The Best of Car Talk - #2448: The Costanza Method

Episode Date: June 15, 2024

Click and Clack pride themselves on their subtle communications skills. But every once in a while you have to make your point any way you can. To whit, Ray employs 'The Costanza Method'(Yell at everybody) on this episode of the Best of Car Talk.Get access to hundreds of episodes in the Car Talk archive when you sign up for Car Talk+ at plus.npr.org/cartalkLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

David Lynch's films explore dark themes, but in a rare interview on Wild Card this week, he says he's remarkably content and you can be too. We're supposed to be like little dogs where their tail is wagging and being happy, little smiles on our face all day long. This is the way it's supposed to be. I'm Rachel Martin. Join us on NPR's Wild Card Podcast, the game where cards control the conversation. Hello and welcome to Card Talk from National Public Radio with us, click and clack the Tappan Brothers. And we're broadcasting this week from the automotive Olympic village here at Car Talk Plaza.

Now, are you sick of the Olympics yet? Are they over yet? Have they started yet? I mean, everybody knows about the basic Summer Olympic event. You know, there's running, there's jumping, swimming, and then there are the various combinations of those three. There's the run, jump, and swim, and run the jump swim and run the swim jump run and then the swim again you know the double swim double jump double run anyway

we thought in the interest of variety it might be good to add a couple of automotive events to the to the roster create a little competition among different types of cars for instance here's one of which we know the American team would have the advantage, the electric window race. I love it. You know, they always have different distances, different distances in races, right? Well, we could have the down, the down and up on the marathon, the down and up 26 times. I like it.

It must be something to do with cup holders, but I don't know what it would be. Well, I don't know either. I know, but I got another one here. The Max AC cool down. You leave the cars out in the sun in the Walmart's parking lot in Atlanta all day long. Then like at three o'clock you start the cars, put the AC on max and see which interior reaches 60 degrees first. Brilliant, isn't it? Jesus, exciting too. Well, it's exciting too. Well, it is exciting. Yeah.

And there wouldn't be any judging. I don't like judged events. Well, it would be a very objective. I mean, this is good. Ty, all the events should be decided by the clock. Exactly. You can't have judges put up a thing that says 7-2, 6-1. It's too subjective.

Too political. Exactly. It's open to political skullduggery. So this is good. I think so. So we couldn't have things like the prettiest car. So the dark is out. Now I have a sneaking suspicion that our listeners could come up with more of these, maybe even better ones. So if you have other Automotive Olympic events to suggest, send them to us here at Car Talk Plaza, or email them to us by visiting the Talk to Car Talk section

of cartalk.com on the World Wide Web. I like to make a little plea for some snail mail. I mean, Ken tells me that 90% of our mail is now electronic. Well, I think we have intimidated people a little bit. I think people figure that if they can't communicate with us electronically, that's the traditional method has been abandoned by us. Now, I have admit that we have some mail that's been around for like two and a half

years, but that doesn't mean that we ain't getting to it. We are. We are getting to it and we're getting to the email just slowly so don't worry about that But I like to read I like to read snail mail. I mean you can't do it up. It's handwritten Right in the US Postal Service is gonna go out of business and nobody's mailed us a fish or anything lately So this is the season now that the warm weather is finally approaching this is the season fruit and fish fruit and fish Preferably dead fish. You cannot email a fish. That's right, you can't.

Hey, I actually have a piece of interesting mail to read. Really? I have several things. I'll save the controversial piece for later. But this one, according to the FBI, most modern-day bank robberies are unsophisticated and unprofessional crimes committed by young male repeat offenders who apparently don't know the first thing about their business. Also, they're running a seminar?

This information was included in an interesting amusing article titled, How Not to Rob a Bank, by Tim Clark, which appeared in the 1987 edition of the old farmers all this is pretty old sent us this receive Willie Sutton right so hard to know how things arrive Clark reported that in spite of the widespread use of surveillance cameras 76% of bank robbers use no disguise and 86% never studied the bank before robbing it so he he gives some examples of- They do know one thing, however. There's money in the bank.

There's money, yeah, Willie Sutton knew that. But he gives some advice to what would be- Money rob banks, the money's there. Why do you rob banks, Mr. Sutton, because that's where the money is. He gives some advice. Here's, I'll just pick a couple of the highlights. Don't sign your demand note.

