A Saturn SL2 is a small car made by Saturn (part of GM). In this call, something went wrong with a belt, and that’s what the person thinks started the chain of problems.
That belt is what helps run important parts of the car. If it comes off, the car can lose charging and power steering, so the warning lights and steering problems make sense.
Belts have to be adjusted to the right tightness. If they’re too tight, they can run hotter than they should and wear out faster, which can create smoke or other serious problems.
A burning rubber smell usually means something under the hood is getting too hot. Here it happens after the belt work, so it’s a warning sign that the problem may be related.
Term
smoke coming out from my hood
Smoke from under the hood means something is overheating or burning. Since it happened after the belt was replaced, it suggests the repair may have caused a problem.
Term
engine was on fire
If the engine area catches fire, it can spread fast because there are lots of flammable parts nearby. That’s why the timing after the belt work matters in the story.
They’re describing a situation where the engine bay catches fire. Here, they’re saying a belt that’s too tight can get extremely hot and potentially ignite the belt and other things nearby.
If a belt is tightened too much, it can rub harder than it should and get hotter. That heat can damage the belt and, in worst cases, lead to a fire under the hood.
A serpentine belt is one long belt that powers several parts of the engine at the same time. If it’s installed wrong or gets too hot, it can wear out fast and even cause a fire risk under the hood.
The Dacia Duster is a small SUV. It’s meant to be practical and affordable, with a driving position that feels higher than a regular car. The podcast brings it up because it’s the specific model being recommended to the speaker.
The MG MGB is an older sports car made for driving for fun. People like it because it’s a classic and there are lots of parts and tips available for owners. The podcast mentions it as a recognizable classic car.
An actuator is like a tiny motor or controller that moves something inside the car. In the heating/AC system, it helps move the doors that decide where the air comes out.
The Hyundai Santa Cruz is a small vehicle that looks like an SUV but has a short truck bed. It’s meant for everyday driving and light hauling. The podcast mentions it while describing where the speaker is driving near Santa Cruz.
Car
81 two-wheel drive Toyota pickup
The host is talking about an older Toyota pickup that starts running badly at the same speed and engine speed. The problem causes misfires and backfires, and the discussion is about figuring out what part of the ignition system is failing.
The Chrysler Pacifica is a minivan made for families. It’s built to fit more passengers and gear, and it’s meant for comfortable driving on longer trips. The podcast mentions it because the speaker is driving it on a route near San Francisco.
The secondary ignition is the “spark-making” part of the ignition system. If something in that chain—like the coil, wires, cap, or spark plugs—doesn’t work right, the engine can misfire and even backfire.
The ignition coil converts low-voltage electrical power into the high voltage needed to create a spark. If the coil is weak or failing under load (like climbing a hill at a certain RPM), it can cause intermittent misfires and backfires.
Spark plug wires send electricity to the spark plugs. If the wires are worn or damaged, the spark can get weak or intermittent, and the engine will misfire.
The distributor cap is a cover that helps route the spark to the right cylinder. If it gets cracked or worn, the spark can jump to the wrong place and the engine misfires.
Vacuum advance changes the engine’s ignition timing using engine vacuum. If it doesn’t work correctly, the timing can be off when you’re climbing or accelerating, which can lead to rough running or backfires.
Electronic ignition is a modernized way of making the spark happen at the right time. Instead of mechanical contacts, electronics control the timing, which usually makes the system more reliable and easier to maintain.
An igniter is part of the ignition system that helps control the spark. If it’s not working right, the car may have trouble starting or may misfire even if other parts like the coil are okay.
A DVOM is a handheld tool that measures electricity—like voltage and resistance. Mechanics use it to check whether parts in the ignition system are working properly or if there’s a bad connection.
The Volvo 760 is an older Volvo car from the 1980s, and it was made for comfortable everyday driving. A “turbo wagon” means it’s a wagon body with an engine that has a turbo for extra power. The podcast mentions it because someone is calling about their 1986 version.
Brake pads are the parts that press against the spinning brake disc to slow the car down. They can make noise depending on what they’re made from, even if they’re not worn out.
These are thin metal/plastic pieces with a Teflon coating that sit with the brake pads. They help stop the brakes from squealing by reducing vibration.
The special paste is a quieting compound that gets applied where the brake pad contacts the shim. It helps prevent the squeaky noise that can happen when parts vibrate.
