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Car
Chevrolet Suburban
The Chevrolet Suburban is a large SUV that’s meant to fit more passengers and luggage than a smaller car. People sometimes mix up similar GM models, so the discussion is about which exact SUV someone owns. It’s the kind of vehicle you’d choose for family trips or hauling a lot of stuff.
Car
Honda Civic
The Honda Civic is a smaller, everyday car that’s designed to be easy to live with. It’s popular because it’s generally efficient and practical for commuting and errands. The conversation is simply confirming that the car being discussed is a Civic.
Part
wheel bearing
A wheel bearing is what helps your wheel spin smoothly. If it gets worn out, it can start making noise and can even get unsafe if it fails.
Term
stuck caliper
Your brakes use a clamp (the caliper) to squeeze pads against a spinning disc. If that clamp gets stuck, the pads can keep rubbing even when you’re not pressing the brake pedal.
Term
brake disc
The brake disc is the spinning metal surface the brake pads press against. If the pads keep rubbing it when you’re not braking, you can get noise and extra wear.
Term
brake material
Brake material is the pad’s friction surface—the part that actually rubs against the disc to slow the car down. If the brakes are rubbing too much, that surface can wear down and the problem may quiet down temporarily.
Car
1993 GEO tracker
A Geo Tracker is a small SUV that’s meant for everyday driving but can handle rougher roads. The 1993 version is an older model, and people often like it because it feels fun and outdoorsy.
Concept
noise comes back at slow speed
Mechanics listen for when a noise shows up and when it goes away. If it changes with speed, it can help figure out whether the problem is related to the wheels or something the engine is doing.
Term
stuck brake caliper
A brake caliper is what squeezes the brake pads. If it gets stuck, the brakes can stay partially on even when you’re not pressing the pedal, which can make noise and cause extra heat.
Term
brakes and bearings
Bearings are parts that help rotating parts spin smoothly. If a bearing is worn out, it can make a noise that changes as the car speeds up or slows down.
Term
water pump
The water pump moves the engine’s coolant around so the engine doesn’t get too hot. If it breaks, the engine can overheat and potentially get damaged.
Car
Renault Wind
The Renault Wind is a small convertible, meaning the roof can open so you can drive with more air coming in. Because it’s a convertible, very hot weather can feel even hotter inside. The discussion is about how the car handles that kind of heat.
Term
handbrake
The handbrake is the parking brake. If it doesn’t stop the car well, something may be wrong with the parts that hold the car when parked.
Term
asbestos
Asbestos is a dangerous material that used to be found in some brake parts. If you smell something weird when braking, it can be from brake dust or overheated brake material.
Term
power brake booster
The power brake booster helps your foot push the brakes harder. If it’s not working, the brakes can feel weak and it takes more effort to stop.
Term
master cylinder
The master cylinder is the main “pump” for the brakes. It turns your brake pedal press into pressure in the brake fluid so the brakes can clamp the wheels.
Term
hydraulic line
Hydraulic lines are the pipes that carry brake fluid to the brakes. They’re sealed so the brake fluid can build pressure when you press the pedal.
Term
vacuum booster
A vacuum booster is the brake helper that uses engine vacuum to make braking easier. If it’s not working, you often have to press the brake pedal much harder.
Concept
surefire test
It’s a “diagnose it by isolating the parts” approach. The idea is to separate the booster from the master cylinder and see what happens, so you can tell which one is causing the problem.
Car
92 Toyota Corolla
This is a 1992 Toyota Corolla. It’s a common, dependable car, and here it’s being used as an example of a problem in the front-wheel-drive drivetrain.
Term
CV joints
CV joints are parts in a front-wheel-drive car that help power the wheels while the wheels steer left and right. If they get dirty or damaged, the car can start making noises and the drivetrain can wear out faster.
Term
axle
Here, “axle” means the drive shaft that sends power to the front wheels. If the CV joints or their protective covers fail, it can eventually damage the axle parts too.
Term
boots
The CV boot is a protective rubber cover over the CV joint. If it tears, the grease can leak out and dirt can get in, which can cause the joint to wear out.
Concept
clicking noise
Here, “clicking noise” is a warning sign that something in the drivetrain—often the CV joint—may be wearing out. It’s more noticeable when you turn sharply.
Term
constant velocity or CV joint
“Constant velocity” just means the joint is designed to keep power transfer smooth even while you’re turning and the suspension moves. That’s the job of the CV joint.
LIVE
250 years ago, the nation's founders considered a free press a critical protection for we
the people.
Today, the NPR network proudly upholds your First Amendment rights with reporting accountable
only to you.
