The Best of Car Talk - #2514: Tanks a Lot!

Episode Date: February 18, 2025

Cheryl thinks her brother is nuts. Click and Clack can relate, but will they agree with Cheryl that replacing his broken fuel tank with a couple of jugs in the trunk is proof? Find out on this episode of the Best of Car Talk.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

On the ThruLine podcast, the myth linking autism and vaccines was decades in the making and was a major moment for vaccine hesitancy in America, tapping into fears involving the pharmaceutical industry and the federal government. No matter how many studies you do showing that this is not a problem, it's very hard to unring the bell. Listen to ThruLine from NPR, wherever you get your podcasts. Hello and welcome to Car Talk from National Public Radio with us, Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers. And we're broadcasting this week, ready for this, from the Center for

the Revision of Cruel Stereotypes here at Car Talk Plaza. Now, for years, car mechanics have been branded, unfairly for many of us, as either incompetent or worse. And as you and I know, it's not a case of mechanics being either crooks or incompetent. That's right, it's actually a delicate balance of the two. Now the folks at Reader's Digest, I guess, decided to put the stereotype to the test. So they recently undertook a cross-country sting operation. Sure, I love these. They send a guy out with a... They had an expert driving a 95 Taurus with a minor, easily detectable problem.

They disconnected the mass airflow sensor, and that turns the check engine light on. Right. So they took this otherwise perfect car, you ready for this, into 136 repair shops across this great country of ours and they asked for a diagnosis and of course the accompanying repairs. How many new tires did they buy? Check engine light, huh? Just three. Those tires will do that. Of the 136 stops made, only two mechanics, two, attempted to fix the car by performing,

or trying to perform, unnecessary work. Only two. Were out and out crooks. 48 mechanics were able to successfully repair the car, that's 35% or roughly, okay? Wow. Most of them by proper diagnosis. Pretty good.

The other ones, they hammer. 35%. But the other 65, that's 88 out of 136 I believe, either said they didn't have time or just gave up. Yeah, they bumbled around for a while and they said, I can't do it. So the good news is this, there was almost no fraud. The bad news, they still only had about a one in three chance of getting the car fixed. Now here's the most interesting part. These results I think were published in the October issue of Reader's Digest.

Yes, I read every every page of it. Ten years ago they did the same thing. This time with an Oldsmobile, or that time with an Oldsmobile, that had a disconnected spark plug wire. I remember reading this. I remember we discussed it on the show. I remember that? No, I don't remember that. I don't remember anything. But in the 87th version, the incidence of outright fraud was 56%. Yeah, well, you know why? No.

I think because I was just discussing this with Ken that in order to cheat somebody you're gonna know what you're doing. You have to have some basic idea of what you're doing and people don't have that idea anymore. Oh so you think it's not a basic you don't think if they had if they knew more they would have managed to cheat people. Oh in other words they would have fixed the spark. They were too incompetent to be crooks. If they could have hooked up the mass airflow sensor, then they would have sold them the tires.

Exactly. But being unable to do that. Unable to do that, they threw up their hands and said, we can't do it. Right, because you would immediately know upon getting in the car that it hadn't been fixed. Yeah, evidently. And taking the bulb out was too hard.

I actually read the thing, and in one case, one of the guys tried to short the bulb so he could get it to go off and then because he had tried to sell them a Fuel filter well yeah, not bad. So I mean I guess what it means is what does it mean? It means that you have to have some brains to be a crook yeah Yeah, so our education system is failing. We're not teaching kids enough to become crooks. No. That's what it boils down to.

And incompetence is the wave of the future. At least in college. Well, I guess that's pretty good, huh? That's good for us. Now, if you want to discuss our incompetence, that number is 1-800-332-9287. Hello, you're on Car Talk. This is Michael in Dallas.

Hi, Mike. Hey. Michael. Yeah. What's up? I have a little problem. I have a 92 Infinity Q45. How do you guys feel about Infinity? We feel very strongly about it. Q45 is one of the most magnificent vehicles ever made. The Q-ship.

