Car
Toyota A90
The Toyota Supra is a sports car made by Toyota. It’s often talked about because it’s known for being dependable and lasting a long time with normal maintenance. That’s why it may come up in a conversation about cars that can reach high mileage.
Term
carbon monoxide
Carbon monoxide is an invisible exhaust gas that can build up inside a car. Breathing it can make you sick and can be deadly, so it’s a serious safety issue.
Part
heater boxes
Heater boxes are part of the air-cooled Volkswagen Beetle’s exhaust-to-heat system, routing heat from the engine area into the cabin. If they rust through, exhaust gases can leak into the heater ducting and potentially into the passenger compartment.
Term
emissions tester
An emissions test looks at exhaust gases leaving the tailpipe. But you can still have carbon monoxide inside the car if it’s leaking in through the heater or ventilation system.
Term
heat exchanger system
In this context, the heat exchanger system is the car’s method of transferring heat into the cabin using components connected to the engine/exhaust heat path. The host says one major route for carbon monoxide intrusion is through this system, especially where heater components connect to ducting.
Term
duct tape
They’re talking about using duct tape as a quick, temporary plug to stop air (and any leaked exhaust gas) from moving through the heater ducts while figuring out where the problem is.
Car
Suzuki Samurai
The Suzuki Samurai is a small off-road SUV that’s known for being tough and simple to work on. Here, they’re talking about a 1988 version with a manual transmission.
Term
clutch
On a manual car, the clutch is what you press to let you shift gears. If something feels wrong with the clutch, it can make shifting harder or cause gears to feel sticky.
Term
shift gears
Shifting gears is how a manual transmission changes the gear ratio. If it becomes hard to move the shifter into gear, something in the clutch/shift linkage or adjustment may be sticking or out of spec.
Term
bleed
Bleeding means getting the air out of the clutch fluid lines. Air makes the system feel weak or inconsistent, so the clutch may not release fully.
Part
slave
The slave cylinder is the part that actually pushes/pulls the clutch release using the fluid pressure from the master cylinder. If it’s weak or leaking, the clutch won’t release properly.
Car
Nissan Pulsar
The Nissan Pulsar is a compact car made by Nissan. In the podcast, it’s mentioned in a playful way, not as a detailed review. The main point is that it’s a real car model name people recognize.
Car
97 Volkswagen Golf
A Volkswagen Golf is a small everyday car (usually a hatchback) that’s meant to be practical. Here, the caller says she drives a 1997 Golf, meaning it’s an older model from the late 1990s.
Concept
Chick Car
“Chick Car” is a slang term people use to stereotype certain cars as being for women. The hosts are discussing it as a social label—like who buys what—rather than anything about how the car is built.
Concept
Guy cars
“Guy cars” is a slang stereotype meaning some cars are seen as “for guys.” In this segment it’s part of a joke/discussion about stereotypes, not about the car’s real capabilities.
Term
crank position
The crank position is the key position that makes the starter motor spin the engine to start it. If the key stays there, the car thinks it’s still trying to start.
Term
run position
The run position is the key position after the engine is started, when the car powers things you use while driving. If the key doesn’t fully reach run, some of those features stay off.
Term
ignition key
The ignition key is what you turn to start the car and to put it into normal driving mode. Here, it doesn’t fully return, so the car doesn’t switch into the usual state.
Term
starter motor
The starter motor is the part that spins the engine when you turn the key to start. It only runs in the crank/start position.
Term
flywheel
The flywheel is a heavy rotating part inside the engine system. When you start the car, the starter motor uses it to spin the engine fast enough to catch.
Term
accessories
Here, “accessories” means the car’s electrical features like lights and wipers. The story says they may not work if the key never fully returns to the normal run mode.
Car
89 Volvo 240
This is a Volvo sedan called the 240, and “89” means it’s from 1989. The caller mentions it because they and their husband each brought older cars into their marriage and are now deciding what to sell.
Car
87 Chevy Nova
This is a Chevrolet model called the Nova, and “87” means it’s from the 1987 model year. The caller is using it as an example of a car they already own while deciding what to sell.