LIVE
New shows, new music, new movies, keeping up with pop culture sometimes feels like a full-time job.
Thankfully over at Pop Culture Happy Hour, it's literally our job.
We break down what's actually worth watching, listening to, and pretending you already knew
about. So the next time someone says, did you see that? You can say, yeah, obviously. Follow NPR's
Pop Culture Happy Hour wherever you get your podcasts.
Hello and welcome to Car Talk from National Public Radio. With us, click and clack the
Tapper Brothers, and we're broadcasting this week from the damning by faint praise department here
at Car Talk Plaza. We have in the past mentioned that car people are the most hated of anyone.
Right. And there I was sitting in my office the other day, and I came across this little article.
Actually, what that it means when we say that car dealers are the most hated, it's actually a survey
done of a National Association of Attorneys General. Yes. And what they measure is the number
of complaints against blah, blah. And it's always auto repair or auto
dealers or something. Auto industry is right at the top. As we have always said, anyone remotely
associated with the automotive industry, right there, bingo. Well, have we got news for you.
We have not only dropped to number two. Automobile people have dropped to number three.
Get out. And here's why. Yeah, don't break out the champagne yet. Don't break out the champagne yet.
Number two is home repair and construction. Now, they've always been number one in my book.
Number one, however, is interesting. Telecommunications. Oh, it's not a surprise to me. Have you had
a phone bill in the last five years that you've been able to understand? Well, I have a story
about telecommunications. In my office, I have a phone and I don't always pay my bills on time
or answer it or answer the phone. But I get this bill from AT&T and I had it for a long time.
I had AT&T as my quote, long distance carrier. And I didn't pay the bill and I looked at it
was $11.43. The following month, the other bill comes, I didn't pay the first one. So it shows
arrears $11.43 and then it says current charges $11.43. And I say, what other chances are that?
Exactly. So I looked to see how maybe I made exactly the same phone calls to exactly the same
people for exactly the same amount of time. It turns out, I made, let's show you did,
I made no long distance phone calls. Exactly the same people exactly the same amount of time.
Exactly. Zero. The $11.43 was a series of charges which allowed me if I wanted to to make long
distance calls. They were charging me $11 a month for the privilege of making
an opportunity opportunity. Right. So I called them up and I said, what's this? And they said,
well, that's how it goes. And they said, what are you complaining about? You haven't paid us.
And I said, well, wait a minute, cancel it. So I canceled it. Yes. I don't get the bills anymore.
Oh, the question is, how long had I been paying $11.43 a month? Well, worse than that,
I mean, you get all kinds of things that you can't understand, LDS charges, builds bikes. I
got to build from cyberspace. So the car guys have dropped down to three only because the other
guys are screwing everything up so badly. Even worse than cars. I mean, that's pretty bad.
And the building boom is responsible really for the complaints against the building industry.
Everyone's putting additions on or building houses and finding out, of course, as you thin out the
ranks of the good guys, you automatically attract the sleazeballs into the business
and then the complaints start to mount. Yeah. So it's no surprise, but rest assured, when the
economy slows, we'll be right back in the number one position. Come on, guys, you're not doing your
part. Come on, you can beat the telecommunications and the building repair guys. I know that.
I think we'll have to redouble our efforts, but we can get back to number one, guys,
if we all pull together. Well, if you'd like to complain about any particular profession.
Yeah, like radio. Like anything. Yeah. Obnoxious talk show host, for example. You can call us at
888-CAR-TALK. That's 888-227-8255. Hello, you're on car talk. Hi, my name is Stacey. I'm calling
from Boston. Hi, Stacey. Stacey, Boston, Massachusetts. Just across the river. Yeah,
real Boston. Well, Roslindale. Roslindale. Okay, it's close enough. Yeah, it's part of
Boston. Roslindale is like next to JP, isn't it? Yes. Yeah, otherwise known as Jamaica Plain.
But we don't have bookstores or decent coffee yet. Oh, no? No. Roslindale is where you have to move
if you can't afford the rents in Jamaica Plain anymore. Or Cambridge. Oh, Cambridge. I mean,
you've long moved out of Cambridge. We couldn't afford rents there for a long time. Right. No,
we do our show from a van now. So anyway, Stacey, what's the nature of your call to us? Okay,
well, I had a 92 Saturn SL2. And I really loved the Saturn. Had very few problems with it. But one
day I went out to use the car, turned the key, and the battery light came on and the steering
didn't work. So a friend of mine, one of my neighbors came out, looked at the engine,
and he figured out pretty quickly that the belt had just fallen off. There you go.
