The Best of Car Talk - #2510: Sounds Good, but...

Episode Date: February 4, 2025

Should Lee take the advice of a retired mechanic friend and 'rinse' the inside of his engine with kerosene between oil changes? A mechanical hygiene lesson 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

Public media counts on your support to ensure that the reporting and programs you depend on thrive. Make a recurring donation today to get special access to more than 20 NPR podcasts, perks like sponsor-free listening, bonus episodes, early access, and more. So start supporting what you love today at plus.npr dot org alone welcome to car talk from national public radio with us my brother was playing air banjo And changing chords quite definitely. I thought I think you played a wrong chord No, I played the C with and then I put the little finger down for the boom boom boom boom

Anyway, we're clicker clack the tap brothers and we're broadcasting this week from the listener ingenuity department here at Car Talk Plaza. Now boy oh boy, our listeners are really on the ball. They certainly are. You may have noticed if you're a long time listener, i.e. Ever heard the show once. More than a week. We suggest many inventions here on the show. Dozens, maybe hundreds of brilliant ideas have been germinated right here on this very

program. Yeah, that's true. They have. None. We could name some, but they escaped us. We can't remember them right now. But none have ever been brought to fruition, as far as we know. But, hey, that's not our job.

No, that's not our job. Here's an idea. It came from a letter from a guy named David Purdy. And I think I'll just read it because it's so brilliant. Purdy good idea? It's a Purdy. And I think I'll just read it because it's so brilliant. Purdy good idea? It's a Purdy good idea, man. Recently I read that Saab, having been bought by General Motors, was including in its designs an active head restraint,

which would ostensibly flip up in the event of a crash and prevent the person's head from whiplash. I mean, this thing, if you had a crash, in addition to the airbag going off the head restraint would fly up instead of it always being in your way. Not a bad idea actually because they are a pain because you can't see out the back window. This got my devious mind turning and it occurred to me that this invention could be applied in a far more productive way, i.e. administering a remote dopeslap. Ha ha ha ha! The possibilities are endless.

I mean, just already you can say the guy's got it. I've got it figured out too. It's beautiful. A button could be provided to passengers for use when the operator of the vehicle is in driving rage. People could have endless fun finding the radio frequency For example of the dope slap remote of other drivers You're going along and boom boom boom

I like it no more no more will we be restrained by the inability to express our displeasure at the vagaries of the nameless idiot Perch man that that that that and it doesn't end there why not apply this great technology to barca lounges this is a gold mine this is the answer for the aggrieved wife whose husband insists on channel surfing I hear it now flip flip flip swap I hope sob and GM will take me up on my offer to develop new and interesting ways to apply this groundbreaking new technology. Head breaking as well. If you'd like to call us, our number is 1-800-332-9287.

Hello, you're on Car Talk. Yeah, hi guys. This is Lee calling from Waterville, Maine. Hey, Lee. You know, I spent a wonderful weekend one day. No, that was Waterville Valley. Isn't that the same thing? different things in new hampshire yeah uh...

is it called there not beautiful all of your life called that's not yet you know what i feel my ways one of the main them sort of in the middle part of the state now how can you have the main accent i mean so i've been away from home for about 20 years and just moved back three months ago. It would take more than that. Repeat after me. We're going over to Bangar to get some lobsters.

Yeah. So what's on your mind, Lee? A retired mechanic in Pennsylvania told me that when I changed the oil in my car, in order to make sure the engine clean first i should drain the oil put the drain plug back in at eight pint of kerosene who had to be in general that's the end of that at the point of care is

yes i have and let it run for fifteen seconds yeah then turn it off and take the drain plug off and the character in a sort of washing around in there and it's cleaning the engine just like the hungry water theory doesn't that sound good i mean just a thought you can imagine it's got there's got to be imagery involved you know it when this image you can see

the kerosene splashing around yeah washing everything off, and taking all that other junk down to a lot of people. First of all, that is the essence of marketing. If something doesn't sound good, I mean, why did I buy my Soba Kawa pillow? Because I watched that three-hour infomercial and it sounded great. What about the George Foreman grill? That sounded great too. I bought that too.

