The Best of Car Talk - #2464: No Mommy! Not the Wiggly Road!

Episode Date: August 10, 2024

Every time Nancy drives little 3-yr-old Sam in either of the family cars he pukes. But it never happens when Dad is driving. Can Click and Clack help Nancy improve her driving technique before Sam ruins the upholstery? 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

New from Embedded. Who gets to compete as a woman? This question came up in ugly form at the Paris Olympics. But it's not new. If she runs like a man and talks like a man, is she a man? Hear about the long history of sex testing women athletes on Tested, a new series from CBC and NPR's Embedded Podcast. Hello and welcome to Car Talk from National Public Radio with us, Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers, and we're broadcasting this week from the Washboard Division here at Car Talk Plaza. Now, a few weeks ago, we put out a call to all physics bubbers in our audience to help us figure out the best way to drive over a washboard road.

You know, the washboard road is a dirt road that has ripples in it. And we got a ton of response literally a ton most of it be a email that cuts on the pounds as i come that that apparently most bobs and i want the internet of course now is an impr of course and i've been looking through all this mail and if you notice here i have

separated is segregated one two three four five six categories seven hundred and twenty one pieces of mail in each category uh... first of all there's a bunch of people who actually speak from experience we wanted physicists well no doubt we'll get to that a bunch of people who speak from experience saying they have done this high speed is the answer well that, that was my position. Of course, you remember one guy here from Kenya

I forgot I can't find his letter now, but he says that he's had much experience driving thousands of miles and Every road is just like this and the guys who drive they do like 40 50 miles an hour and that's The sort of hover just glide over the top. Just kiss the tops. Just kiss the tops. So we got one school of thought that does that. Then, we got some guys who wrote stuff here. Here it is, here's one.

This is Peter Zimmerman from somewhere. This is a response to your washboard road problem. You guys approached it wrong because you forgot that a car is not a rigid platform With four wheels in fact the cab is suspended on springs above the chassis with the wheels in motion all being damped by Misnamed shock absorbers as a get this the system is a damped driven harmonic oscillator Of course frequency determined by the wavelength between successive ripples Lambda and the speed given by

the average horizontal speed of the car. I remember that from 802. The oscillation frequency nu is derived from lambda times nu equals C, so the frequency is speed of car divided by spacing of washboards. Well he's obviously never driven on a washboard road we were looking no he gives you you wanted physicists to theoretical this is a theoretical approach okay then we have one guy who's is this this guy but the two two two two two two two two two two two two two oh you he says you you talked about the slow road the slow roll theory and the riding the ripples theory, but you have

obviously never encountered the unified theory. And the unified theory says that you have to, I'll read it down here, even the most masterful drivers struggle to sustain this indefinable, indefinable balance known as the zone. Zone, right? You must become one with the road. Speed should be regulated according to the frequency produced by the rattling of your bones. See, that's the unified theory. That's good. But the best advice comes from both David Hunt and John Moonen who both basically say,

it's true that you can do this, but don't forget that 90% of the time, your wheels aren't touching anything. Oh, 98% of the time. So you not only have no ability to stop, but you also have no ability to steer. And so you may do it smoothly for a few moments and then bingo, the tree. Well, I didn't think that was one of the constraints.

Stopping, steering, didn't answer into my thinking. If we assume constraints there's no tree and there's no ditch it's just a wide open salt flats you go into a cornfield yeah well that's it then so next time you drive in the Colt Vista and you encounter one of these roads you see how many pieces for that's right but this i'd tell you this was a ton of response by the way that was a hundred pounds that was chosen very good very very well-organized to a more you see me you know you're sitting here doing nothing put the stuff in files are coming back in the same pilot two things are before

we go on. A few weeks ago we had a caller, I forget exactly the call, but we agreed with him that when you heat up a donut, the hole gets smaller. He said it expands in every direction and in our usual oblivious, oh yeah, of course, and of course we know that the hole gets bigger. You heat up a ring. I mean every physics exam you ever took had the same question on it. I yeah, of course. And of course we know that the hole gets bigger. You heat up a ring. I mean, every physics exam you ever took had the same question on it. I always get it wrong. Well it was the same physics exam you took all the time. The eighth grade physics exam.