So I brought it into Pep Boys. And they replaced the belt. It took them a few hours. But when they
were done, the mechanic mentioned to me that, you know, he had a really difficult time. The belts
were a bit too tight, but he finally got one on. And that sounded kind of hinky to me. So I asked
somebody, he assured me that everything would be fine with it. So we left there at about 330.
And as we were driving home, me and my 10 year old son, we could smell this burning rubber smell
coming through the vents. So we closed the vents, rolled down the windows. Good thinking. We got
into the driveway and there was some smoke coming out from my hood. And I'm eight months pregnant.
I didn't really want to be smelling the fumes. So I went to knock on a neighbor's door to let
him open it so he could smell the fumes. Good idea. Yeah. But by the time he opened it,
my engine was on fire and flames were shooting out of the headlights. Oh, great. Cool. Yet the
neighborhood kids thought it was pretty cool. I was in doubt about it. When the fire department,
the police came, it was a total and they took care of it. It doesn't take long. They suggested
that I call Pep Boys back. And when I did call Pep Boys about it to let them know what happened.
Let me guess. They wouldn't answer the phone. Oh, it took me three days to get a hold of the
manager. Nothing we could have done could have caused this. Oh, no. And if I was, since I'm not
a certified mechanic, I'm in no place to say that there's any connection between the two.
Since you guys actually are mechanics, what else could have caused this if not the belt?
Is it entirely outside the realm of probability that that belt would have caused the fire?
No, yes, yes, and no. I forgot the question. Okay, that's it Stacy. That's a wrap.
Well, there are many things that could cause an engine to burst into flame.
Not the least of which is a belt that's too tight, which he already admitted to you,
and is creating so much heat that it may be able to, I've never seen it happen,
but it may have created enough extra heat to set the belt on fire, which could easily have set
other things under the hood on fire. As you might expect, there are a lot of other combustibles there.
I will tell you that we have had trouble in the past putting belts on Saturns.
We have trouble getting the right size belt, and it seems that whenever we order a belt for a Saturn,
it's too short. And we've put a couple on, but we no longer buy the aftermarket belts for Saturns.
When we need a belt for a Saturn, it's called a serpentine belt. It's one long belt that runs
everything. We get them from the dealer. Did the forensics guys look at this thing yet? Because
let's say, for example, the belt was all frayed. Yeah. I mean, they might be able to figure out,
and the insurance companies are pretty good at this stuff. I mean, every time Uncle Leo, for
example, has torched the car, they always catch it. So they're good at finding out the origins of
fires. Absolutely. Okay. They will certainly go after pet boys. Well, they may or may not,
because it's more trouble than it's worth. I mean, the insurance companies, let's face it.
Are they on this list of people who are hated sleazeballs? Let me see. The top 10 are telecommunications,
home repair, auto sales, mail auto, telemarketing, and it's not insurance. It should be. I mean,
they're on my top 10 because every possible time that I've had to deal with insurance companies,
their practices, I have to say, in my humble opinion, are sleazy. Questionable at best.
Questionable at best. And so, I mean, it might well be that for a few thousand bucks, I mean,
what are they going to pay you? It's a 92 Saturn. It's worth 3,000 bucks. I actually did end up with
$3,000. There you go. But I guess that leads me to my secondary question. Yeah. Since your car
scope recommended that I get a duster, and that's just not acceptable to me. The car
scope is great, isn't it? Yeah. It's a little updating, but it's... No, no, no. It tells you what
that's what you want. That's what you need. That's it. Just because you can't find one doesn't mean
the car scope is not responsible for that. Okay. And from this point out, should I stick with
independent mechanics? I don't know what to say about that. I mean, the fact that
Pep Boys hasn't responded to you and admitted anything, that's not nice. I mean, if they are
competent to put a belt in or even incompetent to put a belt in, they should also know that it's
possible that what they did caused a damn fire. And you know that they know that. And at the very
least, they should have offered to look at it. Exactly. I mean, the fact that they're avoiding you
kind of bothers me. It assigns culpability to them in my mind right off the bat. It's troubling.
So, I mean, I think you deserve to go back to them and, if nothing else, report them to the
Attorney General, get the autumn people back up to number one on the list of hated people in the
world because they owe you something. Okay, I'll give them a call. See you Stacey. Thank you a lot.
