The Best of Car Talk - #2545: The Cruller Curse

Episode Date: June 7, 2025

To combat the curse of regular, expensive, brake failures Tamitha has made an offering to the brake gods of a donut that sits on her dash. Months later the donut is getting pretty nasty up there next to the windshield and the brakes keep on failing. Can Click and Clack reverse the curse -or at least offer Tamitha a fresh cruller? 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

This is Ira Glass with This American Life. Each week on our show, we choose a theme, tell different stories on that theme. I'm just going to stop right there. You're listening to an NPR podcast, chances are you know our show. So instead, I'm going to tell you, we've just been on a run of really good shows lately.

Some big epic emotional stories, some weird funny stuff too. Download us, this American life. 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 newsroom Here at car talk Plaza Dateline Washington DC we broadcasted from the newsroom last week, too There's a lot of new ready for this headline Microsoft ordered to divest itself of car talk Wow in a surprise announcement today the Justice Department ordered Redmond Software giant Microsoft to divest itself of all relations with National Public Radio's car talk program.

Car Talk's website had been part of the Microsoft network. Wow. Quote, we're opposed to any one company having a monopoly on anything, said Attorney General Janet Torino at a Washington news conference, even if it's just incredibly bad car advice. Oh Janet justice officials were apparently concerned that Microsoft was in a position to corner the market on lousy car advice and felt the need to break off MS's market leading brand of bad car advice. Wow! Naturally we're disappointed said a top Microsoft official.

We felt that with those guys being so far out front, we were sure to corner the market for bad car advice. The official who asked not to be named said he doubted Microsoft would be able to lure any other sufficiently moronic car advisor to its stable. The reaction at Car Talk Plaza, where Car Talk Talk originates was much less subdued. I'm quoted here. It's totally unfair, said Tom Magliotti of Car Talk. That's me. We are in essence being punished for our market excellence at being lousy.

Shut up, you jerk, added his brother Ray. Justice officials said privately that they might approve an alliance between Car Talk and someone with truly useful car advice saying that way they'd basically cancel each other out right wow that's pretty cool huh she's made the news we made the news this is an official news release you know this came from UPI API CPI DPI and LPI you You never know how this is going to impact the worldwide web. You don't know. I mean, there's no way to tell. This is true. And don't forget the Asian markets. I mean, the Dow Jones could plummet based on this. We'll be watching. Think about it. So in the meantime, we're back to being just plain old car talk.com,

not car talk.msn.com, just plain old, like plain vanilla car talk.com. That's the way it ought to be. Yeah. And if you want to talk to us, the number is 1-888-CAR-TALK, just plain old 888-227-8255, hello, you're on Car Talk. Wow. This is Judy. I'm calling from Finn Castle, Virginia

Sin Castle like si NCA. No, no, no like F is in Frank Oh Finn Castle No, we're not in sin castle. Well, we wanted directions Fin Castle where Virginia Virginia. Yeah. Yep. We're in the Blue Ridge Mountains. No kidding. No kidding. So what's going on Judy? I've got a dilemma I guess oh my husband and I bought a Azuzu Amigo Recently used it was I think it's about a three or four year old car and it had a hundred thousand miles on it We got the car from a used car lot and it had one of these limited warranties You know a thousand miles and if anything's wrong with the major engine part then by the five we've moved

uh... at uh... about five hundred and fifty miles we found out that uh... there was no compression on the second and third cylinders uh... probably would need a ring job. So long story short we decided to dive in and make the repairs on it because the dealer said he'd split the cost 50-50 you know with us for getting it fixed. Oh that was his warranty.

That was his warranty. Oh so the 50-50 is he's going to take care of the two cylinders that have compression and you take care of the two cylinders that don't yeah that's a deal why not he's doing the work no he has a mechanic that is an independent mechanic who's doing the work but the guy seems to be a real up straight no no no no, no. Come on, Judy. What turnip truck did you fall off of? Us used car salesmen. What were those words again? Up, up, standing? No, no, no. The mechanic. The mechanic. Yeah, but the mechanic is basically working for the used car dealer. Well, continue with your narrative. We're sorry. No, that's okay.

