The Best of Car Talk - #2556: Jeep Mangler

Episode Date: July 15, 2025

Gary was about to go pick up his Jeep from his mechanic when they called him to say that there had been a 'mishap'. Turns out that this shop's idea of a 'mishap' also includes dropping vehicles from great heights off of the lift. Find out if THAT's gonna 'buff right 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. Hello and welcome to car talk from National Public Radio with us clicking clack the tapper brothers and we're broadcasting this week from the murky Research facility here at car talk Plaza now the lab itself the very lab

Now murky Paul murky passed this along to me this week I think he was actually a little jealous that he didn't publish this first But it's such groundbreaking research that he just couldn't withhold it from us. So here it is It brings up issues that are deeper than we could possibly appreciate. Oh, yes, indeed. I mean, here it is. I mean, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The Lawrence Welk National Laboratory.

Bubbles, bubbles. Thank you, Bobby and Mary Ann. No one tickles those ivories like a Norma Zimmer. That was great, Norma. Is he still dead? I think so. Well, these guys out there in Berkeley, they study- And now Bobby and Marianne would like to do a song

for you from the gay 90s. Hit it to Bobby and Marianne. Wait, we're talking research here. They do a study, and they study, of all things, duct tape. Wonderful, wonderful. Wonderful, wonderful. And they discover two things. Duct tape is magnificent, as we all know.

I mean, my son's car is practically made of duct tape. It is. And except for one thing that you really shouldn't use it for and that is taping ducts. Ducts. D-U-C-T-S. Really? That's the only thing it doesn't,

of all the things they tested, that's the only thing it doesn't work on. And yet we, the poor, gullible, consuming public, have for centuries perhaps been led to believe that... This is the Crusaders. Of course. I mean, when you go back to the pyramids and you look at the heating system... Duct tape. Duct tape. And yet the stuff doesn't work.

Well, where did it get its name? It makes you wonder about some other stuff, doesn't it? Was this government-funded research? Of course. Of course it was. I'm just wondering if there are other products which bear names like duck tape. I can't think of any of course, but we've been led to believe something about which probably isn't true. Well I'm sure the vast majority of Americans do not know from whence the name arose. No. Because no one has ever taped a duct except for... There's five or six guys in the country.

...heating and ventilation people. Yeah. When was the last time you taped a duct? I haven't. But all the ducks in my house Yeah. When was the last time you taped a duck? I haven't. But all the ducks in my house... How about a duck? You ever tape a duck? I tape a goose.

No, but all the duck-tits in my house are taped with duck-tick tape. And they're obviously malfunctioning. No, and what it says is you get very serious leakage. That's where half the heat of your house goes, out through these little spaces down in the basement. Well, I know the solution to that. Live in the basement. Do you call?

Never mind, if you want to talk to us, the number is 1-888-CAR-TALK, that's 888-227-8255. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Joanne. Hi Joanne. Oh, is this J-O-A-N-N-E one word no E one word no E no E oh your family too poor for an E? no there are many many ways to spell it. Bosnian extraction I mean they do they do suffer from it there's two vowels already maybe they used up the limit jr family limit well where you from jerry from drexel hill pennsylvania just outside of philly

okay we've got you triangular eyes here so what's going on i'm calling about my dodge grand caravan uh... what happens is when i have my air conditioner on for twenty minutes thirty minutes What happens is when I have my air conditioner on for just 20 minutes, 30 minutes, and I go to turn, make a turn, depending on which way I turn the car, my feet... Oh, this is gonna be a beauty. This is gonna be good.

I can see it coming now. This is gonna be one of those... I'm gonna stump you guys. Stump? We're stumped already. If I make a right hand turn yeah my air conditioners been on for about a half hour yeah my feet get so ah piece of cake oh I thought you're gonna turn yeah

the passengers feet can yeah oh great but you were gonna tell us that the engine cut out and you would take it at the different... Oh, the lights started flashing. Oh no, no. Aliens appeared before you. Do you have a home air conditioner, like a window air conditioner? At home I do, yeah. Have you ever stood outside while the thing was running? No.