It's something we protect together.
Power a truly independent press.
Support the NPR network at plus.npr.org.
Well, if you haven't heard, Oldsmobile is out.
Yeah.
GM recently announced that over the next three years, it'll be putting Oldsmobile out of
its misery.
Well, it's about time.
I'm gonna take it out back behind the Roger Smith Memorial Barn and it's gonna put a bullet
behind the left side of your mirror.
Well, we told him to get rid of Oldsmobile and you remember years ago, we said, why is
there an Oldsmobile?
And Oldsmobile sent us all kinds of nasty mail saying, what do you mean Oldsmobile has
a distinct image in the marketplace, people love it, and now they finally come around
and they understand that we were right all the time.
Well, for one thing, the name sounds old.
And that's why we're at the Neo-Nomanclature Division.
Because it's a 19th century name and worse of all, it has the word old in it.
It has the word old in it.
As you know, it's named after Ransom E. Olds.
Yes.
And it's called the Oldsmobile, which sounded good at the time, but now it sounds old.
The mobile part of it is okay, but the old part has to go.
So we came up with some other names and we realized that his GM, as usual, they have
it wrong.
They just have no concept of marketing.
They think they have too many names.
They got GM, they got Oldsmobile, they got Pontiac, they got Cadillac.
Chevrolet.
We think they don't have enough names because you have to do, I mean, everyone knows this,
Target Marketing.
Vehicle.
And we came up with names that they might want to use, they might want to reconsider
this.
Let's hear the man.
Here we go.
I mean, this was just, don't forget, we just did this on the back of an envelope here.
It'll be painfully obvious in about a minute and a half.
I mean, things like, if you're going to Target Market, you're going to Target Market to who
the people are.
Sure.
What's wrong with like a Bimbo Mobile?
A Mom Mobile.
Mom Mobile, yeah, I like that.
For the teenage market, the Testostero Mobile, for those people who are looking for reliability,
a Honda Mobile, the General Motors Honda Mobile.
And then, let's see, we had a couple of others here, the Honda Mobile, or then we got like
the Bombets for Mobile.
Sure.
For special occasions, you can mark a segment, you can segment on the basis of occasions.
And for audio files, how about the Bose Oldsmobile?
The Bose Mobile would have been enough.
I like, oh, I like that in there.
There's a separate niche for that, I think.
So I mean, GM, who's the president now, or the CEO, or the chairman of the board?
Jack Smith.
Another Smith?
One of the Smith brothers.
I think so.
One of the Smith brothers.
They make cough drops, too.
Porter Waggoner.
Porter Waggoner.
That's him.
I mean, you might want to reconsider this decision, so give us a call and we can help
you out.
He did some great duets with Dolly, didn't he?
Oh, man.
Never heard anyone play the banjo, like the president of General Motors.
Well, if you have any suggestions or you'd like to just talk to us, we don't care what.
You can call us at 888-CART-TALK, that's 888-227-8255, hello, you're on CART-TALK.
That's got to be the town anthem, right?
Oh, yeah.
Do people go around humming that in the streets at will?
Every day.
So what's going on, Heather?
What kind of a suburban do you have, GMC or Chevy?
Oh, close.
Honda Civic.
Yeah, very close.
Yeah.
So what's up?
It's a 93 and it's a two-door, and about two months ago I started noticing this decision.
It's a strange sound.
It sounds like, well, it sounds like there's an opera singer under my car.
No kidding.
Yeah.
What vocal range?
Is it a baritone or is it an adornment?
No, definitely a soprano, I think.
Oh, a soprano.
Yeah, it started out to be a real high-pitched, almost a nice sort of sound, but now it's
getting a real kind of rough and squealy sound to it.
Under what circumstances does the sound occur?
Well, it happens usually after the car has been sitting, and maybe I start it and start
to drive, and as I start to drive, the sound starts, and as I think I can see...
But not when it first starts.
No, not until actually maybe the wheels start turning.
Oh.
Okay, yeah.
Good, good.
Anyway, and as I pick up speed, the sound kind of picks up, seems to go faster and faster,
and usually when I get between 30 and 40 miles an hour, the sound pretty much stops.
Yeah.
Is it like a very high screech?
It isn't.
Yeah, yeah.
But it's punctuated, though.
Is it continuous like that?
Yeah.
No, no, no.
What?
There would be monkeys.
The monkey's an alpaca.
It's continuous.
Yeah.
Hey, aren't you sorry you asked that question?
I didn't ask.
You did.
You said, is it continuous like that?
Yeah.
And does it...