Car
Colt Vista
The Colt Vista is a car model name that comes up in the podcast during a discussion about what the car is actually called. The speaker seems to be correcting a misunderstanding about the name on the car. So it’s included mainly for identification rather than how it drives.
Car
Volkswagen Beetle
The Volkswagen Beetle is a famous older-style VW. It’s known for being straightforward and popular with car fans. Here, they’re talking about it as one of the cars in a decision.
Term
rear wheel drive
Rear-wheel drive means the back wheels do the work of moving the car. In snow, that can make traction harder to manage, so the car may feel less stable unless you have good tires and careful driving.
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
Tappet Brothers, and we're broadcasting this week from the two zeros in 00 campaign
headquarters here at Car Talk Plaza. Some of you may know that Tommy and I are running
for co-president this year on the fondue party ticket. And if we win, we've already announced
that my brother's going to take Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and I'll be president on Tuesday,
Thursday, and Saturday, so I can immediately overturn everything he does. Anyway, before you
make up your minds and head into the voting booth, we thought you might want to hear one of the things
that my brother will be promoting during his three days a week. Oh, you're not in, you're not
party to this? Oh, no, no, not really, no. Okay, here we go then. This is one of our initiatives.
It's called the Vehicle Reliability Reduction Program, also known as CARS Absolutely Stink.
Don't sugarcoat it, man. The people want the truth. They can't handle the truth, but they want it.
Has anything in the past century torn asunder the social fabric of this great nation more
than the automobile? Just look at the cost of the modern automobile. It's the source of more
pollution than anything else on the planet. It's the cause of 40,000 deaths a year, road rage,
and Ricardo Montalban TV ads. To be fair, the industry has given us a couple of interesting
things, you know, convenient transportation, cup holders, and of course, enrich the lives
of countless mechanics. You ain't kidding. Yes, they have.
All right, faced with this enemy to the American public, what have our leaders done? They've done
squat. Worse than squat, they've actually built more roads. I mean, they make it even worse.
Now, we are going to change all that. A Malyotsi Malyotsi administration is going to dramatically
reduce the role of the automobile in American public life as we know it today. What you mean,
we Kimosabe. And how are we going to do this? Here it is. This plan consists of five components.
Five. Oh, like in your MG. No, that's how many fingers I happen to have on this hand.
First, a gradual phase out of Japanese cars. We mean by gradual, we're going to give it
like a 90 days. These cars are way too reliable. Whoever heard of a car that will go for 100,000
miles without anything. I mean, that's ridiculous. So Japanese cars will gradually be phased out.
Step B, the immediate importation of more Italian, French, and Yugoslavian vehicles.
These cars are temperamental. They are prone to malfunction at inopportune times,
and best of all, parts are practically impossible to find. Step Roman numeral three.
There isn't any three. We missed three. Well, we wanted to use five because that's
so many fingers we had. So we had to like slip the one in the middle that we didn't have anything for.
Three is coming. Roman numeral four. As a nation, we'll get so frustrated with our cars that we will
once again use public transportation, which by comparison will seem reliable and comfortable.
Number five, themed public transportation. Ah, yes. You may be on and in on this because this
was your idea. Well, I may have to line item veto some of these. Themed public transportation.
Imagine stepping onto the bar, the metro, the T or anything else, and find yourself in front of
a butcher block counter with junior child caramelizing breast of quail, or stepping aboard
the Starbucks slash Arturo Fuente car and enjoying a cappuccino and a stogie on the way home after
work. You get the idea. Cars would return to their rightful place, rusting in people's backyards,
and when they did run, we'd all be pleasantly surprised. Skies would clear up. You could ride
your bike to work without having to worry about getting hit by a soccer mom in an excursion,
and you would enjoy a glimpse of the latest lingerie fashions from Victoria's Secret
or Chippendales on the way home from work. Sounds good, doesn't it? Well, we thought so,
and that's not all. There is one final benefit to this program. If we could eliminate cars,
we could eliminate car talk. And no one can doubt that the end of car talk would be a good thing
for NPR, public broadcasting, and our nation, if not the entire world. I rest my case. Here, here.
