The Best of Car Talk - #2527: Thar She Blows!

Episode Date: April 5, 2025

Mike is busy getting his sailboat ready for a 2000 nautical mile journey across the Pacific but he's already sprung a leak on his way to the dock! His Jeep Cherokee keeps losing radiator caps and he can't figure out where they are ending up. 'Hoist the mainsail' and get ready for the jibber jabber 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

You have your job, but you also have a life. And you're not just one thing. Neither is the Here and Now Anytime podcast. Every weekday, we break down the biggest story of the day and something else, like a new trend everyone's talking about. It's Here and Now Anytime, a daily podcast from NPR and WBUR. Hello and welcome to Car Talk from National Public Radio with us clicking clack the tappet brothers and we're broadcasting this week from the Department of Vast Right and Left Wing Conspiracies. If there ever was one. Now my brother thought that the Chrysler lawyers were vicious.

Yeah. Way to least sees the AARP SWAT team that drops down on his house after this little rant. So go ahead, dig yourself a hole. You don't mind if I disassociate myself. And our never-ending pursuit of alienating everybody that we know. Here's the issue I want to bring up. Go ahead, man. I'm ready. Is it not perfectly clear to anyone who thinks about it that at some age, whatever that number may be, some age,

people- Well, it might not be a number. People become incompetent at driving. I mean, is that not as clear as the big nose on your face? I mean, that's so clear. You're kidding me? I mean, it's completely obvious, and everyone knows, that at some age, people do not have the physical capabilities, the mental capabilities to drive anymore, and they're gonna kill people.

In fact, the fatality rate for people over 75 is almost as high as it is for 16-year-old testosterone-poisoned teenage boys. Really? Yeah. Did you make that up? No. That's from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety statistics. Really? Yeah. Did you make that up? No. That's from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Statistics. Really? The point is that when you get to be a certain

age, and I would suggest that like 75 is a reasonable age, we're not saying that you shouldn't drive. All we're saying is, doesn't it make sense that you should be, you should have to prove that you can drive? So there should be like a flight simulator. Exactly. At a DMV, you sit behind the wheel and they have a kid with a bouncing ball run out in that you can drive. So there should be like a flight simulator. Exactly. At the DMV, you sit behind the wheel and they have a kid with a bouncing ball run out in front of you. If nothing else, you should have to take the driver's test. Now my question is, why doesn't a single state in these here United States have such a rule?

Why? Because there are old people living in every state. Not only that. And they vote. Not only do they vote, but they have nothing else to do. So when voting day comes, it's whoopee, let's go vote. And they all drive to the polls. That's right. Where everyone who's 25 and 30 years old, what are they doing? They're out having a party. Vote for what? Those jerks? They don't't vote the old people vote and therefore the politicians will do nothing to get the all folks ticked off at them therefore they are not doing the right thing they are doing the political thing and i am imploring all you sleazeball politicians out there to

shape up and do the right thing introduced into your state legislature something that says we can't go on like this and if you go to our website kartark dot msn dot com you will have you'll see a little note that i wrote about this a little rant you might say

and a little letter that you might want to send to your congressman or representative these are the state guys because these are all state laws. And thanks to the power of the World Wide Web, if I said to you, write to your congressman and tell him, your state representative and tell him you wanted to do this, would you know who to write to? Well, not really. Not really. But you can click on a little link we have and it tells you Who the bum is. Who the bum is, what the bum is, what his address

is, what committees he's on, and you can send him a little note. Well, I think we ought to start with Florida first. If we can conquer Florida, then the other states ought to be a basic cake. They'll just fall into line. That's right. Anyway, Dade County, we'll go right there first. If you want to talk to us, the number is 1-888-CARTALK. That's 1-888-227-8255. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Lou. I'm in New York, New

York City. What's up, Lou? Well, I'm beginning to look like a fool with all my friends and it's driving me crazy. I've got this 1982 Mercedes. Yeah. The little guy, the 380 SL with the convertible company comes off it's a wonderful car the only problem is that uh... when you drive onto the road and you make a right turn the last thing you did with me correct and when you drive on the road everything's fine but if the last thing you did was make a left turn to get onto the highway the thing pulls to the left

so i end up when i get onto the highway and it's not working right i'll pull off at the next exit or gas station or whatever and turn the car and make a U-turn and make a crank and make sure that I zip it around to the right to get back on the highway. And anybody that's with me says, what are you doing and why? And it's beginning to affect policemen and everything else out there. And I've had this thing in the shop. They've changed everything. Really?