Answer this question.
Okay.
Maybe.
And give us the right answer, or we won't be able to give you one.
If you step on the brake while this is happening...
Oh, nice question, baby.
Does it change?
I mean, I know it changes because you slowed down, but can it actually even go away when
you step on the brake?
No.
She was going to say, no, I knew it.
I knew she was going to say no.
All right.
I have a fallback.
I have one, too.
Okay.
What do you think it is?
Do you have any ideas?
I'm working on a wheel bearing at the moment.
You are?
Yeah.
What are you working on?
Oh.
I wasn't working on a wheel bearing.
I'm working on a stuck caliper on the right front wheel.
You are?
Yeah.
I was at Heather's house last night and checked this out.
Even with her answer about the brake, touching the brake doesn't do nothing to it.
Yeah.
Really?
I decided that I could...
A yes or a no answer would have been...
That was the best question.
Those are the best.
That doesn't matter what she says.
I think what happens is you have a caliper that sticks, and then as you drive along,
you make the noise, or it makes the noise because the brake is touching the disc and
it shouldn't be, at least with that kind of intensity.
And then after you've worn away a little bit of the brake material, the noise in fact will
go away.
Or if you go fast enough, you just don't hear it.
Yeah.
And then it probably is all right after a while because you've worn away enough of the
brake so that it doesn't touch the disc anymore.
Can I hold it now?
Yeah.
Let's...
We have to go there.
We have to.
We have to ask.
Okay.
If that happens, and then you come to a stop, does the noise come back?
Not necessarily.
Not necessarily.
Sometimes it will.
But sometimes.
Sometimes it will be good enough.
Yeah.
Okay.
You pass.
Sometimes.
Oh.
No, sometimes it's good enough.
Yeah.
I don't think you'll be on stunk the chump, Heather, but I think you should take it into
your shop, your mechanic, and have them checked to see if you have a stuck caliper.
Okay.
All right.
Thank you.
Good luck.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
1-888-CAR-TALK.
That's 888-227-8255.
Hello, you're on Car Talk.
This is Matthew from Boise, Idaho.
Hi, Matthew from Boise.
Yeah.
So my problem is, well, I have a 1993 GEO tracker, and it's a big piece of crap, pretty
much.
Well, it's a little piece.
Yeah.
Very little.
It's like a toy almost.
It was expensive.
Did you buy it new?
No.
I bought it used, unfortunately.
I remember some years ago thinking that I wanted a vehicle like that.
I mean, everyone goes through that stage in his or her life.
Yeah.
Because it is a nice kind of vehicle.
Well, and it's an adventuresome kind of vehicle.
It is.
It makes you feel like you're on vacation or some kind of an adventure or safari.
And you can take the top off.
And you can take the top off or it can blow off all by itself.
And I went to the local Chevrolet dealer in our town.
And I remember laughing out loud when I saw the sticker price.
Yeah.
I don't remember how much it was, but it was as much as like a real car.
And you said, you've got to be kidding.
And I asked the salesman to explain it.
He shook his head.
He said, we don't know.
I didn't.
You go look at something else.
Anyway, go ahead.
All right.
Pick out two or three things that are wrong with us.
There's this.
It's a high pitched sound coming in.
Another one.
Another sound coming from it.
Sounds like the driver's side in the front from that wheel or something.
But it's usually when I'm obviously when I'm driving and about when I hit about, I don't
know, maybe 35, it kind of subsides, but it's not as high pitched as maybe a specific one.
Yeah.
But it's pretty, it's pretty high pitched.
And kind of like a moan.
Well, you've heard all the questions we asked her.
What are your answers to all those questions?
It doesn't happen until you start moving.
It actually happens when you turn it on though, too.
So you don't have to be moving?
No.
Good.
Good.
Good.
That means it's a different answer.
That's bad.
Yes.
You don't have to be moving.
You could have recycled an answer here.
And when you hit about 35 though, it does seem to kind of dissipate or, but it comes back
though too once in a while.
And if you do press on the brake, it doesn't change it.
That doesn't change anything.
And, and move this moving, or if you ever tried revving the engine when the vehicle is
stationary, like you leave it neutral, for example, and you rev it up.
Does that change the noise?
No.
I think the noise is still there.
The noise doesn't increase in frequent?
Is it a continuous sound?
Actually it does.
No, no, it is not a continuous sound.
Sometimes it'll go, it'll do that.
Really?
And then once you start moving, it stays there.
It's there until you hit about 35 and then 35 or 40 right around there and then I can't
hear it anymore.
And then it goes away.
And then you come down to, to a slow speed again.