That's okay. We put a brand new head on the engine. The rings were bad, so they had to take the engine to a machine shop and have the cylinders reamed out. Oh, yeah, that's the right word. New pistons and new rings put on. Put it back together again, my husband picked it up, drove it home, took it out on his newspaper route and the oil pressure

light came on. And did he actually continue on the paper route? No, no, no, he stopped. Fortunately, fortunately the route is the route is just right in our neighborhood right around where we live So he was only a couple of miles away from the house and he was able to drive home Gotcha check the oil make sure that it did have oil in it. Gotcha So we've got at this point a ton of money in it. How much by the way? Total repairs were twenty five hundred dollars. Mm-hmm. The car dealer has picked up eleven hundred dollars for that all that's a half-tapped so my question is

i'm wondering what your question is there are so many possible questions do we tell the car do we can unload this no after all this? hope that we get a hundred thousand miles out of it. what are they doing now they're putting a new oil pump and bearings in it they're putting uh... i think the guy was going to put a new gap get on the oil pan no he didn't track check the oil pump also ran out of oil uh... where you are you said when your husband got back home he checked to make sure there was oil in it and and and there was yet and there was but the but

the mechanic seems to think that it was leaking around a gasket no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no up tube which sits in the bottom of the pan and is responsible for picking up the oil out of the oil pan. And if that falls off because he forgot to tighten the bolts, then you can have plenty of oil in there but no oil pressure. And he discovered that when he took the oil pan off and that's why he's putting a new gasket on there. Well does that mean that oil didn't get through the engine then? That's correct. That's right.

So this engine, this new engine could be toast? Well no, I mean if you, if he drove, yeah. Yeah. Basically. I mean how far did he drive it, a mile? Probably about 20 miles. So you drove it home. Yes.

And it toast. And the light didn't come on when you drove it home. Correct. We kept putting oil in it this last time. No, he had. If putting oil in it made the light go out and stay out, then you had a leak. Uh-huh. And if he fixed the leak, you probably are right.

Here's what you do. Here's what you do. After he's all done, take it to another shop and have them test the oil pressure. Test the... Okay. And if it's okay, drive it. Okay. If it isn't okay, then see if you can return it to this guy.

Okay. And get all your money back, including the $1,300 you shelled out or whatever it is. Thanks, guys. I'll get it. But have the oil pressure tested after this work is all done. And if it's not exactly what the factory spec is, then dump it. Then you'll get one that we have to talk again. Okay.

Then you'll call back next week. Yeah. See you, Judy. Thanks. Have a good day. You too. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. 1-888-CAR-TALK, that's 1-888-227-8255. I got it. Oh, you're on Car Talk. Yeah, this is Jim in Inkster, Michigan, about 25 miles west of Detroit.

Great. Yeah, Red Wing country. Oh. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, so big deal. So what's up, Jimmy? I mean, why does the hockey season have to end in July? Oh, man, it'll never end here. Oh, obviously.

I've been in the game So what's up, Jimmy? I mean, why does the hockey season have to end in July? Oh, man, it'll never end here. Oh, obviously. I've got an 85 Mercury Grand Marquis and the heat is on all the time with everything shut off. I had a new core put in, one of those little tiny radiators, and I don't know, I can't shut off the and uh...

here can be a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a that's the best thing to do that's like removing a growth that has cut it right off you know here maybe if i get a little bit of a unit in there you can neutralize the seat uh... not talking about it heat no no no he's nuts

you did you start having this problem after they put the heater core in oh so you had too much heat and did they put in the heater core to fix that problem? Yeah. Huh? Yep. You need to relocate Jimmy. No, I don't get it. I mean why would they put in a new heater core to lower the heat? I have no idea. It's equivalent to calling the fire department and telling them my house is on fire and they say we'll be right over and pour some gasoline on it. Yeah. Honestly, I don't know what to do about this heat in my car. Do you hear a hissing noise? No, no noise.

