The Best of Car Talk - #2549: Fix it or 'Fix it'

Episode Date: June 21, 2025

Alita is so bored up in Quechee, Vermont that she and her boyfriend think it'll be more fun to put a brick on the gas pedal of their Nissan and watch the motor melt than it would be to fix it. Will Click and Clack be aghast at this act of 'autocide', or will they make some popcorn and watch the fireworks? 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

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This American Life. Hey, before we get to this week's show, we're working on something new for NPR Plus supporters. They're pulling me out of mothballs to answer some of your car questions. So if you have a car question you'd like to ask me, I'll give you a number and you can call in a moment. And just like the old days,

our extremely lazy producers will eventually listen to the messages, pick a few call-ups from me, we'll set up a time to talk, and I'll screw up the answers just like the old days. NPR Plus supporters will find these occasional, and I do mean occasional, episodes in their NPR Plus car talk feed. So if you have a car question, here's the number. It's 888-522-5478.

That's 888-522-5478. Now here's the show. Hello and welcome to Car Talk from National Public Radio with us, Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers, and we're broadcasting this week from the Cartography Division here at Car Talk Plaza. I'm not sure that's the right name. Well, for lack of a better name. But whatever. That's what it is. Someone named Gregory Engel sent us state mottos for license plates.

These aren't the real ones. Oh, I think so. I'll just read you the few that I thought were especially interesting. Alabama, literacy ain't everything. Illinois, gateway to Iowa, that's exciting. Montana, my buddies, land of the big sky and very little else. Here's Doug's favorite.

North Carolina, five million people, 15 last names. And my personal favorite, New Jersey, on the license plate it says, you have the right to remain silent, you have the right to an attorney. Well, I mean, it's not nice, of course, to make fun of people. But it's just an entire state. No, but it's just all in fun.

Yeah, what was Utah's? I mean, if we're going to make fun of it, you might as well just nail everybody. Utah, our Jesus is better than your Jesus. Hey, this is according to Gregory Engel, not me. Right, we didn't author these, we're just reading them. And Colorado was too wimpy to cross the mountain, so we stopped here. I like that one. But, I mean, you have to make fun of people, right? I mean, there's no humor if you don't make fun of people. That's right. That's what it's all about. And it's always best if you make fun of people, right? I mean, there's no humor if you don't make fun of people. That's right.

That's what it's all about. And it's always best if you make fun of people that can't make fun back. Yeah, especially if they're far away. If you want to call us about your car or your state motto, our number is 1-888-CAR-TALK. That's 888-227-8255. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi guys, this is Bob from New York. How are you? Hey Bob, we're just fine.

Right from NYC itself? I'm actually calling from NYC today. I'm out on Long Island where I live. Long Island? Yeah. So what's up, Bob? Well, I've got a 1992 Honda Civic LX. It's the best car I've ever owned until we hit a puddle the other day and about this was about two

weeks ago and we hit a puddle and the car began to buck a little bit and we brought it home and when we started it up the next day everything was fine drove it around 15-20 minutes it started to buck at the low end kind of stumbled a little bit when we were leaving a traffic light. Every time we started up in the morning first thing when the engine is cold, everything is fine. Let it warm up about 10 or 15 minutes and whenever the RPMs are between say a thousand and two thousand, there's just no power, like it's not running on all cylinders. Above that, everything is fantastic and wonderful. We brought it into the service station around the corner.

Besides the hand-waving that he did, it was basically we gotta replace everything. It's a major tune-up, we gotta replace the whole wiring harness and this and that, and I figured I'd give you guys a call with a little bit of help, please. Okay, this puddle that you hit yeah how big was it oh it wasn't more than six or seven inches deep but you want to hit it

like head-on no not very very very slowly I would say maybe ten miles an hour five miles an hour but it but it the puddle spanned the width of the car absolutely and went up to about I would say just the midpoint of the wheel cover. Oh that's deep. That's pretty deep. Yeah that's a foot deep. Oh okay well. Yeah. Yeah now is what it did right after you hit the puddle exactly the same thing that it's doing now or has the symptom changed slightly? I would say that the symptom has changed ever so slightly all right well I'll have to give you the answer every every week I'm sure a few people have noticed this I give my brother an opportunity to stumble upon the answer