No, it was 8.01. I took it 16 times. And I would be remiss if I didn't, I was remiss last week. Last week was the one year anniversary of Dougie Berman's flight to avoid prosecution. Oh my God, from the Washington, D.C. metro. Right. The coffee and doughnut. What is the statute of limitations on that? I don't know. There shouldn't be any.

I can see the mugshot of him now with a cup of coffee and one hand and a doughnut in the ear. They'll get them. Meanwhile, if you have a car question for us, you can call us at 1-800-332-9287. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hello. Hello. My name's Pete. I'm in Gloucester. Gloucester what? England? Mass, Mass. Gloucester, Mass. Right up the line. Yeah. Yeah, so what's up Pete? Well, I'm calling about an 86 Chevy Cavalier from the sublime to the ridiculous What could possibly be wrong with this Cavalier? Well could possibly not be wrong with it It lives in New Hampshire. It's slightly colder than Gloucester and

When it's below freezing it won won't start. It starts in the summer. It starts when the car is towed to a garage and is warmed up. It will not start, and they can't figure it out. We put new plugs in, new distributor, new cap, new rotor, new wires to the distributor. We've done dry gas, no effect. Has it got plenty of the wet gas in it? Yeah, we got wet gas.

We got wet gas. How many miles on it? About 120,000. And when it doesn't start it will crank and crank and crank and it just won't kick, is that it? Yeah. And the battery's good. I mean, I hate to mention the obvious.

There are two obvious things that come to mind. One is that it has poor compression. Well, he said it runs good. How objective can the owner of an 86 Cavalier possibly be? I'm not the owner. Oh, you're not the owner. This is a friend's car. No, no, it's my wife's. Your wife's car.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, we know that you need a couple of things when you want to start a car. You're going to have fuel, you're going gonna have a key you're gonna have the owner's manual you're gonna have a spark and you're gonna have compression and it's possible that you don't have it in the winter what happens in the summer when it all comes back? The ability of the spark to to initiate combustion is determined by what the temperature is when the spark goes off. And that temperature is determined by how much you compress the incoming mixture and what the

ambient temperature is. Gotcha. So if it's 20 degrees and your compression is adequate, it's going to get that temperature up near the ignition point, which is like 750. When you have bad compression and then you don't have temperature then you got problems sure now It's possible that the computer is not sending in that's my question It's got a fun. It's got one of those excuse me ECM and they call electronic control modules Yes And which is I suppose the rudimentary commit computer and and it does a funny thing when it is running It has a little little light on the dashboard idiot light tells you when to shift

it is running. It has a little light on the dashboard, idiot light tells you when to shift. Well sometimes it tells you when to shift and sometimes it doesn't tell you when to shift and sometimes when it tells you to shift is the totally wrong time. So I'm wondering if the module is bad and if the module would have an effect upon the running of the car in the winter. Well it could. First of all, the guys that are winter. Well, it could. First of all, the guys that are working on it, I hope one of these guys has a scanner. Does anyone have a scanner?

No? No, I don't think so. We're talking about New Hampshire here. The only scanning they do up in New Hampshire is to see if there are aliens around. They scan for moose once in a while. They're not going to figure this out without a scanner because it's possible that you could have a bad prom in this ECM.

The prom is what tells the ECM what car it is. It tells it how much fuel to inject when the thing is cold and how the timing should be. It gives it a whole bunch of information that it doesn't have by itself. You could have a bad prom. There could be a prom update for this thing that would make the thing start. You may have to. Take this to a Chevrolet dealer. I mean you could have something as simple as a faulty coolant temp sensor, which isn't putting in the right amount of fuel when the temperature gets way down low, in which case the coolant temp sensor

does what the choke would do. On a carburetted carureted car. It says, OK, the temperature's 20 degrees. We're going to put in extra fuel because a lot of it's going to Give it a little more juice. Give it a little more juice because a lot of it's going to get condensed back into a liquid. So that could be faulty. The prom could be faulty, or the ECM could be faulty. But no one's going to figure this out unless they do a trial

and error method, or unless they have a scanner. But I would check the compression first because start with the basics. If the compression is good, then go check this other stuff. I got another question for you. Well, our producer's saying, get rid of this bum. We've already answered enough questions. What's the question?

