The Best of Car Talk - #2552: A Second Opinion

Episode Date: July 1, 2025

Eric isn't done with medical school yet but he's already being called-in for second opions... by his mechanic. Can Doctors Click and Clack help to save this patient? 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

The House of Representatives has approved a White House request to claw back two years of previously approved funding for public media. The rescissions package now moves on to the Senate. This move poses a serious threat to local stations and public media as we know it. Please take a stand for public media today at GoACPR.org. Thank you. Hey, before we get to this week's show, we're working on something new for NPR.org. Thank you. 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 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 Department of Gender Studies here at Card Talk Plaza. Now, as you know, this is an ongoing field of study for us, and this week we present

yet another contribution to the scholarly literature. This came to us from Tony Martino via email and we don't know where he got it from actually we do because if you read it carefully it came from the guy who created the symptoms Matt whose last name no one understand graining groaning greening or grounding the graining of America I read that book here it is women women speaking estrogen and men listen in testosterone. And it's basically some more information on the differences between the genders. And I am fascinated by this.

Okay, regarding various topics. I'll just pick a few here. Pray proceed, Watson. Handwriting. To their credit, men do not decorate their penmanship. They just chicken scratch. Women use scented colored stationary and they dot their eyes with circles and hearts. Women use ridiculously large loops in their P's and G's. It's a royal pain to read a note from a woman. Even when she's dumping

you, she puts a smiley face at the end of the note. See, and that's true! Have a nice life! Have a nice life, jerk! Nicknames. If Gloria, Suzanne, Deborah, and Michelle go out for lunch, they call each other Gloria, Suzanne, Deborah, and Michelle. If Mike, Phil, Rob, and Jack go out for a bruski, they refer to each other as Bullethead, Butchy, jocko, Frank, Joe bag of donuts. True. Offspring. Ah, children. A woman knows all about her children.

She knows about their appointments, soccer games, their names, romances, their best friends, their favorite foods, their secret fears, their hopes and their dreams. A man is vaguely aware of some short people who live in the house. This is good. Cats, now we know about cats. Women love cats. Men say they love cats, but when women aren't looking, men kick cats. Now I happen to know that you have had several incidents with your wife's cats. Yes I have. I didn't know cats could fly until that day. Nor did they. My brother actually taught his wife's cat to fly. It was sort of a trial by fire and he learned. Well it had been a particular, I have to explain it now, it had been a particularly exasperating day.

For you or the cat? And I had been expecting an important phone call, and there I was in the, this was in the days before the answering machine. And there I was in the shower trying to unwind, so to speak, whereupon I hear the phone ringing. I jump out of the shower, afraid I'm going to miss my call.

And in doing so I slip and smash my shoulder, which subsequently required a cortisone shot into the doorframe of the bathroom. Oh. I manage however, to get to the phone before it stops ringing. And it's the cat. And I, close, I pick up the phone and I say,

hello, hello, and there's no one there. And I realized that my cat had chewed through the wire. Oh. You know, the curly wire that runs from the receiver to the rest of the unit. It's a lot of fun to play with that. As he liked to do. Yeah.

That's the day he learned to fly. Yeah. Well, it's a good day. It wasn't anything cruel. I'm sure he stood off from the crowd. He did. Not every cat can do that. It bonded us.

We were closer than ever for those next few days. No, he was pretty far away from you. For those next few days that he lived. By the way, I should tell everyone that has been listening. If you haven't been listening, then it won't make any difference, but for those of you that have been listening, we've been on vacation. And my brother divulged before we were on the air that he knows a little less about cars than he did four weeks ago.

And I can't imagine how that could be possible. Oh, yeah, if you didn't know a little less, but no at least I could recognize Occasionally I'd say oh there goes a one of those Japanese what Toyotas But as often as the case when you've done something for a very long period of time It comes back to you So I'm sure that I'm gonna try that that just like falling off a bicycle comes back to you Yeah, that the doing the show will come back to you Oh, it's in due time. So let's let's just shot. Give it a shot. What's the number one eight eight eight car talk? That's eight eight eight two two seven eight two five five. Hello. You're on car talk. Hi, Tom

I'm Wendy from Washington DC Wendy or Wendy when no Wendy is Chicago, Wendy is Chicago. Wendy. No, they call my brother Windy. Well, we won't discuss that polite company. So you're not a politician or a lawyer, are you, Wendy? No, I'm not. I'm a grad student. Grad student. Studying law?

