The Best of Car Talk - #2451: From the Shores of Lake Titicaca

Episode Date: June 25, 2024

Dr. Christine scored herself a plum gig in South America digging up ancient ruins, but unless her stalling Landcruiser gets fixed she might just bury it for a future Indiana Jones to dig up. Can Click and Clack help her explain to Titicaca Toyota's service manager what it needs? Find out 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

Last year, over 20,000 people joined the Body Electric study to change their sedentary screen-filled lives. And guess what? We saw amazing effects! Now you can try NPR's Body Electric Challenge yourself. Listen to updated and new episodes wherever you get your podcasts. Hello and welcome to Car Talk on National Public Radio with us, Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers, and we're broadcasting this week from the legal claims division here at car talk Plaza No, I read the other day that some woman in LA Yeah, she's I think the legal term is she's seeking some sort of redress of grievance or something

Uh-huh from Disney, you know Walt Disney Mickey Mouse and a cute little company She claims that the animated character Pocahontas is patterned, modeled after her. Uh huh, yeah? Yeah, evidently she modeled for somebody, I don't know, a couple of years ago. They paid her 200 bucks and now she wants more because she figures, hey, they're making a zillion dollars on this movie. Oh, she modeled for Disney for some other thing.

For something and they used it and they made Pocahontas out of her. And now she wants more money. Sounds like the American way to me. I realize that this is my ticket out of this dump. Oh yeah? How? I'm suing MTV. Oh, what grounds?

They patterned the character after me and they never paid me for it. Which one? Not Beavis, the other guy. Oh, but in shut case... never paid me for it. Which one? Not Beavis, the other guy. Open and shut case. He looks just like me, doesn't he? He looks, acts, sounds, everything. It is an open and shut case. He'll be calling you to resettle me in the morning. The mail is picking up here, actually. Here's one. For almost 25 years I have ponded an incident I witnessed when I was a college student. During the summer of 1972 I was working as a toll collector on the tollway.

One afternoon I saw a smoking car approaching the toll plaza. It pulled into the automatic lane next to my boot. The driver got out of the car and opened the hood. Immediately the engine compartment burst into flames that rose at least five feet into the air. I called my boss on the intercom he called the fire department. Meanwhile the driver spotted a fire extinguisher hanging on an I-beam. He grabbed it and proceeded to put out the fire. When the flames were gone he hung the fire extinguisher back where he found it, calmly walked back to the car, closed the

hood, then he got 30 cents out of his pocket, threw it in the basket, and drove the car away as if nothing had happened. I have long wondered who would have had such a cavalier attitude toward an engine fire? How many times had his car caught fire before so that he calmly knew exactly what to do? Finally, who would have continued with life as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened? Your discussion on today's show, which was in fact I think two weeks ago, sparked new neural connections. In an instant, I knew the answers to the questions which have haunted me for almost 25 years. Tom, that was you!

We talked about my 56 Chevy and how it used to burst into flame once. Actually, I had two cars that burst into flame. The Renault. Remember the Renault remember the Renault Fire is very overrated. It's not that dangerous. It just really isn't it isn't Gasoline around yeah my Renault actually was more frightening because the fire would take place in the engine compartment Which was in the rear yeah, and so frequently I would just keep driving and people had to tell me they blow the horn Hey your cars at least at the Chevy the flames were visible at least to my little daughter through the little hole in the dashboard Yeah, what do we do now we take calls good one eight hundred three three two nine two eight seven hello

You're in car talk. Hi. Yeah, Jim calling from Pacifica, California. Hey Jim. Yes How you guys doing today? calling from pacific california eight jim yes i think that's going to be uh... said that there's well uh... two weeks ago my fiat these car overheated uh... to the point of warping head all you were driving out uh... he had to have a less uh... so i've uh... endeavor to go ahead and replace the head gasket and have to head shaved down

so you're doing it yourself i'd already did it actually really did it good yeah and i'd to the point now where uh... i was meticulous about labeling all of them the uh... the vacuum line important you pencil and masking tape uh... which uh... which doesn't go too well with uh... and it rains right now yeah that it has

is a p the engine well had you know an inch thick of grease and oil. So anyway, I must have crossed some vacuum lines and when you turn on the motor now, it seems to breathe on its own and then die. It revs up to about two grand and then down to about 100 and then back up to two grand and 100 does that about three times and then it stalls. Cool! Really? Well you must have left a hell of a vacuum hose off. I'm going to have to guess that this is a Volkswagen. No, I'm sorry. Let's back up. It's a 79 Toyota Celica

79 Celica Well, you have certain you I think your your diagnosis is correct. You left off You said you crossed a couple of vacuum lines. I must have because I mean you sure you didn't leave one off Because it would be the floating there and you'd see it 79 so this is this up like a 22 are e engine Exactly. No, I'm sorry. It's 20 are 20 are 20 are just 20 are 20 are carbureted. Yes classic 20 are They don't make them like that anymore They don't make them like that anymore. Thank God.