So do you want advice about how to cope with being a fool in front of your friends? Or you want advice on, because we're well versed in that. We can do either. No, I really want to get this fixed because summer is coming and this is a convertible and I can take the hard top off

and I can drive down the road in my convertible car except that I would like it to drive correctly. So tell us what they've replaced so I don't go ahead and they replace the tie Rod in high rods sure yeah They replace this this six bushings their big things about the size of my fist that connect the carriage that the front end is Connected yeah They replaced all those that was good that was good and who done this? Has this been your authorized Mercedes agency?

Well, no. There's no authorized Mercedes repair. Oh, you're going to like Mustafa's Mercedes. The mechanic in my local garage used to work for Mercedes and I like him and I trust him and he knows what he's doing. This is not working. And if you come onto a road by taking a left turn to get onto it then it pulls to the left forever So the only way you can undo this is by turning around to the right, right? Well, I know where the problem is although I don't know Well, I know where the problem is too, but I can't I can't explain why this happens

I can't explain why this happens. No one seems to be... You don't have to explain it. You guys know. Alright, alright, alright, alright. We can tell you what to do to fix it, but that's not enough for us. We have to... It would be enough for Lou. It might be enough for you, Lou, but until we can understand and explain, we're not going

to tell you. Uh-huh. Well, I can't say that I can remember what kind of steering gear an 82 Mercedes 380 SL has. But what's the steering? Rack and pinion, that's short. Oh, I'm not so sure of that. Really? I'm not so sure of that.

It may have a steering box. Well, it doesn't matter. It doesn't really matter because if you have rack and pinion, that's where the problem is. The problem is in the rack. And I think you do have rack and pinion, and I think you need a rack. That's where the problem is the problem is in the rack and I think you do have rack and pinion and I think you need a rack That's my opinion either that or the rack needs to be balanced a rack and opinion

It's possible that the rack is going out of balance and somehow another in other words There's too much pressure on one side versus the other that's why I to the left. And it's possible the rack can be balanced, it may be balancing valves. And that may, or you may need to replace the rack. That's assuming that it has a rack. On the other hand, you may have a steering box with something called recirculating balls. And it's possible that one of the balls is getting stuck. But in either case, replacing what's called the steering gear will solve the problem. Of course, this is like a thousand dollar repair.

Yes it is. It's quite a hunk. If it's a steering box, it might be a little bit less expensive than a rack. But count on a thousand bucks. Okay, I'm counting on it. I'm looking forward to it. Say hello. Thank you.

Bye bye. Bye bye. Bye bye. 1-888-CAR-TALK, that's 1-888-227-8255. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Andrea from Durham, North Carolina. Andrea, not Andrea. No, it's Andrea. That's the Italian pronunciation.

Well, that's very good. You're right. Yeah. And where are you from? I'm not Italian. I'm from Durham, North Carolina. Durham? Yep. So how did you adopt this European pronunciation for your name? It was my mother's idea, who's actually from Queens, and she named me after a childhood friend who is Italian.

Oh. Aha. There we go. Yeah, the Andrea Adoria. Well, anyway, my husband and I have just had a little baby. Congratulations. Thank you very much. Boy or girl? A little boy.

Would you name him? Alex. Alex. That's a great name. Well, thank you. Well, anyway, we're buying this minivan. We've decided that we want to buy a Toyota Sienna, but we're kind of having this argument about whether to buy it now or buy a few bucks because we're actually moving

dot two thousand miles away in texas in a few months and so the question is i've always heard that you never want to drive a new car over fifty five miles an hour in the first thousand miles and my husband thinks that this is the people who want to tell and i would just go ahead and get the card it won't do anything to it well your husband's wrong Well, yes, and no If you believe all the owners manuals printed anywhere in the world your husband's wrong

Really? Yeah, because every oh you when you go buy this thing you look in the owner's manual And you'll see it will tell you for the first thousand or whatever number of miles it's something between 500 and 1500 usually it'll tell you don't drive over 50 55 miles an hour and don't drive at a sustained any speed but vary it up and down. Vary it up and down? Yeah. How's that possible I wonder? Well you can't go on the highway obviously. Well you can you can bring it up to 55 and then stay in the right lane and coast back down to 40. Or put on your hat and put it in the left lane and go and bring it down to 40. And put on your left blinker. And leave the seatbelt buckle hanging outside and dragging on the pavement.