The Q-e2 and the Q ship the Q ship Q 2 and the Q 4 5 yeah okay but whenever it gets cold like this I've had it for a couple years now so whenever it gets cold it's like all the power fluid the power steering fluid goes out of the goes out of wherever they keep the power steering fluid it makes this wow wow why noise yeah okay and so every year I top it off and it stays full all through the winter and through the next summer until it hits winter again at that point it all drains out again I hear this where I went well it stays in there all winter stays in there all winter no leaks no spots no nothing

this has happened since 95 so every around when December around no no actually it starts getting kinda chilly here end of October, first of November. Yeah, you have temperatures in the low 40s. Well we're in Texas. Yeah, right. And so... And you go out one morning and it has disappeared. It has disappeared. And then you fill it up and for the remainder of the winter it is satisfactory. It has disappeared. And then you fill it up and for the remainder of the winter, it is satisfactory. It's satisfactory. Until the next autumn when

it has mysteriously disappeared. Exactly. Well I'm gonna propose that it isn't the winter that makes it leak out, rather it's the summer. Okay. I like that all the more. I like it almost myself. Because it doesn't make any sense that it gets cold and you lose all the power steering fluid because the next day it's still cold and a week later it's even colder and a month later it's even colder than that and yet you don't lose anything no I suspect that you're losing it during the warmer weather that in fact you begin to lose it in July a few drops here in a few drops there and a few drops there. And coincidentally,

because the warm weather is responsible for the fluid loss, when it finally does get cold, it just happens to be coincident with your running out of fluid. Because all summer long, you've been losing a little at a time. I love it. I love it. Yes, love it. It's very often that we get cause and effect reversed. Yeah. We so often do. Wouldn't it happen though at the beginning of the summer when it's, well, I guess August. We don't know.

We don't know what's making the leak. I mean, I suspect you have a bad seal someplace, either in the rack and pinion. Er, er, er. Or at the zoo. When those seals go bad, I'll tell you, there's nothing like it. Nothing like a bad seal.

Bad seal. Which reminds me of a joke, but I never mind. As we know, things expand and contract with temperature, right? Right. See, now you're about to go into an area about which you know

nothing. I was about to tell Michael, that's it, it's leaking and you were going to give him the bum's rush. We got a lot of people waiting to talk to us. I mean people stacked up on a holding pattern. I was going to talk about expansion and contraction and temperatures and rubber. And rubber. Rubber. So I need to move him past the rubber. I need to take him past the rubber I need to I need to take it to the shop and have them fix and have them look for seals or have them look for worn-out seals or leaks and hoses yeah but in the summer in the

summer okay well thanks I appreciate it well you can have it checked out now but I shouldn't take too much I mean if they if they put that thing up on the rack there are only so many places from which it can leak if they clean everything off and look at it and hold the steering wheel to the lock position and they're forcing the fluid from the pump into the rack and pinion at maximum pressure, I bet you they're gonna find a little spot here or there. Okay. And they'll know what to fix. Yeah. Hey, I wanted to tell you guys that I'm a marriage and family therapist here in Dallas and I really want to

professionally endorse men from GM and women from Ford. Yeah. Really? Well, thank you. Safe for a lot of relationships. Well, I wish that we had known this earlier professionally endorsed from GM and women are from yeah, really. Yeah. Thank you safe the law relationship Well, I wish I wish that we had known this earlier because we could have like written an introduction. Oh well Maybe after we get out of jail Thanks, Michael. Good luck with you 45 Marriage counseling pretty good Not a 63 dodge that Where did you go wrong? 1-800-332-9287. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Heidi in Hinsdale. Heidi? Yep. In where? Hinsdale

Mass in the Berkshires. Hinsdale? Yep. Can't say I've ever heard of it. It's, I've never heard of Pitsfield. Pitsfield? Yeah, boy, Pitsfield Steelers! No, no, no. That's Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh. That's another couple of miles west. Yeah, Western Mass. Yeah, we've heard of Pitsfield and what else is out there? Hinsdale is out there, is it? Hinsdale, North Adams, West Adams, Sam Adams. Sam Adams, lots of Sam Adams. So anyway, now that we've covered the geography of Western Mass entirely, why did you call? Well, I've got a 92 Mercury Topaz. I got it from my mother in 94. It had 17,000 miles on it. And now has 95,000.