and by we ask a few questions and you know what color the car is and I ask you to repeat information that we already know and with the hope that he'll Accident and you have to you have to admit that occasionally I do occasionally occasionally you do it's like a monkey at the Keyboard sooner or later sooner or later you'll hear Rachmaninoff However, he didn't come up with it. I think the water affected your secondary ignition. I think what's happened is water probably... I don't agree. Go ahead. Go ahead. Well, I believe what you have right now is a fouled spark plug, partially fouled spark plug because when this happened you got water in the distributor cap and that plug stopped firing correctly for a period of time and in so doing got

fouled and now it behaves well some of the time but your guy is right that he wants to replace the cap the rotor and the wires and I bet you all that stuff when it's done is gonna fix it because it's probably all stuff that you need and I think if you go back and look at your records you're gonna find out that none of that stuff has been replaced maybe in the life of the car none of that stuff has been replaced in the life of the car oh Oh! And that's going to fix it. So he wants like a couple of hundred bucks to do this, right?

He's talking four hundred and some odd dollars. Wow! They charge something on the island, huh? He mentioned something about a swimming pool. Maybe that's something else. A boat payment. Right. A gunite pool, yes, I think.

Okay. Good luck, Bob. Okay, thanks a lot. Thanks for your call. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. 1-888-CAR-TALKALK that's 888-227-8255. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Kate in Kingston, Ontario. From where? Where'd you say you were from? Kingston, Ontario. Pay attention!

Kingston, Ontario? Is that like the name Maryland? Yeah. Okay. Thanks Kate. Go ahead. I have a 1987 Dodge Omni that I got from my mother. She gave it to me when I moved up here to go to school. And I was driving home, it was about two months ago, and I smelled something hot. Hot. And there were no lights or anything on the dashboard. And I didn't know if it was me or one of the other cars in traffic around me. So I finished the last block, got home, pulled into into the driveway and smoke started pouring out from under the hood so one of my

housemates comes out of the house and he opens the hood and then he opens the cap to the radiator comes out of there too so he starts pouring water in oh okay and it boils and sputters and goes around everywhere and it turns out that the radiators broke it. Yeah. That was the source of the smoke. Right.

Right. So the car will start, but I can't drive it. And so I've told my parents this. My dad says, get it fixed if you can. My mother said, ditch it, don't bother with it, get rid of it. Because I mostly use the car to drive to see them. And she doesn't want drive to see them. And she doesn't want you to visit anymore, she's sick of you.

And where do they live? Kalamazoo. I gotta go. Okay, so if you- No, wait a minute. It starts now and it won't go? What do you mean it won't go? Well, my room, we put more water in it to see where it was leaking from.

It's leaking from like two places. Ah. Yeah. I can start it and let it sit in the driveway, but I can't really take it anywhere. Oh, but it will go if you want it to go. Yes. And it's leaking from two places in the radiator. Yes. Well, gee, I mean. Well, would you have been content to drive this car had this not happened? Yes. You weren't thinking of getting rid of it otherwise, were you? And if someone came to you and offered to sell you this car if you didn't have a car

for about 350 bucks, would you buy it? No. How about 100 bucks? How about 100? Would you go for 100? How about 100 bucks? Someone says you want to buy an 87 Omni for 100 bucks?

For that I would do it. You can do it for 100 bucks. You can go to the junkyard, they have junkyards in Kingston, I trust. And you can buy a used radiator for this thing for maybe 50 bucks. Okay. And you can buy a used radiator for this thing for maybe 50 bucks. Okay. And you can have your roommate, who broke the radiator by adding cold water to it. No, he didn't.

You can have your roommate put the radiator in for you. It's actually pretty easy on this car. Yeah, simple. And it'll be okay for like the nine hour drive and... Oh, I wouldn't drive it. Well, I mean, that will be okay. Who knows what else is wrong with it? Okay. Yeah, I mean, it's possible that. Who knows what else is wrong with it?