And wear a hat. How long do we have to do this? A thousand miles. A thousand miles. A thousand miles. Well see there are lots of issues involved here. One is the one you bring up, the technical issue. Let's assume that you don't want to get it and get right on the highway and drive two thousand miles as soon as you buy the thing. Let's assume that the book is right because even if the book is wrong... It can hurt if something goes wrong with the engine

Mm-hmm, and you go back to the dealer You will not be able in good conscience to say to them. I did everything the book says therefore you owe me a new engine No, you'll have to lie. You'll have to lie that will change everything if you start to lie So it's better to not have to lie. So let's assume that you will not do that. Then the issue becomes, would you rather buy the vehicle in Durham, North Carolina or in Texas? Right. And how are you going to get to Texas?

Well, we have our old cars, I guess. We can do that. We were thinking we'd love to have the minivan though if it didn't make any difference. Well, it does make a difference. Plus, when you move to Texas, you'll have to find yourself a dealer to bring the car to. Whereas if you buy it there, they'll be much nicer to you because you will have bought it there. Whereabouts in Texas are you moving to? El Paso. What are you going to be doing in El Paso? Well, we're moving there for my husband's job. Is he in the smuggling business? Just asking.

He runs guns. He's something to do with the government, isn't it? Uh, no, he's a physician. A physician? That's what he tells you. That's what he tells me. I think he's a drug runner, though. Well, can I ask one more argument between us, whether it's an old wives tale or not? Of course. What do you guys think about driving a car, you know, accelerating real fast and braking

real fast and taking the turns hard and all that? Does that shorten the life of a car? Nothing wrecks a car faster than the four things you just described. You're joking. No. No. No, absolutely right. Hmm. And what, is that how he drives or is that how you drive?

That's how he drives in my opinion. Yeah. Rapid acceleration, rapid deceleration, hard cornering, and what else? I forgot. Those three things. Those three things. No, that's the truth. I mean, that's what wrecks a car.

Okay. It wrecks not only the engine, but the transmission, it wrecks the... Front end, the suspension, everything gets worn out when you drive that way. All right. You're absolutely right on... You're right on both counts, but... And Andrea. Uh-huh?

Don't spring both of these on him at once. No, space them a little bit. This man is a doctor. He needs to have some self-respect left. He's got to treat patients who are ill. And if you destroy his self-esteem by pouncing on him with both of these at one time, the man will become a vegetable. Okay.

So let's cool it. Be gentle. I'll take a blow. I'll be gentle. Okay. Thank you very much. Thanks for calling. See you, Andrea. Bye-bye. This message comes from Wwise, the app for doing things and other currencies. Sending or spending money abroad, hidden fees may be taking a cut. Over 70% of us say that we feel spiritual, but that doesn't mean we're going to church. Nope. The girls are doing reiki.

The bros are doing psychedelics. And a whole lot of us are turning inward to manifest our best selves. On It's Been A Minute from NPR, I'm looking at why maybe you and your closest friends are buying into wellness for spirituality. That's on the It's Been A Minute podcast from NPR. This is Tonya Mosley, co-host of Fresh Air. You'll see your favorite actors, directors and comedians on late night TV shows or YouTube. But what you get with Fresh Air is a deep dive. Spend some quality time with people like Billie Eilish, Questlove, Ariana Grande,

Stephen Colbert and so many more. We ask questions you won't hear asked anywhere else. Listen to the Fresh Air podcast from NPR and WHYY. Following the news out of Washington, D.C. can be overwhelming. I'm Scott Detro and NPR has a podcast that can help. It's called Trump's Terms, stories about big changes the 47th president is pursuing on his own terms. Each episode is short, usually around five minutes or so. We keep it calm and factual. We help you follow what matters, and we leave out what doesn't. Listen to Trump's Terms from NPR.