And can you redirect the heat? In other words, can you make it come out of... So when your feet start to melt, can you make it come out of the dashboard vents? It comes out of all those vents and the defroster vents. At the same time? Yeah. Well, I dare say that your heater control is broken. Either that or they've disconnected the vacuum source to it. Yeah.

The heater core is doing exactly what it's supposed to do. It's supposed to crank out the heat. The reason you can, in normal cars, you can shut off that heat is you have various valves and doors that you can shut off that heat is you have various valves and doors that actually can shut the flow of hot air so it doesn't come into the passenger compartment. Those aren't working in your car. Either they're broken or disconnected or something.

And what do you call them? Well it's the doors, the doors, the heater doors. Just like the doors in your house. And when you open one door and close another, it redirects the heat either to your feet or to the defroster, but you've got heat coming out of every place. You've got a runaway heating system. Well, I mean, what you can do at least for the summer while these guys figure this out. Stock up on Bermuda shorts and mattress shirts. No, I mean, you can stop. The way that thing works is the hot water comes from the engine and goes into this heater core. And if you stop the flow of the hot water into the heater core, you'll stop the heat from coming in.

The way that thing works is there's one hose that allows hot water to come into this core and another hose that removes it. You can remove those two hoses from the heater core and shunt them together. Put a piece of pipe in between them so that the water instead of going into the heater core just short circuits the heater core and just goes around and around and then you'll be nice and cool. So at least have him do that for you or you can even do this yourself because you can see these hoses they're going right into the firewall. My son-in-law did that about two weeks ago because one of them was leaking so bad. He You can even do this yourself because you can see these hoses they're going right into the firewall So he knows how to do this yeah, yeah So what you want to do is get the one that's going in and the one that's going out and shunt them together

That'll get you through the next three months. And then call us again in September. And then put them back together in September? Yeah, there you go. Alright! Good luck, Jim. I sure enjoy your program and I love everybody that calls in. They're very colorful people and you have a great show.

You really do. Thanks, Jim. Thank you, Jim, and thanks for calling. Oh, thank you so much. Have a beautiful day. Bye bye. Goodbye. Thanks.

We'll be right back with the answer to the puzzler after these messages. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things and other currencies. With WISE, you can send, spend, or receive money across borders, all at a fair exchange rate. No markups or hidden fees. Join millions of customers and visit WISE.com.

T's and C's apply. ["Cyber Space"] Hi, we're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us. Click and clack the Tappet Brothers, and here is the answer to last week's puzzler. It's about time This was sent to us by Joseph Martinez from somewhere in cyberspace and I quote from Joseph

Yeah, I'm trying to remember the puzzler. I don't I didn't even bother. I figured why beat a dead horse. I don't remember it I how is it about the Scott Muffler company? Tell surprise. I Was driving on an access road about to get on the freeway. There was a convertible up in front of me, top down, beautiful day. And there was a couple in the car who I could only imagine were husband and wife. The car was a small sports car with a standard transmission, you know, like a Miata or something like that. Yeah, like a Fiat. No, I don't think so. No, it was moving at the time.

Oh, that's how you know it was. Anyway, Joseph continues, we had about three stoplights to go until the on ramp to the freeway and at every stoplight, the couple would turn to each other and have a conversation. When the light turned green, the conversation would abruptly stop until they came to the next red light.