Okay. Yeah, I mean, it's possible that other damage has been done, but you really can't know that until you put a radiator in. I would say invest 50 or 100 bucks, put a new radiator in, and then before I drive down nine hours to Kalamazoo, I would have someone check it out to see what else might be wrong with it. Yeah, I mean, couldn't the folks come and visit you for a change? I mean, why is it always you going there? I don't know. I mean I wouldn't want to take

a car with 167,000 miles on a 9 hour journey. Yeah, if I take the bus or the train it takes two days though. Two days? What are you studying in Kingston? Archaeology. Ah, yes, archaeology. You have a job lined up? Are you kidding? Not yet. How many archeologists can get jobs? Archeology is a good field. I'll tell you why. Because you can always go into some other endeavor which will utilize your digging skills. Like construction, landscaping, grave digging. Exactly, construction, landscaping, grave digging. You can do your sewer work, you know, you can work for the municipality, you can dig up

those busted water mains. I never realized that. Of course, well that's why you're on that side of the table, I'm on this side. I mean that's that would be a new criterion for choosing a career path. How multifaceted. How many different kinds of jobs can you get with the skills derived from this degree exactly like art history it's zero including our art history so how lucky are you okay i am so lucky okay we've fixed the radiator and take it down to your local mechanic have them check it all out make sure the front end is not ready to fall off, and then take the bus. Okay. See you, Kate. Good luck. Bye-bye.

And by the way, tell your housemate, you do not pour cold water into a boiling hot radiator. Got it. Right. Great. Okay. Thanks a lot. See you, Kate. Bye-bye. Nor do you take a radiator cap off a boiling hot radiator. Yeah, and you don't take a radiator cap off and have steam come up and burn you. I mean, steam is very hot. Well, I thought that was bad too, but I tried to stop him.

He wouldn't listen. No, cause... Oh, here's a dumb man. They're all hopeless. They're hopeless! I'm glad I'm in between here. Oh, God. Okay, we'll see you, Kate.

Thanks. Bye. Alright, it's time for a short break. What? You tired? You have to rest your precious little vocal cords? Do I detect a little sarcasm in your voice? No.

We'll be back in a minute. 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. This message comes from NPR sponsor, Subaru.

In June, as part of the Subaru Loves to Care initiative, Subaru and its retailers partner with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and their local hospital or cancer treatment center to give warm blankets and messages of hope to cancer patients. Hey everybody, it's Ian from How to Do Everything. On our show, we attempt to answer your how-to questions. We don't know how to do anything, so we call experts. Last season, both Tom Hanks and Martha Stewart stopped by to help. Our next season is launching in just a few months, so get us your questions now by emailing how to at npr.org or calling 1-800-424-2935 Hi, we're back you're listening to car talk on national public radio with us clicking clack the tappet brothers And we're here to discuss of course cars car repair and yet another deep philosophical issue. You know how some over some and yet another deep philosophical issue. You know how sometimes just a few words can mean so much?

Yes. And conversely, how so many words can mean so little? But with just a few words, someone can bring up an issue that... Raises your consciousness. I mean, you could ponder it for the rest of your life. And I have in my hand just such a phrase. A phrase. Really.

Get this. If a man speaks in the forest and there is no woman around to hear him, is he still wrong? David Leventhal from somewhere has posed this question. Yes. I mean, if a man speaks in the forest and there is no woman around to hear him, is he still wrong?

Boy. Catherine says yes. And I would have to say yes too! I'm still working on it. I mean, holy cow! It is deep stuff. Speaking of deep stuff, if you have a question about your car and want to hear our deep stuff, you can call us at 888-CAR-TALK. That's 888-227-8255. Hello, you're on Car Talk.

Hi, this is Doug from San Francisco. Doug, what's happening, man? I have a 93 Ford Probe. Yeah. I recently had a major brake job done to it on the front and rear brakes, and ever since, I've been getting this strange clunking sound that comes from the right front of the car.

