The Best of Car Talk - #2511: Mom's Freaking Out Again

Episode Date: February 8, 2025

The composure and patience required to teach a teenager to drive is matched only by that teenager's ability to handle the occasional parental freakout without driving onto the sidewalk. Can Click and Clack help Christine help her Mom just. chill. out already?!?! 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

Are you the greatest musician the world has never heard? Unsigned artists, now's your opportunity to play the Tiny Desk. Enter the 2025 Tiny Desk Contest, our nationwide search for the next undiscovered star. The winner will play a Tiny Desk concert and a U.S. tour. To learn more, visit npr.org slash tiny desk contest hello and welcome to car talk from national public radio with us click and clack the tappet brothers we're broadcasting this week

get ready for this? I'm ready! From murky research here at car talk plaza National Public Radio with us, click and clack the Tappet brothers, and we're broadcasting this week, get ready for this? I'm ready! From Murky Research here at Car Talk Plaza. Now, Paul Murky, whom you all know. The director, founder. Of whom you all know. Chief Bottlewasher.

And I don't know what's gotten into him lately, but he's actually been showing up at work, has presented us with more fascinating insights into what Car Talk listeners think about their cars, car companies, and dealers. Give us a little taste. I'll just give a little taste because I think the most interesting question we asked was considering everything, if you had it to do all over again, would you buy the same car

again? That's a good question. You know, that says it all in my humble opinion. And first we looked at that by the origin of the car. Which origin? And I just broke it up into American, European, and Asian. Which of those three would you say are most likely to have bought the same car again? And answering that question.

Most likely two or most likely two halves? To have said. To have said. To have said, yes, I would definitely buy the same car again Asian European there you go European 85% of people with European cars of European origin said they would buy the car again close behind was Asian 82% and coming up a distant third was American car owners only 62 percent said that right? That's good But then we don't did it by a specific car

Which car do you think is? The car that most people would buy again out of all the all the coming you want me out of the six hundred 600 makes and models that you want to pick the one the one Boom boom boom boom infinity q45 Wow That's it man the infinity The infinity is the car that more people would buy 82% said they would buy the car again if they had to had it to do all over again really and alpha and

Fiat are up there. I mean, I don't know why, but they are. I don't know why. I suspect tampering with the data. Strongly suspect. But of the cars that you actually could buy again, what do you figure? Second, if you get this one right, I'm going to know this tampering with the data. Studebaker. No, huh?

No. Volvo. Oh, sure. I believe that. Interesting, No, no. Volvo. Oh sure, I believe that. Interesting, huh? Then it's Honda and Lexus and stuff like that. And the first

significant American car to make the list is Lincoln. Which is like tenth of something in the list. That's pretty good. Now here's the next question. You ready for this? The next question was, considering only the experiences that you've had with the dealership, how likely is it you would buy the car again? And Saturn goes from like 15th spot up to number one.

90%! Based solely on the dealership experience seventy two percent seventy two percent based only on the dealership experience not the car not the mileage not how it handles not the how they were treated the dealership experience i'd i'd i'd imagine that dealership experience means both how it was when you bought the car and how you were treated when you went in for service exactly okay

and satin was way above everybody else, but Infinity was second. Yeah, who's at the bottom? I can't say because I might cast dispersions. I mean, again, if you leave out the companies that don't have dealerships. Well, give us the bottom five. The bottom five, of the bottom five, the bottom four of them don't have a lot of five the bottom five are the of the bottom five the bottom four of them don't have dealerships like triumphs and jeez and fiat's but all the cars that have that's why they got such low rates back to the

leadership it was not a scott but all the cars all the cars i can't say it because it's the j word but it is a British company that makes cars very expensive cars. Maybe Jaguar? And I can't mention their names ever again because I said it would be a cold day in you-know-where when I say the J word again.