So they would only converse at stoplights. You got it? Now, the car was not excessively loud. There was no loud background noise and they did not have the radio on. Why did they converse only at red lights? Yeah, this is good. Not having the radio on is a hint, but not the way you think. Yeah. I mean the radio wasn't being played so loudly that they couldn't hear because the combination of the radio noise and road noise They wouldn't have been able to hear the radio

No, because their conversations were limited to stoplights because they were conversing with hand signals Sign language one of them at least was deaf. Yes, or maybe bone got this right away I understand Marston can get it right away can I understand. Marston? Ken got it right away. Ken got it right away? Pull it right out. Pull it right out. Bingo! Useful thing he's done in months. Who's our winner this week, Tommy?

It's very good, you know, it just shows to go, yeah. Just shows to go. How? That was a good one. Well, don't get too excited. I've said that several times in the past couple of years The winner this week is Warren Shulkers from Carmel, California And for having his correct answer chosen at random from among the thousands of correct answers that we got this week Warren We'll get one of our car talk world tour t-shirts

We had a stack of these left over from the 10th anniversary show last week They have all the stops of our 1998 world tour listed on the back You know the tasty cafe part of these so this and bombs junkyard your favorite bench in Harvard Square I mean everything is listed there. This is a great t-shirt great. Good luck Warren Schokas from Carmel Congratulations, I mean we're we did have a washer dryer as an alternative but we knew you wanted the t-shirt one. Anyway we'll have a brand new, actually we don't have a brand new puzzler I don't think. No? Well I think this may be an old one. I don't know. That doesn't matter. I don't remember. It doesn't matter. So we'll have a 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 888-227-8255. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hello, this is Mark in Dickinson, North Dakota. Dickinson? Uh-huh. Has the snow melted yet in North Dakota? Yes, it's raining today. Cool.

What's shaking? I have a suburban, a 77 suburban I'm having some problems with. Go ahead. Well, this is the vehicle i use in my work i do a lot of uh... field work and uh... i always prefer practice preventive maintenance so this winter i thought well k the transmission got over three hundred thousand on it i'm going to replace it is mother stuff i'm not even going to rebuild it i just

want to buy a rebuild that was six rebuilt to go uh... the first three So let me get this right. There was really nothing wrong with the transmission and you decided to fix it? Well, it was getting a little sloppy. It made a few noises. It would ding. But it worked, right?

It worked. It worked. And now you're six transmissions later. It worked pretty much okay. And the worst part is you traded in the one, the only one that was working. Yeah, unfortunately. to get one of these bogus rebuilds. Yeah, it seems that way. I went to Mr. Goodwrench because I figured, well, if they're a vehicle, they should be

able to work on it. And they got the rebuilds from supposedly certified rebuilders out of town. The first three came from one rebuilder. Finally, they gave up, went to another rebuilder, and got another three of them. And I have a feeling I'm looking at number seven here in the next couple weeks. Really? What kinds of problems have you had with all of them? Well the very first one showed up with the wrong bearing installed on the front.

They put in the gear lube and it just ran out. The second one they put in and test drove it and it locked up and tore out the clutch. This is a stick shift? Yeah, manual. Mark, Mark, Mark. This is a stick shift? Yeah, manual. Mark, Mark, Mark. This is a stick. I could have understood it if it were an automatic. I'd say, well, you never know when an automatic's

going to blow with 300,000 miles on it. You're probably ready. So I could have accepted it. But a stick shift. Wait a minute. The guy did what he did. There's no reason for you to castigate him in this way. He feels bad enough, he's going through six transmissions, and you're gonna make him feel rotten?

When you've done something this stupid, you oughta feel rotten. He already knows that. No, he didn't really know. He's looking for solace. He's looking for some sort of relation. No, he's looking for a transmission. That's what he's really looking for. He's looking for a friend. He's looking for support. Do you have a significant other, Mark?