Studying. I'm doing business, my MBA. Oh, that's even worse. Really? All right, but we'll talk to you anyway. Okay, thanks. What's shaking? Well, I have a problem with a 1970 VW Beetle.

Yeah. It's been sitting in my parents garage. For how long? For about two years now. Oh. So my idea is kind of off the top of my head was that oh I could fly out and I could drive back the car and I'd have this cute little car and putt around the city. Where do they live? They live in Wichita, Kansas. What are you nuts? Impossible. You're gonna fly to Wichita and you think you're gonna make it back to Washington DC with us? Okay, well that was my question. Do you think it'll make it or do you think it's worth it? How close are you to getting your degree? No and no. What? How close are you to obtaining it? One year. One year? Yeah. Oh. Yeah? So. I one year one year yeah yeah so I don't think you're ready yet well she's not she didn't take that decision-making car that car they have

it be sitting in the garage at my parents see they don't want to sell the car here's the deal it is very unlikely that you'll make it back from what you talk Kansas to Washington D.C. And it seems like a good idea, but it really isn't a very good idea. On the other hand, in the words of the immortal Warner Oland, or Sydney Tolar. You could die of boredom by not taking any chances. It's often attributed to Confucius, but I believe it was Sydney told her who played Charlie Chan in the movies the world's longest journey begins with a single step so you could

try driving from like we're kind of like a you know an Odyssey I could make what if you made it from Wichita to Topeka that the wrong direction that's the right direction relatively speaking the right direction. Yeah, if you did that, turn around and go right back. Then you'd have proven that the car could go that far. If it can go a little distance. And if you can extrapolate, if it can go 50 miles, why can't it go 500? Right.

In 50 mile increments. Sure. So I would take little trips with it and hobble your way across the country. And don't ever mention the fact that you're going to go all the way to DC. Not in the car. The car won't know. The car thinks you're going, hey, you say, hey, hon, let's hop down to the supermarket and buy a quarter of vanilla ice cream.

The car says, I can do that. That's nothing. And the way you convey this to the car is you never put more than two dollars worth of gas in the tank at a time. Right. So it's kind of from gas station to gas station. I think that's what you have to do. You have to fool the car and then say, surprise, we're in Washington. And it'll fall apart.

I mean, you've got the rest of the summer to do this because we know you're just goofing off in Washington. That's true. So, okay, it would take a long time. No, here's my alternative, and I think you will find it interesting, enlightening, and charming. Okay. Toe it back. You hire a teenager to drive it. No, you hire a company to flat-bed it to Washington. I've thought about that, but I don't want it to be so expensive. No. Well, first of all, it's not that expensive. Don't forget, you still have to buy a one-way ticket to Kansas,

which they're going to charge the dickens out of you for. Yeah, that's true. I mean, you can do that for less than the airplane ticket, I will bet you. And for less time. You'll be sitting in your apartment and the bell, the doorbell will ring. And the guy says, your car is here, madam. The car will say, Candy Graham! I've brought the car around, madam. And you say, fine.

And I think the advantage of this is you can stick your father, why pay the repair bills all the way across the country Where you can have dad fix up the car before it leaves Kansas That's the plan and you won't have to spend that very boring weekend with mom and dad And that's two weeks driving from Kansas Yeah, well, it's better to be upfront. See, Wendy. Thank you. Good luck. Good luck. Bye. Bye bye. OK, we have to pause right now and take a break.

Pause for station identification? Is this where we go powder on noses? Powder? Powder? The only thing that's going to help your nose is maybe gun powder. We'll be back in a minute. The Nintendo Switch 2 is already the fastest-selling video game console of all time. That's despite the technology behind it lagging years behind its competitors.