Do that sometime. Then you will understand all. All will be clear to you, my child. And it puts that much water out? The way the thing conditions the air is by removing the moisture from it. Well, one of the things it does. One of the things it does, yeah. I mean it drops the temperature and as the temperature drops the air, the water that's in the air condenses out. It turns into, from water vapor into liquid water.

And it gets collected in this vessel where the evaporator is located and there's a little drain pipe, a little hose actually attached to this that's supposed to take this water and dump it out underneath the car. Instead, it's dumping it on my feet. Instead, it's dumping it on your feet. And it's dumping it on your feet because the little drain is plugged up probably with a dead mouse. No, it could be plugged up with anything.

Decayed leaves or lint or God knows, anything could be in there. And once that thing gets plugged up, then the water can't escape the car and it sloshes around in there. You may even hear it sloshing on turns. So you need to go and have your mechanic blow out your evaporator drain. My evaporator drain? Yep. Okay. And that'll do it. That'll do it? It'll take them two minutes. Okay. Cost you 50 bucks. Oh it's a flat rate job. Yeah. Whatever it takes. But that's it and we want to thank you for having our first call of the day so simple. Oh well it's been my pleasure.

Wow. Thanks Joanne. Thanks a lot. See ya. Bye bye. Thanks for calling. Bye. 1-888-CAR-TALK that's 888-227-8255. Hello you're on Car Talk. Hi my name's Lisa I'm from Seattle. Hi Lisa. Is your last name Car? No it's not actually. Okay good. It's supposed to be a general to be on the show. Well we used to have someone on our staff named Lisa Car. Wow did you hire her just for that with this exactly yeah of course we had a further very recent what's up lisa well my car eight seven hundred civic like the most basic model you can get yeah and uh...

the last i don't know two or three months like turn it on it makes the most horrible embarrassing squeak ever and it goes away when i drive when I take off but It's very loud and very embarrassing What is this take it easy on the chumps day? I mean every question we had has been a gimme Evidently this is more complicated Yeah, so I'm I was out of the country for a year and my dad was watching my car and he had an office that before i got home to get to the uh... that the

campaign to go to forever it can have changed all the you know all that uh... felt that i'm sure it would be a problem and uh... tonight started car about a month later at the start so i take a ticket with the oiled and i think by the way can you fix the squeak I'm sure just the belt needs to be tightened you know thinking that would be the end of my problem yeah so he's like well the belt really wasn't that loose but I tightened it and really squeak is there the problem is that the pulley is glazed I'm thinking why are you talking about

donuts I don't know what he's talking about yeah so he's like, I could fix it, but it would be really expensive and you should probably just live with the squeak. No, nay, nay, nay. I know. Nay, nay. Meanwhile, I have the cutest neighbor ever and I'm embarrassed to get in my car and start it in the morning with him out there. Cutest, you said?

Yeah, he's very attractive and I've yet to be able to talk to him. Oh, Lisa. Oh, Lisa. Oh, Lisa. Oh! Lisa! Lisa! Lisa! You jump out of the car, you say, oh my god, what's that? And you start crying!

I can't take it anymore! What's wrong with my cat? It was my favorite cat! Alright, let's get back to serious business here. I've not even been unable to grasp it yet. So he says the pulley is glazed and he wants, he says forget it. The pulley isn't glazed. You have a bare bone, you have no air conditioning or power steering.

I have air conditioning and power steering. Oh you have both of those things. So you don't have a bare bone Civic, you have in fact the luxury model. Oh is it? God I would hate to have the steering. Oh, you have both of those. So you don't have a bare-boned Civic. You have, in fact, the luxury model. Oh, is it? God, I would hate to have the bare-boned. Yeah, you would. Yeah, indeed. Well, it's one of those belts, and the most likely candidate is the alternator, because

when you first start the car, most people don't realize this, that rubber actually contracts as it heats up. So the belt is its loosest when it's cold. So it's most likely to slip if it's loose, obviously, when the belt is the it's loosest when it's cold. So it's most likely to slip if it's loose obviously when the engine is first started and it'll and after you've driven for a minute or so or sometimes longer the noise will go away sometimes you'll find that if you accelerate very quickly rub the engine up very quickly the noise will come back. Well here's what I think I think this this car if I'm

not mistaken has a flat, grooved belt for the alternator. The belts come in two varieties. There's the classic V-belt, which if the belt is looked at in cross-section, looks like a truncated V with the bottom kind of cut off. And then there's the black belt. And then there's the belt that you have on this car for the all today, which is a flat belt Which has a bunch of grooves in it Okay, I think they either put the wrong belt on and are unable to tighten it up enough

And I know that because I've done that myself a few times and it appears the belt is tight enough But it isn't okay. Hence the story about the the glazed grooves on the pulley because he noted every place this belt He's gonna take the other belts off. He doesn't want to do it because it's a pain and he's hoping that you'll go away. Like move to another city. But I think he's put the wrong belt on. The belt is too long.