Unfortunately, no. No, it's a good thing because you'd never hear the end of this. You think we're bad. We'll never hear the end of it anyway. That's true. Does this thing have a, I can't say that I can remember what, a 77 Suburban with a stick shift. Is it on the floor? It is is on the floor but is a go right into the transmission or is there a shifter

uh... no it's uh... straight uh... straight straight straight shot so the problem is not in the shifter it's internal shi i mean you're all tell you it's it's interesting we don't have uh... i mean just cultures do lose skills and there's all there's always this outcry from the military establishment about We don't have, cultures do lose skills. I mean, there's always this outcry from the military establishment

about having our firearms made in places like Pakistan, because they'll make a rifle for like 85 cents, and it costs hundreds of dollars to make them here. And the thing is, once you lose those skills, once your country loses the people that can make that stuff, you forevermore can't make them anymore. Yeah, baby. How's that going? And we'd be relying on the Pakistanis to make our military rifles.

So I should emigrate? So you should. Maybe the Pakistanis are making the transmissions now. The thing is, we don't have anyone that can rebuild manual transmissions anymore. We really don't. No, I mean- And certainly not in North Dakota. But there's gotta be some guy left somewhere. There must be some guy crusty. On Mario. I mean there's gotta be some guy in some little shop somewhere.

Where would he be? Well I think your best bet at this point is to try to find the one you traded in. Yeah, that's long gone. No, that's long gone, but somewhere somebody has a four-speed gearbox for your suburban, a used one. I would go to a junkyard or as we call them auto recycling centers and you'll probably get one that's a heck of a lot better than these things that these guys are rebuilding. And field tested.

Field tested because you do a lot of field work that's apparently what I do for a living I field test transmissions you didn't know you were in that line of work until this reason you're in the quality control business if I went to a wrecking yard and picked one up yeah should I rebuild it no it, it works. What are you nuts? It probably works. I mean most most vehicles don't go to the junkyard because the transmission stopped working. Uh-huh. Most of them go to the junkyard because something else stopped working like the back fell off or the engine died or someone a piano fell on it and the transmissions usually are still good.

Well, I think your chances are excellent of getting one in a junkyard or wrecking yard or in this same transmission was used in the pickup truck too. I mean, so it's not, you know, it's not exclusive to this suburban. Yeah, there are a lot of these around. Okay, I'll start looking around. Good luck. Figure I got about a thousand miles to go and I'm taking off tomorrow for Wyoming so that's probably where it'll all happen.

Good luck man. You sound like you can take a joke. You're a good guy. Okay thanks. Good for you man. See you later. He didn't know he was in the field testing business for transmission. I like that.

One 888 Car Talk, that's 888-227-8255. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Erin from Minneapolis. Erin! Erin! Hi. How are you? Good. So where are you from again?

Minneapolis. Minneapolis. What's up? Well, I have a problem. I have a 91 Honda Civic and I like it a lot, but we've been having some bad weather out here and I parked it outside and there was a big hailstorm so now my car looks like it was in a popcorn popper it's just dented all over. Oh it's a golf ball right? Yeah, yeah, a big hail. My friends are smart, they said

call your insurance agent you know, so i called them and they said oh no problem you're totally covered no deductible so i took my car over to them and had this nice little slick deal where they assessed my car and they take me into the little round and get me down and that one comes and and she did well your car at the total last and i felt like he was getting it that certificate about my car and kinda ugly but did she have an east germany uh... uh...

what what the car a total loss. Yeah, well, I don't know. I mean, I thought it was still okay, just a little bit of an eye sore, and then I started wondering if I should drive it home. But she said the insurance company would buy it from me, or if I wanted to, she said I could try to keep the car, and then they would minus it to that value at a salvage lot. So I didn't know what to do. No, they're trying to, they're trying to flim-flam you. Wait a minute, how much how much did she offer? Well actually she offered me a pretty good deal. It was about it was more than I paid for the

car last fall. Yeah but they would they would offer you the blue book value whatever that is. Yeah. How much was that? Give us reading numbers, reading numbers. It was like fifty five hundred dollars so she offered you fifty five or minus the salvage I'd get like thirty three what do we mean minus the salvage if I tried to keep the car they'd oh they give you thirty three and you keep the car yeah there you go that's what you want to do take that but then they said they would drop the comp the collision coverage on the car they would drop the coverage well you know better you drop them, you drop them. Cancel them. Yeah?