Gee, I mean I had to... There aren't that many things to do wrong there. No, and in fact the only vacuum hose that you could leave off that would cause it to do what it does is the PCV hose. Okay, I'll check that again. Because, I mean, or it could be disconnected, but can you hear a hissing? Uh, gosh, you know, the motor's so noisy already. All right, here's what you do. Here's how you saw, here's how you find it.

This is how we always find vacuum leaks. Is your girlfriend still speaking to you? So far, sir. Okay. Okay, if not, they have to stop someone on the street to help you do this. Right. Stop a passerby and have your assistant start the engine.

Yeah. You're gonna be the man out there under the hood. With the fire extinguisher. Right, and the stick. Oh, you're going to need three people. So there's the guy that starts it, the guy with the fire extinguisher, the person with the cell phone to call 911, and you. All right.

All right? So we have the whole team assembled. What you're going to do is cover up the carburetor. You've got the air cleaner off now. Yeah. Air cleaner's off. You're going to cover the cover up the carburetor. You've got the air cleaner off now. Yeah. Air cleaner's off. You're going to cover the carburetor with your hands. Uh-huh.

And if you do it just right, you'll actually get the engine to run because what you'll be doing is offsetting the vacuum leak. See, what's happening is the engine is getting its air through whatever vacuum hose you've left off. So all this air is getting sucked into the engine, and when you add that to the air that's coming into the carburetor the thing won't run okay but if you chop off cut off the amount coming into the carburetor with your hands then it will run on the amount that's coming into the leak uh-huh got it yeah and then the fifth per I didn't mention you got any five people

while you've got the carburetor covered up, that's where we have six people that work at the shop. Yeah, okay. With the carburetor covered up, you will be able to then hear the vacuum leak. Okay. You'll hear the engine sucking the air in through whatever hose, and you're gonna say, oh, how could I have been so stupid?

That's a hose? I thought that was a wire hanging down there, you'll say. And whatever hose it is, it's gonna be big. Yeah, okay. a wire hanging down there. You'll say and whatever hose is is gonna be big Yeah, okay. It's gonna be big you'll find it. This is this is a foolproof method All right, but what are there? There are a bunch of on the bottom left side of the manifold there are a bunch of hoses that could easily be left off Uh-huh, and you're gonna find one of them there. You're gonna hear it going You've covered up the carburetor. All right, if not

Call us back. Okay. You're gonna be a hero. I hope so. When you just put that one hose back on and that engine's gonna smooth right out and run at 822 RPMs just so smooth, ah! And your chest will go out another seven or eight inches. You'll burst all the buttons on your jumpsuit. And you'll start going, rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr 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. On this week's episode of Wild Card, comedian Taylor Tomlinson explains how you can use fear as a motivating force.

I was afraid that I would get years down the road and go, man, I really wish I had pursued that or I wish I had developed this talent that might have taken me somewhere. I'm Rachel Martin. Join us for NPR's Wild Card podcast, the game where cards control the conversation. 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. This message comes from Wondery. It's time to enter the discourse. Wondery's newest podcast, Let Me Say This, with hosts Hunter Harris and Peyton Dix, is the show for weekly hot takes on pop culture you didn't know you needed. Follow Let Me Say This on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, Tommy, as I'm sure even you know by now, the puzzler is on summer vacation. Correct. Every summer we stay here and sweat over a hot microphone with Dougie cracking the whip.

And Jennifer and the puzzler go away together. The puzzler goes off with Jen and lives it up in like Wayne Newton in a swanky minimum security facility just outside of Kansas City. Anyway, we are now gratefully taking suggestions for all fall puzzlers. Because we need to, what do you have to do? Build our stocks. That's it. Right? Yeah, for the autumnal equinox. So if you have a puzzler

that you think we can use in September. Autumnal equinox? No. Is there such a thing? Yeah. There is? Yeah, there's a spring equinox and a fall equinox. Really?