Hi, we're back. You're listening to Carr Talk with us, click and clack the Tappet Brothers, and as promised, here's the answer to last week's puzzle which you so brilliantly described earlier. We'll try to yeah. Here it is a fellow comes into the shop the other day and he complains that his Volvo, an older one, is misbehaving it seems to be losing power, it sputters, it has difficulty climbing hills and he says it's especially bad if the tank is less than half full. Ah! We said, ah! Piece of cake, it's a classic problem of the in-tank fuel pump not working. Yeah. Of the two fuel pumps. Right, for years and years

Volvo's have had an extra pump inside the tank, a feeder pump, which pushes fuel to the main fuel pump, which is located outside the tank. And that main pump sends it the rest of the way to the engine and eventually to the injectors, etc. etc. So, when the in-tank pump fails, the car will still continue to run. Because the other one is sucking it out. The main pump is doing the lion's share of the work, and it'll suck the gasoline right through the broken in-tank pump and supply it to the injectors but when the tank is low it has difficulty doing this and the pump will moan and groan and not supply

enough pressure etc. Everyone who has taken freshman physics knows why that happens. Everyone! Everyone! Everyone! Sure! Who's taken freshman physics and passed it. So anyway he says go ahead replace the pump for 900 bucks see if I Everyone. Everyone. Sure. Who's taking freshman physics and past. And past. I left that out, didn't I? So anyway, he says, go ahead, replace the pump for 900 bucks, see if I care. So we do it, and a week or two later, he returns and says, geez, thanks, guys. The car runs great, but my mileage is down. You must have done something.

They always say that. Why do they say that? You must have done something. It's off by at least 10%. We say, how could we have done anything? We fixed it. Right. We fixed your damn car and now you're complaining that we've done something.

And I say, well, 10% is hard to measure. So we throw him out and tell him he's dreaming. Comes back a few weeks later and says, it's down even more. It's 15% now and getting worse. You did something wrong. Again, we reassure him that we did nothing wrong. Of course. A headlock works wonders. He says, I know it has something to do with that pump you put in the tank. So we go ahead and check his emissions and the timing and everything and there's nothing wrong. We throw him out

again. Good. We come to realize. I like this customer is always right. Paul is when he returns for the third time with his brother-in-law Bruno that he's right. And even though we did nothing wrong, I add nothing wrong putting in the new pump. We did by putting in the new pump, make his mileage drop. Yeah. Well, we, we, we missed something.

Yeah. We missed something. Yeah. And what We missed something. Yeah. And what we missed is that there's a piece of tubing that goes between the tank pump and the main pump. Right. And it had a little pinhole in it.

So the little pump inside the gas tank pumps fuel along this tube into the main pump. The main pump then pushes it the rest of the way to the engine. Now with the in tank pump broken, this little pinhole did not cause gasoline to leak out because there was suction created in that tube. When we replaced the feeder pump, we created positive pressure in that line between the two pumps and even though most of it was being sent to the injectors, just enough was leaking out through this little pinhole to cause his 12.75% drop in mileage. And so he was right, even though he didn't do anything wrong. Yeah.

I mean, that's an interesting, I mean, what if that were a, this brings up an issue, a legal issue. What if, what if this were a life-threatening thing? What if his car had burst? What if it burst into flame and he died? Then he wouldn't be able to sleep. What if he didn't quite die, unfortunately? Just burned beyond recognition?

Burned beyond recognition. But his memory was intact and he could call his lawyer. He still had enough energy left to call his lawyer. Right. The thing is, are you required then to look to see that there are no little pinholes, which never ever happen except once in a while? Because you would install the pump, you'd get in the car, you'd turn the key, the thing would run like a dream and you'd say, it's running like a dream, everything's fine.

Yeah, he never saw the pinhole because it was pointing up and spraying gasoline on the underside of his car and you wouldn't even see it near that hot exhaust system you wouldn't say interesting interesting yeah yeah well whose responsibility is it ours it is it is unfortunately I don't think so the judge thought so anyway who's our's our winner? The winner is James no fee and oh f I From Flushing New York and for having your correct answer chosen at random James no fee from Flushing New York From all the right answers that we got this week you James no fee We'll get one of our 10th anniversary car talk t-shirts with our current slogan

Celebrating 10 years of bad car advice. Yeah indeed now Now we'll have a brand new puzzler coming up in the third half of today's show so don't touch that dial in the meantime we'll take your calls at 1-888-CAR-TALK that's 1-888-227-8255 hello you're on car talk. Hi this is Erin I'm calling you from Southie. Erin? Yeah. Erin from what? Southie Boston? Southie Boston, yeah. Yes! See, for those of you that haven't seen Erin, weren't you in the movie Good Will Hunting? Yeah, I was the tall skinny English girl.