Woo-hoo! We are a shoe-in. Boy, you got my vote, man. Well, if you'd like to complain about cars
in general or your car in particular. Or car talk. Or car talk, by all means, and give us a call at
888-8888. Car talk. That's 888-227-8255. Hello, you're on car talk. Hi, this is Ashley from Kent,
Washington. Hi, Ashley. Ashley with an E toward the end there. Just L-E-Y. Yeah. Oh, really? I was
going to go for the E-E-I-G-H. Oh, that would have been good. So, what's happening, Ashley? Well,
I have a very cute Volkswagen 74 Super Beetle that I absolutely love. Problem is that winter is coming
and I have a little problem with carbon monoxide in my car. Because your heater boxes are rotted
through. Yeah, you know what? And I had that checked out. In fact, I had a new one placed in there.
And still, the carbon monoxide was very high. I actually had it tested out. And you know you
have carbon monoxide in the passenger compartment because someone has tested it with an emissions
tester? Oh, yes. No, that it had passed emissions and all that kind of stuff. But... Well, sure,
there's no emissions coming out the tailpipe. No, I actually, after spending two hours in my car
in a little trip, after I got out about 10 minutes later, I passed out. Really? Yeah. And driving
back, I got the same kind of symptoms as I did before with the headaches and all that kind of
stuff and realized that that's exactly what it was. And then I actually had, you know, those carbon
monoxide testers that you would put in an aircraft, a small aircraft. Yeah. Well, my wife bought one
of those because she was convinced that my brain cells were disappearing. And she found out they
were, but it wasn't due to carbon monoxide poisoning. Yes. Yeah, so you got it. Well, there are only
two ways that carbon monoxide can get into your car. Okay. Into this car. One is through the
heat exchanger system. Okay. And you can disconnect that where the heater box is attached to the
ducts underneath the car. There are two flexible pipes or hoses that connect. You can take those
right off and you can plug up the duct work with something like duct tape. Okay. At the chassis
end, which prevents the intrusion of anything into the engine, into the passenger compartment.
Okay. It doesn't mean that carbon monoxide can't be getting in some other way. Right. But holding
the floor, open windows, and all that stuff. Okay. Or cracks in the chassis or whatever in a car
this age could have any of those things wrong with it. Right. What you're going to do is divide
and conquer here. Okay. So what you're going to do is take the heating system out of the picture.
Okay. So you want to shut that thing up completely and then measure the carbon monoxide level.
If it in fact is down to zero, which it should be, close to it, then in fact you know that
that's the problem. If not, then you just junk the car. Okay. But it will probably knock it down
to zero though. Yeah. Yeah. But you're prepared to junk the car, aren't you? I'm not quite prepared
to do that. Another few weeks we'll be able to junk it for you and you won't even know.
This is one of those your money or your life situations. That's right. But I'm pretty sure
that most of it will be gone when you plug up everything. Okay. And good luck. And in the
meantime, I mean, either don't drive the car or if you do, and I would, you know, I'm hesitant to
say drive with the windows open because the carbon monoxide will get in and it will stay there.
Okay. And I don't think I would want to drive this much at all. Okay. And don't be afraid to junk it.
Okay. All right. Hey, thank you. See you Ashley. Okay. Bye bye. Okay, Tommy. Do you remember last
week's puzzler? No. Yeah, I do. I do. It had to do with domicile NPR. Discussed at an NPR? Oh,
we can. And we shall.
Hi, we're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Clack the Tapper Brothers,
and we're here to talk about cars, car repair, and the answer to last week's puzzler. Which I don't
remember at all, to be honest with you. You said you remembered it. I was lying. Well, anyway,
this puzzler came from my fewest number of move series. Oh, that's that crazy little thing. No,
it is. I thought this was a puzzle. It was sent in by Bruce Robinson, who's a professor at the
University of Tennessee. Anyway, here it is. There are 25 jealous people who live on one floor of a
very strange apartment building. On this floor are 25 apartments laid out in a five by five grid.
Yeah. Got it. So if you draw this grid, the square in the upper left hand corner,
we could say is one. And the one next to it is 2345 And then the line below
that is 6789 10, 11, 12, right all the way to 25. I got it. Got
Now, each person who lives on the floor aspires to move into the apartment of one of his adjacent
neighbors. So number one can move to square number two, or number six, for example. Not
diagonally. Not diagonally. Number two can move to number one, number three, or number seven.