Demand notes have been written on the back of a subpoena issued in the name of a bank robber in Pittsburgh, on an envelope bearing the name and address of another bank robber in Detroit, and in East Hartford, Connecticut on the back of a withdrawal slip which gave the robberbers signature and account number. Consider another line of work. There was a case of the hopeful criminal in Swansea, Mass., who when the teller told him she had no money, fainted.

He was still unconscious when the police arrived, his life favorite pick the right bank clock advises that you don't follow the lead of the fellow in anaheim california who tried to hold up a bank that was no longer in business and therefore had no money on the other hand you don't want to be too familiar with the bank either a california robber ran into his mother while making his getaway

she turned them in uh... ran into his mother while making his getaway. She turned him in. It brings up an interesting ethical question. If we bumped into mom while we were perpetrating a crime, would she turn us in? I'm afraid so. I'm afraid so. She's turning us in now. She's making up stuff to turn us in. You call the FCC every week.

If you'd like to call us, our number is 1-800-332-9287. Hello, you're on Car Talk. This is Ted from Staten Island. Hey Ted what's happening? I'm doing okay I'm stressed out at the moment but for for a variety of reasons. First of all my brakes don't seem to be working properly and I'm moving today from Staten Island to Clevelandio and i've got to drive the car four hundred and sixty six mile literally as we talk to move it a movie mine uh... my personal possessions out of the house and i'm about to get in my car with my family everything else valuable that i own that left over and drive to cleveland and i break our

working does the term waiting for the last minute at the meeting to you uh... so what are the breaks doing tell me here but we don't get back up for a second i got the car service two weeks ago uh... by honda i just have to uh... an oil change and i told him to look over the car they looked over the car that for the break the rear brake needed adjustment they did that the very next day i drove the car

uh... down on the stand on the expressway near the dock and uh... as i was going down there got into a traffic jam and i want to go apply break pressure of my applied to break pedal and there was nothing there will virtually nothing there but i thought the car back to honda i've had book up on the profoundly wrong with the car they looked it over they couldn't find anything wrong with it at all

okay and they turned it back to me so i could get to another another mechanic he looked at me but he couldn't find anything wrong but based on the description that i gave him he replaced the master cylinder good good okay and then i got the car back and i've been driving around and it the break they stop

the pedal doesn't feel right now i want to use it well it's not a it's not much. It's not like there's nothing there when I press down at all. But it's low. Is it low? Is that the problem? But the thing is, it's not always low. When it's low, if you pump once... Comes up. It comes up.

Boy, if there's a new master cylinder in there, it sure sounds to me like you got one of the brakes which is way out of adjustment and it could well be that someone just didn't know which way to turn the little adjuster. Well, one of two things is happening. Either the brakes are unadjusted, that is the rear brakes are unadjusted so much that the pedal is low, or there's air in the system which he didn't get out when he put the new master cylinder. He bled it three times. Well that's good, because that really narrows it down

to brakes being misadjusted. Is the car dangerous to drive? Yeah. Well, it is only because what's happening is, when you step on the brake, there's not enough oomph for it to push out the cylinders on the rear brakes until you do it the second time. So if you have to make a panic stop,

you might not stop too well but what the good news so it seems to stop well when i have to make a panic about the quantum from the sort of coming coming to an intersection and slowing down slowly okay i know what's wrong and they both miss this your cars like an eighty eight eighty nine eighty eight on the civic okay you live in new york three years

where were previously with this car? Michigan. Michigan, there we go. Yeah. Well you lived in some place where it snowed where there was salt on the roads. Yeah. What's happened is the slides on these calipers are not working correctly and both mechanics missed it and that's why when you apply the brake pedal the pedal seems soft because the caliper if i brother has just jump from the rear brakes now to the front but i mean i'm not right just so you're still on the same page yeah right

i'd might believe your caliper slides us stock or seized somebody told me that already i mean i thought the mechanic on the phone who mentioned that but the the second mechanic i brought it to said they were okay he's gonna take my bar unless he took the calipers off and verified that the slides actually work we can't know that for sure

and so you gotta call them up and ask them to push to swear on the bible and that in fact he took the calipers and actually push the pistons in and work the slides to make sure that they work if he did that i'm wrong but if he did, if he says, oh, well, if he starts hemming and hawing or staring up at the ceiling, you might have to do this face to face. You might not be able to do it over the phone. Okay. See you Ted. Thanks a lot. Good luck. Bye. Wear your seatbelts. Okay. We'll be right back with the answer to the puzzler right after these

messages. All that sitting and swiping, your body is adapting to your technology. Learn how and what you can do about it. I really felt like the cloud in my brain kind of dissipated. Once I started realizing what a difference these little breaks were making, there's no turning back for me. Take NPR's Body Electric Challenge. Listen to the series wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Rachel Martin. After hosting Morning Edition for years, I know that the news can wear you down.