Well, no, this question refers to, did you guys start a shop in Cambridge in 1970 on Green Street? No, we were on... No, we were actually at the end of Franklin Street. Oh, okay. Different people. Different people. Okay. Well that area was loaded with do-it-yourself auto repair shops, and I might add they all went out of business except for us. Well, after we had our relatives visit them, you know, it was only a matter of time. I built the shelves and they worked on my VW bus and then we took it out to Colorado. You know, I know why they went out bus and then we took it out to Colorado.

You know, I know why they went out of business because we only made it to Kansas. Oh, that definitely was not us then. Alright. Take care. Nice talking to you. We would never have made it to Kansas if we hadn't resilient. Stirbridge. Stirbridge was our goal. Hey Pete, good luck. Bye bye. See ya.

Hey, hey, the puzzler answer and more calls are coming up right after this. On this week's episode of Wild Card, musical icon, Ani DeFranco. I get a lot of, you know, I loved you in the 90s, you know, it's a lot of, ah, in the high school, you know, we're both 50. She lets me in on the secret to reinventing yourself when you feel stuck in a certain box. That's on the Wild Card Podcast, the game where cards control the conversation. If you're hearing this, that means you haven't gone sponsor free with NPR+.

Join us on the plus side for awesome podcast perks across more than 20 NPR podcasts, including bonus episodes, behind the scenes content, sponsor free listening and more. Learn more and sign up at plus.npr.org and never hear this promo again. They're all over the internet and bumping out of people's cars. They're the songs of the summer. And this year includes the domination of Charlie XCX and Brat Summer. She's really tapping into this moment where we are all chronically online but also chronically outside.

We are talking about the songs of the summer and why they're so catchy and inescapable. Listen to the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast from NPR. The NPR app cuts through the noise, bringing you local, national, and global coverage. No paywalls, no profits, no nonsense. Download it in your app store today. All right, Tommy, baby. The Mississippi jail. If you can tell me last week's puzzler.

You'll give me a sleek black beauty. I'll refer to you for the rest of the show as my brother, the high priest of all knowledge. Would you call me Dr. Marriott? Yes, I will. Can you remember it? No. I didn't think so.

Saved again. Here it is in its wonderful brevity. Two girls are born of the same parents in Boston. One of them, however, is a citizen of the United States and the other is not. The question simply is, how can this be? If I'm not mistaken, by law, if you are born on American soil, you are a citizen, regardless of your parentage. You can choose to be a citizen of the United States, you can choose not to, but one of the- We made it clear that she did not give up her citizenship.

Right, she did not relinquish her citizenship. Correct. She was not born a citizen of the United States, quite simply. How could this possibly be? When in fact her sister, and I didn't mention her sister was born sometime later. What were their names? Ethel and Lucy.

Was an embassy involved in any of this? No, there was no embassy involved. I stipulated they're not twins. Was there a ship involved? A spaceship. There may have been a ship involved. One of those ships may have been of English origin. The fact is that one of these girls was born before the United States was the United States when Boston,achusetts was a colony and one was born then and seventy seventy five or their sister was born a year later or

ten years later or whenever the united states was it a country that's good see that that has that has one of the elements of a good puzzler all this one house surprise i mean taking something that we That has one of the elements of a good puzzler of surprise. I mean, taking something that we, a simple assumption that happened, had to have happened

like yesterday and not realizing that it could have happened 200 years ago. That's good. I like that. I wonder if you have a winner. Okay. The winners this week are Bob and Shirley Wright. Is she the sister of I am Shirley, right? Sister-in-law. Sister-in-law from Plainwell, Michigan And for having the correct collaborative answer selected at random as our winners this week