The noise comes back.
And it comes back though.
It does come back.
And is it there the whole time the car is running?
It seems to be, yeah, I've begun to ignore it, so I'm not sure anymore.
And it's been there how long?
Oh boy.
Probably about two or three weeks.
Yeah.
I think you have a bad water pump.
A bad water pump.
I thought about a stuck brake caliper.
You could have that too.
No, we're going to eliminate the brakes and bearings and the like because you've told us.
Obviously not in the wheels, it's in the engine.
Oh.
Something that's turning when the engine's running.
Okay, so that's not good.
The wheels aren't.
And a loose belt, for example, would make more of a screeching sound.
It would probably go away after the thing warmed up.
Yeah, it's not a screech.
And I think you have a bad water pump.
You're hearing the bearing.
And it'll make a moaning kind of rattling kind of scraping sound.
Oh, you covered all the bases there.
Whisk whisk.
No matter what.
No matter what sound you had.
Moaning, rasping, scraping.
How about thumping?
You want to throw a thumping in there too?
No thumping.
No thumping.
But I think you should get this looked at soon because if the water pump blows,
you could ruin the engine.
Okay.
Even more than it's ruined already.
Let's say if it was the water pump, are those expensive?
No.
No, no, a few hundred bucks, I think.
Holy moly.
Holy moly.
The cars are even worth a few hundred bucks.
Doesn't matter.
That explains your reluctance to have it looked at.
Remember, some people have the theory that you shouldn't spend more on the car
than the car is already worth.
And I have pointed out many times that if that were the case,
I would never be able to put gas in any of the cars I've ever owned.
Say it, Matt.
Say it.
All right, Tommy, I'm going to give you a hint about last week's puzzler.
All right, give it to me.
I am ready for a hint.
Ten inches is not always longer than six inches, Grasshopper.
Huh.
Let me see what's in that coffee cup.
We'll be back in a minute.
Hi, it's Terry Gross, the host of Fresh Air.
Catch my interview about the birth of the culture wars.
Even breakfast cereals have become part of the culture wars.
Author Isaac Butler takes us back to when the Christian Rite mobilized against provocative
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Listen to Fresh Air on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Who?
How?
Why now?
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Follow It's Been a Minute wherever you get your podcasts.
And we'll break down the zeitgeisty topics that are filling your feed.
This week on Shortwave, could your next ride to the airport be in a flying taxi?
So you open up your Uber app and you've got UberX and UberPet and now there'll be UberAir.
That reality may be only a few years away, but how is this futuristic travel possible?
Find out on Shortwave NPR Science podcast.
Listen on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
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, but first the answer to last week's puzzle.
And a good one it was.
You didn't think so last week.
I did.
This is from our exhaustive series of insect puzzlers.
The entomology division?
Yes, indeed.
And here it is.
Two grasshoppers are hanging around or maybe jumping around one day and each is boasting
that he is faster than the other one.
To settle the argument, they decide of course to have a race.
The larger of the grasshoppers, Throck Morton, or Throcky, can jump 10 inches at us in a single bound.
The other grasshopper, Rocky, can only jump six inches at a shot.
So the larger grasshopper says we're going to set up a race course that's 24 feet long,
12 feet out and 12 feet back.
Yeah.
So they reach at the starting point.
Vinnie Gumbad's hopper shoots the gun and they take off.
Now, even though Throcky, the bigger guy, can jump 10 inches at a shot, the little guy, Rocky, jumps more often.
So when they get to the five foot mark, for example, which is 60 inches, the big guy has jumped six times,
six times 10, and the little guy has jumped 10 times, but they're dead even, neck and neck, antenna to antenna.
Wow.
The question is which one wins the race and why?
Well, unfortunately for Throcky.
Yeah.
This was immediately apparent.
This was a very easy puzzle.
Well, you got to give it an easy one once in a while.
Even I got it.
Berman worked on it.
Berman got it too.
Berman worked on it and he got it too.
You cheated.
He probably asked Louis.
Louis, huh?
How can you tell who won?
Because the course is 12 feet or 144 inches, the little guy jumping six inches at a shot.
Admittedly, they're even at five feet and they're even at 10 feet too, but when they get to 12 feet, trouble breaks out
because the little guy happens to land right on the turnaround point with 24 jumps.
Yeah.
After 14 jumps.
Throcky.
Throcky.
Gone over.
Is at 140 inches and his next jump brings him to, he has to make a 10-inch jump.
Yeah, he can't make little jumps.
No, he doesn't know how.
Brings him to 150 inches from which he can never recover.