What about the vacuum thing? I got that. That's the one before me. What about the Juice Tiger? I got that. That's the one before me. What about the Juice Tiger? I got that too. Cause they all sound good. Just like this does. It's important, however, that if you ever do anything like this that you...

Nevermind. Am I going to be hurting the engine? Oh, why you ever... Well, see, what you don't realize, I mean, what the imagery doesn't tell you about is the fact that you're running the engine now, granted it's only for 15 seconds, without any oil in it. Right. Why would you want to do that?

To get out... Kerosene is a lousy lubricant. It does have some lubricating properties. Did you ever try it, Lee? No. I've asked people, mechanics, engineers, and they've all scratched their heads and said either, don't do it, or it sounds like it might work, but I don't know. Well, I have to say that I fell prey to this very scheme almost once, because I had a GMC

Suburban, which started burning oil, and I had a choice of rebuilding the engine or trying every hair-brained scheme that anybody mentioned to me. started burning oil and I had a choice of rebuilding the engine or trying every harebrained scheme that anybody mentioned to me. One theory of course was drain out half the oil, replace it with two and a half quarts of kerosene and run the engine for an hour. And bake in a medium oven. 350 ovens. So I say, I'm going to give it a try, Frank. And he says, go for it. So I park the thing outside. And I drain out two quarts of oil.

And I replace it with kerosene. I start the baby up. And it comes up to temperature. And the entire West Cambridge area was enveloped in a cloud of white smoke. I mean, this thing started blowing smoke. I mean, you couldn't believe the amount of smoke. We were out of business for three days.

No one could find us. But all the time that the smoke is pouring out, what am I thinking? It's cleaning out the dirt. You know what that smoke is? It's freeing up the rings. It's freeing ring freeing up the rings providing life blood to the engine and it may look bad now renewing rejuvenating exactly so after an hour i drained out the oil and kerosene mixture and i replaced it with five quarts of beautiful new fresh oil it continued to blow smoke for the next four years.

Because I ruined it, I completely wrecked it. It's alright to use as a last ditch effort. It may free a stuck set of rings and if it doesn't you've lost nothing except a couple of quarts of kerosene. Exactly, because you're going to have to rebuild the engine anyway. So we ended up taking his engine out and rebuilding the whole thing. On the other hand, if you have an engine that's running okay... And it is?

Don't do it! No. Okay. Was this guy retired or defrocked? Maybe both. Well, thanks for asking, Lee, and welcome back to Maine, and thanks for calling. Okay, guys, thanks. See you later.

Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Wacko theories are hard to kill. Ugh, I'm telling you. I mean, I don't want to, I don't mean this in a bad way, but Pons and Fleischmann are still getting lots and lots of funding. Yes. And what I want to know is why can't we be part of that?

We're not that smart. 1-800-332-9287, lawyer on Card Talk. This is Martha from Atlanta. Hi Martha. Atlanta? Yes. Yes, how are you Martha? I'm wonderful, weather's great out here.

Yeah, yeah sure. Yeah, rub it in. Okay, I have a problem. What are that global warming kicks at? You guys are going to be sweltering down there. I'm sorry, go ahead. I have a 92 Subaru Loyale. And when I'm at a stop and I accelerate,

suddenly there's a thump underneath my car. And I took it to a guy and he lifted it up, he looked around, he couldn't find it. We drove around the parking lot, he heard it around He couldn't find it. We drove around the parking lot. He heard it still couldn't find it Okay, and it's not I don't think it's a motor mount because I already know motor drop one time on another car And it didn't make any noises like that. Oh water months can that was gonna be our first guess I know it was gonna be my first guess. I'm sorry suggestion. We don guess. We don't guess around here. We're professionals. We're professionals, lady!