Do Bob and Shirley each get a copy of the brand new second best of car talk CD? Ah, of course not you got one and you got it one gets the cd the other one gets the kit the box that comes in where do you think we are time warner what do you think we could send in a penny and you get 15 cds for the rest of your life no you get one copy of the second best of car talk which is 70 minutes of car talk classic moments plus three bonus laugh tracks these are just brief tracks of us laughing and you can use it any way you want I mean Dougie put them on his computer Ken plays one for his wife when she asks him to take out the trash and

Bugs he uses his when he goes off for lunch and someone hands him the check and he just takes out his little baby Anyway, the second best of car talk CD is yours, Bob and Shirley Wright, for being our puzzle winners this week. Stay tuned later on because we do have another rollicking good puzzler coming up in the second half of Car Talk and it's automotive in nature and historical and it features our good old pal Krusty. In the meantime, if you'd like to call us, our number is 1-800-332-9287. Hello, you're on Car Talk.

How are you? Great. Who's this? Jim from Mississippi. Jim, just Mississippi. Yeah, you never get calls from Mississippi. I thought we've got to take care of it over the... You know, you're right.

We don't often get calls from Mississippi. So you're from Mississippi at large. You're going to take care of the whole state. There it is. I'm from Pittsburgh originally. I lived in Boston for a little bit right behind the Constitution in a Navy Yard Yeah, I lived there for a while hated my job, but loved the city. I miss New England, but I'm happy here Well, we're happy for you Jim. What's up? My girlfriend's brakes. Yeah, no her cars brakes. Okay. Um,

She has she has a 1985 Mazda protege. Mm-hmm least five moth that protege least we break yeah least yeah how long is she leasing in 25 years three years I think no I'm gonna 95 95 don't think it made a protege in 85 that 85 yeah yeah yeah well there aren't some time that must have been an important year that's when you uh... nineteen ninety ninety five hundred okay i got sandal you know about a year into the lead which is about six months ago the break started making noises

what if i can go from thirty five zero here are a move what do you guys take go and i'm gonna do it and i want to mimic this exactly going do it again i wasn't ready go not not not not not not not not not not not not not not well that was great i'm telling you that this is her break that's a mississippi turkey is that

but there's a breaks those of the but you could be a man you could hear it underneath the floor the car and you can feel it in the pedal to you can feel, and you can hear it underneath the floor of the car. Yeah, you can feel it in the pedal too. You can feel it, and the first time we took it back, they turned the rotors, and it was okay for a couple days, and then not only did the knocking come back, but it sounded like metal on metal, kind of breaking. Took it back again. Now, I don't know anything about cars, but I go back with her the second time.

They said they, we picked it up and they said they're fine now we tighten the bolt and that's a perfect excuse to me because i would note that the both they're not when i was a kid on a bike yet probably break it by the bolt yeah we'll see a book you could tighten and it is a little sport it took care of it no problem we took about two or three days later same problem comes back

the third time we took it back to the dealer now that they we returned and they said it's fitted up with you about the found it's going to be there because they're no aspect of the city's breaks therefore therefore what therefore the sound is there because there's no aspect of the country i don't know and i have to the third time i think we're calling car talk she and i'm glad you did

but that make the noise one more time cuz I'll sweat a minute. I'll say go when I say no It's 30 you're going along at 35 miles an hour Well, if you want to do it accurately one you got it one You have to say they go and then the other one has to go the countdown Noise that's this grinding. Oh, you need the company. Okay. Oh my brother will go. I'll do this And I'll do the knock. Okay. Okay, and I'll do the knock. Okay. Okay. And I'll count down from 35 miles an hour.