Wow, you've been escaping hinsdale on the other hand we can say uh... well that's a lot of driving yeah i'd go to pitfield everyday which is about fifteen miles and now my boyfriend working great barrington which is in south county so he picked it to uh... twenty five miles each way for about fifty miles a day get uh... but for the past year

maybe even longer year and a half I've had a bad fan motor which I've neglected to get fixed because it's easy to overlook. This is the blower motor that supplies the heat for the car, is that the one you're talking about? Well no, it turns down the, it clicks on the fan to cool down the engine. Oh, oh that, the cooling fan motor? Yes. Okay, sure. But you've Oh, all that, the cooling fan motor? Yes. OK. Sure. But you've already correctly diagnosed it

as the cooling fan motor. Right. But I haven't gotten it fixed. And it's been almost, I don't know, a year and a half, maybe even longer. What are you waiting for? Waiting for a sale. I don't know.

That's a good question. The Mercury deal is shit. Well, see, because it's fine as long as I drive, as long as I don't get stuck in traffic. That's right. So I'm just curious, when I do go to get this fixed, what other problems do I have to look forward to? Because it's only actually overheated once, I think, which where actual green fluid bubbling

all over the place. Yeah. Well it's doubtful you did any damage to it. Okay. Because cars are designed to overheat a few times without doing any serious damage, and you didn't overheat it severely Yeah The danger is that when the car when an engine overheats like that you are running the risk of blowing a head gasket

Blow again worse and that runs into money or worse The real risk is you'll you forget about this and you lend the car to somebody Uh-huh. Mmm, yeah your boyfriend Yeah And they pull over and they shoot the breeze with somebody for 45 minutes with the engine running And the radio on and the thing has a meltdown, right? So as long as you avoid those situations, you're okay Okay So it's not like I haven't put like any tremendous strain on the engine because it's gotten too hot way too many times

No In fact if you had just been driving the car constantly on the highway and never stopped in city traffic The fan would never have had occasion to come on Okay, so if you so I guess by definition you wouldn't have needed one. You wouldn't have known it was broken So you don't think there's any no excess damage if you're lucky I feel lucky you probably haven't done any damage and if you haven't noticed anything like loss of coolant in great amounts Then you probably have not done any damage, but I mean... And now that winter's here, you're unlikely to do damage

for the remainder of the dark season. Yeah. But as soon as the daylight reemerges, I would fix it. Okay. Yeah, that would be the signal for you. When we go back onto daylight saving time. Okay. That first Monday in April.

Okay. Whatever that is. See you ya Heidi. Thank you. Bye. Bye bye. We'll be right back with the answer to the puzzler after these messages. Support for NPR and the following message come from the estate of Joan B. Kroc, whose bequest serves as an enduring investment in the future of public radio and seeks to help NPR be the model for high-quality journalism in the 21st century. It's time to find out that my brother remembers last week's puzzle. I don't remember it. You don't? No. You don't, huh?

I know it had to do with electricity and rain. There you go. And my hair was involved. Here it is. We had a car in the shop the other day that was making a very common noise that a spark plug wire or a bad coil or some electrical discharge makes. It's a snapping sound. Anyone who's heard this that has a car that's running on five cylinders instead of six, my brother's dart sounds like this all the time. You sit there and listen to it.

Snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap. So every minute or two you'd hear this noise, and the noise was loud enough that the driver sitting in the car with the radio off could hear the noise, although it was not accompanied by an engine miss. Nevertheless, he was bothered by it. And we were convinced that it had something to do with the misfire, that somehow a spark was jumping to ground,

and in fact, I'll give you this hint, it was. There was a spark jumping to ground, but we couldn't find it we checked everything the cap the road or the wires everything spark plugs then I had a brainstorm realizing that we're now on standard time that's why I was apropos to mention that other thing and it starts to get darker like two o'clock in the afternoon and it happened to be getting damp and rainy I told one of my guys stick the car outside in a few minutes it'll be dark and wet and that's going to exacerbate the problem because if you have a bad spark plug wire or a cracked coil tower or aurora borealis under there