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Actually awful Marvel movies. Reboots. Pop music. Prestige dramas. Netflix, Netflix Slop. That's 15 years of buzzy pop culture chit chat. And here's to many more with you along for the ride. Listen to Pop Culture Happy Hour on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, we're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us,

Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers, and we're here to discuss cars, car repair, and killing time at work. Now, our regular listener knows that the puzzler has been AWOL for several weeks now. Our regular listener? We only have one listener now? We had six. We may be down to none. We don't know. But should you find yourself in urgent need of a puzzler, if you suddenly turn to the person next to you and say whoa I gotta take a puzzler Here's what you can do just go to the car talk session of cars.com And we'll provide you with a car talk puzzler from the archives

Oh, and if we're feeling generous, we'll throw in the answer, too So if you're if you're desperate, you're lonely you have to do, and no one at work will talk to you. Yeah, this is the thing to do. Visit the CarTalkSessionofCars.com and get yourself a puzzler. It will cheer you up. Hey, do you know what it's time for? Time to cut ourselves a deal for transactional immunity?

No, no, no. It's time to play Stomp the Chumps! Now Stump the Chumps, for you people who haven't been here before, is that portion of the show where we invite a caller from a previous show back onto the air to tell if our advice was any good at all. And more importantly, why it wasn't. So who's this week's chump stumper? Well, according to the little notes I have here, it's Kate from Toledo. And I'm sure our producers picked Kate solely for her ability to make us look stupid.

And how hard was that? So all right, what's Kate's problem? Kate's Volvo 940 turbo occasionally wouldn't start. But what made things complicated for us is that Kate's husband. Kate's Volvo 940 turbo occasionally wouldn't start, but what made things complicated for us is that Kate's husband is a mechanic and he couldn't figure it out. I'm beginning to remember this call vaguely. Is he incompetent or something? Kate didn't seem to think so. No, he wasn't incompetent. He is a good mechanic and the reason I can tell he's a good mechanic is because he just recently sold his 30 foot boat and he's looking for a bigger one

Is there a correlation between the mechanics competency and the size of his boat Oh, yeah, the more incompetent the mechanic the bigger the boat. So what do we tell her anyway? I don't remember but it says here Well, her husband helped us by figuring out that it was getting spark and he replaced all kinds of stuff so we picked a fuel pump relay because it was something small that he could have easily overlooked and we couldn't think of anything else as I recall. Alright. Kate, are you there?

I am here. Alright, now before you roundly embarrass us on Stump the Chumps, we have to ascertain the following. Is it true that you have not been offered transactional immunity by anyone at National Public Radio or Car Talk Plaza in exchange for a favorable answer here today? Is that true? That is true. Now would you like some transactional immunity? Alright, now how did we do? Well you actually gave me two pieces of advice. One was to change the relight, which he did do. The second was

to hook up some kind of a timing light to make sure that at the time that it wasn't working it was getting sparked. Right. And? And? Well, we did change the relay. And? It failed. But? But? I sense that there's more to the story. Well, there is. The second thing was to hook up the light. Yes. After he had changed the relay, he was going to get to hooking to the story. Well, there is. The second thing was to hook up the light. Yes. After he had changed the relay, he was going to get to hooking up the light. The car failed two times before he got to hooking up the light. And he found out it was a spark problem. Oh, no.

I said I'd had enough. We were on the verge of divorce, and so I did the American thing. I went and sold the car to some other person that... Wait, wait. So we don't even know what was wrong with it No You can't play something chumps if you sold the car Well, we can't that relay did not work. The really didn't work We lost on that one you lost on the relay

But I did put on a piece of sticky tape inside the glove compartment your phone number so that the next order could contact you. So we may get a call. Yes. With someone with the same problem and we still won't know the answer. But we'll know. That it's not the real fuel pump relay. We can say with certainty that it's not the fuel pump relay.

We know for certainty it's that. Did you divulge to the new owner that there was anything wrong with it or there might be something wrong or do you just? I have listened to your show much too long. So you didn't divulge? No, so I've been had stupid. They want something like that. Right.

No, you just sold it. It started the day they came to drive it around and it was all, this is the greatest car. See you later. Have fun. Good luck. That's exactly right. If Ken Starr gets a hold of this tape, we're done for. Well, Kate, thank you for playing Stump the Chumps. I wish we could have helped you or whoever.