He needs to take it off and put a shorter belt on, which he can then tension correctly. I need a new belt. Yeah, you need the correct alternator belt. Okay. And that'll fix it. And you need a date. I need a date. With the guy across the Yeah, what's his name? You know, I don't even know that yet Lisa Lisa, you mean you haven't gone and snooped in his mailbox

Lisa Lisa, I know it's all right. I got it when you snoop Take one of the letters Yes, it is but no all fair it's not against the law? Yes, it is, but... All's fair. It's not against the law if you're doing it for a good purpose. And then you ring his bell. Don't you ever have to do that. You just go there, you take the letter, and you ring the bell.

You don't even take it home. And you say, Hi, Dawn? Hi, are you Dawn so-and-so? This came to my house, I guess it's yours. Hi, I'm Lisa. Because my name isn't Dawn it's Lisa and I live right next door and ain't you a hunk? And you can say I used to have a boyfriend named Dawn but we're no longer together.

We just broke up. Yeah yeah we just broke up a few months ago. Yeah I think it's better than the belt advice. I think so too. This way you don't have to cry. Yeah that's not too bad Yeah, you'll probably get arrested for tampering with the U.S. man, but it'll be worth it. See you Lisa. Thank you. Good luck. Thanks for calling. Bye. Okay, it's time to take a short break. This is where we allow our stations to identify

themselves. No, this is where we allow our stations to check the programming menu again and see if there's anything better they can put on in this salon. We'll be back in a minute. This summer on Planet Money Summer School, we're learning about political economy. We're getting into the nitty-gritty of what government does with things like trade, taxes, immigration, and health care. So politics and economics, which are taught separately, they shouldn't be separated at all. I think you have to understand one to really appreciate the other. So what is the right amount of government in our lives? Tune in to Planet Money Summer School from NPR, wherever you get your podcasts.

You know those things you shout at the radio or maybe even at this very NPR podcast? On NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, we actually say those things on the radio and on the podcast. We're rude across all media. We think the news can take it. Listen to NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me wherever you get your podcasts. As AI permeates every aspect of our lives, who are the people behind this huge inflection point? What keeps them up at night? I fear that what it means to be human may suddenly not be our own. We've got a special series from NPR's TED Radio Hour. It's called The Prophets of Technology.

What they got right, wrong, and where these pioneers think we're headed next. Listen to the TED Radio Hour 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 talk about cars, car repair, and the puzzler preseason. This was a brilliant idea. I stole this from the NFL. Why jump right in with the fall puzzler season? Why not work up to it with a puzzler preseason? In fact, the pregame show is on ESPN right now. You know what ESPN stands for? Yeah, embark on some puzzlers, nitwit.

Well, we'll have the first puzzler of the 1998 preseason later on in today's show. In the meantime, we'll take your calls at 1-888-CAR-TALK. That's 888-227-8255. Hike! Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Charlie from Berea, Kentucky. Hi, Charlie. Berea. Berea. B-E-R-E-A. B-E-R-E-A. Berea.

Berea. Berea. Unless you're mowing yards around here. Yeah, like Yogi Berea played for the Yankees. Yeah, hit all those home runs in the World Series. We know him. Yeah. Right. So what's up, Charlie? Well, I've got a 1991 Ford Explorer mm-hmm it's only got 72,000 miles on it a couple of weeks ago

Teresa and I drove across the mountains to Asheville Teresa's potter and we needed to get a ton of clay for her literally a ton of clay literally a ton of clay so I drove to Asheville pulling a trailer loaded up the ton of clay literally a ton of clay so i drove to ashville pulling a trailer loaded up the ton of clay so driving up out of ashville uh... long grade just as the father setting which is in my face i look into the rearview mirror and discover i'm

spewing great clouds of something white smoke white smoke uh... i said all head gasket clouds of something. White smoke? White smoke. So I said, oh, head gasket. Check the gauges. The gauges are good. Pull over. Assertain that I am losing transmission fluid.