Yeah, you go. I can, I can visualize all that. So here's the question. Why would anyone live in
such a, no, the question is, what is the fewest number of total moves that will allow every person
to move to an adjacent square? All right. I know Doug mayor, but did you get the answer, mayor?
He says, no, I didn't get the answer. Well, I didn't come about the thought process. I concluded
right away when you gave this problem. You had to be one or zero, right? The answer was either going
to be 26. Ah, very good. Or millions. Well, millions is closer. Millions is closer. Well,
if you don't number them one through 25, but instead letter them. Yeah. And not A, B, C, D, E.
Let's letter the first one A, the next one B, A, B, et cetera, et cetera.
Then everyone who's on an A square must by definition move to what? A B square. Right.
And everyone who's on a B square must move to an A square. It's pretty obvious if you draw it out.
Yeah, that's true. Now, if you add them up by some stroke of bad luck, you got 13 A squares.
And only 12 B squares. Someone's got to move out of the building.
They've got to fix somebody. So there are no fewest number of moves. It is impossible for this
to happen. I know it's a little sneaky. No, no, impossible is a good answer.
Possible is a good number of moves. So who's our winner anyway?
That's very good, you know? I like that question. Well, you're going to love this week's a few.
Yeah.
Poor Mayor just threw a waste basket at me. He was up to 26,215 moves and he almost had it.
Oh, the winner is Martha Lozano from Richmond, Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.
Good work, Martha.
And for having her answer selected at random from the both of the correct answers that we've got,
Martha is going to get a $25 gift certificate to the store at the Cart Talk section of cars.com
and with that $25, she can buy the better part of a Cart Talk CD gift set.
What's the better part? The carrying case. Actually, that's the best part.
And by the way, if you'd like to learn more about any of the status lowering items that we
mentioned on this show, you can always visit the store at the Cart Talk section of cars.com
yourself. Or you can call 888-CAR-JUNK and this is known as Shameless Commerce, what we just did.
We gave the name, we told people they could go buy stuff and we told them how to buy it.
You ashamed that you did that?
No.
Not really, no. We have a new puzzler coming up in the third half of today's show.
It is not automotive, but it is locomotive, folkloric, historic and...
Locomotive.
Locomotive in nature.
It's like crazy cars.
Kind of. Anyway, if you'd like to call us, the number is 888-CAR-TALK, that's 888-227-8255.
Hello, you're on Cart Talk.
Hi, this is Christian Spencer in Oxford, Ohio.
Oxford, Ohio.
Home of Miami University.
Oh, yes.
I think I knew that.
No, after what our home is Miami University named and didn't they know there was going to be a problem?
Actually, Miami University was founded way before Florida was.
Oh, I don't think so.
Oh, yeah, yeah, it's true actually.
Come on, the oldest city in the country.
1807, I believe.
1707, Miami was the...
It was named after the Indian tribe that used to live here in southwest Ohio.
Oh, really?
Oh, and they went to Florida for the summer.
And they loved it so much, they changed the name of the tribe, the Miamians.
Yeah, I just graduated, so...
Oh, so that's your alma mater.
Yeah.
What did you major in?
Interdisciplinary studies.
Does that include like, do you want fries with that?
What is interdisciplinary studies?
Interdisciplinary studies is just the code word for pretty much creating your own major.
A little bit of this, a little bit of that, so which McDonald's you're working at?
Actually, I'm working at a pizza place.
I couldn't...
I'm way too qualified to handle fries, so they had to put me on dough.
Good man.
No, actually, that's the best way to get an education.
And you'll probably never have your hands on that much dough over again in your life.
With a certain uncertainty, you might say.
A certain uncertainty.
So anyway, so what's the...
So what kind of a 1976 Chevy do you own?
Actually, I owned a 1988 Suzuki Samurai, the five-speed hard top car.
You know the Samurai.
Oh, of course.
Doesn't everyone.
About a month and a half ago, I started having this little problem with the clutch.
Now, I bought it five years ago and put about 60,000 miles on it.
It had very little problems with it.
I've done almost every repair on it myself.
Good.
But I started having this problem where when I would shift gears,
the clutch would start to be a little hard.