Ready? Set. Get set. Go! G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G,

G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G, G That's good. I'm telling you this is exactly what it's like. Jim, this is wonderful. It really is. If only our answer was good. Well, you know, the answer that the first guy gave you was much more credible than the answer that the dealer gave you. This is always the dealer. Oh, they're all dealers? Yeah. Oh Well the first dealer then because it seems to me that I mean that kind of a noise does sound like a caliper That's falling off. No, I don't think so. You definitely you absolutely had you absolutely without a doubt have

Warped discs they have never replaced the discs. All they've done is machine them They're gonna have to replace them because even though they've they've machine them they're warping again and that's why it's okay for a few days until the thing warps again it could be warping because you have a stuck caliper and I'll bet you that they none of these times that they didn't you work that they ever replaced the pads I don't think I think they're just leaving the same old pads in there and they will make that noise oh sure GG but what about all the other Cuckamonga stuff? You never heard pads make a sound like that. Hey ah ha, hey ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah it in the steering and they will be able to plainly see what's going on now it's possible that the hub is bent. It's possible that somebody

whacked a curb stone with this at some point. And machining the disc is never going to get rid of that warp in the hub. So if the hub is indeed bent, that would have to be replaced as well. But it should take them two seconds. I mean, literally, if they put this on the lift and put the car in gear and let the wheels turn even at low speed they will see one of those calipers moving probably a quarter of an inch all right can she stop making her lease payments ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha make a list and tissue car back i see she leased from the dealer i don't think that's good enough now if if we're not happy into like a bigger guy go to work out it that you have to come far politically correct over the radio person person

bigger person a bigger person to go to uh... you know other than the dealer who would that be well i don't know what the procedure is in Mazda country, in Mississippi. Got it. You must have an attorney general's office in Mississippi. Before you do that, I mean, I would start with the manager, then the owner, then the zone manager. There you go.

Then the owner's children. Then the attorney general. That's what I'm ready to do. I'm ready to go to family here about this. Yeah, no, I think you ought to do it that the the s the southern gentlemanly way sure i knew well i'm not used to it that lay a beaten on them

uh... i'd tell you honestly i've been here for a year and a half i've never been happier uh... mississippi's most misunderstood place in in the country that's about about it's i'm glad to hear it it's it's a really fantastic but a lot of good people when you are a great ambassador for the final evidence of working in education dot you know the teacher my brother i believe in dear to himself to the entire state of mississippi one time

by referring i was the only little quote i i i don't know what i was going to have that right now remember those sacked words that had to do in a lot of nice fan mail from the state legislature that's right something about tobacco tobacco chewing more but i don't remember the context of the fact that words but you are in the written off uh... i would i would not fairly disagree and you know me that the bad way and i'm rather than mean it in a bad way. And my brother didn't mean it in a bad way either. I meant it in the best possible way.

The best possible way. I do miss New England. I'll probably, I'll try and work my way back up there. Well you won't miss it come December and January. But go through all the proper channels with this and you'll find someone that is going to first of all believe that the problem exists. Yeah and I don't think it's against all policy to simply take it in and say look I can't drive this car. It doesn't sound right

It sounds dangerous to me and therefore I will I will suspend my payments for the lease for a few weeks here until you guys Figure it out. I went as soon as you figure out you let me know and I'll give you the child resume payment Thank you very much. I appreciate it like Jim. It's a pleasure to have talked to you. All right. See you. Bye-bye. You'll be in jail in two weeks. We'll be right back with more calls and the new puzzle right after these important messages. Okay. So tell me if this sounds like you. You love NPR's podcasts, you wish they weren't interrupted by sponsor breaks like this one, and you want to support NPR's mission of creating a more informed public. If this does sound like you, then it's time to sign up for perks across more than 20 podcasts with the NPR Plus bundle. Learn more at plus.npr.org.

I just don't want to leave a mess. On Bullseye, the great Dan Aykroyd talks about the Blues Brothers, Ghostbusters, and his very detailed plans about how he will spend his afterlife. I think I'm going to roam in a few places. Yes, I'm going to manifest and roam. All that and more on the Bullseye podcast from MaximumFun.org and NPR. Want to maximize your summer without stretching your budget? LifeKits got you covered with guides on exploring your neighborhood for cheap.