Absolutely. I think whenever you get a chance to cancel insurance policy, you should do it. Cancel. Absolutely. Because they do it to you. I mean, they say, we're going to give you the money, and we don't want anything to do with you anymore, at least as far as us giving you money. Is that legal?

Yes, it is legal. I had a- I'll give you an example. I hate insurance companies. Oh, I do too. They example. I hate insurance companies. Oh, I do too. They're right up there with lawyers. For the very reason. I had a minor little accident at my shop.

A car fell off the lift. It happens. It happens. I don't know, there was some confluence of energies that day. Of course, the planet, the alignment. There was magnetism, anti-gravity, maybe some anti-matter, some errant neutrinos. I don't know what it was, but the car fell off the lift. They canceled my insurance!

Oh no. Yeah. They got a nerve, you know? Why do we do business with them? So now, if they send me the bill like a week early, I cancel them. So I would just go find another insurance company? There you go. And they'll insure my car even though it's a total loss?

No. What you're going to do is take the money from these, take the, tell them 3300 is out of the question, you want 4300. Sure. Haggle with them, okay. Go and get an estimate from a body shop. Okay. A real body shop, like the Honda dealer.

And you may find out that the estimate is for 4500. For the damage to repair it or for the? To fix it. If you go to the Honda dealer and they say it's $4,500, then you go back to the insurance company and you say, you give me $4,500 and I'm going to keep the car because that's the deal we made. And then I'd have my car and it would be fine. The only way they can total the thing is if the damage is $5,500, if the car is totaled.

Well, they told me it was more than 60% of its value. Oh, maybe they got some sleazeball laws sixty percent Yeah, here's the other thing you can do there are there is a new process Available for fixing this very kind of damage and I wish I could remember the name of the company that does it But of course I can't I saw these guys at the auto show. Oh, that's right. Yeah, they actually, it's some kind of therapy. They massage the dents. They use a toilet plunger. No, no, no, they massage the dents out.

Oh, that's right, with the healing, the laying on of hands. The polarity thing. No, but there is a company that has a process No, but there is a company that has a process by which they massage somehow these these ping pong ball dents out of the out of the body. Is the paint broken through and in other words, or it's just dented? No, it's just dented. I would say perfect.

I would take as much money as you can get from them. And just pretend like I won the lottery and keep the car? And keep the car and do nothing to it. Yeah. Okay. And definitely dump them as an insurance company. So say thank you very much, give me the money, and the next day after you cash the check and you have the money in your hand, you say, see you later you jerks, I don't want to do business with you at all, and you go to another insurance company.

Okay, that sounds like a plan. Good luck, Erin. All right, well thank you for your help. Yeah, thank you for filling us in on this sleazy little thing that's going on in the insurance business. In Minnesota. In Minnesota. Yup.

See ya, Erin. Alright, bye bye. Bye bye. We'll be right back with more calls and a new puzzler after these messages. Now, I did, with reservation, say that this was a, not a new puzzler, because it may be new to most of our listeners who, what, new listeners. That's all, because we don't have any old listeners, really. All right, all right, here it is. A man goes into a hardware store to purchase something for his house.

He asks the clerk, how much is one? The guy says, 60 cents. He says, OK. How about 12? $1.20. He says, OK. I'll take 200. The guy says, that'll be $1.80. What was he buying?

Very simple, right? Wow. The guy says that'll be a dollar eighty. What was he buying? Very simple, right? Wow. Now, if you think you know the answer or you're basically just bored to death and you have nothing else to do and no one to talk to, send us your answer at Puzzler Tower, Car Talk Plaza, Box 3500, Harvard Square, Cambridge, Al-Fair City. MAH-02238. Or of course you can email us your answer

from the Talk to Car Talk section of cartalk.com, our website. If you'd like to call us, the number is 1-888-CAR-TALK. That's 888-227-8255. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, my name is Tamatha and I'm calling from Northampton, Massachusetts. Whoa, whoa, whoa, Tamatha?