Well, it was a real honor to be part of your show. Well, we may get our chance yet because of that taped phone number. Yeah. So to speak. It's coming around a second time, I'm telling you. All right. Thanks for playing, Kate. OK, guys. Bye. Bye. Yeah. So to speak. It's coming around a second time I'm telling you. All right thanks for playing Kate. Okay guys. Bye. Bye. Bye. If you want to talk to us about an important problem our number is 1-888-CAR-TALK that's 888-227-8255. What about the AAA-227-8255? Hey that slipped right off the tip of my tongue. Did you see that? Scary. Hello you're on Car Talk.

Hey, this is Carolee and I'm calling you from Pensacola, Florida. Carolee? Yes. C-A-R-A-L-E-E? Oh, no. K-A-R. It's K-A-R-I-L-Y. Carolee?

Yeah. Yeah, and my dad made it up, so I have to give him credit for that. He made it up? It's different. Yeah, he did. Why did... How he did why did how do you do that combination of a couple of people's names actually here's the story i was born they didn't have a name for me they decided to wait a couple days and think about it yeah my dad went home from the hospital made up the name on the way home because my mom's name is karen and his is jeffrey lind so they just took parts of it put it all together he there were people calling the hospital hospital saying hey how's caroling and

my mom didn't even know it was my name cool yeah it's a cool story she i'd like it's i i suppose it's nice to have a completely and i mean that no one else has it really if it's really cool cuz you know any i get a lot of attention to everybody wants to know how to spell caroling is a little while exactly exactly and fairly everything sar everything. Sarah Lee, Sarah Lee. Oh, and nobody does it like Sarah Lee. I like it, I like it, I like it. So what's on your mind today? Well, actually, you know, I have a car problem, but I kind of need a

little bit of, I don't know, like premarital counseling. Oh. Yeah, that's why I'm calling you. This is my situation. I am madly in love with a young man. We've been together for almost two years. Oh, I love stuff like this. Oh, that's great. His name is Sam and he's just perfect. Is he madly in love with you? Oh, even more than I'm in love with him. Really? It's wonderful. That's great. It's perfect. And how did you two find each other? Well, I'm a college student and he was dating my roommate. And he's a 50 year old professor, right? No, I'm sorry. What is he?

Actually, no, he's a master's student here and I'm an undergrad. Oh, so he's just a few years older than you. Yeah, but he was dating my roommate when I got here, but... And you stole him away. That's how we met, yeah. Oh, wow. It's a good story. And the roommate, do you want the roommates will speaker

actually we do it was really really rough for about two months but it's good now yes they communicate via death threats well i'm kind of interested in how this happens to me she's your roommate he comes so well that one day he shows up the dvd box on the door to pick her up to go on the day i know it was better than that it better than that you know the sort of it details us all right well when i met him he was an undergrad he was a junior yes and i was a a brand new freshman here yeah and they you know they had they had

just started today and they were doing that and you know going to put a good and he and i i would be to major in here to be to minor so we had one speech class together. And you were speechless at this time. Yeah. So you knew each other. Yeah. So you had already, you had already sort of checked him out? No, exactly the opposite. They had talked on the phone and I had seen a picture but I just thought yeah you know whatever some guy. Yeah. So then one day I'm on my way to the speech class and my roommate stops me and she says hey You know, could you give Sam this note? So I'm whatever, you know, whoever I don't know the way

Yeah, so I bring in the note and when I hand it to him, you know I could care less and he says hey is this from you and I said why would I write you? I don't have a reason said maybe you shouldn't I said maybe you should give me a reason Exactly and then the next day we got into a long conversation and ever since then he's been mine. Wow. Exactly but I mean he's perfect. So he had the hearts for you already but he didn't know how to really approach it and this was his line, maybe you should give me a note. That's how I feel. Wow. That was good. So you're both guilty, you're both going to burn in hell. But anyway, what problem are you having with your car?

Well actually, I don't have a car. That's why I'm calling you. This is my situation. Why don't you go steal one like you got the boyfriend? Sure, maybe your roommate has a car you can steal. Yeah, you can take her car too. What the hell? Yeah, I need to find roommates with nice cars. stilte

he tried to play at a church cell but you know what you know it'll be two years in november and we're talking you know down the road we've got a couple marriage plans probably in a year year-and-a-half maybe two years yeah and i feel like it's fine for him to drive the the tercel but when we're married you know later on i'd feel like it's fine for him to drive the Tercel, but when we're married, you know, later on, I just feel like I need a Volvo. What's his major?