So it's one thump. In other words, every time you accelerate... And then this morning, the thump sounded like it was going towards the back of the car. Well, it could still be a motor mount. I mean, just because you had one previous experience with a motor mount, and this one doesn't sound... this symptom doesn't sound like the symptoms you had last time Doesn't mean it's not a motor mount because a motor mount can result in different kinds of symptoms Well, this car has actually three motor mounts

It has two that support the engine in the front and one that's actually called the transmission mount But you technically it's a motor mount and that may be where the thumping is coming from. Does it do it if you go in reverse? Ah, what a good question. I'll bet you a nickel it doesn't. No, it doesn't. I don't remember doing it. It's usually going forward. Yeah, yeah.

And I think what's happening is the transmission mount is broken and the transmission is lifting up and hitting the floor of the car. Ouch. Ouch, or maybe. Huh. And you're getting that boom. And if you were to slow down and then step on the gas real hard again. Yeah.

You may even do it again. Do it again. So you think that this could be the problem then? Oh, I think so. Yeah, me too. I mean, as soon as you describe the problem, just motor mount just... And besides, that's the answer that our producer Doug Berman told us to give you. See, we don't actually know any of the answers.

Doug Berman is the guy. We gave him a list of a hundred answers. He has a random answer generator. And he's got this big wheel out there in the control room. So when someone calls, he spins that wheel, and whatever the thing comes on, that's the answer we give. Oh, hmm. Yeah.

You're right. Well, you know what? I think you may be right. And you just went bankrupt, by the way. You are bankrupt. No, you did what? I think you may be right and you just went bankrupt You are bankrupt no you did not go bankrupt on this one. This is cheap, okay? So there's a motor mount and there's a transmission mount yeah, yeah, yeah toward one and one of the other So I would have the guy look at that. I appreciate this information. I really I can tell you do well good luck Martha Hey, thank you so much. See you later. All right. Bye.

Bye. Guess what? The puzzle are answered and more calls are coming up right after this. Usher, Yo-Yo Ma, Boy Genius, Shaka Khan, Billie Eilish, Weird Al, one thing all these big stars have in common, they've all played behind NPR's Tiny Desk. And if you enter NPR's Tiny Desk Contest between now and February 10th, you could be next. Unsigned musicians can find out more and see the official rules at npr.org slash tiny desk

contest. Technologist Pau Garcia is using AI to create photos of people's most precious memories. How her mother was dressed, the haircut that she remembered. We generated tens of images and then she saw two images that was like, that was it. Ideas about the future of memory. That's on the TED Radio Hour podcast from NPR. This is Tanya Mosley, co-host of Fresh Air. And I just talked to Pamela Anderson about her big career comeback after years in the

tabloids and not being taken seriously. She's entered a new era on stage and screen. Suzanne Somers had a great line. She said, you can't play a dumb blonde and be a dumb blonde. Find this interview with Pamela Anderson wherever you listen to Fresh Air. Okay, look, it's time once again to provide America with the information that it's dying to know. Yeah, Sandra Bullock's home phone number?

That would be good, but no. No. No. Unfortunately, we have the answer to last week's historic puzzler. Can you show your- And it was historic in that it was one of our greatest and most controversial puzzlers of all time. It's a puzzler of yesteryear and we revived it for those of you who weren't born when

we first used it in 1948. But I mean, are you sure that you want to give out the... If I recall, the last time we used this puzzler, we kept it going for like a month, because we were getting so much mail. Well, it's up to our producer. I mean, I can only do with the producer. I mean, all we do is sit in front of the microphone. I think we should go another week only because we know that no one who heard the puzzler before is either still alive or listening to the show again