Yeah, that's when the sun crosses the ecliptic. Oh, kidding. I think so. I read about it somewhere. I haven't took that course. Anyway, we are now gratefully taking suggestions for fall puzzlers. So if you have a puzzler that you think we can use in September or October or November or whenever.

Yeah. What if someone did have a puzzler that they thought was of interest? in September or October or November or whenever. What if someone did have a puzzler that they thought was of interest? What should that person do? Well, there's no need to send money with puzzler suggestions. Oh, no. You don't have to send it on a $20 bill? No, no. Oh, this is free. That's right.

Free! A free offer! Right. If you're not at work, if you happen to be on vacation, you can even use a piece of your own stationery and maybe some of your own time. Are you kidding? All right, wait until you get back to work and do it on company time. Anyway, send your puzzler suggestion to

Puzzler Tower, Cartog Plaza, Box 3500, Harvard Square, Cambridge, Our Fair City, Massachusetts, 02238. If we use your puzzler and you catch us, we'll send you some fabulous, fabulous piece of car talk paraphernalia. All right, it'll be a travel mug or a baseball hat, but it's fabulous compared to what you would've gotten had we not used your puzzler, which is what?

Diddley squat. Squat. In the meantime, if you wanna ask us a question, diddley squat, how does that differentiate? How does that compare to squat, plain squat? Well, it's a long story. Oh, we don't want to hear it. You want to call us to numbers 1-800-332-9287.

Hello, you're on Car Talk. Yeah, this is Al from Midland, Texas. Hi, Al. How you doing, Al? Gee, I think I've been to Midland, Texas. Oh, everyone's been to Midland, man. Home of the oil refinery. Yeah.

Yeah, the whole town is in the refinery. The whole town is oil refineries. No, that's Odessa. Oh, that's Odessa. Yeah, I've been there too. What's up, Al? Well, I've got a little problem with the famous flaming Ford. Uh-oh. Really? My son has a 1989, 1990, 1991 Johnny Cash Tempo Topaz. Oh, okay. one Johnny Cash tempo topaz oh okay what happened is he made a mechanic friend of mine yeah a 1990 mercury topaz okay that had caught on fire ah from the

switch and a 1989 tempo dashboard was put in there in nine of the gaskets works backwards gas gauge works backwards yes when it's full it rebe when it's empty it reads full mechanic and i told him he means enough f means fine gas it didn he know that? Yeah.

But his mother occasionally drives the car, and I would sure hate to have her get in with a thinking of full tank of gas and run out and then strike me severely. Well, you need to change either the sending unit in the tank or you need to change the gauge on the dashboard because they're not compatible. Because one of them, when there's an open circuit, will read full, and I don't know which one it is, but whatever you have for the dashboard, that's the sending unit you need in the tank.

Okay, so if it's a tempo, we need a tempo sending unit. But if it's an 89 dashboard, an 89 gauge. It's an 89 tempo dashboard, so you have to just go by, if you want to replace the sending unit, you want to go by a sending unit for an 89 tempo dashboard, so you have to just go by, if you want to replace the sending unit, you want to go by a sending unit for an 89 tempo. Oh, okay. And it'll work. Except you're going to decide, is it harder to replace the sending unit, which is inside

the gas tank, or is it harder to get under the dashboard and replace the gauge? It's easier to tell him E means enough, F means fine gas. Yeah. I would just take a three by five card for the benefit of your wife and staple it to the dashboard. Yeah. So the instructions are there so she knows. I wouldn't bother to change it. I think it's rather charming. It is cute. Yeah. But if you want to change it you really have to go and... On second thought, I'm not sure that changing the gauge is going to make it work because that whole cluster

is probably operating on a different system ready to cluster it's a cluster exactly so i don't think i think age is replaceable but you who is what you can do you can have a separate gas gauge do you have the gas gauge from the old one excellent and then you could see one

going up and one going down and when they cross a cross what happened you're half full Yeah, I like that I like that too That requires of course installing a separate sending unit. No. No you couldn't just tap off of this one. I see what you're there You go, baby. Yeah, they'll both read incorrectly No, but you can just eliminate the one on the dash and mount this one someplace else. This will be your gas gauge. So you need the original gauge that was with the car. The three by five card Al. Well, he says that he thinks it's great because nobody will steal it because they get in and hot wire it and they see there's no gas in it. And they'll just leave it. Yeah. There you go. I like