Don't let money or time be the thing that decides whether or not you will have fun. You can have fun almost in spite of those things. Make the most of every day this summer, whether you're jet setting or staying close to home. Listen to the LifeKit Podcast from NPR. Do you want to maximize your summer? LifeKit's got you covered with tips on staying safe in the heat, planning your big vacation, becoming a grill master, and exploring your neighborhood on a budget. Make the most of every day this summer.

Listen to the LifeKit Podcast from NPR. Hi, we're back. You're listening to Car Talk on National Public Radio with us, clicking clack for Tappet Brothers, and we get to discuss cars, car repair, and thoughts. These are just, I mean, as usual, this comes from 10 million different people via the internet, and they were just some thoughts, and I'll give them to you. Here we are. The slogan of 105.9, the classic rock station in Chicago. Of all the radio stations in Chicago, we're one of them. And sometimes he actually gives, oh, Dave Barry.

If a woman had to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant's life, she will choose to save the infant's life without even considering if there are men on base. Mark Twain, suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress, but I repeat myself and my personal favorite, the graduate with a science degree asks, why does it work? The graduate with an engineering degree asks, how does it work? The graduate with an accounting degree asks, how much will it cost? The graduate with a liberal arts degree asks, do you want fries with that? Hahahaha!

Hahahaha! Hahahaha! It's good, isn't it? It doesn't get any better. Hahahaha! It should have been art history. Hahahaha! Hahahaha!

Okay, now what? Oh! It's time for the spine-tingling puzzler, isn't it? Yes, yes, yes indeed. Well, go ahead, man. I think I warned everyone that it was... Automotive. It was automotive and it concerned our faithful companion of many years, Krusty the Mechanic. Well, this is actually inspired by a letter from my pal Murray Priceler, who actually put together the misinformation required for this puzzler.

Excellent. Here it is. Krusty one day is at the end of the workday, and he's over there in his truck, his 55 Chevy, trying to pry off the pulley for the generator. And I said to him, what are you doing? Chevy trying to pry off the pulley for the generator. And I said to him, what are you doing? He said, I'm sick and tired of having a dead battery all the time.

This generator doesn't turn fast enough. And as a result, it doesn't charge the battery at low speed, which is all I do. He said, I drive around town. I've got the headlights on, the radio, the heated seat, you know, you name it, all those accessories are on. Sure, CD player. The generator doesn't produce enough electricity, the battery gets weaker and weaker until one

morning I come out and the battery's dead. It happens every couple of weeks in the winter. I'm sick of it. I'm fed up. I've had it. I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore. Yeah. I'm going to replace it with a pulley that's like half the size, so when this thing

is running at idle speed or around town, it will charge my battery. As we know. And he says, what do you think? And you say, go for it. Exactly. Of course. Sure, it's not my truck, what do I care?

What do you care? So he does. About a week later, he's forced to take a trip on the highway to visit his mother in prison. The state pen, as they call it, I believe. And on the way back, something happens that I, and he should have been able to predict as a consequence of this new pulley that he put on.

Oh, I thought she was going to get a parole. No, no, she's a lifer. So if you're thinking all the answer, if you think you know what happens to Krusty. Yeah. Or his truck or his generator or anything that might happen or his mother gets paroled, send that answer to us at Puzzler Tower, Car Talk Plaza, Box 3500, Harvard Square, Cambridge,

Our Fair City, Math, 02238, or you can email us your answer from CarTalk.com by clicking on the Talk to Car Talk section. And if we choose your correct answer at random as the winner next week and you catch us, we'll send you a second Best of Car Talk Cassette or CD. That's great. Now if you'd like to call us with a question about your car, our number is 1-800-332-9287. Hello, you're on Car Talk.

This is Nancy from Berkeley, California. Hi, Nancy. Oh, home of the wackos. How are you? Yeah, well, I married into the town. I didn't move here by choice. Yeah, well, it happens. It does.