He graduated with a degree in youth ministries. He wants to be a youth pastor, but he's getting his master's in education. You're not going to be driving no stinking Volvo. Well, you might be a 76 Volvo. But he doesn't want one. Oh, he doesn't want one. Why do you want something as swinging as a Volvo? Why do I want it? Yeah I mean what's the what's I know they're I mean I know they're sexy and racy and all that I mean you know and they're

irresistible. But guys the thing is I don't even want one of the new ones I really just want one of like the old 80s ones where they're all boxy. The real boxy ones you know what i want to say this side up with the right and i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i just i want one okay you don't have it it's yours you know you'll have it yeah well he doesn't want one

well he doesn't have it i don't think that he doesn't want one but whenever he here's the thing if we get a ball bone i will be the primary driver and that means that naturally because i'm an absolute horrible driver will need a lot of repairs done frequently on it yeah yeah yeah okay yeah so he says

it would be a bad idea to get one because supposedly you have to order the parts from over see there something it's really and you know i don't know what to pay them to buy anything about cars and i don't know you know hey yeah you can buy part here it'll be cheap to try this if you don't know what the sale you're not it's true that volvo parts are made overseas that is a young foreign swedish

made car they sell more cars here than they sell over there will keep that right side but you, that's bogus. But what if we do need repairs? He doesn't want one because he says it wouldn't be smart and, you know, I'd have accidents all the time anyway. Well, here's what you tell him. He's got a Tercel, Japanese, and you just tell him that Sweden is much closer than Japan. Good idea. So we'll get the parts in half the time. Okay. So whatever time it takes to get parts for his Tercel, it parts in half the time. Okay, so whatever time it takes to get parts for his trucelle It'll be half the time. Yeah, and moreover if you are accident prone, what's better to drive than a Volvo?

They're built like tanks exactly and besides he must have known by he must have figured out by now that whatever you want You gonna get well, that's the way it is simple as that. That's the way it is I don't even know if he cares about the time I think it's just like he says the parts would be expensive to order They are expensive Volvo parts are more expensive than they are for to sell certainly yeah, and don't worry about it Well, that's how I feel yeah, and tell him if it doesn't shape up. You're gonna give him back to your old roommate Then I know I'll get a Volvo. He's pining away. I'm sure you're gonna find another roommate with a Volvo See you caroling Pining away, I'm sure. And you're gonna find another roommate with a ball ball. See ya, Carolee. Alright, thanks for your help.

Good luck and thank you for calling. Alright, bye bye. Bye bye. Okay, it's time to take another short break. Why do we ever take any long breaks? Well, we will eventually. It's called getting cancerous. But for now, we'll be back in just a minute.

On NPR's Wild Card podcast, Michelle Obama says she's reinventing herself. I don't know if my ambition has ever fully been able to actualize itself. I think I'm now at a stage in my life where all my choices are mine. I'm Rachel Martin. Listen to Wild Card for a conversation about balancing family and personal growth with Michelle Obama. On NPR's Throughline, Schoolhouses are less expensive than rebellions. We've been debating the government's role in education since the Civil War.

A tenth of our national debt would have saved us the blood and treasure of the late war. How the Department of Education tried to fix a divided nation. Listen to Thru Line wherever you get your podcasts. At Planet Money, we know that economic jargon can sometimes feel like speaking another language. Yeah, like arbitrage, alpha, autarky. That's just what's in the news these days. There's also absolute advantage, aggregate demand. Aggregate just what's in the news these days. There's also Absolute Advantage, Aggregate Demand. Aggregate Supply.

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or catch up on the latest news with the NPR News Now podcast. Listen in the time it takes you to do any of those other activities or while doing them. We bring you the stories you need to know in just five minutes, every hour of every day. Listen now to the NPR News Now podcast. We're back listening to Car Talk with us. Don't do that! You woke me up out of a deep sleep. We're Click and Clack the Tapper Brothers and we're here to discuss cars, car repair

and the new, oh, the used puzzler. Oh, used, new and used. As both of our listeners know, every summer the puzzler goes on vacation, and this is a chance to get refreshed, renewed, reinvigorated, reinvented, what? And less lousy. Less lousy. But we know that some of you just can't go a whole week without a car talk puzzle, so for you we have what? Psychopharmaceutical drug therapy.