enough and fine gas. That's brilliant. See you later, Al. Good luck. Thanks for calling. 1-800-332-9287. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, guys. This is Andrea in Milwaukee. Hi, Andrea. Andrea, how are you? I'm doing okay. My car is all sort of okay. What's on your mind Andrea? Well we have a 91 Ford Escort. It was when we bought it it was four years old and it had 4,000 miles on it. Really? Yeah so it was sitting around a lot I guess. Yeah. So maybe that relates to the problem. Maybe. Go ahead. So we had no problem through the cold weather and then when the weather got warmer we started having this problem

that intermittent and what it is is terrible terrible i know you've taken questions like this before order it comes through the vent all only when we have the vent system on it only comes through after we turn the air conditioning off and use the vent yeah sure yeah sure what I think that's my theory I don't think that's true well I think I mean it should be happening with the air conditioner on

no no maybe the air conditioner masks it alright could you call back later you wanna just think about these answers that you're giving us? I've been thinking about this for a month. I drive around with the air conditioner on. When you say it comes on after you shut it off, is it immediately after you shut the air conditioner off or does it take? Yeah, within a few seconds. Within a few seconds? And it's bad. That's why I thought maybe something was leaking.

What does it smell like? I mean does it smell like the inside of a gym bag? Oh, that's a, yes, that's a nice smell. How do you know what the inside of a gym bag? Oh, that's a, yes, that's a nice way to... How do you know what the inside of a gym bag smells like? That's a nice way of putting it. Okay, so that's what it's made... Well, it's certainly mold. Mold is that disgusting... Yeah, my brother knows it doesn't bother him

because his car smells like that all the time. Yeah, when you have those growths in your car that aroma is ever-present well here's what you should do I mean what has happened probably is the drain has plugged up the evaporator drain for the air conditioner if well if that were the case you probably have water on the floor of the car have you noticed that that, that the floor is wet? No. Okay, then you don't have that.

And in fact, if you run the car, with the car parked, if you run the engine in the air conditioner, you should see water dripping out the bottom. If you do, then the evaporator drain isn't plugged up. It's very likely that one of several things has happened. Either mold spores have begun growing in the ventilation system somewhere, and the only way you're going to get them out is to take it apart which

is expensive or an animal got in there and died and that's I think the more likely thing a rodent of some kind no really yeah the giant mouse of Milwaukee some some some creature got in there and died and it's it's decaying and as it's decaying god knows what's what else is i don't want to know yeah but if that's what's true it will go away eventually yeah maybe but not before you've contracted some terrible disease how long is you

have you had to smell now just since the hot weather set in in june just you know a month or so. Yeah. Has it abated at all? I think maybe. Do you think this is a smell you could get used to or learn to know and love? No I think it's a little less now when we turn on the vent. Oh if it's getting better then it almost assuredly is a dead animal. Oh okay. And if it's getting better, it also probably means it's a small dead animal, like a mouse. Well, it's a big... And I know that mouse smell

has a half life of six and a half weeks. Okay. Because I had a dead mouse in my basement. Couldn't find it anywhere, but I could sure smell it. And in six and a half weeks, the smell was gone. All right, it was not perceptible to me

And I have got a schnoz that you wouldn't believe You can try spraying various disinfectants or other the other things that cover up or eradicate odors like Lysol or whatever Into your vents, you know from the outside of the car, you know, the air is sucked in Just outside the windshield right by the wip, where the cowl is there. You see a little screen device or some such thing there? You can spray that stuff right in there while you have the air conditioner on and the blower on, and it'll suck in that stuff.

And it'll make, at least it'll be a different kind of offensive smell. Actually, I mean, you might be able to spray something in there that could really help get rid of the smell. Gasoline works well. I would spray like Lysol spray. That there that could really help get rid of the gasoline I would spray like Lysol spray. That's what I just said. Did you say Lysol? I think I said Lysol Lysol spray disinfectant Only because it's the only disinfectant name I know I mean I'm sure there are others Yeah, but Lysol might work. How come I didn't hear you say that you could never listen

Good luck, Andrea. The smell doesn't go away after a few weeks that have it happen operated on okay got to take which means taking the whole thing apart and they won't want to do it but not cheaply anyway you wave a $20 bill in front of them no you wave a pile of 20s good luck guys see you bye bye calling more calls coming up right after these messages More calls coming up right after these messages. Have you ever thought about the political leanings of sports fans? The most democratic leaning sports fan base was the WNBA, like by a comfortable distance. But that could change if the WNBA continues with its explosive growth, because as new fans show up,

some of them are bringing old culture war battles. Listen to It's Been A Minute from NPR. New from the Embedded Podcast, what happens when three Republican women challenge their own party? Maybe we need to speak out a little bit bolder. Maybe we need to do something to get people's attention. They have a front row seat to democracy.