Not the clutch, not the pedal, but shifting the gear shift.
Be a little sticky, a little hard to get into gear.
Eventually, this turned into a situation where I'd have to apply about 500 pounds of pressure
to move the gear shift.
Oh, really?
Only when the engine was running, however.
Only when the engine was running.
Right.
And only once it got good and warm.
And this happens in all gears or just first gear?
It happens in first and second and then eventually third and fourth and fifth.
Oh, until it just won't go into any gear?
Yeah, eventually.
When you say you have to put a lot of force to make it move,
while you're doing that, is it grinding away or not?
Only when I put it in reverse.
Every other time it didn't do it.
But I talked to all my mechanic and a couple other people
and they said my clutch was probably about to go out
because it hadn't been replaced in five years.
That was what they were just like,
your clutch is probably about to die.
And they were right.
A week later, the clutch went.
And after being stranded on a not-so-friendly street,
I got it towed and I got the standard three-part clutch assembly put into it
by a friend of mine who's a mechanic.
Sure enough, I get it back the next day and it's the same thing happens.
And it's the exact same problem.
But he goes to Florida.
To Miami.
Miami, maybe.
Now, when you say that the mechanics told you that your clutch was ready to go
and indeed the clutch went, what does that mean?
What do you mean it went?
Where did it went?
Well, it just stopped working.
In what way?
It already wasn't working.
Or it appeared to not be.
It just like the pedal went down and never came back.
Oh, oh.
So the pedal went down to the floor and stayed there?
Well, pretty much.
It popped up a little bit more and then it was all rubbery.
There was nothing to the clutch.
Like the car wouldn't start.
You couldn't push it down.
It was gone.
All right.
Uh, does this have a hydraulic clutch or a cable clutch?
It has a, I'm pretty sure it has a hydraulic clutch.
Good, because if it didn't, we wouldn't have any answer.
We wouldn't have been hanging up on you.
No, we would have had, I had a backup answer.
I have a backup answer.
I always have a backup answer.
I had a backup answer for the cable.
I think, I think what happened is your clutch master cylinder failed.
The day that the pedal went to the floor, what you didn't need was a clutch.
No.
What you really needed was a clutch master.
Either the thing has run, had run out of fluid.
Cause no, we checked that.
Well, or it wasn't pumping, but in any event,
I bet when your friend put the new clutch in,
he had to bleed the thing too to get it to work correctly.
And then as it heats up and the bore of the thing expands,
the clutch of the bore of the master cylinder expands,
the clutch master cylinder is less able to provide the requisite pressure
to disengage the clutch.
And that's why you have to lean on that handle, the shifter, that is, to shift it.
Okay.
So I would recommend you change the clutch master and the slave.
And the slave.
Yeah, they're cheap enough.
And you can do this yourself if you've done all the other work on the vehicle.
Okay, well, I'll give it a shot.
And this will fix it.
That's a guarantee.
Okay.
You'll never run again.
You'll never deliver another piece.
See ya, Christian.
I'll see you at McDonald's later.
Good luck, man.
We'll be right back with more calls and the new puzzler right after these messages.
Ha!
We're back.
You're listening to Car Talk with us.
Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers.
And we're here to discuss cars, car repair, and the new, what did I say?
Locomotive.
Locomotive.
Puzzler.
Man, there's nothing to do with trains.
That's what I thought.
I didn't.
Yeah, you didn't do it with crazy cars.
Locomotive.
Oh, no, jeez.
Does it?
No.
Yeah.
Okay.
As Chico Marx was formed was saying, I'd like to play one of my own numbers now by Victor Herbert.
So I'd like to give you this puzzler in the style of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Oh.
So pay attention.
I'd like everyone to close his eyes or her eyes.
And imagine.
Relax.
Yeah.
Okay.
Imagine yourself in the English countryside.
I'm there.
You're feeling very sleepy.
And if you're lucky when you wake up, the puzzler will be all over you, you'll have missed it.
I'm there, man.
I'm on the English countryside.
I'm writing in the dog cart.
Yes.
It seems there had been a terrible accident
in a suburb north of London and Inspector Lestrade had been sent to investigate.
Sir Richard Ashcroft was dead.