So we made a new podcast called Wild Card, where a special deck of cards and a whole bunch of fascinating guests help us sort out what makes life meaningful. It's part game show, part existential deep dive, and it is seriously fun. Join me on Wild Card wherever you get your podcasts, only from NPR. series is as gossipy and over the top as ever. I love the dialogue as ridiculous as it is sometimes. Same. It's so ridiculous. We're talking about the romance and the clothes and the nudity and obviously the Queen's hair.

Listen to the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast from NPR. This message comes from the Kresge Foundation. Established 100 years ago, the Kresge Foundation works to expand equity and opportunity in cities across America. A century of impact, a future of opportunity. More at kresge.org. Alright, here it is. This is your last chance to remember the puzzler. I happen to remember the puzzler. Because after today, the puzzler will go where? Vacation. V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N. I happen to remember this after today the puzzler will go where?

vacation a Cion Anyway, so wise guy. What is the puzzler? I don't remember the question, but I know the answer Oh you well the question had to do with some vehicle that had a VW engine it weighed $50,000 weight 50,000 bucks cost 50,000 pounds Something like that. Here it is. I know the answer. That's why I remember. That is quite good.

The puzzler came from Morrison T. Erickson from Sacramento, and here it is. A special vehicle was first produced in 1949. It wasn't the only special thing produced in 1949, I might add. It was powered then by a Jeep engine, but now uses a VW engine. It has a base price of $50,000. Yeah, I heard that right. It is not raced, but can often be found in a closed course, so to speak. A famous sports celebrity was the first sales representative for this vehicle.

The question, very simply, what is the vehicle and who is the famous sports celebrity was the first sales representative for this vehicle? The question, very simply, what is the vehicle and who is the famous sports celebrity that we know so well? You know that answer? Well, I know the answer to part A. And the answer to part A is the Zamboni machine. That's right. Exactly right. And I have to take a wild guess at number two if we know so well it's gotta be Sonia Haney but she was dead in 1949. No of course no she wasn't dead.

No? She was the perpetrator of this? Well no I mean she had nothing to do with the invention of it. It was invented by Frank Zamboni. I remember I used to buy sandwiches from him. Yeah give me two large Zambonis, hold the hot pepper. The Zamboni of course is the big thing that cleans off the ice on our skating rink, right? Exactly right.

After the players go out, you know it's good at removing the blood too from the ice. Except for the players go out. Teeth. Teeth. Fix our teeth. Well that was one of the latest improvements. That's the Gordie Howe edition. Introduced in 1985.

He bought an Army surplus Jeep and some spare parts he had in the backyard. Sounds like our Uncle Peter. Finally, in the summer of 1949, he got the contraption to work. In 1994, the company sold its 5,000th ice resurfacer to a rink in Japan. Zamboni died in 1988 at the age of 87. Frank J. Zamboni, I believe, is his name.

Quite a guy, huh? They sold there 5,000. 5,000 over roughly 50 years. They sell 100 of these things a year. Yeah, pretty good, eh? 100 a year? There are 100 new skating rinks every year? No, of course not. Some of them break down and are unrepairable. They must all break down. There are only a hundred skating rinks in the whole world.

Do we have a winner? Yeah. The winner is Tim McDonald from Panama City, Panama. Yay, Tim! That's Panama City, Florida. And for knowing that our pal Sonia Henney was the big promoter of the Zamboni, as well as knowing Zamboni was the answer to the question, Tim gets his very own copy of the Best of Car Talk on cassette or CD,

whichever we happen to have more of at the time that we're mailing them out. I should mention that our esteemed producer Douglas Q. Berman is in the laboratory beginning work on the Best of car talk volume B. And he's eager to know, what is your favorite car talk moment? So if you have a favorite- Other than when we say, this is NPR, National Public Radio.

Which is the end of the show, right? If you have a favorite car talk moment that you'd like us to possibly include in the best of car talk volume two drop us a letter or Drop Dougie a note here or send Dougie a fish send them a fish write it on a fish or email it to us at Car talk calm and then go to talk to dog or something. I don't know there's a way to do that So do that now if you'd like to call us with a question about car, our number here is 1-800-332-9287.