But people hate them more than anybody else. the extent of the extent dealerships. Yeah Pretty heavy-duty stuff. This is good stuff So if you if you got nothing else to do and you want it and you want to See the rest of the data you go to car talk that MSN calm and you find out all this stuff And if you haven't taken the survey do it the next time you're at work and you find out all this stuff. And if you haven't taken the survey, do it the next time you're at work. Because we are updating this information constantly, like every six to eight months. Every day, every day, every minute.

If you want to call us, our number is 1-800-332-9287. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Mary from Rome, Georgia. What's shaking? I need some marital counseling here on a car problem. Oh, excellent. Your husband is right. Get off the phone, what are you wasting that time for? from rome georgia what's what's shaking i need to marital counseling here on a car problem all excellent that that is right get off the phone with your ways that i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i And in order to keep the air conditioning running he pumps the gas while the car is running Oh now on that little awning at the gas station. There's only two directions

It says no smoking and turn off Yeah, and I told him to turn the engine off and he says why I said because it says on the awning to turn the engine Off. Yeah, and he says Have you ever heard of anybody blowing up that while they're pumping gas in the car? And I said no, because everybody else turns the engine off. And you're the only dope that doesn't. Right, it's me, I turn the engine on. He says he's trying to keep us comfortable in the car

with the air conditioning on. Oh yeah, that's good. But he said he would abide by what you guys say. I mean, wow, everything's buried here. First of all, this is just another example of the whole country having a blatant disregard for rules and laws. Right. Exactly. And that's just another example of that.

Well, enough said. Enough said. Secondly, I love the way he turned it around and said he knows he's violating the law. He's doing it for the comfort of his wife and family. You should stop complaining about it. And my God, why should you complain when I'm doing this for you? Because he's hot. He's out of the car. He can run when the car blows up.

No, he can't. I'll be in the car on fire. Oh, no. No, he can't. He could never run that fast. Never. Well, he might run that fast if his butt were on fire so i think i i think it's nice of him to to want you to be comfortable but if you tell him that you'd rather

not blow up than be comfortable then he should accede to that request i think great and are you right well of course you're right he should he should turn off the engine because you're absolutely right the reason that the gas stations don't blow up is because everyone else is turning off the engines. Right. Now he also made me promise to tell you that I'll let my 14 year old son pump the gas into my car because I don't want my hands to smell like gas and he says that is also illegal. Is that true? Did a 14 year old pump gas?

Right. No. Was he smoking? To have a 14 year old pump gas? Right. No. Was he smoking? No. No, then he's alright. Yeah, no, I don't think that's illegal. No? In fact, I let my 11 year old daughter pump gas. Right.

She filled up everyone's car. I mean, don't forget, it ain't rocket science. It cost him 200 bucks. Oh boy. Tell your husband to shape up, but thank him. Try not to make it into a fight, you know. Okay. I'm sure you won't because you have that fine's why I'm just not right now to be little him

anymore than you have to I want and if y'all can shed some light on that not asking direction thing oh no we can't that no we're sworn to seek we're doing an entire CD on that subject that's like the fraternity is if you know the handshake then you're all set I thought so see you Mary thanks guys good luck bye bye love you hey don't go anywhere because we've got a lot more calls well few anyway and the puzzler answer coming up after this okay look it's time finally to answer question that Monty Hall has been dying to know the answer to. And I didn't want to embarrass you by asking you what the least possible answer is.

Of course I knew it was Monty Hall. And we've used this puzzle now for two weeks, and it's time to give the answer. Yeah, I've been dying to find out what the answer is. I'll restate the puzzle as briefly as I can. Everyone remembers the game show Let's Make a Deal, where the contestant was presented with three doors. Door number one, number two, and number three. Behind one of the doors is a wonderful prize, and behind the other two doors were crummy

prizes known as zonks. Here's the puzzler. You are the contestant. Monty Hall says, pick a door. Go ahead, pick a door. Yeah. I got it. Here's the puzzler. You are the contestant. Monty Hall says, pick a door. Go ahead, pick a door. Three. No, you have to pick two.