And it happens as I'm applying the brakes, sometimes, actually after I take my foot off the brakes, it only happens once each time, and it doesn't happen every time. Really? I took it back and they scratched their heads and said, oh, we hear it. We don't know what it is. Oh, they did hear it. Oh, they heard it, yeah.

Excellent. And what's the noise again? It's a clunk. You know, it sounds a lot like the sound, like a pebble hitting the inside of the fender, like when you kick up something. Oh, it's a little tink. Oh, it's a very light clunk. Tink.

And sometimes it happens as you're applying the brake, and I heard you say sometimes it happens when you're releasing the brake? Yeah, once in a while it'll happen as I take my foot off the brake. Well, I've got to think that the problem is somewhere in the caliper. It's probably a one-piston caliper that has a slide mechanism. And it's possible that the slide is worn out. Maybe everything was okay until they went ahead and put the new pads in.

But if the slide is worn out, the caliper can actually move when you step, it will move when you step on the brake, and it could make a noise just like the one you described. It'll, chunk. And then when you release the brake, it could go back. It could happen when you release the brake, it could go back. It could happen when you release it.

Yeah. Exactly right. It could be a worn caliper slide. But they didn't do anything to the calipers. No, they didn't. I mean, they're very nice there, but I'm not sure they're very competent. Yeah. Yeah, people say that.

Never mind. Well, would you rather be known as nice or competent I mean if you had to choice you have to choose between one or the other oh nice nice is better yeah that's absolutely I knew we I knew we made the right choice wasn't a choice doesn't happen that way so what should I tell them that they should disassemble the caliper? I would ask them for yucks to try a new caliper on that side. Tell them to put it on there with the understanding mind you that if it doesn't fix it they'll take it off and send it back. They might balk at that a little bit but you have to sweet talk them. Another thing that comes to mind is

perhaps when they did it they didn't tighten the axle retaining nut completely ask them to check that there's a big fat nut that plants the axle to the bearing mm-hmm and if that isn't tight you can get a noise from that too. Good luck Doug thanks a lot it'll cost $800 bucks no matter what. a bunch no matter what. 1-888-CAR-TALK that's 888-227-8255. Hello you're on Car Talk. Hi, my name is Allison and I'm calling from Reno, Nevada. Allison?

Allison from Reno. Yes. Wait a minute, Allison, there are so many ways to spell Allison. Well I spell it with two, one A, two L's, one I, one S, and an O-N. And I spell the same way you do. Oh, you do? Yeah, that's the traditional spelling. Is it?

Yeah, not like these A-A-A-L-L-I-C-Y-N-N-E. Wait, where'd you say you were from? Reno, Nevada. Reno? Yes. You sound young. Well, I am 26. Are you really? Yes. Do I sound younger? You sound 16. Well, I am 26. Are you really?

Yes. Do I sound younger? You sound 16. Oh my gosh. Well, that's good. I look 16. That's great. Yeah, so what are you doing, Reno?

I am studying public policy. So you're a graduate student, obviously. Yeah, that's right. Public policy. Of course, if this doesn't pan out, you can get a job as a dealer. Yeah. How are your blackjack skills? Yeah, that's right. The dealer school is right down the street. Uh-huh. Of course, if this doesn't pan out, you can get a job as a dealer. Hahaha! How are your blackjack skills?

Yeah, that's right. The dealer schools right down the street. Alright. So thanks for calling, Alice. That's great. Alright. You have a problem with a car? Um, yes I do. I have a 1996 Jeep Cherokee Sport. And a little over a year after I bought it, the red number 10 fuse blew. And that's the one that controls the radio, the power windows and the door locks.

Then six months later it blew again. So I replaced it. Two days after that it blew again and that was about four days ago. Ah, yeah, something's wrong. Thanks for calling. Well, I mean there are lots of schools of thought concerning fuses. It's a 10 amp, you could go to 20. You might find out where that short is. I suspect there's something else on that circuit, even though it says radio, windows and doorlocks,

I suspect there's something else. Why do you need anything else? I mean you've got two prime candidates here. Two out of the three. It ain't the radio. It's not the radio, but the power windows and the door locks are notorious for causing problems. But Allison cannot associate it with using the window.