But I feel calmer. I don't know what it is. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hello, my name is Cheryl and I live in North Liberty, Iowa. Cheryl, with an S or a C? C. The only way to spell it. Well, we know someone who spells it with an S. North Liberty, Iowa? Yes, it's right near Iowa City

Uh-huh. Well, I have an 86 Chevy Nova and The headliner is falling down and every time I get in the car It rearranges my hair and I walk out with this curl on top of my head. Yeah, and So I need some advice because I know you guys are what I would consider laterally thinking fashion mavens of the car interior. Yes! I thought so. So I'll tell you what I've tried. I've tried the glue and about asphyxiated myself. Oh yeah. And that doesn't work. I think there's a little foam rubber thing that they put on there and then they glue the material to that.

That's right. The material has separated from the backing. Yeah. And it may have all fallen apart. Yeah, I think so. Well, is the foam piece still intact? Well, not hardly. Not hardly.

So that's disintegrated too. So not only is the cloth coming down, but the liner is actually coming down too. You're done for. You're done for. Because when that piece deteriorates, it sort of crumbles, right? Yeah. And when it does, there's nothing to stick to anymore. Right. So you're going to have to replace that. Well, you could resort to the NHL. The... no no i don't know what i don't know i don't know how many you could just rip the thing out you don't get me there's no law that says you have to have a headliner that's true on the other hand it would cushion you to some extent

and if your head were to hit the roof all but the stock market that problem by wearing one of those styrofoam bicycle helmets well really that could be part of my my my look at the top of the top a part of you know what the no headliner look at the level whenever we get these kind of a good vagus and i don't have a plan for that but we get these wacko kinds of questions i always try to go and you know i mean if this is not your average problem you know we don't get

many people with this problem i always ask myself what would i do if it were my car? And you know what image came to me? I bet you my brother is going to be able to pull it right out. All right. What would I, if that were my car? Yeah?

Oh, you'd wear a hat? No. A stick. Oh yeah. That's true. A stick, and you wedge it into the seat, and boop, it holds up the headliner. Just on my side. Right? Sure. Oh, but the stick has to go between the seats. the seat and boop it holds up the headliner just on my side right sure oh

put this the stick has to go between the seats you have a Nova so you have bucket seats yeah right where the handbrake lever is yeah you're gonna put a stick and to that stick you're gonna attach a piece of plywood about eight inches wide by two feet long that's, and it's gonna go right across. Oh, you're better than that. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, a broom. A broom. You need a broom. A broom is good. You cut off the handle and you wedge that baby in there. The classic shorthandled broom.

Okay. Okay, Cheryl. But I would, actually, I would just rip the thing out because after a while, the broom is gonna get, is gonna start making you nervous. Well, no, the broom is good because when there's snow in your car in the winter, what do you do? You just take it out. Well, you sweep it off. You take the broom out, you clean it off, you stick the broom back in. I love multi-functionality. Yes, I know.

And I also might attract some conversation. Oh, there's no question about that. Now, if you really wanted to fix this, it would require that you went to a junkyard and bought a new headliner. I see. But putting the headliner in may require taking out the windshield. Oh, not the... Front or back windshield, I don't know. Because it may not fit in through any other way. Uh-huh.

Well, could I use any other kind of fabric? Oh, could you fashion one yourself? Yes, because see, I make custom clothes. You do? Uh-huh. You do. You're? Uh-huh. You do. You're thinking of like a nice Scotch plaid?

No. You're going to have a full Chicago inside the car. Yeah, Scotch plaid would be interesting. But if I did, how would I make it stay up? Well, you can't. That's the problem, because the thing that the material is stuck to is disintegrated. So there's no way. I mean, you could take what you have there and try to sew it to the backing.

But if you can't do that, then you'll not be able to sew anything else to that, and you must remove then the whole piece. Yeah. Well, if I took it off, is there something I could cover the ceiling with that would kind of make it a slight fashion statement? You're thinking maybe you take down the headliner. Yeah. And you'll rug it. And you'll be left, of course, with that other piece that's up there.