And the transmission fluid was down pretty low or you could actually see it leaking out of somewhere? There was none on the dipstick. None? None. Gotcha dipstick. None? None. Gotcha. Okay. So I bought three quarts of transmission fluid and drove a hundred miles, put another quart

of transmission fluid in. And during all this driving, what was the smoke situation? None. None. So two weeks later, I have not burned any or lost any transmission fluid. What's going on? Well, when you when you said you were burning it, I mean it wasn't coming It wasn't burning. I've never gotten a smell of burning. It just lost it. Yeah, you have a transmission cooler line leaking That's what you have. I don't think I mean your transmission isn't burning the stuff up

Uh-huh, but you have a transmission cooler and there are a couple of lines that go to it. You know, hydraulic... You're talking about the radiator, right? Yeah, hydraulic lines. And I bet you one or more of those is leaking just enough to account for the loss. Yeah, I now account for the white smoke. The white smoke was a red herring. Ha ha ha! The white smoke, the white smoke is the blown head gasket that you don't know you have yet.

That's what the white smoke is, Charlie. No, I don't think so. No, I don't think so either. No, I don't think so. I'm not worried about the white smoke. Did I just overheat the transmission? No, I don't believe you overheated. I thought you got a cooler line that's leaking and what's happened is it's obviously going

to leak worse when you're traveling at sustained high engine revs and of driving around town it's not leaking very much and that's why you haven't added anything lately and my brother's theory is that the smoke had nothing whatever to do with it but I mean I would have to say that it hadn't I agree with my brother just as likely that you ran over a bottle of talcum powder That another unfortunate motorist had lost by the side of the road, I think that's what happened I do agree with my brother that I don't think the white smoke had anything to do with the transmission unless it's a blown head Gasket right, but that's not

Because it's a blown head gasket. Right. But that's not the transmission. Because it's impossible, from all my vast knowledge of transmissions and engines and tailpipes, that the three aren't connected in a way that could cause white smoke to blow out the tailpipe. Well, here's the only other- Here's one. Here's one. A transmission fluid leak on a hot exhaust system. Exactly. That's exactly what I was gonna say.

Yes. That you got, somehow you got transmission fluid on the exhaust system somewhere, and that white smoke naturally came out the back because as you're going forward, you're leaving stuff where? Behind you. Behind you. You got it.

And you left the white smoke behind you, and that would be the only logical explanation. I'm sticking with the cooler line. Have your guys. I like the cooler line. Have your shop check the transmission cooler lines and I bet you they find the leak. Okay. All right? All right. Good luck, Charlie.

Thanks. He doesn't believe a word we say. See you later. Okay, bye. Bye-bye. bye bye. 1-888-CAR-TALK that's 1-888-227-8255 hello you're on Car Talk. Hi this is Carolyn. Hi Carolyn. Calling from Boulder Colorado. Is that what an I in E or a Y in? Y in. I had Y in. Y in. From Boulder? From Boulder. Yeah so what's up Carolyn? Okay well first of all I have to start by saying I love my husband.

He is a wonderful guy. But he's a dope, huh? He's a dope, huh? No, no. Well, I mean it's nice that you started off... You gave away his table saw. Okay, no. His Corvette. Okay, no. Now he listens to you guys.

So I'm not, you know, setting you up, but you should side with me of course. Okay. Here's what he does. We have an automatic. We're driving down the road. We're in the city. You know? Comes to a stoplight and throws it in neutral. Throws it into second!

Downshift! Second. I'm like, it's an automatic. You're not supposed to downshift an automatic. Mm-hmm. I think he's wrecking the car. So, Carolyn, what's it to you? Well, first of all, because I have to pay half the car. So Carolyn, what's it to you?