Two. Okay. Monty Hall says, okay, you've picked door number two. Now in the real game, he offered you cash and whatever, but we simplified it. Yeah. He says, I'm going to show you what's behind one of the doors that you didn't pick. Now because there's only one prize, needless to say, I won't even say it, those two doors have one, either two zonks.

Or one prize and one zonk. Right. Yeah. That's the only choices. Yeah. And I'm going to show you what's behind one of the doors. So he knows where the zonks are, so he says I'm going to show you what's behind door number one.

And he shows you that, 63 dart. He then says, do you want to switch your choice from door number two to door number three? And your logic is what? What's the difference? The difference. I had a one in three chance of winning before. Right. I could just as easily have chosen three the first time.

What's the difference? I'm sticking with two. And that's the answer. You should stick. It's a stupid puzzler. No, that isn't the answer. The answer is you should switch. Now I know this is going to generate all kinds of gnashing of teeth and all kinds of controversy and... Especially among all the college professors who've been teaching probability theory all their lives and think they understand it. Well I know I don't understand. I was one of them. You should switch because if you if you don't switch your chance of

winning is one in three. We already know that. You just pick a door no matter what he does your chance is one in three. Exactly. If you do switch, this is the part that's hard to believe. Your chances become two in three. You double your chance. Impossible, I can hear it all over the country. I can hear them all. I can hear it reverberating. Impossible.

The guys have flipped out now. They've gone over the edge, I won't stand for it. What's their email address from Springfield? Here's the simplest way I can explain it what Monty Hall is basically offering you is this he says you've chosen door number two Would you like to switch for doors one and three? exactly Because he knows where the zonk is he's obviously going to show you the other zonk, which is door number one.

But he can't show you door number three because the prize might be there. It might be. And if it is there, he can't show you that. So what he's basically saying is, you picked door number two, I'm going to give you one and three. If he had not shown you what was behind door number one and simply said would you like would you like to switch from door two to doors one and three would you net would you always switch of course you would right and if he said to you if he showed you nothing and asked you if you would switch to from door number two

your answer would be no but because he has shown you one of the Zonks nice do you believe that it doesn't matter does Does it matter? Pretty good, huh? Who's our winner this week? Wow. Whew. Tired just thinking about it. The winner is Victoria Montag. Sounds like something's left off the end of that name.

Montagu or Montagna. Victoria Montag from Floral City, Florida and for having her correct answer chosen at random from all the dozens if not hundreds if not two correct answers we received this week. Our victor, Victoria, wins our newest CD, brand new, brand new, a whole album of calls about couples and their cars. It's called men are from GM, women are from Ford, and it's guaranteed to cement any relationship. That's a bad word. You have. Not in the underworld sense of the word. No person in a relationship should be without one of these magnificent CDs. All questions you could possibly ever have

about a relationship are answered in the CD. Almost. And some questions asked, too. Anyway, we will have a brand new folkloric, historic, interesting, challenging, and scintillating, thrilling. Just minutes ago, you said, I don't have a puzzler. And all of a sudden, you went from that to... Well I had to build it up otherwise people won't listen to the second half of the show.

Is it that cup of chicken soup that you drank? All of a sudden interesting, folkloric, challenging, what else? Historic, folkloric, folkloric. The chicken soup vitalized me. I'm glad. Not revitalized, just vitalized. So don't touch that dial because this puzzler is coming up in the second Wow Okay, I'm ready 1-800-332-9287 is the number you may have forgotten that Hello, you're on car talk. Hello. This is Christine from Portland, Oregon Christine Dean with a CH with a CH. Yes from Portland Portland there's a Portland, Maine, which is spelled P. Oh

HT Yeah, there's no D at the end Portland Portland Like Portland cement like for us. Oh, we pronounce VR. I'm sorry. Yeah, it's okay. We won't hold it against you. What's up? Okay, I am 15 years old You sound so much older sounds so much older. Yeah, I sound like a boy since I was about sixth grade. You know, I get used to it. Yeah. But anyway... Are you like a freshman in high school? Sophomore. Sophomore? Yes. I got my driver's permit a couple of months ago and I'm letting my mother teach me how to drive on her Mazda Millennia. And I can't stop her from freaking out. And she's so nice about it. She's taught a couple

kids before me and she'll sit there Rigid with her hands in a lap and say oh Christine sweetie. You're doing so well Nerve-wrecking and I don't know how to nicely tell her to stop freaking out. Well, you know, I realized the date that the most Death-defying nerve-wracking, stressful occupation has got to be a driver's ed instructor. I mean, you get all manner of bozos behind that wheel. It's been proven that they have the highest levels of Prozac in their bloodstreams than any other occupational group in the country.