Now, you do too. Listen to Supermajority from NPR's Embedded and WPLN. A way, way don't tell me our celebrity interviews aren't quite like anybody else's. For example, country star Brad Paisley has multiple Grammys, but do his teenaged kids like his songs? So we listened to it in the kitchen and it hunked. My oldest said, well, they can't all be gems. I'm Peter Sagal. Join us for the show that asks the questions nobody else

seems to want to know the answer to. Listen to the Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me podcast from NPR. This message comes from Wondery. Every great romance story has a happily ever after. Two people meet, fall in love, and end up together for the rest of their days. This isn't one of those stories. Binge all episodes of Happily Never After, Dan and Nancy, ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Hi, we're back.

You're listening to Car Talk on National Public Radio with us, Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers, and we're here to discuss cars and car repair and an impending demographic disaster Well possibly this is a letter from Ed Birnbaum by the way you noticed a male is improving Tremendously. Yeah, oh improved a hundred percent Yet last Sunday evening I was out running my usual seven miles, listening to NPR on my headphones and feeling very virtuous and clever. I would extend my lifespan decades past the sluggards who were drinking beer on their sofas,

tuned into heavy metal and Rush Limbaugh. By the time all things considered was over and car talk came on, I was too short of breath to change the station. So I heard one of you guys hypothesize that endurance training might only lengthen my life by 1% more than the time I actually spent in agony doing the exercise. I believe it was you. I'm sure it was me. Who made that very point.

Yeah, because it's true. You said it was discovered. You jog for two years and you live two years longer two years in a day and a day with bad knees and agony these all the time right this actually sounds plausible and terrifying someone who deliberately inflicts pain on himself to no useful purpose is neither virtuous nor clever. He is a masochist and a loony. However, let me advise you that it is not good strategy for you to encourage your listeners to examine the rational basis for their behaviors,

unless you are in hot pursuit of zero listenership, as it sometimes seems. I think you can get away with putting down like hockey fans because they're probably unlikely to listen to NPR anyway. However, baby boomer long distance runners like myself are probably a large share of your remaining audience. Doesn't Paul Murky have any demographic analysis of your listener database? Suppose I asked myself, what value do I receive from listening to car talk? Most of your callers have problems like that annoying audible hum in the climate control

system of their Mercedes. I drive a 76 Volvo with 200,000 miles on it. Everything is audible except the terrified screams of my passengers. So if you want people to continue to listen to car talk despite the low and diminishing returns for the time invested, then discourage them from any self-reflection. If they want to believe that ten hours a week destroying their knee ligaments will make them longer lived and more virile despite all evidence to the contrary, Lived. And more virile despite- Liv-Livid. Livid.

And more virile despite all evidence to the contrary. Let them. And while they're doing that, they can listen to two guys giving useless advice and laughing at their own stupid jokes. Ed Birnbaum from Portland, Oregon. He does have an important point here. He does have an important point. Self-reflection is very dangerous.

It is. It is. It's almost as dangerous as jogging. Now I have to make this important announcement before we take any more calls. As our long-time listener knows, every July and August we send our puzzler off for a little hour and hour and hour and hour and hour, rest, relaxation, rejuvenation, rectification, radiation treatment, radical stinkectomy. Anyway, the puzzler runs out of gas. It's pretty clear that this time of year, you know, the puzzler has run its course.

I mean, it's a huge... I think it's an entropy or expending universe problem. Yes, of course. No, it is a huge expenditure of effort. Is that right? It is a huge... What? What are you trying to say? Come on, spit it out. What? Pain in the butt! Coming up with a puzzler every week.