Because there's nobody really you think you want to let go another week, huh? Well think about it from your personal point of view. You don't have to come up with a new puzzler. I've got a Thousand new puzzlers you do well. They all stink you do whatever you want I mean, I'm just pointing out that the last time we ran this little puzzler it lasted for a month. Well we can do we can let it go another week I'm willing to let it go another week because it is and I will restate it again. Is that four times or three? Four times I will restate it in the second half of the show so okay if you have the answer

you're wrong. And also don't forget that means we don't have to choose a winner and therefore we give away giving away a tape or whatever whatever we can away all right all this stuff about it will have a new puzzler that will have the same puzzler coming up in the second half of today's show plus a brand new episode of stump the chumps oh I can hardly wait for that oh yeah who's gonna mean we could you could spend this time reading me I don't have any mail. The mail has been lousy lately, by the way.

I just wanna make- Instead of talking about the puzzler, if I could kindly ask people, where is all the great mail that we used to get? Telling you email has ruined the world. Well, that could well be, but you just- You'd think we'd get more good mail.

We do get more mail. But it isn't good. It isn't very good. Well, maybe your standards are too high. Just read anything. In the meantime, if you'd like to call us, our number is 1-800-332-9287. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Barry Greenhall, Lincoln, Nebraska. Hey, Barry. Lincoln. Lincoln.

Lincoln's in the western part of the state, right? No, it's in the eastern part. What's in the west? What big city's in the western part of the state right no it's on the eastern part what's in the west what big cities in the western part they're on our own right next to Colorado what's the city that's next nearest to Colorado of any size probably Scott's Bluff any size that we Splough, okay, well you've been no fun. Anyway what's on your mind today? Okay, I've got a 92 Lincoln Town car. And oh about two years ago, first time we drove it down to Arkansas, which we do several

times a year, in the Ozarks. Well do you go from Lincoln, Nebraska down to Arkansas for fun? Oh yeah, that's where my mother-in-law lives. That's where the fam... Well, you got do you go from Lincoln, Nebraska down to Arkansas for fun? Oh, yeah That's what my mother-in-law that's with a fam Hey, I won't pry into I won't go there as Anyhow When we get these whiny roads with a lot of breaking a lot of shifting back and forth the car

when we finally smooth out start to build up some speed develops a vibration and quite by accident we found out that the only way that we can get it to stop vibrating spore aside the road stop the motion of the car don't have to uh... you don't have to turn engine off

just stop the forward motion and then start driving and it's fine and it's been going off like for two years and I've been dealing with several Ford places that have looked at it and they can't duplicate the problem therefore can't do anything I have a great mechanic here in Lincoln who swears up and down. It's the torque converter. There you go. That's my choice too, interestingly enough. Yeah.

Well, I was going to say, I mean, you've taken this obviously to Lincoln dealerships and technicians with all kinds of factory training. Yeah. Did you take it to Lincoln Lincoln? Is there a place called Lincoln Lincoln? It's got to be. I mean! How can you pass it up? Well, I mean, and they haven't figured it out. And you had the audacity to call us thinking that we would figure it out?

I had to call somebody I can count on. Have you ever, when you do pull over, you say you pull over, you don't have to shut the engine off, and then you start up and it immediately is fixed? Yes. And how long does it stay fixed? I'm sorry. It may stay fixed for weeks or months, or it may happen again almost immediately. Ah, okay. And when you come to the stop, the vibration is not there there so it's not vibration from the engine it's vibration from motion I would say probably yes has it ever stalled when you've pulled off to rest no that's too bad that is too bad because I was gonna go along with your torque converter theory, but I don't think I like it anymore

I still like it to some extent I mean this car has a thing called a lock up torque converter Which it speeds above like 35 miles an hour locks the two parts of the converter together so that it turns is one to reduce Losses inherent in the fluid coupling of a torque converter so that you can get better gas mileage And then if the thing isn't staying locked or is half locked and half unlocked, you can get this chattering which takes place, which can set up a vibration.