Sure.
So the little guy, as you suspected, wins the race.
Do we have a winner?
Good guys always finish last, huh?
Yeah, we got a winner.
The winner is Sue Spooner from Estes Park, Colorado, and for having her answer selected at random from among all the correct answers that we got.
Sue will get a $25 gift certificate to the Shameless Commerce Division at the car talk section of cars.com.
You go to cars.com, you go to car talk, you go to the store.
And with that $25 gift certificate, you can get the better part of a car talk Navy twill cotton work shirt.
We just take off one sleeve.
This is so good.
I mean, this is the most brilliant marketing idea we've ever come up with.
We give people a $25 gift certificate.
Nothing costs $25.
It's just the same.
It's exactly the same as the puzzler.
Either you come up short or you have to overshoot.
You can't come up short.
That means you're throwing away a $25 gift certificate.
So you always have to buy that extra five inches of the shirt.
How can we lose?
How can we be so broke?
That's the question I was going to ask.
Why isn't it working?
It was so brilliant.
Well, Sue Spooner from Estes Park, Colorado, good luck to you, kid.
Congratulations.
Of course, we'll have a new puzzler coming up in the third half of today's show.
And what a puzzler it is.
Hey, jerk.
Do you know what time it is?
Time to wake Bugsy from his pre-winter hibernation.
No, no, no.
It's time to play Stuff The Chops.
This is the part of the show where we revisit a previous call to see if the advice we gave was darn good, darn bad,
or down to final.
So who's our lucky contestant this week?
Well, the little card here says it's David from Missouri.
Do you remember him?
Neither do I.
No, I can't even remember what time to show up for the show.
I mean, come on.
All right, I'm going to refresh both of our memories from this little note.
David called us because he thought his car was trying to kill him.
I think they have medications.
No, no, no.
This was different.
Every time he put on the fan, he got a terrible cough.
He thought he was getting Legionnaires' disease.
He told them there were probably mold scores growing in his air conditioning vents.
One of the things I thought was if I could shoot some disinfectant into this thing, it might do it.
Trouble is, I don't know where to put it.
Well, you'd put it in the fresh air scoop, which is right where your windshield wiper blades are.
You might have to do it a few hundred times.
Not to mention the health risk associated with inhaling Lysol.
Well, you're not going to be in the car when you do this.
But you will be inhaling that stuff.
I mean, I'm always questioning messing with nature.
It's like spraying for West Nile virus mosquitoes.
So we save seven lives and kill, we give 25 million people brain lesions.
See, that's why the quality of our answers is going down.
Brain lesions for all that West Nile spraying.
I mean, we used to be good at this.
Well, let's find out how we did.
David, are you there?
I am.
Before we find out what happened, 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 two dozen medical malpractice lawyers that are lining up outside your houses, you speak.
Not at all.
Did you take our advice and spray the Lysol?
Well, yeah, I took your advice.
I went to my friendly Walmart store to the disinfectant section,
and they had an amazing array of this stuff, all at different prices.
So I began reading the labels, and I all promised to do the same thing,
which has killed 99.9% of the...
And caused brain lesions.
They didn't say that.
No, they don't mention that.
I bought the least expensive one, which I think was the Walmart in-house,
which is a great value brand.
And the clean linen, incidentally, was the bouquet, the flavor of the...
Oh, yes, oh, yes.
Clean linen.
Clean linen.
They should have something called clean underwear.
Hang up your shorts at night and give them a spray to be on the next day.
Look at all the money you'd save on soap.
So anyway.
Sorry.
Yeah, so you did.
Okay, so I sprayed it into that intake port,
and then I let the fan run for, oh, 10 minutes or so.
And it worked.
I have not had the problem since.
It was like...
Wow!
David, have you noticed that he's getting worse?
My hair didn't fall out, but it stuck in my teeth.
Yeah, but you don't...
You still understand people and your memory hasn't gotten bad or anything like that.
So far, and it's been a couple of weeks.
Oh, you're all set, I think.
See, that's great.
One little 10-second spray, did it?
I did it.
Yeah, and it cleaned.
Just running the thing for as long as I did clean it out.
There was hardly any odor of a clean linen at all.
Well, you know, we're going to have to have you back in a year or so
to see if you're still cold.
Say hello, Dave.
Hi there, boys.
Thanks for playing Stump the Chumps.
See you later, Dave.
Bye-bye.
Look, if you hear someone you'd like us to have on Stump the Chumps,
email us your suggestion from the cartalksectionofcars.com,
or you can call right now, and you can stump us right now,
and our likelihood, the number is 888-CARTALK,
that's 888-2782-55.