So I guess because your mother's so close to you. I mean, not just in a physical sense, but it makes it all that more difficult. I mean, I refuse to teach my older son how to drive because the few times I tried, I realized that it was unlikely he was gonna learn how to drive because I would kill him first. First. So I can understand,

I think you must separate yourself from your mother. Well, I mean, you say your mother has taught several other kids, male or female. Well, the brother and sister, yes. Brother and sister, and both of them. Are they emotionally scarred like you're going to be? Well, no, it's a family ongoing joke, so I don't know. So I mean, they got through it, but only barely.

Yes, barely. So we can lay the blame for all this on your mother. Well, how do you rate your ability compared to theirs? Are you a klutz? Well I'm not, I'm a klutz by nature. Now that might have something to do with it. Yeah I don't know, but I am- Are you scatter brained?

Yeah, I'm quite a bit less or more clumsy than they are. So you're not coordinated, you're a klutz, you're scatter brained. I don't see any reason why you shouldn't be a good driver. Yeah, I mean, I think that you shouldn't, certain people shouldn't drive, learn to drive in a car that doesn't have dual controls. And I think you might be one of them. And your mother is crazy for attempting to do this.

Well, the other thing is when she's driving, she'll sometimes, she'll go through stop signs and says, Christine, don't do that when you drive. Ha ha ha ha! But it is funny how your instinct takes over and our friend Tony is teaching his older son how to drive. And recently, he and I went someplace and I was driving and every time we came to an intersection, he'd say to me, okay, you can pull out now.

Ha ha ha ha! Okay, watch out, there's a stop sign coming up. Ha ha ha ha! Has the screaming diminished? I mean, did it start off really bad and now is it tapered's a stop sign coming up. Has the screaming diminished? I mean did it start off really bad and now is it tapered off a little bit? Has it tapered off? Well it's not the fact that she screams it's just it's so spontaneous and just because I swerve a little to the left I run a stop sign. You know everybody does that once in a while and she just jumps on me and it makes me jump and so I don't know. She if you want if you want if you called to get advice and you want some advice

my advice is go to a driving school. Go to a driving school. It really is. It'll make the relationship between you and the mother much simpler and easier and it'll keep her alive of just a few days longer and maybe you too. Any doctors in the family? Any doctors in the family? No. You know a doctor that can you can you get some Valium's? That might calm her down a little bit. She's all that's all right Christine. Tell your mother it'll be the best couple hundred bucks she ever spent. See you Christine. Good luck Christine. Thank you very much. Good luck. Sheesh I mean I mean, I mean, she shouldn't be spending her time that way.

A mother has enough things to do that she doesn't have to add more stress to her life by driving around with a klutzy, flaky 15-year-old daughter. Well, I know that I could never have taught my son to drive, but the driving school did a wonderful job, and he is a competent and capable and extremely safe driver. See I just, I taught my son to drive in all the loner cars that we get. Because I didn't want him to rack up my Dodge Dart. So every time we get those like J cars and whatever they call them, Jags, whatever they are, I let my son drive them around.

I didn't go with him because I didn't want to be involved in the accident. No, and even though he just had a permit, it didn't really matter. Oh he didn't want to be involved in the accident. No, and even though he just had a permit, it didn't really matter. Oh, he didn't have a permit? We'll be right back with more calls and the new puzzle right after these important messages. Hi, we're back you're listening to car talk from National Public Radio with us clicking clack the tappert brothers and we're here to discuss of course cars. Yeah, maybe car repair. And have we got a crisis here?