And it can go and come and stopping the car might do enough to free it up. And then when you reengage the transmission, it's okay after that, or it isn't okay. And I would think if they were sporting fellas at Lincoln Lincoln they might want to throw in a new lock-up converter for you. Well I'd like to find someone that would one other clue that my mechanic... We don't need the other clue! We want more. When I drive it like a

little old lady from Pasadena and going kind of slow, the thing seems to hang up in overdrive. Say if you've been up a 50 mile an hour and you come down to 30 or so, it's still in overdrive. Then when you start to go pick up speed again, you get a little power. You have no power? You have a little power, you goose it, and then it'll drop down into gear and go and be fine. You may need a whole transmission. That's it. Tell him you want it, and then it'll drop down into gear and go and be fine. You may need a whole transmission.

That's it! Tell him you want it to replace the whole transmission. Forget the torque converter. You want the whole shebang. Wait a minute, we're not on warranty here anymore. Yes we are. Oh we are? Yeah.

Ah ha ha ha! Yeah. That last hint was it. Okay. That cinches it. I mean, did you tell this to the dealer? Absolutely. And they say they can't duplicate the problem, therefore they're not going to do anything.

Well, aren't they going to trust you? What do you mean? Why do they have to duplicate the problem? Yeah, I don't know. You'll have to take them to visit your mother-in-law in Arkansas. I've invited them. Trust me. And if the ride doesn't do it, just visiting your mother-in-law might.

That's the clincher. I mean if it's doing that, that's an indication that the block up torque converter is locking up and staying locked up. Oh great. So tell them to fix it now and make you a happy customer because they'll have to fix it eventually. Great, well I'll do it then. Good luck Barry. Thanks a lot guys. Bye bye. Hey you know what it's time for? Time to apologize to Chrysler for those untoward remarks about the caravan's rear surprise ejection latches. No, no that'll be next week. It's time to play Stump the Chumps. For Stump the Chumps, we invite a caller from a past Car Talk show to come back and tell us whether or not the advice we gave out was useful in fixing his or her car.

And more importantly, why it wasn't useful. Okay, who's this week's Chump Stumper? It's caller from Homer. No, not that Homer. Oh! No, not that Homer, Homer Alaska. Alaska. Alaska. Dick Nixon?

Homer Alaska, Homer Alaska. That's why ours are on, Homer Alaska. Don't try to be something you know, Homer Alaska, H-O-M-A-H, dammit, that's the way we talk and we're proud of it. And something happened there. I misplaced an er. Well, Carla called us back in January when she had a few months of darkness to kill.

Her 78 Toyota pickup truck was given into trouble. She was only able to get the thing to climb hills, get this, in reverse. Now, how do you suppose she figured out that the thing would only take hills in reverse? I'm not sure we want to know. Anyway, it was obvious to us that she had a fuel pump problem, so we move right on to the more important question. Why in the world would a nice young woman like Carla decide to move to the boonies of Alaska in the first place? I'm going to try. Well, Carla, I've got gotta tell you. What? You have gotta move back to civilization. You are depriving humanity of what sounds

like a very wonderful person. Yeah. Hey, well, thank you. Because I wouldn't mind having coffee with you, kid. Oh, well, you don't have any other brothers, do you? Yeah, I got one. Me too. I got one brother, and his wife would be more than happy

to get rid of him. Well, we can have coffee. We don't have to have to be amorous. Come on. One brother and his wife would be more than happy to get rid of him. Well, we can have coffee. We don't have to have... It doesn't have to be amourous. Come on. We can just have coffee. You've been up there too long. Lighten up, will ya? Anyway, after we successfully fought off her advances, we explained to Carla that because

her fuel pump was old and crotchety, like my brother, and barely worked, when she backed up hills the gas was actually flowing down toward the engine, which was the only thing that saved her. Alright, let's bring her on. Carla, are you there? I'm here. Okay, Carla, first we have to Carmen Mirandiz you. Is it true, Carla, that you have not been offered any cash or prizes or a lifetime supply

of Eskimo pies by anyone on our staff or the staff of National Public Radio in exchange for a favorable response here today on Stump the Chumps all right it's true but it's never too late to try it's never too late to try all right did you replace the pump yes and then it worked get out And it worked! Get out! Ha ha ha! Ta da!