Hello, you're on car talk.
Hey, this is Eddie from California.
Eddie!
You're just like a man about town, you're all over the state.
That's me.
Eddie from Cali.
What's shaking?
You have a convertible?
No.
You don't drive a convertible?
So you don't live in Southern California?
I do live in Southern California.
Do you?
You should have a convertible, man.
I live in San Bernardino.
Oh, man!
You don't want to have a convertible around here that smogs you thick, you know?
Yeah, you wind up with a black forehead.
And 114 degrees in the summer.
I was test driving a convertible, you know, we get cars to test drive,
and there I was driving through Harvard Square, looking for a place to park,
and I drove around, around the block about 28 times.
Top down, beautiful day.
Top down, beautiful day, I mean, all was right with the world,
and I knew a parking space was awaiting me any second,
and out of nowhere a hand comes,
and gives me a dope slap on the forehead.
I mean, the force of which almost knocked my head off.
Really?
And I spun around looking for who had administered this dope slap.
Only to discover it wasn't a dope slap.
It was bird poop, falling from a considerable distance.
And how did I discover it?
When I used my right hand to soothe my pain,
it was disgusting.
That's never happened to me.
And as you know, I've had many, many convertibles.
There are many things that could fall into that head of yours that you wouldn't know.
How would I know?
Anyway, Ed, now we've discussed the merits or lack of owning a convertible.
What do you call them about?
Well, I've got an 85-325-e BMW.
Yeah.
And about a month ago, or since a month ago,
I've been driving using the emergency brake,
because if I touch the brakes at all,
I got about two miles, or even less than that,
and the car will just decide to brake on its own,
and I'll have to pull over, and the thing will just stop.
Great!
So, yeah, about a month ago, I was on the freeway,
and I realized that I was slowing down,
and I stepped on the gas,
and I realized there wasn't anything left,
and the car was exponentially slowing down,
so I had to, within about two blocks,
I had to pull over, and the thing just locked up.
And?
I sat there for about a half hour before it unlocked
and allowed me to take off again for another two miles.
This is no way to drive in.
I'll tell you what, I'm a mechanical inclined.
I've never come across anything like this.
I was stumped.
So do you drive from San Bernardino to LA every day?
No.
On the freeway at 75 miles an hour,
using the handbrake to stop.
At first, I was going as fast as I could when I'd start out.
Yeah, then you realize...
Then you realize how lousy the handbrake was at stopping.
Oh, man.
Then it would start, you know, smell that asbestos,
or whatever the brakes are.
Sheepers.
Well, just take it somewhere, and they'll fix it.
It's obvious what it is.
Is that right?
Yeah, we think it's the booster.
The power brake booster.
You want to do an experiment?
What I've been doing is I've been popping the hood,
and I've just been taking an 11-millimeter wrench and loosening the line.
Loosening the area next to the master cylinder,
letting it drain out a little bit and then going again.
Right.
I'm going to give you one better experiment to do.
Okay.
You're ready?
You're going to love this.
Because it could be any of three things.
Yeah, it could be any of three things.
You could have a stuck caliper,
but I'm guessing that it's either the booster or the master cylinder that's faulty,
and here's how you're going to determine which it is.
The next time it happens,
instead of loosening up the hydraulic line that comes off the master cylinder,
what you're going to do is actually take off the two nuts
that secure the master cylinder to the booster.
So you can now separate the booster from the master cylinder.
Without opening any of the hydraulic lines,
you're just going to bend the lines.
Okay.
At that point, you're going to see if you can move the car.
Okay.
If you can't, then the problem is the master cylinder.
If you can, the problem is the booster.
Okay.
How did this come about then?
It was just, you know, I decided to lock up my brakes.
No, we don't know how things break or why happen.
There are cosmic energies at work here.
We can't hope to understand.
They're way beyond us.
I mean, we have enough trouble simply figuring out what to do with them.
So the vacuum booster, huh?
Yeah.
It's probably the booster, but if you do this little test, it's a surefire test.
Can't miss.
I really appreciate this.
Good luck.
And fix it before you drive anymore, Eddie,
because it's nuts to be driving like this.
Yeah, I've had a few close calls already.
Yeah, you're going to hurt somebody.
You may hurt somebody and you'll be really sore.
Hey, as long as I'm not driving a convertible, right?
Right.
We're a hat.
That's about my head.
Good luck, Eddie.
High five.
His name was not Eddie.
It was Eddie.
Hey, stick around for more calls and the new puzzler coming right up.
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Ha!
We're back.
