The Best of Car Talk - #2559: Test Drive?

Episode Date: July 26, 2025

Paul has just moved next door to 'Our Fair City' of Cambridge, MA and is embarking on a career as a struggling musician(that's redundant- we know). He's got the band together and he even managed to find a cheap van to haul everything from gig to gig. He did, however, forget one little detail before buying the van. Will Paul's band break up before the van does? 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

Support for NPR comes from NPR member stations and Eric and Wendy Schmidt through the Schmidt Family Foundation, working toward a healthy, resilient, secure world for all on the web at theschmidt.org. Hello and welcome to Car Talk from National Public Radio with us, Clip and Clack the Tablet Brothers and we're broadcasting this week from the Immodest Proposals Division here at Car Talk Plaza. Well, I have one of my usual immodest proposals this week. I have to admit I've been spurred on, encouraged really, by the response that we got to Janet's call a few weeks ago.

You remember Janet? Oh yeah, yeah. No, not really. Janet was going to buy her 16-year-old daughter a BMW Z3. Oh yeah, we asked her if she was adopting. We told her she should increase her medication immediately That was ridiculous to give a 16 year old kid or anybody for that matter such an overpowered car And we got tons of letters saying here here and

Here's the rant An open letter to the people in charge at all the automobile companies listen up because I ain't kiddin' by Dr. Thomas P. Mallozzi. He's, that's for you know what. The other day I had occasion to drive a BMW M Roadster, the souped up version of the Z3 and although I had previously thought I would never meet a convertible I didn't like, I didn't like it. Mostly because it's grossly and unnecessarily overpowered. That got me thinking about other unnecessarily overpowered vehicles that really shouldn't be on the road. After all, they serve no purpose other than to get people into trouble, into accidents, and into the obituaries. Parenthesis, keep your pants on, I know about fun, I'll get to fun in a minute.

As Americans, we've been taught to believe in the power and the sanctity of the free market. Except in rare cases, we don't want the government sticking its inept, corrupt nose into our business. We won't accept governmental controls that would prohibit Ford from manufacturing a Mustang Cobra or a Chrysler, a Viper, a GM, a Corvette. I believe it is that the free market will take care of things. If people don't want it, Ford or Chrysler or a GM or a Toyota or a BMW, etc. wouldn't make it.

Personally, I don't completely agree with this philosophy because it allows individuals and companies to pander to the lowest levels of intelligence and the highest levels of bad taste. In the media, for example, it gives us the likes of Jerry Springer. And can't talk. Jerry Springer and vipers don't make us a better people, nor do they make this country a better place to live. But Jerry Springer is only one person, whereas we have an entire industry, the automotive industry, from which we have the right to expect more. We expect, page two, highly intelligent

executives to have the intelligence and the wisdom to go beyond the anything for a buck mentality. There's a mistake right there. Now, am I just some old fart trying to take away people's freedoms and their joie de vivre, the enjoyment of driving a sporty car? I don't think so. I mean, I've driven sporty cars, MGs, Triumphs, Fiat's. You're good.

You're going to be a sport to drive a Fiat. You don't need excessive unnecessary horsepower to have fun driving a sports car. You don't have to have 350 horsepower to be a sports car. It's the Miata, not far more of a sports car than the Mustang. And don't forget the car which introduced a sports car for the people was the 64 Mustang. Hundreds of thousands of those cars were sold with a perfectly adequate six-cylinder engine which according to Bug Lala, had 145 horsepower. So here is the plan devised by my clever brother and me. You want to make them? Go ahead and make them. Morons want to buy them? Go

ahead and buy them. But we the people don't have to allow you to drive them on the roads that we use. Page three. Kick me if I nod off, will ya. Here's the plan. We won't allow you to register them. There you go. You can buy it but you have to keep it in your driveway and go vroom, vroom. Here's my plea. I am looking for a few brave level-headed politicians, whom the auto oil companies don't have in their pockets, to help me write legislation which will prohibit the registration of certain vehicles. It turns out to be easy to identify those vehicles, and we discussed this last couple of weeks ago on the air. We did.