If you were putting up or down a window and it blew midstream, you'd say, ha! Right. But that doesn't happen. How do you know that it has blown? Because the windows won't go down. No idea. Well, when does it blow? Well, I don't realize it until I turn the car on and the windows won't go down. No idea. Well, when does it go, when does it blow? Well, I don't realize it until I turn the car on and the radio doesn't work and the

door locks don't work. Right. I have one of those automatic door unlockers on my keychain. And that's the last thing you used, isn't it? And the first thing I used before I get in the car. And the first thing you used to get in the car. So you can get into the car. So we know that the moment before you start the car the thing is working and the only other thing you've used is

The door locks that's it. No the door locks worked Otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to get into the car She opens the thing and in the process of working the blow the fuse. That's the last time they work. I don't You hope you press the little button the door opens you get in the car and the things don't know. I don't think so. I understand what you're saying. You press the little button, the door opens, you get in the car, and the things don't work anymore. Is that true, Alison? Yes. All right, so now what?

Now that you yelled at him for 10 minutes, what is she going to do about it? I don't know. Don't lock the car. Well, eventually, I mean, you probably do have a short somewhere, and it could easily be a pinched wire. The wires that come into the door come in where the pillar is, where the hinges for the door are attached, and those wires get flexed. Usually a car has to be much older before it has this affliction because in order to

have those wires break and short out, you must open the door a couple of million times. There is nothing wrong with the Chrysler car! Yeah, I mean, you're gonna have to take it to whoever you take it to and tell him or her that you're pretty sure there's a short somewhere in the door locks. Okay. In the meantime, stock up on those red number tens. Yeah, I will. See you, Allison. Alright, thanks a lot.

Good luck in your degree pursuits. Oh, well, thank you very much. I appreciate it. See you later. Alright, bye. Bye-bye. Bye. It's time for a break, well thank you very much. I appreciate it. See you later. Alright, bye. Bye bye.

It's time for a break, but when we come back I want to talk about a new university entrance exam that I think everyone will be eager to adopt. You're gonna get a suit again, aren't you? Bye Mike. We asked and you delivered what is the best Pixar movie of all time? Thousands of you voted and we've got the results. Where did Inside Out, Toy Story, and Finding Nemo land in the top five? Listen to Pop Culture Happy Hour on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

The news can feel like a lot on any given day, but you can't just ignore it when big, even world-changing events are happening. That's where the Up First podcast comes in. Every morning in under 15 minutes, we take the news and pick three essential stories so you can keep up without getting stressed out. Listen now to the Up first podcast from NPR. We show you how the economy is affecting your life in 10 minutes or less. Each weekday, listen to the indicator from Planet Money, wherever you get your podcasts. President Trump has spent the first few months of his term testing the limits of presidential power.

He's tried to upend decades of established trade policy and foreign policy, and taken over powers long ceded to Congress. In Pierre's podcast, Trump's Terms curates the network's coverage of the Trump administration. It helps you follow the latest and understand what it means. Trump's Terms. Listen in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Ha! We're back.

You're listening to Car Talk on National Public Radio with us, Click and Clack the Tappert Brothers, and we're here to discuss cars, car repair and the the missing puzzler. Now as you all know the puzzler is temporarily indisposed, but the puzzler was kind enough to send us a note from prison. I mean I mean from Princeton that says, Dear guys in case I'm not out, I mean back in time for next week's show, I've stashed another archival puzzler on the website, the Car Talk Session of Cars.com. So if anybody's dying for a puzzler this week, just send them to

the website. Nice little note. So there you go, if you find yourself in urgent need of a puzzler or a haircut, there's one waiting for you at the Car Talk Session of Cars.com. Well, speaking of being in prison, I mean Princeton, didn't you promise to tell us about some university entrance exam? Well, this may not be new. This has probably been in use for many years. We just didn't know about it. This is the university entrance exam football player version.

And here are some of the questions. You see if you can get these right. Write a dissertation on the ancient Babylonian Empire with particular reference to architecture, literature, law, and social conditions, or give the first name of Pierre Trudeau. Question 12, I'm skipping around here just to cross you up. Can you explain Einstein's theory of relativity? Yes, no. Advanced math. If you have three apples, how many apples do you have?