No, for you we have our classic puzzler archive. Every week that the puzzle is on vacation, we'll post a classic Car Talk Puzzler on our website. So if you're bored at work, bored on vacation, just head to the Car Talk section of Cars.com and every week you'll find a brand new used, brand new used puzzler. There, how's that? www.cars.com and when you get there you'll see Car Talk. And it's time for all of you loyal listeners to send in your puzzler submissions for consideration for the upcoming fall season.

Oh, you mean we haven't been asking? So all of you that have the puzzler about the three guys that go to the hotel, send it. And don't send in just one copy. When you click on send, you keep doing that. Make sure that we get eight, nine, 10 copies of that email. Yeah. I mean, don't risk it. Because we don't know that one.

No, we don't know that one. The one about the liars and the truth tellers, we don't know that one either. So make sure every week you send us a copy of that. We want to make sure that we get multiple copies. Excellent, yeah. And of course,. We want to make sure that we get multiple copies. Excellent. Yeah. So, and, and of course, if you want to write to us, uh, it's Puzzler Tower,

Car Talk Plaza, Box 3500, Harvard Square, Cambridge, our fair city, Matt 02238. Of course our email address can be obtained from the Car Talk section of cars.com. Yep. Call us. Yeah. What's the number? 1-888-CAR-TALK, that's 888-227-8255. Hello, you're on Car Talk.

Hello, this is Nikki Palmer calling from North Carolina. Nikki, with two K's? Yes. Excellent! Two K's and an I, no E. No, no, I got an N-I-K. Two I's, right? Right.

From North Carolina. Right, North Carolina, right North Carolina What's up, Nikki? Well, I have a 1989 Nissan Sentra Mm-hmm. It's a fact. It's a four-speed and I wrecked it and I totaled it you did right on the right Cornerside, huh? I mean, it's just the body. That's really That that makes it total. Yeah, that's what happened to me too. The brain works, the body's gone though. I mean the junkyard will only give me a hundred dollars for it. I was thinking

about selling parts from it, but how can I do that and be sure that the parts that I sell, that's the only thing that the mechanics are taking. Oh, I see. So you plan to like put this out in the front yard and put a sign, like with a lemonade stand next to it. So people can come and buy a glass of lemonade and take off an alternator. Do you think that'll work? Well, I mean, have you given up on the idea of keeping the car? The man, the man told me, the man who gave me the estimate at the body shop said that if anybody tells me that they can fix that car for under $2,000, they're lying.

Well, I suspect that you have frame damage. Yeah. So you have to probably get rid of it, and you need to find someone who has the same car that needs an engine and transmission. You need to put an ad in one of those, what do they call them, those bargain hunters' guide. Not the newspaper. There's a magazine which we have in this era, it's a one ad type magazine for cars.

And it lists all kinds of cars for sale. And you can even advertise your car and maybe sell it to someone who has a Nissan Sentra But has blown the engine and they may give you like 300 bucks for the car Yeah But I think that's about as much as you can expect to get because if you're gonna try to sell all the Individual parts off the car by putting it on your front lawn with a lemonade stand That's gonna be hard to do. That's really hard Yeah, every weekend you'll be sitting out there with the car every weekend.

Yeah, you could read a lot of books. It wouldn't be bad. But it's tough to do. I understand your idea that the pieces of the car gotta be worth a heck of a lot more than a hundred bucks. And they are. That's why junk yards are in business. Because they will take the car, they'll give you a hundred bucks and they are that's why junkyards are in business because they will take the car they'll give you a hundred bucks for it and they'll sell the engine for 250 and they'll sell the transmission for 195 and they'll sell all these different pieces of the alternator for 29.95. Nikki, take the hundred bucks! Yeah.

Take the hundred. If someone has offered you a hundred bucks for this car grab it. Really? Yeah and spend the weekend at the beach or something! Yeah. Take the 100. If someone has offered you 100 bucks for this car, grab it. Really? Yeah, and spend the weekend at the beach or something. Yeah. Good luck, Nikki. Okay. And if you find another car, call us.

Thanks a lot. See ya. Bye bye. See ya. Bye bye. 1-888-227-8255. Hello, you're on Car Talk. This is Eric calling from Philadelphia.