Bye bye. Bye bye. I'm glad we didn't put that belt on. Okay, Tommy, look, it's time once again
to search your soul. Do you remember anything about last week's puzzler? Let me see. I see
genetically modified crops. I see gastric eruptions and rubber checks.
No, that was Bugsy's birthday back. Taco Bell. We'll hurry back.
Hi, we're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Clack, the Tavern Brothers,
and we're here to discuss cars, car repair, and the answer to last week's puzzler.
I'm still not into the motive answering the puzzler questions. It seems like the puzzler's
been on vacation for so long. I'm not into the mode that it's back. Really? That's why I can't
remember the puzzler. If it went away, you wouldn't miss it. I don't think anybody
would miss it. Well, if you remember from last week, this was sort of an anthropological, geological,
algebraic, and above all obfuscational puzzle. I don't remember anything about it. This was
from the Blind them with Footwork collection. Yeah, those are the best. Yeah, those are good.
Yeah, this wasn't really cricket, but hey, tough. In the little Asian country of Tuvanizca,
there are two small towns separated by a mountain, and we'll call the towns Abba and Baba.
And the preferred footwear in both of these little towns is the combat boot.
Now, Abba has a population of 20,000. You need a pencil for this. Oh, I remember this, yeah.
They have 20,000 in one feet, one foot. So, of the 20,000 people in Abba,
1% have only one foot. Yeah. So, 1% wear only 11 boot. One boot. Of the remaining population,
half of them wear no boots, and the rest wear two boots, like you would expect. Yeah. In Baba,
on the other side of the mountain, 20% of the people have one foot. Of the remaining people,
half wear no boots, and half wear two boots. 20,000 boots are worn in Baba. So, what's the
population of Baba? I have no idea. I can just guess. Go ahead. Zero. How could it be zero?
Who's wearing the boots? I don't know. Maybe visitors. It's not zero. Let's go to Abba for
a second. Yeah, we go to Abba. Okay, 1% of the population is one footed. Half of the remaining
population wears no boots. Yeah. Right? Right. And obviously, the other half of the remaining
population wears the conventional two boots. Two boots. Okay. And if you go and if you figure
that out, you'll find out that there are 20,000 boots worn in Abba. Oh, okay. And it turns out
that it doesn't make any difference what percentage of the population has one leg. No kidding.
And so, when you go to Baba, even though 20% of the population has one foot, because they have
one foot, that's also equivalent to being like half the population. Is it not? Of course. So,
every person that has one boot is just like the other part of the population. We're half of the
people. Don't wear any boots. So, the average is that half the people wear a boot. Therefore,
one boot per person comes out to 20,000. So, if there are 20,000 boots worn in Baba,
the population must be 20,000 or zero. Well, that was obfuscated. That was beautiful.
It was very simple math, but I had to blind you with the footwork. Well, you had to because it
alluded me. For example, if I asked you what's half of 20,000 multiplied by two,
you would have known the answer. I would have known the answer. Yeah. Okay. Do we have a winner?
You bet we have a winner. The winner is Deborah Garcia from Tuxon, Arizona. I think it's Tucson,
but I'm not sure. No, I call it Tuxon. Okay. I like it. And for having her answer selected at
random from among all the correct answers that we got, Deborah, Deborah Garcia from Tucson, Arizona,
will get a $25 gift certificate to the store at the Cart Talk section of cars.com. And with that
$25 gift certificate, what could she do? She can purchase one and nine sixteenths
Cart Talk puzzler books, for example. Well, we just rip out the pages and give her the rest.
By the way, you don't have to win a gift certificate to get any of the totally useless items we
occasionally mention or flog, I think is the right word on the show. You can always visit the store
at the CartTalk section of cars.com for information, or you can call 888-CAR-JUNK.
That was shameless commerce, what you just did. That was advertising. This is NPR. You can't
advertise for people that go and buy junk. It's a public service.
Right. Sure. It was a public service announcement. I'm having Bob Edwards do it next week. You'll see
it'll sound a lot better. All right. Hey, do you know what time it is? Time to order a fleece
bodysuit for the MGB. No. It's time to play Super Choops.
Hey, we haven't done this for a while, but this is the part of the show where we track down a
previous caller and we find out whether the advice we gave was down to earth, down to business,
or down three courts. So who's our lucky contestant this week?
Well, as always, we don't know in advance, but the notes here say it's Debra from Washington.
