop-Tarts.
Raspberry.
You had to have raspberry shingles.
And the frosted ones, Dougie, says they're waterproof.
And they're pre-painted.
I love it.
Anyway, since you have Pop-Tarts, they got a sewage.
I actually do eat Pop-Tarts.
Well, I see one in the cabinet once in a while, and if I'm really hungry, I will eat it.
Well, considering though, the unique chemistry involved in these, they're pretty good.
And they last forever.
Yeah, I mean, have you ever looked at the package and see how old the Pop-Tart you're about to eat is?
No, they don't have any dates.
No, they don't need them.
Yeah, although some of the packages still say, great for your bomb shelter.
President Eisenhower says, I like Pop-Tarts.
You may like Ike, but I like Pop-Tarts.
Anyway, send your answer to Puzzletower, Car Talk Plaza, Box 3500, Harvard Square, Cambridge.
Our first city.
Matt02238.
I was trying to remember the puzzler.
I forgot it already.
Or you can email your answer.
Someone help me.
I'm being held against my will.
Or you can email your answer from the Car Talk section of cars.com.
If you'd like to call us, somebody please call quick.
The number's 1-888-CAR-TALK.
That's 888-227-8282-5.
Hello, you're in Car Talk.
This is Mark from Boise.
Mark!
You know Boise, Idaho.
Oh yeah, that Boise.
I know.
I'm honored to be talking with you guys.
I even know where Idaho is.
Well, the only reason he can do that is that he has an eighth grader.
She knows where Idaho is, so he had to learn it.
Anyway, I've got an 86 Colt Vista.
Oh man!
Yeah, with 148,000 miles on it.
It doesn't get any better, does it?
I've got to talk to you about engine lubrication.
Well, these don't need much.
Spin-on oil filters are designed to be bypassed if they get clogged up, correct?
That's right.
They have a built-in bypass.
I've got a situation where my daughter crunched the front of the car and I cannot remove the filter.
Perfect.
Leave it on.
So the question I have is, in order to keep this thing going as long as possible, and
I don't know how much longer that might be, with that many miles, how frequently should
I change the oil?
Oh, to keep the filter from getting clogged up.
Well, the filter's going to clog up.
You'd be surprised.
How long can it go?
How long has it been on there now?
It's been 3,000, 4,000 miles.
Oh, you've got, let me tell you, you may not be aware of this, but I own an 87 Cult Vista.
Exactly.
That's exactly why I'm talking to you.
Yeah, that's right.
He wouldn't call because he knows you don't know anything about anything.
Oh, that's true.
Well, I decided some time ago to do an experiment with my Cult Vista in the interest of science.
Yeah.
I decided to never change the oil again.
So, I'll call you about a week.
I'll call you the day mind blows up.
That'd be perfect.
And you'll know how much, you'll know you'll probably have thousands of miles left if you're
at least changing the oil.
I've decided to change, not only not the oil, but not the filter either.
Okay.
I've done nothing.
I'm merely in top-up mode.
Just today, talk about things being timely.
Just today, I was looking through some mail and we got a note from a guy who lives down
the Cape here in Massachusetts, in Brewster, Massachusetts.
I think his name was Wells.
And since we didn't respond to his letter through our newspaper column, he sent it directly
to us.
Death threat included?
Death threat included.
And he says, here's my question.
He says he somehow was in the Army sometime or other.
The Army, he says, did tests.
And in these tests, the question was to change the oil or not change the oil.
And he has been driving a Ford something or other, has 50,000 miles on it.
He's never changed the oil.
He says it runs like a dream.
And get this.
He says the Army tests showed that the best thing to do is don't change the oil.
And here's the reason.
The engine will be protected by metallic flakes.
How about that?
Well, this may be a huge cover-up.
We know that the military industrial complex and the oil company, if anyone could be accused
of skull-duggery without any information, it's the oil company.
Oh, man.
In your opinion.
Yeah, in my opinion.
And in the opinion of Oliver Stone.
And General Motors.
In my opinion.
So it wouldn't surprise me if this has been foister on us, this philosophy that we have
to change our oil and filter.
Yeah.
To sell more oil.
I've been using Restore in this car, like you suggest.
And that seems to help a lot.
And that has a lot of metallic flakes of various...
Doesn't it, though?
Doesn't it?
Well, see, they may...
By design.
They may be privy to these Army tests.
Now, this guy didn't talk.
He made that Restore stuff from grinding up old engines.
Well, it's some kind of homeopathic thing.
Exactly.
Right?
You put a little bit of a sick engine into everyone's car.
And it builds up a resistance to it.
Yeah.
So I could change the oil whenever I feel like it.
I think you should change the oil every 3,000 miles and forget the filter.
Really?
Yeah.
I was going to do like every 2,000, but...
I was going to suggest 10, actually, but...
Well, maybe with your experiment going and my experiment going, we can call this sort
of a double-blind medical...
Yeah.
Because you're not going to change the filter, and I'm not going to change anything.
Yeah.
I think the 2 or 3,000 is the answer.
Super.
But isn't this a great car?
It's wonderful, except three teenagers have gone through it.
Well, that...
And you know...
It's a testimony to its greatness, isn't it?
It survived three teenagers.
Well, we're on the fourth clutch.
Well, yeah, well, clutches are disposable.
Yeah.
You've got to just count on a...
One teenager, one clutch.
Exactly.
The first one went to 77,000.
The last one has gone 30 or 40,000.
That's pretty good.
That's not bad.
We've known clutches to go 1,000.
That's no joke.
Not in this family.