That piece will be gone too because that all will come down. You'll be left with the metal roof. Yeah. That's what you want to end up with. You'll be looking at the other side of the painted surface. Well, there's still some of the foam rubber there and some of the glue that's right. Yeah, but that's all going to fall out. But you're going to have to scrape that all off scrape it off okay

scrape all that off and then we we want to make what you call a fashion statement you could rug it rug it yeah with contact cement oh right sure rubber cement apply to the apply to the metal and rubber cement apply to the rug you know let that stuff dry on both surfaces and you slam it together Make sure you put it on straight because you'll never get it off All right, and it won't come loose in the hot weather. Of course it will but that's why you have the broom with you No, I don't think it'll come loose in the hot weather, but I'll confess that I've never tried it I mean we count on our listeners to try all these stupid. Yes

It's like doing research in the field, isn't it? Yes it is. Drive around your neighborhood, somebody must be tearing out a shag rug someplace. You don't need much. You don't need much. I'd go for a nice, you know, something in a nice peach or melon. Cheryl, you're a good sport. Thanks for calling and good luck. Have fun with this. Don't miss this opportunity because you can have a lot of laughs. You've got to have fun because if you get serious about it, you'll be very disappointed. I see. OK.

Because nothing's going to work. I promise. All right. Good luck. Send us a picture. OK. All right. Bye.

Bye. You could, I mean, draperies come to mind. I mean, you could put all kinds of interesting stuff. Tapestries. Oh, we didn't mention sand. Oh, you know what she needs? Gluing the sand to the inside. No, velvet Elvis.

Oh, no. She needs a velvet Elvis on her headliner. Velvet Elvis. Of course, everyone should have one. Yes. We'll be right back with more calls and the new puzzler after these messages. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the most powerful man in Indian politics, but big questions remain about how he's held onto power.

India is really in danger now. All the democratic structures have been compromised. Cyber hacking, mass arrests, and what it means for India's democracy on the latest episode of the Sunday Story from NPR's Up First podcast. Climate change can feel scary. But shortwave is all about empowering you with knowledge. We find hope in the ways people and governments are innovating and searching for solutions. And all the ways that different organisms are fighting to adapt to that climate future

too. Listen now to the Shortwave Podcast from NPR. NPR Plus is a new way to support public media and get more from your favorite NPR podcasts like Fresh Air. Sometimes I'll actually preface the question with if it makes you too uncomfortable to talk about, if it's too personal, just tell me. Here's the question. For behind-the-scenes content, bonus episodes, and more, sign up at plus.npr.org.

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refrigerators I got the list over here. I lost already. Oh, here it is. We could do this instead of a list of underwriters. We have a list of people. Adversaries. Companies that would never be underwriters. So we can actually, this is good because we can send this list directly to the underwriting department

and tell them not to waste their time on the phone call. Don't call these guys. Don't waste your time on Walker, Arvin, AP, Moses Mechanic, the Honda dealer in Staten Island, General Electric, or the Chrysler Corporation. What a surprise! Surprise! Anyway, and last on the list, a controversial issue. No, what was it? Yeah, a very controversial issue is this comes from Ellen Palms of Seattle, Washington After listening to your show last week

I just had to write in response to the woman the woman caller who said she bought her daughter a nice safe Volvo because she's such a terrible driver This is exactly the kind of logic that makes Volvo drivers so horrifying to everyone else on the road, as they are living proof that safer cars only encourage people to drive less safely. Woof. Surrounded by big fluffy airbags

and protected by every safety device imaginable, they can drive like morons, securing the knowledge that they will survive any crash that they will surely cause." Woof! Pretty serious words. Well, there's a good deal of speculation about whether being in a Volvo actually decreases

one's driving skills or bad drivers naturally gravitate to Volvos. This caller's remarks would suggest the latter and help drive, pun intended, home the point that the key to making cars safer is not to make crashes more survivable. You ready for this? Mm-hmm. Bad drivers will only start paying attention to what they're doing if they can be certain that a collision will result in serious injury or death to themselves.

Woof! Yeah, yeah, we'd call that automotive Darwinism of some sort. I can't imagine what i'm darwin ism of some so that's real selection i can't imagine why you didn't take this call to task for such wrong-headed thinking the way you rant about speed limits one would think you were actually concerned about driving safe about driving safety in any case the way to keep her daughter from having another accident

is to remove all safety devices in her car and replace them with many sharp, protruding, dangerous objects. As many as she can find. Thus making an impact of any kind a certain fatality and something to be avoided at all costs. Maybe they're going to fix punji sticks to the dashboard. Barring this, what she needs to buy her daughter is not another car But off us pass coffin a bus pass

I guess so thanks for letting me throw in my two cents Ellen Palms Seattle Washington boy this is in this is in the nature of a rant and rave I would say it certainly is But it is an interesting concept which which we in fact have discussed before. Why should you save the people? Why should you save people who are obviously going to go out and kill themselves anyway, except to put them in the hospitals where we have to pay even more money? It's like the prisoners. It's the same thing.