Unbelievable! One right answer out of the last 20! I mean we've had a long run of bad answers. Bad answers. Carla, you saved us. It really did. We don't need you to elaborate because you might tell us you did something else too and that might have fixed it

So we will just leave it at this the fuel pump fixed it. The truck runs great Well, the truck runs it goes up the hills at least. No, we don't know that either It ran okay, oh last what you do sell it I did it kind of sold itself really what did it do it put its own sign Oh It was a fluke. I ran into someone who tried to buy it last year and You do sell it? I did it kind of sold itself Really? What did it do it put its own sign out? It was a fluke I ran into someone who tried to buy it last year and I bought it instead and then they we ran into them and They asked if they could buy it and I said yes And so then I left that about an hour later and flew out to field camp and they paid for it

They flew the title out to where I was at and I signed it and it got flown back to town and when I came home the truck was gone. So who put the fuel pump in, you or them? I did, I did it in June. It took me six months to do it but it got done. Great! So you're still up there in Homer, huh? Yes. Met anyone?

No! I met a lot of people yesterday because I don't you know what I mean I didn't mean like you know what I take that back and say no well you can't but I can tell by the giddiness in your voice that there is somebody there's something going on here Carlo you want you don't want to tell us about it maybe you shouldn't maybe is it man or beast If it's too early to know, then... That's why I should say, no! Yeah, okay. I understand that and we will honor your privacy.

But if anything happens, let us know. Because we care about you. You know that. I feel like you're my sister, Carla. Oh, really? Yeah, I feel like I have to sort of take care of you and I want to know how you're doing. Right, give you driving lessons and stuff like that. Well, you should come up here and... No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no I can tell by your voice there's something going on. It may be too early to know. So when it happens, when the sparks fly, give us a call.

Promise? Okay. All right, and listen, thanks for playing Stump the Chumps. Oh, you're welcome. And thanks for letting us hit me right once in a while. And enjoy those Eskimo pies. Oh, it was fun. See you, Carla.

Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye. We'll be right back with more calls and the new puzzler after these messages. Our long national nightmare is over. Beyoncé has finally won the Grammy for Album of the Year. How and why did it take so long for Beyoncé to win the top prize at Music's Biggest Night? We're talking about her big wins and breaking down the Grammys for Kendrick Lamar, Chappell Roan, and Sabrina

Carpenter. Listen to the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast from NPR. The indicator for Plano Money is diving into the world of batteries. Not the kind you buy at the grocery store. We're talking really big batteries, the kind that can power thousands of homes. This technology came seemingly out of nowhere. We're digging deep into the battery industry in three back-to-back episodes. Listen to the Indicator from Planet Money podcast on NPR. Music Hi we're back you're listening to Car Talk from National Public Radio with us

Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers and we're here to discuss cars and car repair and voids as they say in Brooklyn, voids to live by. And I don't know if he's from Brooklyn but John Tegeler sent this to us. These are simply little models words to live by. Inspirational little messages? Inspirational little messages. Here's one. Plan to be spontaneous tomorrow. How many of you believe in telekinesis raise my hand i'd kill for a nobel peace prize this is what catharine will like this

don't be sexist broads hate that and about eagles may soar but weasels don't get sucked up into jet engines this is for mayor if at first you don't succeed then skydiving is definitely not for you I like it. Words to live by. Words to live by. Skydiving is definitely not for you. Yeah, because you don't get second tries and then screw up.

What do we do? All right, look, it's time for the new puzzler, but there is no new puzzle this week because we're using last week's puzzler. And I'm going to have to restate itate it obviously because it wouldn't be fair. Well deserved. I mean this, this puzzler deserves another week. Because it's so good. And we got another week to figure out the answer.