And my favorite, six kings of England have been called George, the last being George the sixth. Name the previous five. This explains why many football players are in college today. Yes. Where they should not be. And if it weren't for football, they wouldn't be playing football. That's exactly right. Alright, if you have a question about your car or anything else, our number is 888-CAR-TALK. That's 888-227-825 8255 hello you're on car talk this is to from Altamont New York STW it is it is where you from out to Mount New York the Altamont fair up in the mountains I would expect that's right by at the end

of the Hildeberg the whole edge of the Hildebergs. The who? The edge of the Helderbergs. Helderberg Mountains? That's it. Wait a minute, which side of the content of the divine? Give me up, down, left and right. If I'm looking at New York State, up, down, left and right. As you're looking at New York, you see Albany? Yeah. If you went to Schenectady, you went too far? Yeah, I see Albany. Keep going west. Yeah. And if you went disconnected, you went too far. Just back up a little bit and run into Altamont. I gotcha. So what's up, Stu? So what's up is this.

I've never owned a sports car before. And I fell in love with this car one year ago. Wife really, really listened to me. She knows me well. She realizes that she's really got a precious jam here but you talk about the husband of the car other husband the husband what's the three hundred eighty six eighty six yeah that's all right and on father's day she treated me to this car she buys his car for you yet

way to three hundred z happens is where it's a three hundred z cool what happened is that it's it's time for uh... uh... i'm looking at it and it was got a little dent here and and the paint shipped a little bit here and uh... as well i'll take it to a uh... to have a car place for a new paint job and a little bit of body work that it needs and uh...

uh... i did in the and the uh... man came back with a uh... sheet three sheet print out well nice computerized and now look at the bottom line and further twenty five hundred dollars and twenty five thirty one point seven nine cents and so that bottom line is is uh... a bottom line that she's not ready to go to and i've got to try to somehow convince her

that i am worth every penny of that mmm well how much did the car cost originally? originally twelve hundred dollars twelve hundred? yeah it was a real good buy so you want to spend twenty five hundred bucks to fix up this thing? you got it. just the body? body in the paint job. Yeah, the man said When it's done, it's gonna look like it's factory

Product coming right off the assembly line. Yeah, won't that be a great day, huh? You think $2,500 is out of line first of all well, what's wrong? What's wrong with going to uh... make or real shy been getting the same job done for three ninety nine ninety five but i don't think that he says what happened to that you get a get a paint job like that and you really damaged the the look of the whole car the whole pain of the car and that

don't do it you're better off not getting a painted then don't get a painted twenty five hundred boxes too much money or who you want to hear that uh... i mean you're asking the wrong guy just the way i don't know if you can go to make all info four hundred bucks uh... get a picture of that looks pretty damn good and by the way i wouldn't bang on any of the dents.

Paint right over them. Oh really, I would say paint? Sure, I mean you'll hardly notice them. You'll be so wowed by the brilliance of the paint job, you won't notice a few little dents here and there. So just have them paint the thing, and don't forget, you can get, well you can get eight, seven of these,

six of these paint jobs. Six and a half paint jobs. For 2500. For 2500. For 2500 bucks. Until I get the one I like. Until you get the one you like. You keep bringing it back, there you go. Now if the car looks too good,

are you gonna give it more importance than it deserves? No, you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you are. You are. What's gonna happen is you're gonna, every time a dog jumps up on the side of the window to say hello to you you're gonna push him away because he's gonna scratch the paint you can't you're not gonna have any fun in

something that's pristine that's my yeah you need a couple of those runs on the side that look like a butterscotch sundae mako will do that for you no mako does a very good job you will be you will be more than pleased and you'll be able to spend the money on the brakes and ball joints all the stuff That the car really needs okay, and I guess with Mother's Day I could use the difference in and do a real nice thing for my wife now you're talking now you're talking still good Oh, man, okay. See ya see ya later. Bye. Bye. He didn't want that answer one eight eight eight car talk That's one eight eight eight two two seven eight8255. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Alita from Quechie, Vermont. Alita?