Do you remember Debra needed the one? Not really, no.
Well, it says here, Debra had a GMC Sierra pickup truck that she thought was haunted.
It made a strange sound even after she turned off the car. Here's the call.
It's an automatic. So I put it in park and I turn it off. I take the key out and it knocks again,
and it'll be knocking while I'm walking away from it.
Did you get any sense of where it might have been coming from then?
It sounds like it's coming from inside the glove compartment.
So I open that up and it's not, I think it's under the glove compartment.
And it, you know, is there a fan or something in there?
If you want there to be, you can arrange it.
You know, in this business, the customer is always right.
So what did we, I don't remember, what did we tell her?
Well, we we've, we waffle, you had an excellent suggestion. You said that with the power antenna.
But that in great Debra said there wasn't any power antenna.
And I zeroed in on the fan and you did me one better and suggested it was a twig
caught in the fan. And I think that's where we left off. I don't like any of those answers.
I have a new feeling about it though. I get to give my new feeling about it.
I think that it's, she's going to say we're wrong.
She doesn't have a power antenna.
No, she doesn't have a power antenna, but I think one of the doors in her heating system is
well, let's see. Debra. Hello.
Yeah. Look, before we find out whether that twig was lodged in your fan or lodged in my
brother's brain, we need to verify that the answer you're about to give here on Stump the
Chumps has not been influenced by our staff. The staff of National Public Radio or the folks
at Seance's are us. No.
Okay. What's happening?
What was it? It wasn't the fan, was it?
Well, no.
But did it have to do with any of those vent doors?
To give you guys credit.
When you hit on the twigs and all that, it wasn't the twigs,
but it was a really good clue for my mechanic.
Really?
Yeah. It turned out to be the actuator.
That's it. That's it. It's the door.
And I didn't even know what that was. In fact, for the longest time, I kept the part
because I couldn't remember what he told me that it was.
Right. And this is the actuator that opens up the doors on the ventilation system. So my brother
is right.
Wow.
Yeah.
Cool. So now the noise is gone and now you have nothing to, you have no topics of conversation.
It's no, actually, it's been a great story because I was on car talk. What can I say?
Deborah, thank you so much for playing Stump the Chumps.
Thank you very much.
Thanks again. Bye-bye.
Right after these messages, you'll hear more calls and a new puzzler coming right up.
We're back. You're listening to car talk with us. Click and clack. The Tapper Brothers
and we're here to discuss cars, car repair, and of the new, what did I say?
Algebraic. Algebraic baseball puzzler, you said. I did. Actually, you said it the other way.
A baseball, from the baseball algebraic series of puzzlers. Oh, but that was rather brazen of me.
That was rather brazen. I've been on tenterhooks. What is a tenterhook?
And why would I want to be on one?
What you want when I'm your geester out there?
Here it is. Yeah.
Now that the baseball season is in its waning days, I'm going to use this and I've used many
baseball puzzles in the past. You might guess I'm a baseball fan. Yeah.
There were two rookie players who started the season on opening day and made a wager as to
which one would have the best batting average at the end of the season. And they're both standing
there. It's the last game of the season and not much is going to change that last day,
especially considering neither one of them is in the starting lineup. And they're watching
the other players take batting practice. And we'll call these guys, for the lack of
something better, Bluto and Popeye. Got it. So Bluto says, hey, Popeye, what did you bat for
the first half of the year? And Popeye says, bat at 250. And Bluto says, well, I got you there.
I batted 300. And he says, how about after the All-Star break? What'd you do then?
Proudly, Popeye pipes up or Popeye pops up and says, I batted 375.
Wow. He says, pretty good, but I batted 400. Falk over the 20 bucks that we bet.
So there are several questions here. So let me get these numbers down.
Oh, you do? I got an interpensive. I got Bluto and Popeye. So for the first up to the All-Star
break, Bluto bats 300. Yeah. And Popeye bats 250. 250. Yeah. After the All-Star break,
Bluto bats 400. Yeah. Popeye bats 375. And you're going to tell us that Popeye wins the bet.
No. The bat boy, Dougie, saunters over and says, don't pay the 20 bucks, Popeye. I think you won.
How could that be? Wow. And how many times did they hit him with the bat?
And why is someone that batted 375 not playing in the last game of the season? That's what I
want to know. Injuries. By the way, I want to add this. Just it might help or it might not help.