Well here it is. You may remember the game show Let's Make a Deal where the contestant was presented with three doors. Door number one, door number two, door number three. But that has a certain logic to it. Behind one of the doors is a wonderful prize and behind the other two doors were crummy prizes known as Zonks. Like, you know, in the Zonks would be like moldy candy bars or 63 darts or something. Here's the question. You are the contestant. Monty Hall says pick a door.

You are the contestant. Monty Hall says, pick a door. I pick two. Your chances of picking the winner are one in three. Okay. Yeah. So your chances of picking the Zonk are two and three, right? Yeah. Right? You will all agree. So Monty Hall says, okay, you pick door number two. I just picked two. Now I'm going to show you what's behind one of the doors that you didn't pick. Now of course he knows where the winners and the Zonks are and he asks Carol Merrill. Whoever she was. She was the... Hostess there. She was the Vanna White of the... Oh yeah? Yeah. What's her name? Carol... the lovely Carol Merrill. And now the lovely Carol Merrill will show you what's behind door number... One for example, okay? Which

you didn't pick and it's clearly a zonk because he knows where everything is it's the 63 dart yeah he then says now would you like to stay with the door that you picked ie number two or would you like to switch to door number three which is the only remaining door he's already shown you door number one. You'd have to be a moronon to say, I'll take one. I'll take the knife. So the question very simply is, do you improve your odds by switching? Your odds are one and three. Does it make a difference? Now, if you think you know the answer, write to us. Ripe fruit. We haven't had any ripe fruit for a while. No, we ought two by fours, for that matter. Lumber is good. Lumber is good, but ripe fruit is always welcome.

Ripe fruit. Write your answer on a piece of ripe fruit and send it to Puzzler Tower, Car Talk Plaza, Box 3500, Harvard Square, Cambridge. Our Fair City. Cambridge, our fair city, math 02238. Or if you know how to email right through, you can send it from our website, cartalk.msn.com. Just click on the talk to car talk section. And if we happen to choose your correct answer at random from among all the correct answers that we receive,

you'll get a car talk Sistine Wrench T-shirt. Yes, indeed. Not listed in the dictionary under fine art. Hardly. No, but it is fine art. It is fine art, actually. If you'd like to call us at numbers 1-800-332-9287, hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Emily Grogan. I'm calling from Somerville, Massachusetts. Emily! No last names, please, Emily. Hey, good. I have a question for you. My husband and mother-in-law, who are from Scotland, say that you should never turn your wheel when you're stationary. That will ruin your tires. And in Scotland they teach you that when you first learn to drive.

That's right. That's right? Yep. Well, next question. Here's a question. How do you get out of a parking spot in Boston, a parallel parking spot, while... You wreck your tires. In an ideal world, first of all in Scotland, most cars probably don't have power steering. I would imagine this is the case in most of the world. Power steering is an American phenomenon. Yeah, because we're a bunch of what? Wimps.

And this whole society, this whole culture is going to disappear because we're gonna be a bunch of fat But that's okay. It'll take a hundred and fifty two hundred years for it to happen Well, let me tell you that I had a car for many years Which did not have power steering And I hated that Passion Biceps I had a Pontiac Le Mans and it was formerly my brother-in-law's car and he very nicely gave me the car. He's got a great upper body development. I know how we got it. Being the wimp that I am after about two years I started to go I can't

stand it. And I had to succumb and install power steering. Well actually you know I had this very discussion with my 16 year old son Just about three days ago because he was backing out of someplace and he oh he was doing a three-point turn in my Dodge Dart Which turned out to be an eight-point turn But as he know the right technique as he backed up he stopped and then he started Cranking the steering wheel to the left with the car stopped and I said Wrecked the tires he said what are you talking to myself first of all you're sitting here The car is not moving and you're what do you think? What is it? What is happening to the bottom of the tires? grinding against the pavement. And if you recall from your high school physics, rolling friction is lower than standing friction.