Well, first of all because I have to pay half the car payment Well, it's annoying right that and it's like a man thing. They got it, you know, they're there every minute We don't have a standard keep your hands, you know on the wheel Well, what he really longs for is a stick shift, correct? You gotta buy a stick shift or get off his case. But he's not hurting anything. Oh, come on. No, what can he hurt? Come on, what do you want us to say? Because doesn't the engine automatically downshift so when he does that he's ruining it.

No, he's not ruining anything. He's not ruining anything. He's just doing what the transmission is going to do anyway. It's going to do it but he's doing it first. Preemptively. And that's fine. Or maybe it's already in second by the time he downshifts into second and in which case he's really doing nothing he just thinks he is and that's good enough the

only danger of doing this yeah I've done this in the past not that I downshift coming to lights but I throw it That when you upshift into drive that you go into reverse or some such thing. Or worse than that, you forget that you've downshifted into second. And I found myself on the highway driving at 75 miles, 55 miles an hour. And 8,000 RPM. Driving in second gear. And I would like to apologize to the Chrysler Corporation for the vehicle that I test drove that day. But what are you paying extra for in an automatic so that the engine does this itself, right?

Well, that's all true. It is absolutely unnecessary and we can tell from the tone of your voice that this ticks you off, but it is not injurious to the engine or the transmission. Okay, I can't believe it, really. I know, and I'm sure you're gonna call some other show. The automatic, it's going to second, it's going to third. Call Michael Felbin, he'll probably tell you something different. Call what do you know?

Call Ray Suarez, he knows everything. Oh, that's it, call Ray Suarez. The solution is for him to get a standard. Let him get a stick shift next time. Well you know what you can do you should buy one of those Chrysler's what do they call it? Oh oh yes. Tip shift. Auto stick. Auto stick that's it. And other cars have this as well like yeah Porsche. And what it is it's an automatic transmission but if you want to you can shift up and shift down. That's exactly what he needs.

And that's just what he needs. That way, when he drives, I mean, this is really cute. I mean, you put it in drive. And you go along. But then if you tap the shifter one way, it'll go up a gear. If you tap it the other way, it'll go down a gear. You tap it twice, it goes down two gears. so you can play around with this thing all day oh this oh this is just just for you why does he have to play around it with it anyways because

it's a guy guys like to play around with it I mean what do you want I don't tell you anything more than that it's a guy thing if you don't you have to feel useful I mean men have become so emasculated, we have nothing left to show how good we are at anything. Yet in the car, in the old days at least you had to like double clutch and shift and it was hard and there was no power steering. Yeah, we used to be required to take out the trash, now we have a trash compactor. I mean everything has been taken away from us.

Everything's taken away. Well you know, he used to play with the overdrive button. Over bet overdrive button on overdrive button off every time we get on the highway Yeah, we go in the mountains overdrive button on overdrive button on he was right to do that He was right in especially in the mountains. You have to play around with the overdrive button You women don't understand You women don't understand different, do you? Oh, Tommy's gonna be sleeping in the garage another month. Before my brother gets in deeper trouble, we'll say goodbye, Carolyn. Thanks so much.

Thanks for calling. Thanks for your call. Okay. All right. We'll be right back with more calls and the new puzzler after these messages. 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 supply, and this is just the ace. Oh, animal spirits, and this is just the ace. Oh, animal spirits. That's a pretty good one. Planet Money from NPR. We help you translate the economy so you can understand the world, wherever you get your podcasts.

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Our next season is launching in just a few months. So get us your questions now by emailing howto at npr.org or calling 1-800-424-2935. You have your job, but you also have a life. And you're not just one thing. Neither is the Here and Now Anytime podcast. Every weekday, we break down the biggest story of the day and something else like a new trend everyone's talking about. It's Here and Now Anytime, a daily podcast from NPR and WBUR. podcast from NPR and WBUR. Ha! We're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Clack the Tappert Brothers, and we're here to discuss cars, car repair, and the, the new puzzler.

How long has this been on there? Da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da address is Puzzler Tower in Carrot Town Plaza. Well that was a good one, wasn't it? Full-blown historic. What, you missed it? Well you'll have to tune in next week for the answer. In short. Well you know, I had all summer to work on this one puzzler. I mean, when the puzzle went on vacation,

the idea was it would begin with its hiatus, they're working on the new puzzler for the fall preseason. It's the whole idea. It's the whole idea. And I had hoped it would have been better than this, but this is as good as it gets, evidently. And if this is as good as it gets, imagine what next week's puzzler would be like. But don't forget, this is a preseason.