They both had the same number of at bats for the season. Go figure. Now, if you think you know the
answer, you would send that answer on a postcard or sew it to the bottom of a tempiopedic Swedish
phone memory mattress and pillow and pillow. Yeah. Actually, we'll take just the pillow and send it
to Puzzler Tower, two pillows, Car Talk Plaza, Box 3500, Harvard Square, Cambridge,
our facility, Matt 02238. Or you can email your answer from the Car Talk section of cars.com.
1-888-CAR-TALK. That's 888-227-8255. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Tom calling from
Half Moon Bay. Is that Tom, T, A, U, G, H, M? You can spell it like that, I guess. I've never
done it that way. Half Moon Bay. Half Moon Bay, California. Oh, it's real. It's in Northern
California. Yeah, we're about half an hour south of San Francisco, just north of Santa Cruz. Oh,
it's a half an hour Moon Bay. Half an hour south Moon Bay. Okay, got it. What's up, Tom? Okay,
I've got an 81 two-wheel drive Toyota pickup. The problem is, and it's hard to describe, but basically
whenever I get up to a certain speed at a certain RPM, she starts to misfire and sputter and she
gives the old kind of pat, and sometimes even backfires. It's usually in fourth
gear, somewhere around 55 miles an hour, give or take, five miles an hour. And the other weird
thing is that usually only does it when I'm going uphill, particularly on this one hill
on highway one as I'm coming up out of Pacifica going into San Francisco. It always does it in
the exact same spot at the exact same RPM, at the exact same speed in fourth gear. Really? But in
fourth gear? Usually in fourth gear, if I downshift into third gear, even if I'm going 55 miles an
hour, it won't do it. I mean, it runs a little rough, but it won't, it doesn't cut out like that.
It doesn't do it in the flat. It doesn't do it downhill unless I really accelerate hard,
or sometimes even if I'm accelerating and then I just engage the clutch,
I'll get a kind of a backfire. Yeah, this is a classic case of RFI, Radio Frequency Interference.
Is there a microwave tower near your truck? Let me write that down. RFI.
Well, actually, it sounds like a classic case of bad secondary ignition. Secondary ignition.
The secondary ignition in your car is all those components responsible for taking the 20 or
and any one of those pieces could be at fault. For example, you could have a bad coil,
you could have a bad coil wire, you could have spark plug wires,
you could have a bad plugs, bad distributor cap. I've replaced the things I've done in my own
half baked diagnosis in the last eight months when it started happening. All those things we just
well, no, I actually haven't done the coil, but I've set the timing, I've replaced the plugs,
the wires, the distributor cap, the fuel filter. I've even replaced the vacuum advance.
And none of that has worked, although I haven't done anything to the coil.
Well, the coil is actually pretty easy to test, but you need an own meter.
Okay. And if you have that in the book, which I'm sure you have.
Oh, I've got the book. You've
Sure. So you'll find out a spec for testing the coil and you may find out it's bad.
The other possibility, this is an 81, but it has electronic ignition.
I believe, and it has something called an igniter.
But since you haven't changed the coil, it seems that you've changed everything else.
You may want to just change it. It's probably 30 or 40 bucks.
Yes, but for 30 or 40 bucks, you could buy an old meter.
And then buy the coil.
Then buy the coil. And then you'd have an old meter.
I can buy the old meter and then it'll tell me to buy the coil.
Don't forget everything that you do is an excuse to buy another tool.
Problem is, whenever I buy a tool, it usually just gets me into more trouble than I have before.
Oh yeah. But you want a nice digital volt oh meter.
Okay.
You can get one for about, uh, oh, cheap.
Oh, 200 bucks.
Very, what are you talking about?
I bought one in Radio Shack just recently for about 20 bucks.
Doesn't work though.
It's perfect. Yeah.
Oh, it's awesome.
200 is about what the cars work.
No, 20 bucks, 20 bucks.
Radio Shack.
I can give you the model of it.
You want to take it or just buy the coil is probably that.
But by the volt oh meter, you can do all kinds of things with it.
Oh yeah.
Okay. What else can I do with it?
The instructions are in the book.
You can find out whether or not you have 110 volts coming into your house.
Of course, it'll cook the meter, but you'll know once and for all.
No, it won't.
This little cheap meter will operate up to like 500 volts AC.
No, that's worth 20 bucks.
No toolbox should be without one.
Yeah.
Okay.