And everyone agreed that it was an accident.
Although some suspected it was a suicide.
Oh, no.
There were all the problems that Sir Richard had had, you know, with the non-existent copper
mines in Chile and that thing with the viceroy's granddaughter.
But we won't get into that.
Anyway, he'd been found on a rocky slope, his head dashed against one of the boulders
and his mangled bicycle at his side.
The facts seem to speak for themselves.
He had lost control of his bike and it crashed.
There had been no eyewitnesses.
But finally, an eyewitness emerged.
Nigel Sir Richard's trusted gardener of many years.
Yeah.
All right.
You'll let your pan to check.
Now, there are lots of facts here that are going to obfuscate the thing.
So we knew that you did.
That's unnecessary.
Unnecessary to state that.
But and then there are some important pieces of information.
Nigel Nigel appears so shocked by Sir Richard's death.
He had been unable to speak for several days, but haltingly he told his story.
I was walking back from town up that long hill leading to Sir Richard's estate
when I saw him riding toward me, sitting straight up in his seat, the way he always rode.
And he was traveling at a high rate of speed.
The Brits always say that high rate of speed, even though we know.
When suddenly he jerked the handlebars to the left and off the road, he flew to his death.
Lestrade asks, why didn't you come forward earlier?
He said, I didn't come forward because Sir Richard told me he was taking his own life.
And he didn't want to shame the family.
And I decided to keep his secret, but I could not keep it any longer.
I had to tell the truth about it.
I saw Sir Richard take his own life by flying down this road, jerking the handlebars of his
bicycle to the left, going off the road to the left, crashing into a rock and ending his life.
Later that day, Lestrade is discussing the points of the case with his buddy,
Sherlock Holmes over, Cognac and Arturo Fuentes.
And Holmes says, bring the gardener in for questioning.
He's the perpetrator.
How did he know?
Just thinking of the answer, write it on a postcard or float it inside a fully assembled
pulsar whirlpool bath with built-in armrests, a point to a teak bench seat, magic touch controls,
and six turbo powered jets.
And send it to.
Buzzwood Tower, Car Talk Plaza, Box 3500, Harvard Square, Cambridge.
Our fair city.
Matt 02238 or of course you can email your answer from the Car Talk section of cars.com,
1-888-CAR-TALK, that's 888-CAR-TALK, that's 888-227-8255.
Hello, you're on Car Talk.
Hello, my name is Camille and I drive a 97 Volkswagen Golf.
Hi Camille.
A Golf.
Yeah.
And is a Golf a Chick Car or a Guy Car?
Well, I'm a Chick.
What do you think?
You're a Chick and you bought it.
Yeah.
Did you buy it for its appearance?
No, I bought it for its practicality.
I really wanted a bug, but I couldn't afford the new Beetle.
Yeah.
Well, you reminded.
The new Beetle's definitely a Chick Car.
Oh, yeah.
I mean, the fact that you drive a Golf reminds me that on the website and show,
we discussed the fact that there are some cars we think which are known to be Chick cars
and some cars that are Guy cars.
And in fact, the very example we used was the Golf because a friend of ours was buying a car
for his son and the son decides to buy a Golf and he goes out and he test drives it and he loves it.
And he happens to mention to his buddy the next day,
hey, I'm getting a new Golf.
And then his buddy says, you can't buy a Golf.
A Golf is a Chick Car.
And he practically broke down in tears, canceled the whole deal and ran out and bought a pickup
truck or something.
I don't know.
And so our question was and is now, we want nominations from people.
What are Chick cars?
Which specific cars are Chick cars?
And which cars are Guy cars?
And what's the rationale behind it?
What makes a Golf a Chick Car?
I mean, you bought one and it's a very common car and I'll produce a Doug Berman had one.
No, I am.
Two of them, I think.
But that's that's another topic for another show.
Not anything wrong with it.
He's very neat and he's over 30.
I don't drive a slave to fashion cars.
So anyway, what's the matter with your Golf?
Well, it has this very strange problem.
It started one morning when I was driving to the airport very early and I turned the car on
and I noticed that the brake light stayed on as if I had left the emergency brake on.
But I don't use the emergency brake, so it wasn't on.