Preseason, so the scrubs are in there. The scrubs are in there. Just for... It's a throwaway. All right, here it is. You just throw it away. It's historic, folkloric, and probably mostly made up, but it has some merit, I think, anyway. It was a dark and stormy night. Is Mike Barnacle involved? No. Well, I think he wrote

the story, actually. It was a dark and stormy night. The location is a secret airfield somewhere in England during World War II. The RAF had summoned one of England's most noted mathematicians to help them solve a problem. He remained nameless because I don't know his name. He may not have had one. This may be completely bogus. They were having a problem because they were attempting to bomb Germany and because of German anti-aircraft fire based in the ground, the English were suffering tremendous losses and their planes would get shot down. And they realized, the RAF realized that they had to do something. They certainly had to do something to diminish their losses. And they summoned

this mathematician to help them. Now, clearly, they could put armor plating on the bottoms of the fuselages and the wings, and that would solve the problem. I guess if the planes wouldn't fly. Except there were a few problems that resulted from this. Very wide cars. Number one, they would have to be ground-based planes. Number two, their range would be severely diminished. Their ability to carry cargo, i.e. bombs, would be diminished. Their range would be diminished. So they summon this mathematician, and he crawls around underneath the planes and looks at where the bullet holes are. I mean,

there are bullet holes all over the place on these planes, in the wings, in the fuselage, and seemingly distributed randomly on the undersides of these planes. He studies them, perhaps hundreds of planes, and then he makes his recommendation. The question very simply is, what armor plating, if any, did he recommend putting on these planes and why?

You got the picture? How would we know? That's the question. How would you know? I've given you scant few facts. Yeah, okay. I like it. You got the facts.

Historic, folkloric, challenging. What are the other categories? Complete B. And a dark and stormy night. Even that. A dark and stormy night. Yeah. Here he is lying under these planes looking at their underbellies. And finally he says, uh-huh.

Making sketches. Yeah. Taking photographs. He studies hundreds of planes that have returned from these missions. Yeah riddled with bullet holes Yeah, and he says I've got it. I know what to do. Yeah So if you think you know the answer Right it on the back of a $20 bill. We haven't done that for a while. No, I mean our 401k's I think we should read we have to reinstitute that policy. We have to read

Yeah, if you would like to enter the puzzler, write your answer on the back of a $20 bill. And send it to us at Puzzler Tower, Car Talk Plaza, Box 3500, Harvard Square, Cambridge, Our Fair City, Math 02238. Or you can email us your answer from- If you have a credit card. The Car Talk section of Cars.com. 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, it's Gary from Colorado Springs. Gary! How you guys doing? Colorado Springs, yeah. How are you, Gary? I'm doing okay. Great.

Thank you. I'm looking for you guys to calm some fears Let me explain well. We usually put it the opposite and citing riots. We'll do our best well. Thank you I have a 95 Jeep Wrangler and I needed tires and so I went to a local reputable tire store That may not be possible went to a local reputable tire store uh... that might not be possible you're probably right now the possible to put all those words together in a role wait till you hear

i cannot tell us how to pay in slash or entry really okay anyway so i get this card drop it off in the morning i get this call in the afternoon my car is ready okay anyway so i get this card drop it off in the morning i get this call in the afternoon my car is ready and i think great i'll be right down it's just down the street from my office and i'll be right down there to pick it up they said well we had a slight

mishap and i said oh okay and they said well we toward the passenger side mirror off well that's what i want to, it hit the arm of the lift on the way down. Close. Close. Anyway so I said, so how'd that happen? They said, well it fell off the lift. Really? And I said, oh you know I'm thinking to myself, well you know two foot lift, not a big deal, I'm sure they'll fix it, you know reputable all that

kind of good stuff. Yeah. And they said well, it fell from six foot on its nose. Really? Yeah, these are pretty rugged though, these Wranglers. You know, you can drive these into like tall grass and not injure them. Well, that's what they said. They said, you know, it's designed to take a fall like that. Yeah. And so I went down there to look at it. And what had happened was it had fallen on and apparently hit the, I guess the front