Yeah, T-A-M-A-T-H-A. No kidding, isn't that cool? Thank you. What a cool name. What's the origin of this name? I think my parents made it up. But I have run into other Tammathas. When I was eight, we were at Denny's,

and our waitress's name was also Tammatha. Nah, they paid her off. No, they didn't. She had the name tag and everything. Well, they probably had that made up. You got fooled by it, didn't you? Here, his ten bucks. Put this on. Where'd you say you were from?

I'm from Northampton. In Massachusetts? Yeah. All right, Tamatha, what's up? Okay, well I have a 92 Subaru Loyale, and basically this is a saga that starts with a curse and ends with a donut. And in between is a problem with seizing calipers. Really?

Yes. Wow. We'll just take our shoes off and relax and you start telling. Okay, so two summers ago, my friends and I were going to the Taste of Northampton and on the way we were walking and we passed this woman who was having car trouble and my friend Sarah said,

we should stop and help her. And my other friend and I just kind of looked at each other like she was nuts because there were already three people helping her and I knew that I would be no help whatsoever. I'd probably get stuck under the car. Yeah. So, Sarah said to me, well fine, but don't blame me if you have bad car karma. No, that's the curse. That's the curse. That's the curse that the character that's the curse okay okay okay a week

later i'd win i've got down to uh... new jersey and i was on my way back in about an hour into my trip i know that there is a burning smell and i think i'd open it wasn't my car i looked at the temperature gauge perfectly normal and so i'd you know it's like well i'm concerned but i didn't had no idea what was up until i had my first told that and the breaks were really

that and so of course it was a sunday and i pulled off at the first exit and i could only know i went to the first you know place like if i know it's open which is one of those came dot came store it like a week later and not about $900 later, they had replaced both calipers, front calipers, and the master cylinder.

And they told me that the problem had been that my calipers were seizing. So- Sounds good, sounds good. Right. So then last June, I was on my way to New Jersey, an hour into my trip and lo and behold There's that familiar burning smell and you sure wasn't just New Jersey Connecticut at that point so so I thought it's those winds Revealing winds

But so I pull over and of course might you know the same thing i think that that that that that you know whatever mechanic and i would get in the yet another chain store different one yeah yeah yeah they're like a caliper to get one of your caliper to keeping any other one just back with the same stores like might as well one of those places and i don't well one of your liberty to say what i am at liberty is saying well one of the first one in new jersey with a pet boy

and the second one in with that with back to you with here the problem here is going to sue you by the way but i had to mention that you read the relics of this yet another from north hampton and a and your last name and address and and, no, you can't have that. Phone number? No.

Sorry, they have caller ID. I'm sorry, go ahead. Okay, so... Did Sears do both calipers? Yes, they replaced both calipers. But not the master cylinder? No, Pep Boys replaced the master cylinder on August of 96. Well, I fear that they have both missed the real issue.

I think so too. Okay. Wait a minute, you didn't tell us yet about the doughnut. Okay, here's the deal about the doughnut. So, the second time that this happened, I had four friends in the car and as we passed the site of where the cow person sees the day before, we had gone to Dunkin Donuts before we left and he said, he took a French cruller out of the box and said, this is an offering to the evil spirit that you

know make sure we have a safe trip friend of but the french crawler god but it gets better so being the superstitious person i am took that french collar after our safe trip to and from new jersey in the rental car and moved it to my car where it sat until september when my co-workers have been even better french color that's frosted and got sprinkles