Where are you from, by the way?
Did you tell us?
I'm from Philadelphia.
Okay.
At the same time, the blower wasn't working on the defrost, air conditioning, that whole unit.
I had no electricity on that as well as on the windshield wipers.
Got it.
Of course, this is on a rainy morning that I discovered this.
Lumber.
Yeah.
Well, how else would you discover it?
You turn on the windshield wipers and the sun is out.
Right.
But the radio worked, didn't it, Camille?
The radio worked and the sun still worked.
Yeah.
And I did test it in the rain.
Good for you.
And this seemed bad and sort of disconcerting, but of course I'm just going to drive it because
these didn't seem like major problems.
And then I had to press the clutch in.
And now the clutch was in my start of the car and there wasn't any kind of strange sound.
But on subsequent pressing of the clutches, it made this god-awful sound.
Grinding, grinding sound.
Yeah.
As if something wasn't engaged, kind of a like, ahhh, kind of sound.
Were you driving near a power plant at the time?
Were there any unusual abductions in the area?
Philadelphia.
Here's the only, oh, Philadelphia experiment.
Of course, you know about the Philadelphia experiment.
I actually know.
Oh, Camille.
We're planning to have an entire show in it soon.
So stay tuned for that.
An entire battleship disappeared from Philadelphia.
Disappeared.
Are you just playing with me?
No, we're not.
No, no.
There are books written on the subject.
It's very hush-hush.
And now it's just between you, us, and the CIA.
And a few million other people who may be listening.
Anyway, what happened to your car happens interestingly enough to a lot of Volkswagen's,
but no other cars.
Yeah, this is a very strange thing.
And what happened is your ignition key did not return all the way from the crank position
to the run position.
You know, when you start the car, you stick the key in the hole, you turn the key,
the starter motor engages the flywheel and makes that, and the thing starts.
And you let go of the key.
When you let go of the key, there is a spring in there in the ignition lock
that will flip the key from the crank position, which is the all-the-way clockwise position,
to what's called the engine run position.
You familiar with this whole phenomenon?
Mm-hmm.
So far.
So what's happening in your car?
What you may not know, though, is that most of the accessories will not work
when the car is in the crank position.
Right, like the headlights, the wipers, some of the dash lights will be on.
The radio in this car will work, however, because the radio will work.
It's not tied to the ignition key.
Right.
And I don't know about the sunroof, but I'm assuming the sunroof is not tied to the
ignition key either, maybe for safety reasons.
I don't know.
In any event.
And the noise you heard was because the starter motor was still trying to start the engine.
So what you need to do is remove 500 of those keys from your key ring.
Oh.
Do you have a big fat set of keys hanging down?
It's a reasonable size.
Yeah.
Well, that may have done it.
But if nothing else, you just need to be cognizant of the position of that key.
You know, if you rely on yourself to turn the key back to the run position and make
sure you've returned it and didn't trust it to that little spring.
I would fix it because, I mean, life is too short to have to remember stuff like that.
It's hard enough to remember where you live.
Take it to the dealer.
Maybe it's covered by warranty.
No, see, it wouldn't because I bought it used.
Take it anyway.
It doesn't matter.
Just because you bought it used doesn't mean it's not covered.
Tell them you bought it new.
Tell them you hit your head.
You don't remember anything.
Good luck, Camille.
Thank you very much.
Bye-bye.
Oh, boy.
Why do we have to make it so complicated?
We could have given everything into like 25 minutes ago.
Good have.
Bermont says good have.
Yeah, we could have.
And yeah.
All right.
1-888-CAR-TALK or 1-888-227-8255.
Hello, you're on Car Talk.
Hi, my name is Katie and I'm calling from Northampton, Mass.
Hi, Katie.
Northampton, Mass.
Yeah.
What's up, Kate?
Well, I'm calling with a question about what car to sell.
So I got married this summer and my husband and I each brought a sort of well-used car into the
marriage.
So he has an 87 Chevy Nova and I have an 89 Volvo 240.
And we actually just bought a new car because I have a very long commute to work.
Oh, I see.
Yeah.
What'd you buy?
Well, I got what the car scope told me to get.
A Dodge Colt Vista?
No, that's not what the car says.