Oh, jeez. Don't get him started. No, no, I'm not suggesting that that's correct. I mean, I'm just suggesting that that's correct. I mean, I'm just playing devil's advocate here. But it is a very controversial issue, I think. Well, I think the young lady in question, for whom we suggested the vault.

She was having an accident a minute, as I remember. Yeah, but I didn't get the impression that she was a reckless driver, prone to speeding and driving recklessly. She was just absent-minded perhaps, or not skilled. So I didn't think that necessarily she was one of those that should be eliminated, if you get that. I mean, I get the impression from this letter that- Oh, you're one of those tree-hugger types.

Yes, I am. Trying to find a- We have to accommodate everyone. Not everyone has the same level of expertise. Not everyone is competent. Not everyone knows what to do. And so we have to… Exemplified by this show. I mean, only one of us knows the answers.

And so we have to accommodate all the bumbling fools of the world who are going around hurting themselves. We have to help them to not hurt themselves. Yes, that was what differentiates us from the animal kingdom. And what about the ones that aren't differentiated and are in fact animals? What do we do with them? Hug them. 2800-332-9287.

Hello, you're on car tour. Hey, this is all, stay on hold. Whoever you are, this is ordinarily the time where we do the new puzzler, but because the puzzler is on vacation There will be no new puzzler. What are we gonna do this week? I Don't know Well, if you if you think you're gonna be feeling puzzler withdrawal this summer Because the puzzle is on vacation. You can go to our website where you can find every week a puzzle from the puzzler archives.

Not a new puzzler, but a puzzler of yesteryear. A recycled puzzler one might say. Yesterweek. Yesterweek. Yeah, that's right, because people might feel withdrawal from the puzzler. Yeah, you're right. That's a good idea.

So I think you can go to our website, cartalk.com, and find a puzzler just to keep your creative juices flowing, keep your mind working. And if you'd like to send us a puzzle, you can still do it by writing to us at Puzzler Tower, Cartalk Plaza, Box 3500, Harvard Square, Cambridge, Our Faire City, Math 02238 with your puzz puzzler submission or you can email it to us from car talk comm on on the web By clicking on the talk to car talk section. Yeah anyway We'll take a call now our numbers 1-800-332-9287 Hello, you're in car talk

Hello, Seattle. You're at the same. Hi, who's this? Hey there. Hey there. To whom are we speaking? Kevin. Kevin, where are you from? Atlanta, Georgia. Really? My problem is this, among others.

I've got a 1991 Dodge Spirit ES. It's the sport model and... Yeah, right. ES means extra sporty. Extra sport. Or extremely stupid. One or the other. Put down Chrysler Corporation.

Chrysler Corporation again. Again. Okay, go ahead, Ken. And so, in addition to the problem that the car's not a really cool car, I've got some actual mechanical problems in it and it does to what is whenever step on the gas pedal it makes a little clicking sound and then when the card decelerate

wins at the end of the deceleration it makes another little clicking sound and i would analogize it almost to like uh... i'd visualize there being like a little valve opening and closing making a clicking noise almost and closing making a clicking noise almost like it's stuck. And it only happens when the car is in gear. If I race the engine in park, I don't get the clicking noise, but I get it constantly. So this happens, you're accelerating from a dead stop. What if you're accelerating at what if you're doing 30 and accelerating to 40?

It happens, all I have to do is step on the gas pedal for it to make a noise. And you get this click, click, click, it's just a couple of clicks and then it stops? Yeah, it click, like if I depress my foot on the gas pedal, it makes a little clicking noise, and then we go about the acceleration, and then when I take my foot off the accelerator,

or when I take it quickly to the brake, I get the clicking noise. Well you could easily have a bad motor mount or the noise could be coming from the exhaust system. There's a, where the exhaust system attaches to the exhaust manifold, there's a flange that actually is like a big ball and socket joint. And the noise could be coming from that. Here's how you find out what it is. OK.

I bet you you can reproduce this noise without moving the car. He just said he can't. He can't. He just said the car's got to be in motion. I'm about to tell the thing in drive. My brother has adopted the George Costanza's parents. Frank Costanza.