You're listening to Car Talk with us.
Click and Clack the Tap It Brothers.
And we're here to discuss cars, car repair and the new, I would have to say, mathematical and indeed challenging puzzler.
You think?
This could be the puzzler of the millennium.
Well, you know, it could be the puzzler of this millennium.
I mean, I think the Monty Hall puzzler was the puzzler of the previous millennium.
This could be the one that stands out as the puzzler of maybe all time.
Well, I don't know, but here it is.
I would say this is better than Monty Hall.
You think so?
More abstruse.
We're going to play a little imaginary little game.
Yeah, go ahead.
Imagine there is an imaginary hat sitting on the table.
There are going to be two contestants.
Is the table imaginary?
No, the table is real.
You, Tommy, will be one of the contestants and we'll call the other one Vinny.
Yeah, gotcha.
So you reach into the hat, Tommy, and you pull out a number and Vinny does the same.
Now, the reason this hat is magical is that no matter what number you pull out, Vinny will always pull out a number that is either one above or one below your number.
So if you pull out a two, Tommy, for example, you know Vinny has pulled out either a one or a three.
And to make it simple, we'll limit the numbers to between one and say, I don't know, infinity.
Why not?
So each of you pulls out a number.
Let's say you pick three and Vinny picks two.
I'm the moderator and I ask Tommy, do you know what number Vinny has?
Tommy looks at his number, which is three and says no.
That's right.
I'd say I don't know.
So I ask Vinny, do you know what number Tommy has?
He looks at his number two and says yes.
Oh, okay.
Now, regardless of the numbers that are picked, assuming that both contestants answer truthfully, if I keep asking the question,
of both of them, in other words, I go ask one contestant first, then the next contestant,
and if I keep getting, if I get a no from the second guy, I go back to the first guy and ask him again.
And when I finally get sick of that, I'll say, okay, one of you has got 20 and the other more on has 21.
So I will keep doing this.
Eventually, one of them will know without a doubt the other contestants number.
And the question is, how come is that?
Wow.
Now, if you think you know the answer, write it on a postcard or tape it.
Better still.
To the top of a La Povoni Romantica PG-16 espresso maker with brass boiler and solid mahogany handles.
Send it to puzzler tower.
Attention, Raimi.
Car Talk Plaza, Box 3500, Harvard Square, Cambridge.
Our fifth city.
Matt 02238 or you can email your answer, of course, from the Car Talk section of cars.com,
which by the way, will have a detailed explanation of the whole puzzle.
Oh, I'm telling you.
So if you're really confused by the verbal answer, you'll be able to go to the website.
I don't think the servers at cars.com are going to be able to handle the volume of people who are going to come to see this.
I mean, stay away.
Stay away for a while until the rush.
The frenzy.
The frenzy is over.
The frenzy is over.
If you'd like to call us.
The number is 888 Car Talk.
That's 888 227 8255, a lawyer on Car Talk.
Hi, I'm Megan from Atlanta, Georgia.
Hi, Megan from Atlanta, Georgia.
How are you?
How are you?
Good.
How are you?
Good.
I have a 92 Toyota Corolla and I took it to my mechanic and I've been going to him about six months or so.
And I'm not sure if I can trust him.
We are.
Does he have a boat?
There's an ocean there in Atlanta, isn't there?
Far away.
Yeah.
You can trust him then.
Well, he works kind of for himself, kind of in like a backyard situation.
Don't we all?
Under the shade of a tree?
Okay.
And anyway, he told me that my CV joints were dirty and that he needed to boot them.
Otherwise, my axle would go bad.
Well, reboot is more like it.
Reboot them, yeah.
Yeah, he had to shut the car down and restart.
Does he work for Microsoft?
So they did it.
They were dirty and did he determine that the boots in fact were torn?
Yeah, evidently.
That's what it sounds like.
He didn't say anything like that to me.
But he said that he needed to reboot them.
And that would mean that the boots, which are covering up the grease of the CV joint,
are torn or broken and dirt is getting in and he wants to replace the boots.
Right.
Yeah.
And you don't believe it.
Well, sounds bogus to you.
Well, sort of because I work downtown and I park on the street and when I leave at night,
instead of going all the way down, I just make a U-turn.
It's a really sharp turn and my car makes a clicking noise.
Oh, how unfortunate.
Geez, now see, you were questioning whether you should trust this guy.
Right.
And the truth of the matter is you could trust him and it's too late.
Yeah, when he first told you of the condition, which may have been months ago.
Right.
You should have done something about it.
I told him to go ahead and replace to do it.
Oh, he did it.
Yes.