Yes, everyone remembers, everyone knows that. Sure, and when you sit there in the parking space and you just walk that wheel over to the left or right, you are really wrecking the tires. Granted, in the grand scheme of things, it is not the end of the world. But if you did it all the time, you would have tires with a bunch of funny little flat spots on them. Or it's either do that or take half an hour to get out of a parallel parking space. It's a workout. It's a complete upper body workout. It really is. You don't have to go to the gym after that. If you do go, you just have to do lower body stuff. So your husband and mother-in-law are absolutely right all right that's it they'll be happy to know that that's it cool see Emily the only other Scottish

person to ever have been right We haven't discussed rubber birds for a long time. His name is almost as good as Arup Gupta. Who's that? Who's that? You'll be reading about Arup in our next book. Arup, okay. Arup, just say it. Say it three or four times very slowly because it is very cleansing and restful.

Arup Gupta. Arup Gupta. Oh, that's very good. This is going to become the mantra of the Promise Breakers, a little group that my brother and I are forming. We're going to do the million more on March of the Promise Breakers and we're going to be all chanting Arrup Gupta. That's it.

Arrup Gupta. And you heard it right here first. See you Emily. Take care. Bye. Bye bye. Well, it's happened again. You have wasted Emily. Take care. Bye. Bye bye. Well, it's happened again.

You have wasted another hour listening to Car Talk. Our esteemed producer is Doug the Subway Fugitive, not a slave to Fashion Berman. Our associate producer and Dean of the College of Automusicology is Ken Babyface Rogers. Our assistant producer is Catherine Crystal Ray. Back from her... Back from Nashville. ...grand old Opry. Our engineer is John

Marston and our technical and spiritual advisor it's Jonathan Marston am I not correct John Jonathan yes call him Jonathan from now on mr. Jonathan Marston mr. Jonathan yeah and of course our technical and spiritual advisor is mr. John s lawler our public opinion pollster was Paul murky of bed he's here in his arm today it's Paul murky of Murky Research, assisted by statistician Marginal Vera. Our director of new product repairs, Warren T. Myfoot. Our staff butler from the Car Talk Mumbai division is Mahatma Coat. From the New Delhi office, our blues coordinator is Mohammedan Tolmi.

Our document security expert from the island of Jamaica is Euripides Uppman. Our Boston traffic director is Laura Biden Our director of moral support is you demand and our little Tolstoy biographer is Warren Peace author of Leo Tolstoy by Warren Peace Our chief counsel from the law firm of Dewey Cheetahman Howe is you Louis Dewey known in the leaf piles of Harvard Square As you e Louie Dewey thanks so much for listening. We're clack the Tappert brothers don't drive like my brother or my sister We'll be back next week bye bye And now, with an important announcement, here is Car Talk Plaza's chief mechanic, Mr. Vinnie Gumbatz. Vinnie?

Alright now listen up, you know now, here's one copy of this week's Car Talk Show, which is number 42. Here's what you gotta do, alright? Alright, are you going to give the phone number now, Vinnie? Is that the idea? No, I'm gonna play when Johnny comes marching home again with my left armpit, you moron. The number to call is 303-823-8000. And what would be the number if you wanted a best of Car Talks CD or a Sistine Wrench

T-shirt or other Car Talks? Hey, who's making this announcement? You or me? I'm sorry, you are Vinny. Thank you. For Car Talks CDs, cassettes, T-shirts, etc. you call 303-823-8000 or you visit our shameless commerce division at cartalk.msn.com. You got anything to add to this, Mr. Radio Man? No, I don't. Good.

Car Talk is a production of Do We Cheat Him and How and WBUR in Boston. And even though Carl Castle chokes on his fish sticks every time he hears us say it, this is NPR National Public Radio.