Frank Costanza approached to life. Yelling everybody. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to the bathroom. I'm going to the bathroom. I'm going to the bathroom. I'm going to the bathroom. I'm going to the bathroom.

I'm going to the bathroom. I'm going to the bathroom. I'm going to the bathroom. I'm going to the bathroom. I'm going to the bathroom. I'm going to the bathroom. I'm going to the bathroom. I'm going to the bathroom.

I'm going to the bathroom. I'm going to the bathroom. I'm going to the bathroom. I'm going to the bathroom. I'm going to the bathroom. I'm going to the bathroom. The George Costanza's parents, Frank Costanza's, approach to life. Yell at everybody. Okay, we're gonna put the thing in drive. I might as well talk about, before we answer your question, Kevin, I'm gonna tell you, our refrigerator broke recently and it's a generous electric refrigerator and we call the 800 number and they cheerfully agreed for a small amount of money to replace what they felt was a faulty compressor.

And they did so and about 30 hours later the refrigerator was not any colder than it had been before they got there. What did you think of that? And I opened the freezer and the ice cream was like mush and my popsicles were still melted and I thought after 30 hours something exciting should have happened. So I called the 800 number and I got a woman who was very understanding and I proceeded in my own style to explain to her. Not Frankistanza.

No, I didn't lapse into Frankistanza until my wife began to disagree with me. I said to her, the refrigerator was fixed two days ago. My wife says, it was a day and a half. To which I said, alright, it was a day and a half! And I said, and the temperature won't go below 50. My wife says, oh no, it's down to 46. Alright, I think it's 46 degrees 46 is good 46 good enough for you and we went like the Costanzas back and forth we argued

for and the poor woman on the other end didn't know what to make of it but she sent the repair person out first thing in the morning I might add that it's still not fixed but we're hoping they're working it this week before anyone else in the house gets sick Anyway, I feel better about that now, too What was your question Kevin? I'm gonna explain to him. I got what we're talking about. What was this question? We don't remember all the click you start the engine Put your left foot on the brake pedal put the car in drive Keeping your foot firmly on the brake pedal with nothing in front of

you that you could possibly do harm to. Okay. Right. Yeah. Put your GE refrigerator right in front of this thing. Step on the gas. Or yours. In other words, you're going to load up the engine, and in doing so, I believe, you're

going to get it to go click, click, click, and then shift it into reverse and do the same thing, and you will also get click click click But if you don't going back into drive and doing it again will allow you to reproduce the noise like you get when the vehicle Is moving I believe and if you can do this you can then drive it to your mechanic and Reproduce the sound for him and you'll be able to figure out in a few seconds I mean you could service manager is standing right in front of the car when you do I mean you could for example have a bad constant velocity joint out in a few seconds. Make sure the service manager is standing right in front of the car when you're doing it.

You could, for example, have a bad constant velocity joint, but I rather think it's a bad motor mount or it may just be a loose flange on the exhaust. I like the flange. Hey, is the constant velocity joint the same thing as a CV joint? That's it, man. CV, constant velocity, or curriculum VTi, whichever you like. Oh, I'm brilliant, I see. Hey, can I ask one more question? Sure. When my car is parked on an incline

and I get in the car turn it on Put it in reverse. I hear a horrendous Clanking noise. I keep I keep thinking that the entire underneath of the car is gonna fall out. You have a broken motor mount That's what's making you noise now. Now. It's all clear to me fallout. You have a broken motor mount that's what's making you noise now. Now it's all clear to me. Should have started with the second question. Should have started with the second question first we could have gotten rid of you 10 minutes ago. But I'm so charming. See you Kevin thanks for your call it's been a pleasure. Thank you gentlemen. Thanks for talking to you Kevin. Bye bye. Well you've squandered another hour of your fleeting

summer. Yes I am. It is indeed. Listening to Car Talk, our esteemed producer is Doug the Subway Fugitive, not a slave to fashion. Punk and Lips, Jens Nieher, Berman, our associate producer and dean of the College of Automusicology is Ken Babyface Rogers. Our assistant producer is Catherine Cathode. Patootie. Patootie? Patootie is right and she'll never figure out how we knew that! Petudi! Ray! Our engineer this week is Karen Given and missing in action lately is Mr. John Lawler, whose face will be appearing on milk cartons everywhere from coast to coast.

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