It's more than a crisis. It should have been titled. Is that national emergency? I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore. I mean, as you may have made me, maybe you haven't noticed. I haven't noticed. The mail that we've been getting... Is of such poor quality? It is of such poor quality as to not even be worthy to be read. I'm not talking about

read on the air. Not read at all. We have received just about the worst mail for the past months it's been. We have to go through a thousand letters to find one little gem. And I'm fed up! Well, you know... Uh... Yeah? It is difficult. Whenever there is a new technology that takes place, there is always a degradation in the quality of the literature of the society.

For example, when we went from writing by hand to typewriters, it was done with such alacrity that people tend to dash things off without really thinking about them. When you had to write with pen and ink and a quill pen and blot every sentence, you really put some thought into it. Before you put- You screw up, boy, and you're in trouble. You're going to start the whole thing. Oh, you're going to start all over again.

I mean, think about- In the beginning. Oh, you're gonna start all over again. I mean, think about- In the beginning, oh no. I mean, think about the old days when they were pressing the reeds into the clay tablets. Yeah. I mean, you get to the end of the tablet, you screw up, everything.

I mean- So you're blaming it all on the internet, any way. There you go. Well, you may be right. It's a temporary, it's a temporary problem. It will soon get fixed by itself, but you'll be dead by then. Well, here's what I thought I would do. I thought that part of the problem

was that people have forgotten what a good letter is. Yes, they indeed have. And Dougie Mayer went over to the website just moments ago and printed up the Andy letter. I thought I would just read the Andy letter, which as some people may not know, is the paradigm by which all letters will be measured. Benchmark letter. The benchmark of quality. Dear Click and Clack, this is by the way, he never even gave us

his real name. He signed it Andy R from Marlboro, Vermont, 05344. That's it. Humble as well as great. I am writing to offer profound thanks to you for resolving an important philosophical question that has been heatedly debated for the last 20 years. The rumination began on a construction site one summer in the early 70s, as my friend Jamie and I were working our way through college. Notice the introduction there, I'm writing that I noticed the vocabulary, the flow, the storytelling. Yes, the working our way through college, the construction site. It paints the whole picture for you, doesn't it? The question we raised and have agonized over lo these many years is one that I

have never read about in any philosophical treatise and yet I have found it has applied to countless situations and conversations overheard in bars repair shops sporting events political debates etc etc. Pause it to question. Do two people who don't know what they're talking about know more or less than one person who doesn't know what he's talking about. Pardon the un-PC masculine pronoun, but I have found this to be most predominantly a male phenomenon. In your recent conversations regarding electric brakes on a cattle carrier, that he's referring to a call we had many moons ago, I believe you definitely answered this query and have

put our debate to rest. Amazingly enough, you proved that even in a case where one person might know nothing about a subject, it is possible for two people to know even less. Negative. One person will only go so far out on a limb in his construction of deeply hypothetical structures, and will often end with a shrug or a raising of hands to indicate the dismissibility of his particular take on a subject. With two people, the intricacies, the gives and takes, the wherefores and why-nots

can become a veritable pas de deux of breathtaking speculation interwoven in such a way that apologies or gestures of doubt are rendered unnecessary. I had always suspected this was the case, but no argument I could have built from my years of observation would have so satisfyingly closed the door on the subject as your performance on the cattle carrier call. To begin your comments by saying, quote, we'll answer your question if you tell us how electric brakes work and quote, we've never heard of electric brakes and then indulge in lengthy theoretical hypostulations are the whys and wherefores of the colors problem allowed me to observe that you were finally putting

this gnarly question to rest. I am forever indebted to you for the great service you have performed. I'm truly impressed that it took so many years of listening to your show to finally have this matter resolved sincerely Andy are now that is a letter indeed indeed it is So your idea is that you will I'm reading this letter you will encourage Motivate challenge even those people who are sitting trying to dash off gibberish on their stupid little email account to really think about something and do it in a way that makes it memorable. Andy R. period. Marlboro, Vermont. Okay. All right. Boy. All right. Boy, that's a bit...