Every week, yeah. We can't do it without your help. That's right. So we need your help. And that's in the singular because there's only one... So if you have a puzzler that you think we can use you I'm talking to you our one listener send it to us at puzzler tower car talk Plaza post office box 3500 Harvard Square Cambridge our fair city Massachusetts 022 to 38 and you can write on the on the package I assume it'll be a large package that you're sending potential puzzlers inside yes and if we use your puzzler and you happen to catch us,

we'll send you a token of our appreciation. If you'd like to call us, the number is 1-800-332-9287. Hello, you're on Car Talk. This is Christine, and I'm calling from Berkeley, California. Yes, I've heard of it. Christine. Well, I actually teach at the university here. I've heard of it too. Yeah and I'm an archaeologist. No kidding. That's almost as good as an art history major. Well sort of

except for we get a lot of really dirty. Yes you get to play in the dirt a lot more. We do. Yeah. And that's sort of what's part of my problem I think i actually work in south america in the andy yeah and i have a toyota land cruiser that my team bought in nineteen eighty two in lima peru you know we don't believe it down there and then we go down and we use it uh... it had a real problem that i'm hoping you can help us with because the might throw a mechanical have not been able to have it down there that i'm hoping you can help us with because the mike trophy mechanical

have not been able to have it down there okay will do it will will do our best christine well i hope so please so it's good enough you know remember now but we're at three thousand eight hundred meters so we think it might be an altitude problem it's uh... you, that's 12,000 feet. You know, I wrote down 12,000 feet. Oh, excellent.

That's very good. Isn't that good? I have written it down, too, so I wrote 1200 feet. It's okay when it's on the coast, when it's down low in the coast, on the lower elevation, but when we get it up to the high altiplano, as's called and we drive along it just periodically loses power totally you're driving along happily you're pushing on the gas pedal and then it just kind of stops like doesn't matter how hard you push it's like you're just not connected anymore and then sometimes it'll kind of pick up and you can take off again and sometimes

it'll not and you will sit there for a few minutes and we'll start again eventually we always get somewhere but one time I had to limp back into La Paz and people did things like take the gas tank off and clean it which didn't seem to be the problem. It's good though. It's a good thing to do. Was it? Well, yeah. Well, they did it. That's why I waited for one whole half day during that episode and but most of the time they fiddle with a carburetor yeah I would do that too now one thing we're supposed to do is called Adelotar Le Chispe which is adjusting the spark when you go into the high altitude which doesn't I guess that

happens in the Rockies here but um change the timing yeah right right so we've done that and done that and they know how to do that. They live up at that elevation. So they've got that down and there's lots of Toyotas in the area. So it's not like they don't know Toyotas, but this seems to happen particularly, this loss of speed when it's raining or when it's wet or when it's cold in the morning, which is a lot in a rainy season. Yeah.

Well, how cold is it? Well, it can freeze at night. And this problem of it dying out, does that usually happen? Can it happen no matter what speed you're driving at? Or are there no speeds? It's usually when I'm tootling along, you know, 30, 40, 50, which is tootling along on a bumpy dirt road. I got it. I got it I got it too. I think yeah

Very bumpy dirt road now a couple times. I remember we've been driving for 20 30 40 minutes Okay, it wasn't like this warming up another time. I remember it was about 15 minutes out another time It was about an hour. Okay It all it all fits And then it's at another time, it was about an hour. Okay. It all fits. Oh, you're kidding.

But it was cold and rainy. It was a dark and stormy night. Yes, and stormy sometimes, yeah. And sometimes when it's not rainy, it's cold. It happens earlier in the sequence. Yeah, and when it's rainy and cold on the coast, this doesn't happen. Well, there's no such thing as rain and cold on the coast it's the Atacama desert oh in Chile and Peru yeah well what my brother thinks is happening yeah is a condition called

carburetor icing I like yeah because when you have wet conditions and cold conditions the flow of air through the carburetor can actually create ice crystals because of something called the Venturi effect. As the air is flowing through the carburetor it comes out at the other end, drops more in temperature and if you're right on the hairy edge there of 32 degrees you make ice and that freezes inside the carburetor and that will cause the car to lose power and eventually stop running completely

You sit there for five or ten minutes the ice will in fact melt Yeah from the heat generated from the engine you start it up and it runs great Well, here's what's bothering me I can't I can't I don't have an answer to God forbid that Christine should say Why is it happening now when it never happened to be for well? I suspect it's happening now because of a piece of the air filter fell off There is a little tube that leads from the air filter To the manifold that is supposed to conduct warm air Up from the vicinity of the exhaust manifold to mix

in with the cold and damp outside air to prevent this from happening. And stormy, dark and stormy air. So that little, it actually looks like a little paper hose. It's about two inches in diameter. And that may have fallen off. If you have lost that, they can fashion a new one from... A vacuum cleaner hose. ...from jalapeno pepper cans

yeah well I mean is this something that I buy up here yeah well you could you could buy that you wanted the exact piece so if I get I asked for a piece of air filter no you know it's called the stove yeah the heater stove yeah, the heater stove. The heater stove. Yeah, the stove for the air cleaner. The stove pipe for the air cleaner. Okay, heater stove pipe for the air cleaner. Right. The other possibility is that that stove is in fact in place and what's wrong is the gate that's in the snorkel of the air cleaner is not working.