leaf spring mounts. Okay. The spring shackles. As a matter of fact, I was picking concrete out of those mounts. Yeah. Really? I was looking at it and it had it had some obviously had to body damage and in fact the mirror was hang off it i'm trying to understand how this happened to me slid off the list well i front end of the gap yes it's it fell off nose first nose

first from but now i didn't see it happen no and i can't imagine why they would have it up at six foot off the ground oh because somebody that makes it harder to like hang tires right sure does but if you're stupid that's the place well so I went ahead and drove it and it seemed to drive okay and then I put it into four-wheel drive and it ground pretty good for a couple of seconds and then it seemed to be fine yeah you know and I said well maybe you know can I have your insurance number and they said well we don't work that way we're self-insured and we'll take it to our shop. My shop was very fast to point out that there was about 18 inches back from the front edge of the both

fenders and the hood there was a crease all the way across the front of the hood, the front of the car. And my guys said, well, we're not sure, but this ain't right. And their shop said, oh, there's absolutely no possible frame damage. And the reason that I'm calling is because I've started to hear a number of rattles that I've never had before. This happened about five months ago actually. Oh and you've let it go this long huh? And I'm just wondering what else could I possibly be looking at down the road that dropping this poor thing. Let me put your mind at ease. Yeah. Uh oh. Let me put your mind at ease. I don't think so.

They wrecked your car. If you were agonizing over this, you don't drop a vehicle from six feet. Uh huh. And they're not designed to be dropped from six feet. Well, that's kind of what I... It's designed to go over bumps and smackacking on occasional tree stump, not without repercussions obviously, but six feet is pretty serious. And understandably, it ain't moving very fast when it starts to fall.

But by the time it hits, if you were picking pieces of concrete out of those front spring shackles, it was moving. Yeah, I tend to agree. And I think you should call the police or some such agency. And you should have done it right at the outset. I did talk to my insurance company. Did they look at the vehicle? My insurance company, what they did was they said that they would have taken care of it all for me, but as long as this company was moving forward. Yeah, they weaseled out of it.

Here's what you should have done. Well, but the next time this happens, you should have had, or for anyone else to whom this happens, you should have had your insurance guy look at it. You should have then taken it to the Jeep dealership. You should have had the Jeep dealership fix it and put a claim into your insurance company, just like you had dropped it off the lift. And then let them sue these bozos at Vinnie's tire shop. But you want the Jeep dealer to fix it, not Vinnie's brother-in-law.

Right. Well, that's why- And the Jeep dealer might have said, this thing is totaled. Well, you know, i thought about that and i can't you know what i was really afraid of is that i could have gotten this thing perhaps totaled and i would have ended up getting a replacement which really isn't replacement it's you know it's it's a cheap but i would have known

any of the history of yeah we're going to have a little bit of this you know that history this one you know i was a change your every three thousand my shintz mission for Yeah, where ever. Yeah, there might have been an improvement over this. You know the history of this one. Yeah, well. Let me see, I changed the oil every 3,000 miles, changed the transmission floor every 12,000 miles, dropped off the lift at 75,000 miles. Yeah, and I just realized how stupid that sounded. Yeah. Yeah, well.

So. Yeah, well, I mean, the answer is that it's very unlikely that there wasn't a lot of damage done to who knows what. I would take it to the Jeep dealer. Also? Yeah, just to be on the safe side and get their written recommendation. Okay, now, yeah. And it may not be too late to do something.

If they really find something wrong, which they can easily trace to the thing having fallen off the lift, then it won't be too late to sue these guys. Well, good luck, Gary. All righty. Well, you know, I knew you guys were going to say the bad, you know, tell me the bad news. I just needed you guys to confirm it, I guess. Yeah, did we rub it in enough? Thank you. Yeah, I appreciate that. Okay, cool.

I'm feeling very good about the fact that you rubbed it in. All right. Thank you, guys. Call again. See you. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Geez. Oh my God. While you've wasted an otherwise perfectly good hour listening to Car Talk, our esteemed producer is Doug, not a slave to fashion, Berman. Our associate producer and Dean of the College of Automusicology is Ken Ed Grimley Rogers. Our assistant producer is Catherine Imelda Ray Marcos and our engineer is Dennis

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