So I you know gave the evil spirits an even better offering through now Of course when the most popular questions I get is is that really a doughnut in your car? How long has it been there? Yeah, well it does make for good conversation doesn't it? Yes, it does an icebreaker you meet someone new and you can tell them the whole entire story like you spent the last 25 minutes telling us. Exactly. Yeah. Well here's the thing now. Yes. It's gonna happen again. Yeah. Why? What's wrong? I think both the Pep Boys and the Sears guys and we can only say this because we have this information. I think that they both missed what was really going on. I think you have a bad vacuum booster. And as you drive the car, very gradually the booster begins to apply pressure to the brakes,

even though you're not stepping on the brakes, until finally, it's tantamount to you're stepping on the brake pedal while you're stepping on the gas. Now, I don't notice any problem when I'm driving like it doesn't feel like I have to put more gas on or anything, and the car doesn't feel like it's slowing down or anything. It only happens on the highway. Yes, that's right, because it takes a long enough trip. And why does it only happen in the summer? Oh, because you only travel in the summer? No.

I knew you were going to say that. I'm sorry, I go home. It's hotter in the summer, things expand faster. Okay. I don't like it. That's it. I don't. No, we're not making it up.

It's either the power booster or it's the brake lines between the frame and the calipers. But I'm sticking with the booster and the way they're going to figure it out, here's what you do. If you want your mechanic to work on it and not the stranger. Take the car out and drive it about 45 minutes away from his shop, during which time use the brakes as much as possible. And then make a U-turn and come back. I'm willing to bet on a warm day you will duplicate the problem that you had in New Jersey and then he can do this little test and he can fix it once and for all and he

can throw that moldy donut away. He's going to get a disease from it. See you, Tamatha. Okay, well thanks so much for your help. Good luck. Okay, thank you. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

Thanks for calling. Bye. While you've wasted an otherwise perfectly good hour listening to Carr Talk, our esteemed producer is Doug, not a slave to fashion, Berman. There's just no getting away from that, is there? There isn't, no. He just looks better every day. Our social producer and dean of the College of Automusicology is Ken Babyface Rogers.

Our assistant producer is Catherine Imelda Marcos-Ray. And our engineer is Jonathan Superhighway Sideburns Marston. And our menu advisor is Mr. John S. Lawler, who's not here. Not here now. I don't know. Our public opinion pollster is Paul Murky of Murky Research, assisted by statistician Margin O'Vara. Our customer care representative is Haywood Jabuzoff, assisted by Kurt Reply. Our director of catering is Russell Upsengrub. Our director of winter motorcycling is Helmut Kold. And our director of brake testing is Tom Stoppard.

Yeah. Tom Stoppard. Tom Stoppard. There you go. Peekaboo Street directs our intensive care unit, which is known as the Peekaboo ICU. Our director of moral support is Hugh DeMann, our sexual harassment counselor is Pat McCann, and our Leo Tolstoy biographer is Warren Peace, author of Leo Tolstoy by Warren Peace. Our chief counselor from the law firm of Dewey Cheatham and Howes, Hugh Louis Dewey, known

to the American Association of Disgraced Lawyers as Huey Louie Dewey. Thanks so much for listening. We're Click and Clack. The Tappert Brothers don't drive like my brother. Don't drive like my brother. Or our sister. We'll be back next week. Bye bye. And now here is our chief mechanic, Mr. Vin Goombats with some highly Jermaine information. Jermaine, hey we speak English here buddy, you know.

Now if you just want a copy of this week's Card Talk show, which is number 26, you call our shameless commerce division at 1-888-CARD-JUNK. You got that? Yes, and if you wanted other Card Talk paraphernalia would they call the same number Vinny? No, you call Chainsaw Al Dunlop. Of course they call the same number Vinnie? No you call Chainsaw Al Dunlop. No of course you call the same number. 888-Card Junk. Or you can get stuff through the online shameless commerce division at cardtalk.com. Thank you very much Vincent. Your broadcasting skills are improving markedly. I'll mark this will you?

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