you're gonna see a light show yeah okay you got it I got it so we put the car outside gets dark gets dark it's not it up. Lousy. Lose the hood. That's it. Rev up the engine. My guy goes out and starts it up and he says, guess what? The noise is gone. How could this be? I ask. He says, I think I know the answer. I say, you do? Give me a hint. And the hint he gives me is, your brother's hair. Give me a hint and the hint he gives me is your brother's hair Well, I tell you I've been struggling with this all weekend I have no idea what the answer is you don't even with that hint even with that hint Well, there was as I mentioned as I failed to mention actually all the hints are embedded right here Oh, okay, and there was a discharge an electric discharge, but it wasn't coming from the ignition system And the reason it got cured when the car instead of exacerbated when the car was put outside

is that it was a static electricity. I got that too yeah I got that. That's hence to hint your brother's hair. Yeah I got that. Because when the weather's dry and balmy Tommy's hair is wild and wooly and yeah it was coming from his polyester suit. No, no. The fan belt. Most modern cars have a serpentine or flat type of grooved belt and oftentimes when the belt gets worn as it's spinning around the pulleys, it makes static

charge and zip, zip. And it's especially common on newer cars that have, for example, plastic power steering pumps where there's no place for that charge to go. And it builds up, it builds up, it builds up, and then it jumps from the crankshaft pulley to ground, to the engine block, and you hear that zap. And that's why it doesn't affect the engine performance.

It's just annoying. Yeah. Pretty cute, and a new belt fixed the problem. But why did it go away outside? Because with the engine performance, it's just annoying. Yeah. Pretty cute, and a new belt fixed the problem. But why did it go away outside? Because with the high humidity, you reduce the chances of static buildup. That's why you don't get a shock when you drag your feet across the carpet in the summer,

but you do in the winter. And that's why my hair looks the way it, well. Ha ha ha! I don't know. Whoa, that's good! And you're gonna ask me now, do we have a winner? And I'm gonna look on this page here. Yes, we have a winner.

And the winner is Jenny Luttrell from Birmingham, Alabama. Congratulations and condolences, Jenny, since your correct answer was chosen at random among all the correct answers we received this week. I'm reading this because I get it wrong every time. Making you our winner, we're gonna send you our our newest CD a whole collection of calls about couples and cars It's called men are from GM women are from Ford and I understand that the CD entered the top ten this week the National Association of Divorced Lawyers top ten sure signs of intentional infliction of emotional distress

Well, we will have a brand new puzzler coming up. Or maybe just an old one in some new shrink wrap. No, no, this will be a new one. A new puzzler. It's coming up in the second half of today's show, so don't touch that dial, whatever you do. If you'd like to call us, our number is 1-800-332-9287. Hello, you're on Car Talk.

Hey guys, this is Drew from Harrisonburg, Virginia. Hi Drew, D-R-U-R-E-W. E-W. E-W, like Andrew. You got it. Yeah, where were you from, Drew? Harrisonburg, Virginia. Got it.

Harrisonburg, Virginia? Yeah, it's in the western part of the state in the Shenandoah Valley, right along Interstate 81. Gotcha. Yes, I think I've been there. Cool. So what's up, Drew? Well, I've got an interesting situation with my car.

It's a 93 Saturn SL1. I bought it used about two months ago with 70,000 on it. And the young lady I bought it from had kept meticulous records, had done pretty much all the scheduled maintenance, except she didn't replace the replace the time belt sixty thousand and it for the most part about ninety five percent of time it runs like a top

unfortunately the other five percent of the time it runs funny and the problem i've been having is when i was started up usually in the morning or uh... sometimes this hop happens if i stopped at a stop sign or a light when i have a question for us tonight and i'm not moving the engine will shimmy and it's it goes uh... one-point-point-point-point-point-point-point-point

good shimmy with the clutch depressed with the clutch depressed and the vehicle in neutral or a vehicle with the vehicle in gear and the clutch in. Now if I take the clutch out and take the vehicle out of gear, it stops. Cool! Oh, good! So the question is, do I have a problem or am I a moron? Do we have to make a choice? No, seriously, is there a problem I need to worry about here or do I just need to take the clutch, you know, take it out of gear and...