You were? Yeah. I just use the stage name Minnie Driver, but really. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Southie is where part of that movie was filmed, if you saw that movie. And there are some great things, there's the El Street Bar. Right.

And that now is a famous place. Right. The once famous Tasty was also in that movie. It is now gone, thanks to the Cambridge Savings Bank. And there was Erin. You were one of those people in the bar, right? Yeah, usually. Cool.

That's me. And Southie is certainly among all the places in the world, a unique place. It is, and for those that don't know, it's South Boston. Right. So what's up? Well, I drive a 1980 Chevy Impala. Yeah, that's unique right there, see?

That is a Southie car. You can't find 10 of those in the entire state, and eight of them are insulting yeah you know it's true the car used to be my grandfather's and so i hang on to it out of sentimental value great but um... it's three different colors now and you know there's all sorts of things wrong with the car as i'm sure you can tell now we're down to five or six questions

yeah it's only a one hour show i'm gonna break um... i noticed in town you know most of my driving in town, I don't turn on my high beams at all. But when I went out to visit my parents in the country, I noticed that when I turn on my high beams, my directionals don't work. Jeez. That's good. When you turn the directional on, does it come on but not flash yeah it comes on but it doesn't flash

sheesh pretty good and as soon as you go back to low beam it works well i have a lot of theories i do too i have none of them have anything to do with electricity really that's interesting. Gas? Metaphysics! No, actually, I think I know the answer. Do you? Don't worry, Aaron, I'm going to listen to him very carefully and if he starts giving you a bunch of BS, I will let you know. Okay. Okay, I can ask you to do a little test which would require that other devices on your car were in working order and there may not be enough

of them. I believe that the voltage output from your alternator is insufficient. That little device that goes clunk clunk clunk clunk, the little flasher is very voltage sensitive and if the voltage should drop too low, the thing won't go clunk clunk clunk clunk, it'll go clunk and it won't flash. So the high beams are using up just enough more energy. The high beams are using up just enough more electricity so that the alternator, which has probably got burned out diodes and has had for the last 10 or 15 years is producing just enough and then when you turn on the high beams they're dropping the voltage down

below the threshold level rendering the flasher in operative. That makes sense. Yeah, so what are the tests you wanted to do? Well I wanted her instead of turning on the high beams to turn on everything else in the car. Now do you have a rear window defogger? Doesn't work Conditioner no no air condition Probably what they wouldn't wouldn't see we're gonna run into trouble because there aren't enough things brake lights All right

The other thing you can do is you could you could actually have someone test the output of the all no no Here's what you do better than that. You go to the, what do you call that, the auto parts store and you buy yourself a new flasher which costs a couple of bucks. It may be that the one you have in there, it's just so old that it's become even more sensitive to a drop in voltage.

Oh, now you're going too far. It's only gonna cost her two bucks. So go to the parts store, buy one, and the way you'll find the other one is you sit there with the key on engine off, and you turn the directional on, you'll hear the thing clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk. It's under the dashboard.

You crawl into the dash, and you feel around for the thing. It's a little cylindrical thing, about an inch in diameter. And when you feel it going clunk, clunk, clunk, you unplug it, and as soon as you do that, the clunk clunk clunk clunk will stop. And you plug the new one in and of course the flashing will begin and then, and then you turn on your high beams. And then if it still doesn't work, then it's the alternator.

Well, no, not really. It could be. Now if it does turn out like you say if it's the alternator does that mean the alternator on its way out or you could need a voltage regulator i mean the most important thing is you know is it a sign could it be a sign that

the whole electrical system is going to go no no no don't worry about it start by buying it in inexpensive flasher at the hard at the auto parts store yeah plug it in and if that doesn't solve the problem then take it into somebody. If it isn't the alternator then it's a bad ground. Okay. I think. Maybe.

It could be. If you're lucky. See ya, Erin. Alright, thanks a lot. Bye. Bye bye. Good luck. Okay, now before we get to the new puzzler, we have to take a short break.