It's not horsepower. It's horsepower to weight ratio, and I calculated a few of them. For example, that BMW M roadster has a horsepower to weight ratio of 0.08. A Dodge Viper has a horsepower to weight ratio of 0.13. A Mustang Cobra 0.09, a Corvette 0.11. A Toyota Camry on the other hand, four cylinder engine 0.04, six cylinder engine 0.09 a Corvette 0.11 a Toyota Camry on the other hand four-cylinder engine 0.04 six on their engine 0.06 a Chevy suburban Monstrous engine horsepower issue 0.05 a Ford Taurus 0.05 a Miata

Maybe the sportiest car around 0.06 a Volvo 0.06. It's pretty easy to see Certain cars shouldn't be on the road and what's the what's the limit 0.06. A Volvo, 0.06. It's pretty easy to see. Certain cars shouldn't be on the road. And what's the limit? 0.06. That's it. While we're at it, we might as well get them to outlaw radar detectors too. I mean, what the heck, right? Let's do that too. But we don't want to confuse them one thing at a time. You don't want to just do it all in compass? Let's do it all. All right, fine. And you can send a letter to the jerks at Chrysler and tell them what's with this.13 with the Viper. Come on, what is what are you thinking? That's... Now if you want to talk to us, I'll talk to my brother specifically about his new Dodge Viper. The number is 1-888-CAR-TALK, it's 888-227-8255. Hello, you're on Car Talk.

Hi, this is Claudia from Atlanta. Hi, Claudia. How are you? Claudia. I'm good, how are you doing? Fine, thanks. Not bad, not bad. Oh, I'm doing fine. Oh, good. I hope you can help me with a problem I'm having with my car. I hope so. I drive a 1991 Isuzu Stylist that has right now about forty eight thousand mile pot and about eight months ago i realized that i forgot to get my thirty thousand you know and tell well you want to stamp the book for you but i don't want to spell it to us who stamp it and send it back to you know i

actually went and did get it but i had to find a mechanic for a couple of really need to let them yeah so and friends directed me to this great guy named mahmoud from iran he's become my mechanic mahmoud exactly excellent he's now he's super super nice and he'd be only mechanic i've ever talked to write it

feel like i was just going to be absolutely you know completely robbed of all my painting very very no kidding well when i go to my mood garage after my camp i go and i tell him that i'd notice that in the front passenger tire when i turn into like a makeup sharp right hand turned into like a driveway from that area of the car i hear the sound i kind of go back kind of erratic not to i couldn't get a pattern out of it now okay

so i'm i'm a bit well you know let me see if I could figure out he goes over and leans over Kind of on the hood on top of the tire and he kind of like pushes up and down on it If you're like jumping on top of the hood. Yeah, I'm like, well, what is it? He goes, you know, it's your shock absorber There's like some kind of grease thing in the shock absorber Gauge that it's just not as greasy as it should be so it's going up and down it makes that fact i had well you put the great

and he says now i have to replace the whole thing is not a problem uh... and i said okay so then you know this is eight months ago and then i drove away got my kid up and then now it's just doing it all the time i don't have to be turned into the driveway just kind of like that because uh... goes, uh-uh, uh-uh. Right, and if you get out and just push on the bumper. That's exactly what it does.

Because what's happening is the oil that was at the shock absorber, which makes it absorb shock, that's the thing that makes it a damper, has leaked out and the shock absorber is binding as it goes up and down. So there are rubber seals in there which should have been holding the oil in.