Well, there's no good reason why the engine should run any differently with the clutch depressed or undepressed. I mean, it should run exactly the same. The engine shouldn't care. This is what I'm thinking. But it runs funny, but it shifts alright. It shifts beautifully. And you've noticed no problem with the clutch. No, no problems with the clutch. When you first got the car that exhibit this behavior? It didn't do that but when I would park on a hill and be

parallel parking on the hill, I found that when I had to gun the motor to go forward and then put in the clutch to back back down into the space, the engine would do the same thing when the clutch was depressed and it would be worse when it was on the hill. Well the only thing that i can come up with yeah is in and with you this is not mechanical it's not well it's uh... not on the can't stop and i thought we can i was electrical i'm convinced of that it's electrical and i hope and while i hate

to disagree with the agree whether it's my brother because his answers are for the most part what focus and i think to use the other B word. Brilliant. No, there's one other B word that comes immediately to mind which has been used many times. Is there an animal portion to this word? Yes. Yes, part of the bovine family.

The bovine family. Oh yes. But I think what's happening when you step on the clutch is you are moving stuff under the hood and you are somehow interrupting a ground circuit. I think you have a bad ground and the way to verify this is to run another ground from the engine block. You can do it with even a jumper wire, a jumper cable, the kind you'd use to jump start your car.

Run a jumper wire from the engine block to the frame of the car someplace and then from there to the battery. Mm-hmm. So you make the ground connection solid and then get in the car and step on the clutch and I bet you the problem is going to go away. And then you have to either figure out where the broken ground wire is but short of that you can just run your own new ground wire. The electrons don't care where they go as long as they go through a ground wire of sorts just leave the jumper cable there this was a lot of them are wrapping around something and just leave it on the other and just attached to the the the fan well i hate to agree with my brother

but i think this is it especially since he agreed with me i have to i mean i have to return the faith exactly because there is no mechanical reason why when you step on the clutch it should have any effect on how the engine runs. Okay, well that's good to know. There you go. Um, as far as the timing belt, do you guys think I should replace it? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. That's what I was thinking. Well when they fixed this ground wire, I haven't thrown a timing belt in it. Yeah. Oh, there you go. Probably the other way around actually. There See you drew. Thanks a lot. Good luck call. Bye. Bye Bye, bye one eight hundred three three two nine two eight seven. Hello. You're on car talk. Hi This is Christina from Chicago Chris Chris. He's a CH with a K actually from Chicago with a K

In a actually from chicago with a k i a i a s all he in a h uh... actually born and bred jersey girl that's all jersey that's what's not really yeah and what what nationality i your parents and they like nordic people with the k and they like norwegians my dad is half german

german that would explain it. That's good. Okay. I have a 89 Dodge Colt. It's got about 65,000 miles on it. I took it in for its annual Get Ready for Chicago winner in tune-up and I had them check the brakes because I'm majorly paranoid about it having lived in San Francisco for four years Yeah, and they told they called me and told me that both of my axles Need to be replaced and this just this kind of freaked me out because I'd never heard of anyone having to replace both the axles On their car. Well, are you are you sure they were actually talking about the axles? Yeah, that's what they said I'm sure they were actually talking about the axles? Yeah, that's what they said. I'm sure they were they said that basically

If I didn't get the replaced and we got a really bad snowstorm I could end up with a broken axle to which you should have said. Yeah, so Yeah, so had you been having noises when you drove the car Yeah It's kind of like, you know a mattress when it bounces, when the car goes on uneven ground. In the past, my noises have always been my brakes, which is why I have them. Oh, I see. How were your brakes, by the way? My brakes were fine.