Well, I'm sorry I had to take people to task, but it's been deteriorating for weeks and weeks and weeks, and finally today I said I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore. I'm not going to read any mail mail for the next month. Boy, when my brother doesn't get his way, he gets nasty, doesn't he? I do, yeah. Boy, jeez. Grow up! I was spoiled by Andy.

Alright here's the puzzler. The puzzle has to do with the birth of a word. Very good. You ready? Yeah. Now I don't have all the facts straight. But I'm sure you'll make them up. And I realized, this may be a hard to do. I'll help you however I can. I don't know what you're talking about. I know that. But I'll help you as much as I can. And I realized that I'm no longer afraid to be stupid.

I stand stupidity right in the face, mostly by looking in the mirror. And it doesn't bother me anymore. It doesn't scare you anymore. So when somebody says, you're nuts. You don't know where you wait. We don't know where you got this information. It's ridiculous. I don't care. No, why should you go ahead during the 19th century?

Disgruntled French peasants. Yeah. This is, this was the beginning of the disgruntlement movement of French workers in general. I mean, French workers renowned for going on strike at the drop of a croissant. Would go into the fields of the, of the landlords. These are peasants that worked the fields, grew the crops, harvested, sowed and harvested the crops.

And would trample said crops to show their discontent or disdain with the way they were being treated by these landlords. Yeah. And they would trample the crops wearing their wooden peasant shoes. Wow. Out of this behavior, a new word was born. And it of course has entered not just the French

vocabulary, but the English vocabulary as well and it is a very common word, a word that you could hear every day. I know the answer. Go ahead. Cabernet Sauvignon. How am I doing? Is that it? That's it.

So what is this word? What is the word? That was created out of this peasant uprising, so to speak. Now if you think you know the answer or want to give your non-electronic postman something to do, mail your answer to puzzletower, car talk plaza, box 3500, Harvard Square, Cambridge. All of Fisity. MA 02238, or you can email us your answer from our website, cartalk.msn.com. Just click on the Talk to Car Talk section. And if we choose your correct answer at random

from among all the correct answers that we received. Both. You'll get your own, your very own copy of our brand new CD called Men Are From GM, Women Are From Ford. It's just called, it called about couples and cars. Guaranteed to finish off, I mean, fix up any relationship. If you'd like to call us, our number is 1-800-332-9287.

Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Dave from St. Anthony, Minnesota. Dave, St. Anthony, Minnesota. Anthony. It's a suburb of Minneapolis. Minneapolis. Oh, St. Paul, St. Anthony. Right. Oh, Minnesota. It's a suburb of Minneapolis. Minneapolis. St. Paul, St. Anthony. Oh good! So what's up?

Well, I have an 88 Chevy Nova that's got about 150,000 miles on it and it runs excellent except my water pump whistles. It started about four months ago and at first I thought it was my clutch because I would come to a stop and I would push in the clutch and the whistling would start. And then I would let out the clutch and the engine would engage and, or the clutch would

engage and the sound would go away. Well then it got louder and louder and one day I let out the, I took it out of gear and let out the clutch and it kept going. So then I realized it was something different that was stopping because of the The tension on the engine when I would let out the clutch I don't like this what pulled into a gas station. It got really loud one day loud enough You know how when you hear somebody driving so you pulled into a gas station and some guy said oh, it's your water pump, right? well

He he came out with a stethoscope and he put it on a bunch of different things and he said it's your water pump and I can replace it for about three hundred and some dollars whoa so I went home and I called my mechanic and he said if it is the water pump it'll be about a hundred and sixty five so I took it into him and he listened to it he said it's definitely the water pump but he said this water pump is working great. So he took some water pump lubricant and poured it into the radiator and the noise quit within like five minutes.