Alita. A-L-I-D-A? Yep, that's it. From where, where? Quechie, Vermont. So what's on your mind, Alita? My boyfriend and I have an 89 Nissan Path uh... and we have a problem with that on their fuel dumping down into the motor oil

all right the wrong catalytic has been on it for about a year now and gone through about five mufflers but the track not burning any oil but it is running red i'd bet it is yeah we've had a good time problems with that so a few months ago pick up the track pick these problems and we decided we were going to blow the

motor uh... just to see what it was like yeah i think that we get to be you know just to do it and be dead that's what happened when you live in a place like we keep vermont and you could have decided to go to a play but there are no i think that i think that i have to make your own fun. You have to make your own fun.

What are we going to do? Let's blow the motor, Mort. Wait a minute, Alita. You can't be from Vermont if you want to. You must really be from New Hampshire if you decided to do this. No, no, no. How about your boyfriend? He's from Vermont too.

I can't believe it. Okay, go ahead. Okay, he put a block of wood on the gas pedal and the motor didn't blow. So your plan was that you would put a brick on the gas pedal and just let it run and run and run and run and run until it destroyed itself. Well, first we tried to do it by, you know, being really rough with it, four wheeling.

Slapping it around and stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah. And then you decided to put a bullet behind number three piston. But anyway, none of that worked no, so then after this happened We had the fuel in the motor oil and we brought it to mechanic He said that um, he didn't think the fuel was was because we had tried to blow the motor

No, he thought that it was some other problem and now he told us that it's the fuel injectors that need to be replaced Because he's saying there's too much fuel going by them and it's getting onto the pistons and then leaking into the motor Well, I don't think so you don't think so. No, I mean it's unlikely that all six injectors are bad Well, that's what they're telling us. Nah, it's bogus. Well, what do you care? What's wrong with it? Well, we try to kill it. No, no, no see now we like the what's wrong with it? Well, we... You're trying to kill it. No, no, no. See, now we like the truck because the motor didn't go. So we're like, well, we've got to fix this. We've got to use this. Ah, I get it.

I mean, we don't really care what's wrong with it either. Obviously, if you have no respect for this Pathfinder, why should we? No, no, she has new respect for it. Yeah. New respect, yeah. The fact that they tried to kill it. You couldn't kill it. You couldn't kill it. Yeah, exactly.

And it came back and said, I'm hanging in there. That wouldn't die. Now we think this is great. Now we want this thing. I think instead of having six bad injectors, it's more likely you have a bad fuel pressure regulator. Okay. And the fuel pressure regulator will allow gasoline to get dumped into actually the intake manifold because there's a vacuum hose that connects the regulator to the manifold so that when the thing fails, the thing must run lousy

too, right? Yeah. Yeah, I think you have a pinhole in the diaphragm of the fuel pressure regulator. Okay. And the way you're going to find that out is you pull the vacuum hose off and you're going to find that there's gasoline there and there shouldn't be. Okay. So ask the guy to check that before he goes throwing.

Those injectors are going to be 150 bucks a piece. That's going to run into money. You don't want goes throwing those injectors gonna be like 50 bucks a piece gonna run into money You don't want to go plate replacing injectors if you don't have to yeah exactly and and I don't know what to tell you Alina I mean, this is what you do for fun in Vermont. Hey four-wheeling is awesome No, no, we didn't mean the four-wheeling the brick on the accelerator Well, now that was you know, that was just a one-time thing. Yeah, I mean, you guys need to do some, throw a pot or something. Do some, buy a kiln.

Get cable TV. I mean, there are lots of things you can do. Read a book. No, forget it. Yeah, okay. You're having fun, you're having fun. And go for it. Good for you. Okay.

See ya. Thanks for calling, Alita. Thank you. Bye-bye. Okay, bye. Okay, bye. Well, you've wasted another hour of your precious youth listening to Car Talk. Our team producer is Doug the Subway Fugitive, not a slave to fashion Berman, and it's becoming

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