It is the coil.
See you, Tom.
Okay. Thanks a lot.
Good luck.
Good luck.
18
This didn't get any easier.
Do you think after 25 years, no, 1888 car talk.
Well, you know, it is actually there's an interesting thing going on.
The questions are getting easier.
The cars are getting too complicated.
No, we're getting stupider.
Oh, that too.
Because don't forget, people don't have complicated questions anymore
because either the car is hopeless or they, if there's something that's reasonable,
they call us.
And it's so the questions have become, I think, simpler.
I always thought the struggle was the most, the best part of this anyway.
Because if the questions got easier, we were smarter as we were 20 years ago.
Well, the show be over 10 minutes.
The show would be over in 10 minutes.
We'd be zapping off answers.
Okay, go check that.
We'd be all done.
We used to do that.
1888 car talk.
That's 888
2278255
A lawyer on car talk.
This is Erin from Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Erin, E-R-I-N.
Yes, thank you.
Felt it right.
So what's going on?
Um, well, I'm calling because I have a 1986 Volvo 760 turbo wagon.
Yeah.
And I'm having a problem with this lovely sound that is coming from the car when I break.
It doesn't happen all the time.
It doesn't seem to be affected by the temperature, whether or not it's rainy.
Um, and it doesn't matter how much pressure I put on the brakes.
It is really loud.
This, it's kind of a high-pitched screaming sound.
And I've had the brakes looked at and the calipers and everything checks out.
And my mechanic can't figure out where this sound is coming from.
I have a hint.
You do.
Coming from the brakes.
It's coming from the brakes.
Yeah, I knew that too.
Oh, you say you're a mechanic who is not a Volvo mechanic.
No.
Right.
No.
And, uh, but I have asked people at the dealership and they always say, well, it's your brake pads.
Right.
And they're 100% correct.
And the brake pads are in perfect condition because I had my brakes taken apart.
When did that happen?
I think it was probably about 22 months ago.
Well, the Volvo dealer is right.
It is your brake pads.
Okay.
And that doesn't have to be anything wrong with the brake pads.
And so far as, you know, breaking, whether they're worn out or whether they stop or don't stop the car to make the noise.
Right.
Because what's wrong with them is they have the wrong composition.
Okay.
Brake pads, modern pads are made out of a lot of different things.
And Volvo has spent tens of thousands of dollars of research money finding brakes that didn't make noise.
You may remember maybe even when you first got the car that your brakes may have made noise all the time.
Volvo brakes were notorious for making noise.
For some reason, Volvo had a bigger problem than anybody else.
And I don't understand why.
Oh, every Volvo that came into our shop, the brakes made noise and every Volvo that left our shop, the brakes made noise.
And then we finally started using, in desperation, the factory pads with these Teflon coated shims
that come with them, which probably didn't come with the pads that your neighborhood mechanic put on.
And this special paste that goes on both sides of the shim.
And these all but eliminate the noise.
And we don't have one Volvo out of a thousand now, which makes noise.
I just want to warn you, Erin, that if you say that you had the last brake job done at a Volvo dealer.
We're hanging up.
We're going to hang up. I'm never going to speak to you again.
No, I didn't have the last brake job done at a Volvo dealer.
Well, I would take it back to this fellow who did the brake work and ask him to buy the genuine Volvo pads.
Okay.
Which will come with the shims and the paste.
Okay.
Hopefully that'll stop the noise.
It will absolutely stop it dead in its tracks.
Give it a shot.
Good.
See it.
See you, Erin.
Great. Thanks.
Thanks for your call.
Bye-bye.
Well, it's happened again.
You've eviscerated another perfectly good hour listening to car talk.
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Car talk is a reduction of Dewey, Chinman Hawes and WBUR in Boston.
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About this episode
A survey from the National Association of Attorneys General flips the “most hated” rankings, with telecommunications taking the top spot. Then a caller’s $11.43 long-distance charge leads into a belt-tension fire story: a 1992 Saturn SL2 gets a belt replacement, smells like burning rubber, and ends up with flames. The hosts connect the risk to an overly tight serpentine belt. Later, they troubleshoot ignition misfires (RFI vs. bad secondary ignition) and wrap with brake-noise diagnosis and fixes on a 1986 Volvo.
Stacy had her car’s belts tightened recently and more recently the car went up in flames. Coincidence or Causal? Find out on this episode of the Best of Car Talk.
See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.