What? You're going to consult the Oracle at Delphi again? No, the Oracle in the men's room. I'm with you. At Planet Money, we'll take you from a race to make rum in the Caribbean... Our rum, from a quality standpoint, is the best in the world. To the labs dreaming up the most advanced microchips... It's very rare for people to go inside.

To the back rooms of New York's Diamond District. What, you're looking for the stupid guy here? They're all smart, don't worry about it. Planet Money from NPR. We go to the story and take you along with us wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's Amartines. Even as the host of a news show, it can be hard to keep up with the headlines. That is why we make

the Up First Podcast. Every morning in under 15 minutes, we cover three major stories with context and analysis from reporters around the world so you can catch up on lo que esta pasando while getting ready, making desayuno, or going to work. So listen to the Up First Podcast from NPR. Do you remember when discovering a new artist felt like finding buried treasure? At All Songs Considered, NPR's music recommendation podcast, we put that kind of magic back into discovering new tracks. We're here to make the hunt for new music easy, delivering you the cream of the crop from every genre.

We'll help you make music feel fun again, only on all songs considered from NPR. Talking about race can get messy, we know. Yeah, whether it's who you date, where you live, what you eat, or who you call your friends. On Code Switch, we try to make sense of it with you. We're talking to new voices and bringing you new stories every week. About some of the biggest. Or just the chewiest questions of our time so come rock with us listen to code switch from the NPR Network

we're back you're listening to car talk with us click and clack the Tappet brothers and we're here to discuss of course cars car repair and uh and uh duh the new puzzler yeah Yeah, I can hardly wait. Well, I got an email the other day from... You read your email now? From, not really. Someone printed out an answer to you. I got an email the other day from someone

who severely castigated me for not having good puzzles every week. Oh, really? Yeah, I mean, the essence of it was... That's unfair. You know, you've only got one puzzler a week to do. I mean, how could it be so lousy? I mean, what kind of a lazy bum could you be?

He's got a point, doesn't he? He does. In home, didn't he? It did. And if you really wanted to convey that to me, Dad, you should have just called me on the phone. Email was not necessary.

No, I mean. And that phony email name you... Nah. All right. Here it is. Where do I start? Should I start at the beginning? Yeah.

Sometime in the late 1930s, German and perhaps other countries, aeronautical engineers were working on a device. You're paying attention to all the details are embedded, all the essential information is embedded in this puzzler, a device. And the device did the following. It took water vapor, which is one of the products of gasoline engine combustion, and would condense it into water and save it.

You say, well, not such a big deal. Well, it would save it in an interesting way. It would save it in such a way that the amount of water saved would be exactly the equivalent in weight as the amount of fuel that the engine burned. So as the engine burned a pound of fuel or a amount of fuel that the engine burned. So as the engine burned a pound of fuel or a kilogram of fuel. You saved a pound of water. You would save a pound of water and discard the rest.

You got it? That way the plane always weighed the same. Why would you want to do this? What would they? I suppose one answer is why not? Why would you want to do this? That's the question. Now if you think you know the answer...

That's good! It's somewhat historic. This was inspired by a guy named... I should give him recognition because this may be be completely... Oh, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho was able to obfuscate this puzzler. Anyway, if you think you know the answer or things are slow at work and you just feel like taking a guess, mail your answer to puzzler tower, car talk plaza, box 3500 Harvard Square, Cambridge, Our Fair City,

MAC 02238, or you can email us your answer from our website cartalk.msn.com, just click on the talk to car talk section, and of course if we choose your correct answer at random from amongst all the correct answers, you'll get one of our new Car Talk t-shirts featuring the slogan, celebrating 10 years of bad car advice. Now, if you want to call us, the number is 1-888-CAR-TALK. That's 1-888-227-8255.

Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, I'm Mike from Vancouver, Washington. Hey, Mike, what's happening? I hope you guys can help me here. I'm trying to figure out a way to get you to the car. I'm trying to figure out a way to get you to the car. I'm trying to figure out a way to get you to the car. I'm trying to figure out a way to get you to the car. I'm trying to figure out a way to get you to the car. I'm trying to figure out a way to get you're on car talk hi i'm mike from vancouver washington hey mike what's happening i hope you guys can help me here i'm i'm not sure whether i've actually got a car problem or a wife problem hey go ahead okay i've got an 87 jeep charakee and we keep losing the radiator

cap you keep losing the radiator cap as well as the blow off or well it's actually not the radiator cap i'll probably get to that first. This one is the four liter engine and it doesn't really have a radiator cap. What it's got is like a reservoir back on the bolt head. And it's got a screw cap with a gasket on that. Right. Exactly. Okay and we've kind of had a small persistent leak for the last six months or so. You know, it's maybe a court in a month.

Oh. Well, anyway, I got real busy here this last few months. I got a project going on, and so I thought, I got to get the wife out there and show her how to check the coolant, check the oil. What's the project? What are you working on? A credenza or something? What are you doing?

Well, no, he's working on some government work. It's government work and he can't discuss it. It's important. What I'm doing, I've got a sailboat and we're actually planning a... I know it. Sailboat, no, it's just a boat, but we're planning on doing a race from San Francisco to Hawaii next summer. So that's kind of involved in a lot of my spare time and so I'm not keeping up on the maintenance probably like I should. Yeah, I'm with you. All going to work for that matter. Oh, that's true too.

Great! So anyway, so I thought I'd kind of put some of this maintenance stuff off on her. And so I showed her how to check the coolant and all that kind of stuff. And you know, she was really good about it. Yeah. But about a month later, all of a sudden this radiator cap came up missing. So I thought, okay, well she probably just didn't put it back on. Yeah. Went down bought another one put it on a month later the same thing happened. Excellent. I love it. So I you know I really

questioned her I said you know are you absolutely sure you put that cap back on? Absolutely. Absolutely of course. Of course. Okay so my next story was that well the only thing I could think would be blowing that off was if I had a head gasket. So I thought, okay, well, I'll take it down to my local mechanic and find out the bad news. So I take it down and he calls me up a couple hours later and says, no, you don't have a head gasket on that.

Good. I guess they were going to flush the radiator and he said the radiator came up really restricted and he kind of theorized well maybe that was causing some back pressure and maybe that was blowing the cap off and I says well wouldn't it be getting you know hot because it doesn't even run it runs at the cool end of the normal. It would be getting hot and more importantly the cap is designed the cap has a pressure release in it. That's...

It's not going to blow the cap physically off the bottle. It's going to actually unseat the cap and blow off the steam. That's what I thought. Yeah, you were right. Okay. Trust me. I think it's blowing off the cap. I think you're blowing...

Never mind. blowing off the cap. I think you're blowing... nevermind. I think that she is merely not putting the cap on tightly enough. And you think it's just vibrating itself loose? It's just unscrewing itself. That cap's gonna be put on pretty tightly. Okay. But when you when you had it at the at the repair shop they should have found more importantly the source of the leak. Where's the, they should have found, more importantly, the source of the leak. Where's the coolant going? Well, at that point, I was worried about head gaskets, so I don't think I even mentioned

the leak at that point. Yeah, I think you probably have a bad water pump. Well that changed out about a year and a half ago. Oh, I don't think it's a water pump at all. Okay. I mean, you could have a loose hose clamp. There could be a number of places from which the cooling system could leak. But they should find it. And once you find that then you can put the coolant in,

plant that cap and not worry about it like the rest of the world does. And not have to impose on your wife the responsibility of the care and feeding of your cooling system. Okay, but I think she's not putting it on tightly enough. Okay. Ask her to show you how tight she's putting it on and then you grab it afterwards and I bet you can turn the thing another quarter of a turn. Okay, but you can't think of any other thing that would be causing pressure to blow that thing. Well, my answer was going to be so brilliant. It involved Boyle's Law,

Charles' Law. And Charles Boyer's Law. Charles Boyer's Law. And this thing vibrating off is so boring I mean I know but often the truth is boring well I know what I'm willing to accept it see you Mike thank you bye bye bye bye well it's happened again you vaporized yet another hour listening to car talk our steam producer has dug the subway fugitive not a slave to fashionbon, our social producer and Dean of the College of Autonomous Ecology is Ken Babyface Rogers, our assistant producer is Catherine Crystal Ray, and our engineer is Jonathan Marston, and of course our ever-soulless present technical, spiritual and menu advisor

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