I got a Volkswagen Beetle.
Perfect.
Katie, well, I'll do respect.
Yeah.
You should never do what the car scope suggests.
Oh, well, it's too late.
It was only, we're only funning you.
We're only funning you there.
You didn't, I hope other people are not taking it seriously.
Hope there were other factors involved in your decision.
No, I thought we just needed to look at that.
Well, okay.
That's good.
Does that work for you?
Well, the Beetle is a good choice.
And the question now is which one do you dump?
How many miles on each of them?
Well, okay.
So the Nova has about 100,000 miles and the Volvo has about 140,000 miles.
And there are actually good reasons to get rid of either one, but it sort of is broken down
where, of course, I don't want to get rid of my car and my husband doesn't want to get rid of it.
Well, you're clearly...
We don't ask us which one is yours.
Yeah, we know the Volvo is yours.
Yeah, I already told you.
Oh, you already told me.
Yeah, all right.
Had I been paying attention?
I was going to say, I guess the Volvo is yours.
So, well, here's what the situation is with the Nova.
It actually, my husband bought it, I believe, from his parents used.
And when they bought it, they believe in a very sort of stripped down version of cars.
So it has no options.
Wow, cheapskates, huh?
Is he like that, too?
A stripped down kind of guy.
He has the itch easily?
I don't think I want to say that on the radio, no.
Okay, no, no.
No, between you and us, though.
Well, and also, to be fair, then, I mean, his response to that is always,
well, my daddy didn't buy me a Volvo.
Yeah, thank you.
All right.
So the argument...
So chasm there, huh?
Yeah, so to be fair, the argument for the Nova is it needs to be fixed a lot,
but it's always cheap to fix.
Yes, it is.
Yeah, a lot cheaper than the Volvo.
And you've had the Volvo for how long?
Um, I guess about seven years.
And how has it been in the snows of Northampton in the winter?
Oh, yeah, it doesn't drive very well in the snow, right?
Because it's a rear wheel drive.
Right, and it's a Volvo.
Right.
It does very well in the snow if you leave it parked in the driveway, actually.
Even without that, I was going to suggest you get rid of the Volvo.
Anyway, after all, you bought a car, so you're replacing your car.
Well, right, except of course, we bought the new car together.
Well, I understand that.
Come on, it was a community thing there.
And your son, and your husband has kind of an emotional attachment to the Nova.
After all, it was his folks car.
Right.
And anytime you take a trip, you'll be using the new car anyway.
Well, that's what I would hope, yeah.
So the Nova will be relegated to a round town.
Right.
It will be adequate, it will be cheap to fix.
It won't be stolen.
It won't be stolen, and it'll be his car.
Okay.
And I think that's the car you keep.
All right.
And the frightening thing is I agree with my brother completely.
Well, I don't know what that means.
I don't know either, but trust me, it's frightening.
Okay, I'm here.
But it's scary.
Well, good luck, Katie.
All right, well, thank you very much.
Thanks for your call.
All right, bye-bye.
Bye.
Well, it's happened again.
You've disrespected another perfectly good hour by listening to car talk.
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Thanks so much for listening.
We're clicking, clack, the tappin' brothers.
Don't drive like my brother.
Don't drive like my brother.
That's what I said.
We'll drive like my brother.
We'll be back next week.
We'll be back next week.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Car Talk is a production of Dewey Tiedemann Howe
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About this episode
A satirical “Vehicle Reliability Reduction Program” kicks things off, joking about phasing out certain cars and even “ending Car Talk.” The tone shifts to real safety and drivability: a Volkswagen Super Beetle caller reports carbon monoxide entering the cabin in winter, and the hosts explain how heater/heat-exchanger ducting leaks can cause it, plus a diagnostic approach—shut off heat, measure CO, and don’t drive if it’s unsafe. Later, a 1988 Suzuki Samurai owner describes worsening manual-shift resistance tied to clutch failure and hydraulic master/slave issues.
Original notes
Ashley called us to say that when she takes long trips in her ’74 Volkswagen Bug she feels nauseous and has trouble staying awake. Sounds like a drive with Click and Clack after a chili dinner, but could this be more serious? Find out on this episode of the Best of Car Talk.
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