Nah, see, they had a need to sell you something. The brakes were fine, so they couldn't let you just walk out the door. After all, they did go through all the bother of actually putting it on the lift I know right of course have to sell you something Well, it may be that you need the axles But I certainly would get a second opinion the kinds of noises you would get from axles that are about to break Would be on turns you would get a clicker clicker clicker clicker kind of noise Or when accelerating hard you get a kind of it would go away when you let off on the gas pedal Yeah No, mine are more just kind of like the car groans when I have to do

axles don't do that okay no you probably need ball joints and struts but suffice it to say that what they probably saw was that the boots on the axles were torn open the rubber boots and that within a short period of time you will need new axles but you may be able to just replace the boots, which is cheaper. So you should ask them about that, and if they think the axles are alright and they're not filled up with dirt and all the joints aren't worn out, then you can do that. They probably wanted many hundreds of dollars for this, huh? Yeah, they did.

I would get a second opinion. I wouldn't go back there. I don't like these guys. Tell them you're trying to get your mother out of reform school, and you haven't got the dough right now, and when you succeed in that, you'll be back, and go take it some place else.

Right. Well, I told them I was trying to finish up law school. That's even better, so you can sue their butts. You're saving up for the operation to have the shot glass removed from your mother's throat. See ya, Christina. Okay, thanks a lot, guys. See you later.

Bye. We'll be right back with more calls and the new puzzler after these messages. 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, car repair, and the ultimate diet. I'm gonna read, this comes from Ken Harris in Temple City, California, and I'm just gonna read to you the first couple of sentences and you're gonna say, why didn't I think of that? I'm ready. Are you ready? The beer and ice cream diet. Why didn't I think of that?

No, wait a minute. As we all know, it takes one calorie to heat one gram of water one degree centigrade. Mm-hmm. Right? Yeah, I remember that from... Translated into meaningful terms, this means that if you eat a very cold dessert, the natural processes which raise the consumed dessert to body temperature during the digestive cycle literally sucks the calories out of the only available source your body fat. Don't you wish you thought of this? For example a dessert

served and eaten at near zero degrees degrees Fahrenheit, will in a short time be raised to the normal body temperature of 37 degrees C, which is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Also it will achieve equilibrium. Of course it doesn't go through your body and stay cold. No, of course not. We know that. For each gram of dessert eaten, that process takes approximately 37 calories as stated above. The average dessert portion is 6 ounces or 168 grams.

Therefore, by operation of thermodynamic law, 6,216 calories, one calorie per gram per degree, times 37 degrees times 168 grams. That's 6,216 calories are extracted from the body fat as the dessert's temperature is normalized. I love it. I love it. I can see a late night TV commercial here. The fat freezer. This process works equally well when drinking very cold beer in frosted glasses. Each ounce of beer contains a da-da-da-da da da, 12,240 calories. I believe it. Does it make perfect sense?

This is one of those. It does. It's perfect. Except for one little problem. He's off by a factor of a thousand. Why? Well, because that calorie, raising one gram of water, one degree is not the same calories that

you burn. Your calories are kilocalories. He's not burning 6,200 calories. He's burning 6.2. Well, he may be right. I think he's using up 6.2 calories, but. Hey. To the late night audience. I mean, if you get them at three o'clock in the morning. If it works, so what?

You get someone who's left the TV on all night and is getting up to go to the bathroom, he might just fall for it. Okay, now look, let's get on with the puzzler. Go ahead. This was submitted by Christine Hahn, who has no real address. She lives in cyberspace.

You don't have a house do you? Not really. She just does have an address, but it's just purely electronic. It's a virtual address. And it starts off thusly. I lived for a year doing medical research in Tanzania, East Africa. At my disposal was a blue, you pay attention because all of the unimportant things are embedded here as are the few important ones. At my disposal was a blue Mitsubishi Pajero called Montero here of unknown vintage and a 1981 white Toyota Land Cruiser. I lived several miles out of town on a long bumpy dirt road which became a long muddy dirt road during the rainy season.