Now if that isn't working, you'll never find the pieces to make it work, but they can at least fix it somehow. So that we can at least point to it and they can they can make up something with maybe ropes and sticks you can use to prop this thing in a certain position when it's damp and cold. So I need to make sure I have a stove pipe and I need to make sure I have the gate to the snorkel to the air cleaner. Yeah, that's it. Is it open or is it closed? Well, it opens and closes.

When the conditions are like you described, the adverse conditions, the things should be pretty much in the closed position. Okay, adverse is closed, okay. So you're using mostly all the air that's already been heated. Ah, so that's my problem is somehow the cold air's going straight in. Correct. And I need to have it warmed up. The cold air should be getting shunted off by this

gate that's in this in the snorkel. Right. And it should be sucking hot air through the stove. And the stove is connected to the bottom of the air cleaner and to the vicinity of the exhaust manifold so that that heated air that's present around the exhaust manifold gets used to mix with the gas and air and with the gasoline rather and prevents the carburetor icing. Uh-huh. Now you didn't expect to get an answer this good did you? No, I have no idea. This is fantastic.

We made it all up. There are no such pieces. Oh no. That is a big problem. Of course now I have to say this all in Spanish which I will try and do. So when are you going back? And what are you digging for? Well, we're digging for houses. About $50,000 a year. Ha ha ha! No, we're digging... Yeah, well I wish I could say that.

We're digging for early formative houses linked to an early tempo. In the Andes? In the Andes on the shores of beautiful Lake Titicaca. No kidding. I mean, you picked a good place to go, didn't you? Didn't she, though? Yeah. So, do you have a nickname like California Christina?

Like, like Indiana Jones? No, no, I'm called La Doctora. La Doctora. Yeah, in the field. That's what they call me down there. Cool. Well, it must be, it. Well, it must be nice. I mean, you must feel like Indiana Jones. Well, uh, jeez.

I wear a fedora hat in the field. You do? Cool. That's good enough for me. Excellent. We need a picture, Christine. You want a picture of me in a fedora? Yeah, send us a picture from Lake Titicaca.

Okay, and I really can't thank you enough. I hope that your little secret messages help, because this is totally new to me. I hope it works. Thank you very much. Good luck. Okay, bye. Bye-bye.

Thanks for calling. Well, you've passed away. Another perfectly good hour listening to Card Talk. Our esteemed producer is Doug Pumpkinlips-Berman. Our associate producer and dean of the College of Automusicology is Ken Babyface, Shantz... We haven't used Shantz's middle name for a while. Shantz Rogers.

Our engineer and assistant producer is Jennifer, soon to be vacationing Jiffy Loeb. Our technical advisor is John Bugsy, Sebastian, Mr. Height Sweetcheeks, Free Lunch, Twinkle Toes, Hoola Hips, Donut Breath, Make That Two Triple Cheeseburgers, Lala. Our public opinion pollster is Paul Merkey of Merkey Research. Our automotive medical researcher is Dr. Denton Fender. Our literary critic is our Ernest and Julio Hemingway. The manager of our employee refrigerator is Carmen Dating. Our director of congressional funding is Fred Nott.

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And of course, last and least, from the law firm of Dewey Cheatham and Howe is Hugh Lewis Dewey, our Chief Counsel. Known in the public fountains of Boston as you we Louie Dewey That's where he bays We're clicking clack the Tappan Brothers. Thanks for listening and don't drive like my brother drive like my brother. We'll be back next week. Bye. Bye I'm gonna go with the blue. If you want a cassette copy of this week's show, which is number 30, you can order it electronically on the World Wide Web through the Shameless Commerce Division of CarTalk.com or if you prefer the phone, call 303-823-8000. You can also order the best of CarTalk and other useless CarTalk garbage the same way.

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