Eric with a C. Eric with a C. Philadelphia. And an E and an R and an I. Yeah, we got that part. This is Eric Cohen from Philadelphia. Eric with a C. Eric with a C. Philadelphia. And an E and an R and an I. Yeah we got that part. What's the deal with Philadelphia? Is Philadelphia okay? You know I spent four years here and I've loved every minute of it. Really? Mm-hmm. Are you a student at UPenn? I am a student at UPenn at the medical school. No kidding. Yep. I mean people always say that that's part of town is bad, dangerous.

No. What better place to have the medical students? You get a lot of emergency room experience. Exactly. It has its character. So what's shaking, Eric? Well, the thing is, I've got a 91 LeBaron that's just been killing me for a long time now and I was hoping you could help me out.

I'll bet it yes. Yeah. Well, I spent the past year out of the country and I left the car with my brother and when I came back he noticed a small problem with it that it no longer liked to accelerate too often. We'd go to get on the highway and it just kind of putter along coming up slowly, slowly, slowly. Yeah. So I brought it into a shop and uh... they said to me well you think it's in the transmission for the engine they're asking you they're asking me that

but i thought that i was i have no idea what the difference is have been an anatomy question i could have handled it but then it started making this noise coming from the engine it sounded like engine supposing going up up up up up up up up up up up non-stop started making this noise coming from the engine it sounded like engine supposing going but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but but non-stop went on for a few days brought into another shop they're like oh your engines probably gonna die need to be replaced very very soon what am I

supposed to do with that I'm a student I don't have the money to replace it. I suspect that they failed to look at one very simple thing it's not not simple to fix, but they overlooked the fact that this has bad compression on one cylinder. Bad compression? Or maybe a couple of cylinders. Okay. Does it have a million miles on it? No, that's the thing. It's only got 72,000 miles on it.

Well, that doesn't mean it can't have a bad cylinder. And the reason it's got low power is that it ain't kicking. What is it, a four cylinder? Maybe a six. I think it's got low power is that it ain't kicking. What is it, a four cylinder? Might be a six. I think it's a six cylinder actually. Does it seem to run rough at idle now? No, no, not too much. Not too much.

You know, after it started making the noise and I was told that it needed to have the engine replaced, I was like, well, you know, what could I do to lower that? They're like, well, why don't you put in some thicker oil, like a 2050? So I brought it to go get the oil changed. And then I had two shops refuse to change my oil for me. Oh, that bad. Because of the noise. Oh, yeah, they don't want to be the last one. It's just, no. I'm sure it's a constant, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum.

There's got to be an analogy in the medical profession. Yeah, I mean, this is a good experience. Sure, a guy comes in and you look, I'm sorry, I can't look at you because I'm sure that you're done for. That's called managed healthcare. Ah, that's how it works. There you go. Well I'm sure they hear something that's very bad

and they don't want to be responsible for doing its final oil change. Because you'll come back and sue them and claim that they didn't put the plug back in and you lost all your oil And it's seized and this problem may be unrelated to your other problem. All right. Yeah, I was Just gonna say the same thing what happened was eventually I did I put oil in on myself and most of the noise has gone away But still occasionally it's not accelerating and now I'm just wondering am I sitting on a time bomb?

Yeah No I think the engines done for and I think it would be interesting and it would be an interesting academic exercise to discover why it has low power but it's a moot point because the engine is gonna blow up in three days. Oh three days. Here's what I would do, do you change the oil or you added oil? I just added oil and now that the noise has gone away I'm thinking about getting it changed.

Oh you gotta change the oil even if you do it yourself. Okay. Which is another technique I really don't have under my belt. No you take it someplace and ask them to put in 20-50 motor oil. Right. And I would strongly recommend motor honey. Motor honey? Rizloan. Rizloan.

Rizloan. Okay. It's an oil system additive. It's an additive and it will quiet that baby right down. Now do I, when they change the oil, do I add them to Aspen? Yes. Oh no no. I would do this at night.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Alright. So under a full moon. Under a full moon. Be prepared for the absolute worst, Eric. Oh, God. That's not what I needed to hear. This is not good.

No, it's not good, but interesting. Good luck, Eric. See you, Dr. Eric. Thanks a lot. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Well, it's happened again. You've squandered another perfectly good hour listening to Card Talk.

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