Good luck, Mark, and keep us posted.
Thanks a lot.
Goodbye.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Well, it's just...
Do this catharsis.
And get it out.
And get it out there.
And as they say in the media, get it over with.
Get it over with.
So I'm going to get it over with.
Tell us everything you did.
Did you inhale?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Was it fumes?
Yeah.
Was it from a dodgeball?
Cabaret.
Cabaret.
The other day at the shop, we were putting...
Replacing a couple of calipers on Mazda.
Rear calipers.
And one of my mechanics had installed them.
Manny had installed them.
And when he was finished installing them, he asked me if I could help him bleed the brakes.
In fact, the car was a Miata.
So I say sure.
So he has the car like halfway on the lift.
And I kind of jump into it with one leg.
And he says, okay, and the way you do this is you pump the brake pedal.
And you get some pressure.
He opens the bleeders and a combination of air bubbles and fluid comes out.
And you do this until there's no more air coming out.
And you're done.
And of course, the person inside the car knows that you're done because the brake pedal feels like it should.
You know, so he's at the left rear wheel and I'm in the car and I pumped the pedal.
And he says, okay, hold it down.
And he opens the bleeder.
And he says, okay, pump it again.
And I do that.
And he opens the bleeder.
And after three or four times, he says, there's not much coming out here.
And I say, well, keep trying.
There's probably a lot of air in the system.
And I do it again.
And while I'm doing it, he's kind of leaned over and he's looking inside the car.
And he says to me very quietly, you're pumping the gas pedal.
But your secret is safe with me.
Oh, no it ain't.
Now, I don't know what his definition of the secret is, but there were people coming up to me that entire day
that I had never seen before made contact with in any way, shape or form.
And were they snickering?
They're saying, most cars have three pedals.
The one in the middle is the brake.
I mean, so I figure I had to make a clean rest of it, so to speak,
because everyone's going to know sooner or later it's better they know.
I better they hear from me than from Manny if he lives.
But most people will not hear from you because Manny has set up a website
and it sent out an email chain letter.
It's called middlepedal.com.
Middlepedal.com.
Oh, God.
Anyway, a 1-888 car talk.
It is sad.
It is sad.
It happens when you get old.
He was once at the pinnacle, recently at the pinnacle of his mental prowess.
And now I can't even pump a brake pedal.
Man, how fast we have fallen.
Well, it's happened again.
You've squandered another perfectly good hour listening to car talk.
Our steam producer has dug the subway fugitive, not a slave to fashion bourbon.
You forgot pumpkin lips.
Pumpkin lips.
Our social producers are Frau Catherine Fenolosa and Louis Cronin the Barbarian.
Our engineer is Dennis de Menesfolie.
Our senior web lackey is Doug the Old Greymare.
And our technical, spiritual, and menu advisor who happens to be here or was here today
is John Bugsy Free Lunch Lawler.
Our public opinion pollster is Paul Murkey of Murkey Research,
assisted by Statistician Marge in O'Vara.
Our customer care representative is Haywood Jabuzoff.
Our director of new product and peer is Marvin T. Myfoot.
And our shop foreman is Luke Bizzy.
Our student consultant is Norm De Plume.
The head of our division of threat assessment is Ewan Whatarmy.
Our director of luxury car horn, just Tony Blair.
And our new Russian chauffeur is Beek Up and Drop Off.
Our chief counsel from the law firm of Dewey Cheetahman Howe as you Louis.
What's Dewey?
Known to the other bums in Harvard Square as you Louis Dewey.
Thanks so much for listening.
We're clicking Clack the Tappet Brothers.
And above all, don't drive like my brother.
Don't drive like my brother.
You'll be back next week.
Bye-bye.
Well, here's a big surprise.
We have with us in the studio today Mr. Vinnie Gombaz,
the chief mechanic of Car Talk To Us.
Thank you very much now.
If yous here want a copy of this show, which is number 0008,
just pick up your phone and call this number.
You got a pencil?
One eight eight eight card junk.
And what if I wanted a copy of that CD,
why you should never listen to your father when it comes to cars?
What do I call that same number, Vincent?
No, you call the Harvard with him, pooch.
You dope.
Of course you call the same number.
You call the Shameless Commerce Division at 888-CARD-JUNK
or visit it online at the Car Talks section of cars.com.
Thank you Vinnie, that was riveting.
Hey, rivet this, will ya?
Car Talk is a production of Dewey Cheetahman Howe and WBOR in Boston.
And even though Nina Totenberg takes all of her NPR T-shirts
and tosses them out the window when she hears us say it,
this is NPR National Public Radio.
Listen to Wait Wait on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
LifeKit can help you change your life in record time.
In just about 20 minutes, a LifeKit episode gives you evidence-based tips
you can put into practice that day.
No fast-forwarding to get to the good stuff.
Just smart, straightforward advice right away.
Listen to the LifeKit podcast in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
About this episode
The conversation centers on a caller's 1986 Honda Accord experiencing fuel-related issues, with detailed troubleshooting advice focusing on the multiple fuel filters and fuel pump. The hosts emphasize the importance of replacing inexpensive parts first and share humorous banter about the caller's university and microbiology studies. The episode also includes lighthearted commentary on listener feedback from eighth graders and features a classic Car Talk puzzler involving a suspicious car sale scenario.
Original notes
On past shows we’ve discussed repairs using a variety of ‘improvised’ materials such as underwear waistbands, road signs and extra virgin olive oil. Add to that list the humble and perpetual Pop Tart. Gather ‘round the toaster for this episode of the Best of Car Talk.
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