Well, here's my problem. yeah well i married into the town i can't move here by choice now well it happens it does well here's my problem i have a husband and a three-year-old boy almost three and i've gotten in tech grant ninety and tegra and my husband has been ninety two camera station wagon and here's the problem it wouldn't be empty for three-year-old in the back

in his car seat we typically drive on highway one completely windy well okay you know well yeah Sam's in the back if I'm at the wheel Sam vomit every time if my husband at the wheel he never vomit yeah no kidding and I want to know why he won't vomit for my husband's at the wheel, he never vomits. Yeah, no kidding. And I want to know why he won't vomit for my husband. In all cases, you're driving the Camry? Oh no, it doesn't matter whether I'm driving my car, the Integra, or whether I'm driving my husband's.

Oh, but no matter what, if you're driving, the kid pukes. That's right. that's right that's right and now he's a very smart kid now when he starts sensing it he'll say no mommy no not the wiggly row it's interesting does if you were to drive him in and you may not have done this if you were to drive him without your husband in the car, in his car seat in the back, does he lose his lunch then too? Oh yeah. So it's you and the car and him, your husband doesn't have to be there.

Yeah, no it's her, it's you Nancy, it's clear. Oh I know, I know. Yeah, I mean it's not, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why you have a lead foot. Oh no. Oh no. Oh yes. We are one of those people with jackrabbit starts. Full on, full off. Hit the brake.

Oh yeah, yeah. I've been around people like you before. Is your husband a Californian? Yes. Well, he's been here 30 some years. So he's driven on this road a lot more than you have. Right. I want to guess that you're a little bit tentative driving on this road and you don't have a smooth motion as you negotiate the turns and there's a little herky-jerkiness in them. And every time you do that, that lunch gets a little closer to the top. To the seats.

Now I'm paying close attention to how Dave drives it and I've noticed that his speed That lunch gets a little closer to the top. To the seats. Now I'm paying close attention to how Dave drives it, and I've noticed that his speed is pretty uniform. And what I like to do, I have a stick shift. I always slow down a little bit before the curve and then put on some gas during the curve because the traction's better. And it's fun. Sure, but it's the slowing down and speeding up that makes you lose your lunch I think the change of speed and direction What's doing it to poor Sam? Yeah. Yeah, definitely Well

Paragoric works. You know what? You need sodium pentothal. See, when we were kids, no matter what you had, your mother gave you Paragoric. You remember Paragoric? No, it's illegal. Because I think they found out it's got opium in it or something. It is, it is opium. And that's why you got better. You were out of it, man. Exactly.

So if you could knock little Sammy out, if he was sleeping... Right, we wouldn't have a problem. You wouldn't have the problem. Are you suggesting I drug my child? Well, no. Are you promoting the use of drugs on three-year-old kids in California? I'm suggesting... Brother's getting wackier every day. I'm suggesting before these forays into the country to look at the birds, that you keep them up all night slapping around Make sure when he gets in that car seat, he conks right out

Give him coffee about eight o'clock at night cigarettes coffee and cigarettes Yeah, thanks guys. No, it is the jerkiness though that that is really what does it? I would try to drive like your husband and just go nice and steady and make No, very subtle moves with the steering wheel is the Camry automatic transmission Yeah, take the Camry next time you're less likely to fall into the trap of doing what you do because when you're shifting down and shifting Up and all that stuff, then you're more likely to to blow lunch See you Nancy. Thank you so much, guys.

Bye. Well, you've wasted another perfectly good hour listening to Car Talk. Our esteemed producer is Doug the Subway Fugitive, not a slave to fashion, Punk and Lips Berman. Our associate producer and dean of the College of Automusicology is Ken Babyface Rogers. Our assistant producer is Katherine Cathode-Ray. Our engineer is Karen Given. And our technical advisor is John Bugsy-Sebastian. Mr. Heights Sweetcheeks, Free Lunch, Twinkle Toes, Donut Breath, Hula Lips, 2 Gigabyte,

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