But about two months later, the noise came back. The reason the noise goes away when you release the clutch is number one you introduce the transmission into the picture and all the noise that the transmission is making drowns out this other noise. The noise doesn't go away, it's merely occluded by the gnashing of, grinding of bearings and whatever in the transmission. Can you occlude a noise? Yes, I think so. You think occlude is a visual thing. Well, ocula.

I know. I was... I don't think you can occlude a noise. It sounded good, didn't it? Well we'll find out, I'm sure. No, you probably can't. Here's what I'm wondering. When I put the lubricant in the radiator

After maybe five minutes of running the engine the noise goes away. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, okay, but every About every month it starts to come back again. Yeah, you need a water pump. Okay you know, but I mean if the guy said that the water pump is Or operating fine and isn't he concluded as not leaking? Right, it doesn't leak a drop doesn't make a drop and the engine runs really cool yeah then I would say forget it if the noise isn't making you crazy well what was making you crazy a hundred and sixty five dollars worth well what I'm wondering is I start carrying a gallon of water around with me because I'm wondering everybody else that has heard it has said

well when a water pump goes out it starts making this grinding sound and it sounds really terrible and mine just whistled. Now the good thing about water pumps is that they generally take a very long time to reach a traumatic disastrous catastrophic state. So it won't just go out on the freeway someday and i'll lose all my oh yeah catastrophic state. So it won't just go out on the freeway someday and I'll lose all my... Oh yeah. It could, but it would probably start leaking a little bit first. Okay. And it might... Because you're very sensitive to noises and you're listening to this all the time, to the extent that you stopped listening to the radio because you have to focus on this, I would say that as soon

as the thing starts making a different kind of noise that would indicate that its bearings are going, you'll have it replaced. Sure. This is an 88, how many miles have on it? 150,000. 150. And it's got the original water pump in it. How much longer do you figure on keeping this car?

I'm gonna keep it until the floorboards fall out. Okay, another week. You're in Minnesota, yeah. We'll put you down for the first week of October. Well, here's my, here's my philosophy and I, and I use it in everything I do. Why, if the, let's assume the car is going to last 200,000 miles, right? Yeah. Why would you want to replace the water pump at 195?

Yeah. place the water pump at 195. Yeah. And moreover, moreover live with the anxiety created by having a noisy water pump whose future is so uncertain that you're going to have to carry around a sleeping bag, a frozen pizza, your Boy Scout flashlight, gallons of anti-freeze and all this stuff.

Get it replaced. Okay. Because you're going to have to replace it somewhere between now and the end of the life of the car. We know it's not going to last another 50 grand. Right. Right. It might, but it's a one in a thousand chance. So you might as well, why not enjoy it now?

Exactly. Why not? And get rid of this noise so you can hear all the other noises that the car is making. And maybe fend off some kind of other disaster. But maybe Dave likes to live on the edge. Driving an 88 Nova? I don't think so. I'm thinking if I just teach it the words,

it'll quit whistlin'. That's good. My philosophy, you know my position. I would get it fixed immediately. I would go with my brother on that. Really? Yeah, he seldom goes with me, so you might as well go buy it Dave, okay? See you later. I'll pray to st. Anthony. You'll find a water pump

Well it's happened again you have wasted another perfectly good hour listening to car talk Yeah, our esteemed producer is Doug the subway subway fugitive bourbon, our associate producer and Dean of the College of Autobusiness Ecology is Ken Babyface Rogers. Our assistant producer is Catherine Crystal Ray and our engineer is John Marston. Our technical, spiritual and menu advisor is Mr. John, all these, all these words here.

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We'll be back next week. Bye bye. And now with an important announcement here is Car Talk Plaza's chief mechanic Mr. Vinny Gumbaz Vinnie? Alright now listen up you know now if you want to copy this week's car talk show which is number 43 here's what you're gonna do all right? You're going to give out the phone number now Vinnie is that? No I'm gonna play craft with Janet Reno you moron. The number to call is 303-823-8000. And what would be the number if you wanted a brand new CD about couples in cars, the one called Men Are From GM and Women Are From Four?

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