It was always a challenge to drive. One evening as I was cruising in the Mitsubishi, I noticed that whenever I let up on the gas pedal, the headlights dimmed. I was forced to keep my foot on the accelerator the entire way into town where my trusty mechanic diagnosed an electrical problem. A wire had apparently shaken loose, probably from the alternator, because of the rough road. The wire was refastened and the problem was solved. Not more than two weeks later I was navigating the road in the other vehicle, the Land Cruiser, when I noticed much to my dismay that the headlights were dimming. It was getting dark and in fear of being stranded out in the middle of nowhere I accelerated again wondering whether I had another loose wire. I mean what are the chances, right? What are the chances of

that? The headlights didn't really seem to respond, but in my anxiety I wasn't sure. I was making steady progress toward town when just as I hit the paved road, I also hit a stationary object and blew out one of my tires. Wow, this is exciting. With a heavy heart, I came to a stop, turned the car off and began to change the flat tire. During the course of the tire change, I discovered what was wrong with the car and managed to fix it without opening the hood. In fact, I fixed it with the sleeve of my jacket. Wow. Yeah. Now it may be, like I said, all of the information is embedded. Yeah.

Embedded. Yeah. In this little narrative. So if you think you know the answer, what was wrong with Christine's Land Cruiser that she was able to fix without opening the hood, without any tools, but with the sleeve of her jacket? Now, if you think you know the answer, or you just love using your office's postage machine for personal use, mail your answer to Puzzler Tower, Car Talk Plaza, Box 3500, Harvard Square, Cambridge, Oficity, Math 02238.

Of course you can email us your answer from our website, car dot msn.com just click on the talk to car talk Section and then we we put all the it must be confusing to people they think well if I email it I'm gonna get my answer in right now, and I know I'm more likely to win No, we take all the correct answers. We put them in a big pile You know and then we pull out the one the winners, okay? Yeah, and then and if you win you can win our copy of Men Are From GM, Women Are From Ford, guaranteed to cement any relationship that needs cementing. If you'd like to call us, the number is 1-800-332-9287.

Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi. Hi, who's this? It's Cheryl from Philadelphia. Oh, Cheryl leaves all... my wife knows someone named Cheryl Yeah, except here with an S with a with a C. That's the best way. Yeah, it is a CH er Yl that's right. That's you too. That's the traditional. That's that is the traditional way. Yeah, okay Where are you from? I'm from Philadelphia. Actually I'm from New Jersey but I live in Philadelphia. Yeah they're all the same. And I have a, I

was calling, I have a bet with my brother. He's got a 71 Ford Maverick. Yeah. And the fuel tank rotted out and he couldn't find a replacement for it so he's one of, he did a lot of, you know, he does his own stuff. And he took the fuel line and attached it to two boat tanks which he has in the trunk So he goes to the gas station, it's New Jersey so you have someone else that has to fill them up and Well you don't have self-serving New Jersey? No, no it's against the law so anyway I like I bet I think it's really dangerous and he said that it's not dangerous because the The tank is in the back anyway Now they have filled these tanks thinking

that he's just taking this gasoline to his boat. To his boat. They realize that they're permanently in... He's driving the boat. This is quite a boat, huh? They just think he's an avid fisherman. Yeah. Oh, I see a throw a few fishing rods in the back,

maybe a stinky decaying tuna, and you're all set. Gee. Well, I think it's dangerous, of all in this is that the things welded in place somehow there's always the rest of the accident they're gonna go flying around it's got to be illegal but it went and jersey

which is a bit well you can't even pump your own gas new jersey so maybe it's not illegal as you have dual registry in this time what does that mean was Was he registered in like Liberia too? I don't know how dangerous it is. I mean it might really not be dangerous. For example my brother says if the things are going to float around if you have an accident, if they were really firmly embedded in the in the trunk so that they couldn't tip over, they couldn't move like if he had it propped up with two by fours. Oh you fill the trunk so that they couldn't tip over they couldn't move like if we had it propped up with two by fours Oh you fill the trunk with those peanuts

A whole bunch of stuff from LL Bean Yeah And you just fill up the trunk with it and whatever the packing material is the truth is that you could make it much safer than the real gas tank Because I mean a real gas tank first of all The real gas tank is about two mils thick. The jerry can is a half an inch thick. I mean, it's gotta be a lot stronger. And you might be able to place the jerry can's father from the rear bumper than the gas tank

originally was. Sure, I mean, it might actually be safer. So it's like they should be doing this in all models of cars. They should be. Yeah, I mean, I would not want to be the judge about this, about whether or not it's safe. Well, I don't want to be the judge. Here's the danger nor does my lawyer want me to be the judge Here's the danger because the things are in a sealed trunk and gasoline Expands in hot weather and he doesn't have the thing vented correctly and it's venting probably into the passenger compartment