Oh, it was too late then.
He found it too late.
Oh, no.
Yeah, because what you're hearing is the noise from the constant velocity or CV joint.
When the joint wears out, it will make this clicking noise, especially when you make sharp
turns and it's exacerbated by a turn through which you're accelerating.
For example, if you were stopped at a dead stop and you cranked the wheel all the way
to the right and you took off, you would get a click,
out of the left front wheel.
Which is what it's doing.
What it's doing.
Yeah.
So you need to replace that joint.
But the good news is you've already spent the money on the boot.
That's the good news for him.
That's good.
Yeah, that's good because he's going to replace him again.
Well, and I would just wait until the noise gets a lot worse.
I don't think you're in any imminent danger.
Okay.
Wait a minute.
You're always advising people, why wait?
Why wait?
Fix it right now.
Why worry about it?
You're going to spend the money anyway.
That's what you're always telling people.
She's trying to allay her fears.
How do you know that she doesn't want to just run out and spend a few hundred bucks?
I don't have a few hundred.
Then wait.
Yeah, you should wait.
Okay.
On the other hand, you can go back to him and say, gee, you know, you put that boot
on, but now I need an axle.
And you know, now if I buy an axle, I'm going to get a new boot with it.
And I feel like I've thrown the money away on the boot that you just did.
So can you cut me a deal?
Right.
Because he charged me 300.
To do both boots?
Yes.
Some tree?
300.
Some tree he's working under.
I need a tree like this.
That's a big tree.
Well, he may have to hold the car up with one hand while he does it.
That's probably going to rope over.
That may explain the high cost.
I would go back and ask him to cut you some kind of a deal.
Okay.
Yeah.
See you, Megan.
Good luck.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.
Bye.
Well, it's happened again.
You've wasted another perfectly good hour listening to car talk.
Our esteemed producer is Doug Disubway.
I should be asking you questions like, who is our esteemed producer?
Doug Bongo Boy Berman.
And who are the associate producers?
Well, Louis Cronin the Barbarian and David Tightlips Green.
Who's the engineer?
Do we have an engineer?
Tad Massaman Curry.
Do we have a senior web lackey?
Well, we had one.
I don't know what happened to him.
Who is he and where is he?
Doug, the old gray mayor, aka sheep boy.
And of course, do we have a technical, spiritual and menu advisor?
Yes, we do.
Who?
He's recovering from his polar expedition to reintroduce the Eskimo pie.
And that is John Bugsy Lawler.
Our public opinion pollster is Paul Murky of Murky Research,
assisted by Statistician Margin O'Vara.
Our customer care representative is Haywood Jubuzoff.
Our new truck reviewer is Zbignu Rigg, the car talk liaison to the British Isles is Isaiah
Olchap.
Our staff bodyguard is Liam Malone.
Our divorce attorney is Carmine Nott, yours.
Our director of genealogical research is Manny Cousins.
Our sexual harassment investigator is Hank Panky.
Tommy's personal marriage codes is live to regret it.
The car talk used car salesperson is Sasha Deal.
Our Russian chauffeur is Peacoff and drop off the banker at car talk Plaza Poker Games.
Is Nikolai Putin and our seat cushion tester is Mike Easter.
Our chief counsel from the law firm of Dewey Cheatham and Howe is Uluis Dewey,
known to the ex-vice presidents handing out their resumes in Harvard Square as Uwee Dewey.
Thanks so much for listening.
We're clicking clack the tappet brothers.
Don't drive like my brother.
And by the way, don't drive like my brother.
We'll be back next week, we hope.
Bye bye.
Car talk is the production of Dewey Cheatham and Howe and WBUR in Boston.
And even though the executives at NPR take another listen to that demo tape for the fishing show,
cop talk, whatever they hear us say at this NPR National Public Radio.
Hey, it's only one more letter.
So listen to the Fresh Air podcast from NPR and WKYY.
You
About this episode
GM’s decision to retire Oldsmobile sparks playful “target marketing” jokes, with the hosts riffing on how the name “Oldsmobile” sounds outdated and proposing absurd brand alternatives. The show then pivots to two listener car problems: a 1993 two-door with a high, opera-like squeal that fades around 30–40 mph, likely traced to a stuck caliper dragging the brake; and a 1993 Geo Tracker moaning sound that’s tied to engine operation, leading to a strong guess of a failing water pump.
Original notes
Sometimes great ideas come out of nowhere. On this episode of the Best of Car Talk the brothers hit upon an invention nearly as great as the ‘Pocket Fisherman’ or the ‘George Foreman’ Grill.
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