That's what the danger is or even if it's just venting into the trunk itself Yeah, which it obviously is and yeah, here's the scenario you have a flat tire. You can't find the jack So you'll let a man match to look yeah, I think it's dangerous for that reason I like that and not necessarily for what might happen in an accident the fumes the fumes I go for fumes and the possibility of spontaneous combustion, so I win So what are you gonna? What did you what did you bet? What are you gonna win? Well, I should have put money on it, but I didn't oh you didn't I don't know anything I just have this adult slam winning who gets the dope slap

It's one of those just bragging rights bet. Yeah, right well. I'm with you sure Well, I would suggest I would suggest to your brother that even if he cannot find a gas tank There are ways to fix the existing gas tank such as well one of the things is you can have it Assuming there's something left of it, you can have it coated with fiberglass from the inside. Yeah, they'll laminate it. And the outside. Yeah, take it out of the lamination store.

You can always find a gas tank. I mean, he just hasn't looked hard enough because he's lazy. Well, he did find two. He found two. He can find a gas tank. And even if the one he finds is not in great shape you can have it fiberglassed and he will have aghast tank that's what i think a better deal

well let's ask the real important question if anything tragic would happen to your brother you get his room uh... you know she did his car that's right says errol thanks errol okay thanks by by by well it's happened again No, she's getting his cock. Alright. I don't want the cock. See you, Cheryl. Thanks, Cheryl.

Okay, thanks. Bye. Bye-bye. Well, it's happened again. What has happened again? You've spent another entire hour. Impossible! 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 and our engineer is Jonathan Marston. Our technical, spiritual and menu advisor is Mr. John B. S. S. C. D. B. M. T. T. T. C. B. Lawler. And those of you who are familiar with him will be able to figure out what all those things mean.

Our public opinion pollster is Paul Murky of Berkey Research, assisted by statistician Margin O'Vara. Our public opinion pollster is Paul Murky of Burky Research, assisted by statistician Margin O'Vara. Our director of new product repair is Warren T. Myfoot. Our staff butler from the Car Talk Mumbai division is Mahatma Coat. Our evasive driving instructor is Yura Bruppley. Our Boston traffic director is Laura Biden. Our director of moral support is Yu Deman.

And our director of humor standards is Paul Maffinger. Paul Maffinger. Paul Maffinger. Our Leo Tolstoy biographer is Warren Pease, author of Leo Tolstoy by Warren Pease. Our chief counsel from the law firm of Dewey Cheatham and Howe is You Lewis Dewey, known around Harvard Square as Youy Louie Dewey. Thanks so much for listening. We're Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers. Don't drive like my brother or my sister or my mother or my brother or anyone else in our family. We'll be back next week. Bye bye. And now, with an important announcement, here is Car Talk Plaza's chief mechanic,

Mr. Vincent Q. Gumbatz. Vinny? All right, listen up. If you want a copy of this week's Car Talk show, which is 46, here's what you're gonna do. You're going to give the phone number now, Vincent? No, I'm gonna sing Ave Maria, you moron! The number to call is 303-823-8000. And what if someone wanted our brand new CD about couples in cars? You know, the one called Men Are From GM, Women Are From Ford.

Are any of the other new holiday gift ideas that are available at Card Talk's Shameless Commerce Division, would they use the same number? Oh I'm dealing with a genius here, what do you think? Oh I thought so, I'm sorry, continue please. Thank you. For the newest Card Talk CD, Men Are From GM Naturally, Women Are From Ford and other Card Talk holiday gift ideas you call 303-823-8000 or you visit our shameless commerce division at cardtalk.msn.com

And any one to add to that Mr. Radio Man? Well, now that you mention it. No, that's good. Sorry. Card Talk is a production of Dewey, Cheetah, and Howe and WBUR in Boston. And even though Ray Suarez can hardly choke down his three cheeseburger lunch when he hears us say it, this is NPR National Public Radio.