They blew the oil leaked out, but what they're doing now is catching that piston as it moves in and out and causing it to grab release grab release and that's why you getting the noise but i don't understand that you that macmo replace the shock no no no no no he said he didn't have to he said it's not a problem all i thought you meant not a problem to replace it don't even fix it

really hard thing you have to worry about it bothers you i thought why don't she's not just out i just want to know if my car's gonna fall off yeah well time to go back and say mark mood it's time to replace it now okay so what i can't exactly ever play the new front struts and you do both of them in the front oh i don't I don't know. Oh yeah, I think so. What do you mean you don't know? I think so, Claudia.

I think so. Okay. Yeah, because if one is that bad, you're going to need the other one as well. Okay, so I should just tell them to replace both of them. Replace both of them. Sure. Because at this point, it's dangerous to drive this car because your right front wheel, and maybe even the left one to some extent, Not making complete contact with the road when you hit bumps

The shock is not doing its job which is to keep the tire on the ground. Oh, that sounds bad That's bad So you may think that all is well But on on the highway at high speed in the rain You have very poor control of your car because your tires Aren't touching the road all the time. And if they ain't touching the road, the car's not going to go where you want it to go.

That's definitely a problem. Yeah, that's no good. So you will get killed if you hit the wrong set of circumstances. Not to mention the fact that you're going to chew up your tires too. So if that doesn't convince you to do it, I don't know what will. Well, no, definitely. I wonder why he told me it wasn't a problem. Well, it wasn't that. Well, it wasn't that. He was right and I

applaud him for being so honest with you. He's only been in the country a short while. He'll learn. No he's really really great but I just wanted to double-check with you guys because it had gotten really bad lately. Well it's nice that you found someone that's really great. Yes. And I'm happy for you. But have him put these sharks in. You need them. Good luck, Claudia. Thanks for calling.

Bye bye. OK, bye bye. Bye bye. Well, before we give the answer to last week's puzzle, we have to take a short break. Why do we have to take a break? I mean, why? Well, so I can figure out the answer.

Ah, good point. OK, we'll be back in a minute. This message comes from Wise, the presenting the new novel Snoop, written by the number one New York Times bestselling author of Restart, Gordon Corman. Snoop is the gripping story of one boy's curiosity that threatens to reveal a town's deepest secrets. This book is available now wherever books are sold. Snoop, written by Gordon Corman.

Support for NPR and the following message come from Yarle and Pamela moan Thanking the people who make public radio great every day and also those who listen Hi, we're back you listening to car talk with us click and clack the Tapper Brothers and we're here to talk about cars car repair And the the answer to last week's puzzle And I made this a very brief puzzler. I can't remember it at all. I didn't think you would. Here it is. I got this from my son, Andrew.

We were at the bookstore one day, and he was perusing one of those books that tells you if you're suitable to becoming a Mensa member. It has a book of logic puzzles and whatever. And of course, he was looking at that, and I was checking out the Xena Warrior Princess calendar. I mean, they were right next to each other.

I couldn't help myself. Yeah. And I did give a hint that if this puzzle were not in the Mensa wannabe book. It would be simple. That you'd probably get it. Yeah. And here it was.

I'm gonna give you a series of numbers. Is this the one about the World War II planes? Yes. Get a pencil pencil write these down Oh, yeah, okay I'm gonna write it down. Okay, two nine Seven nine twelve Mm-hmm and that group of numbers I say represents the number seven seven got it. Okay. Mm-hmm

The next group of numbers is three five zero three comma five comma zero and that represents the number two got it. Okay. Mm-hmm. The next group of numbers is three five zero Three comma five comma zero and that represents the number two got it. The question was how would you write the number ten? Okay, I got it three nine twelve exactly But when it was Embedded in that Mensa book, you say, gee, what if I add these numbers up and maybe they add up to the 7 cubed? Let's see, this could be a base 13 problem. Exactly. All we're doing is substituting each of the numbers, the 297,912, for the letters of the

word 7. So 2 equals S, 9 equals E, seven equals V, and so forth. Right, and then three five zero is T-W-O, and thus three, which is T, nine, which is E, and twelve, which is N, spells ten. And how many other words could you come up with with these few numbers? Well, they can't we can't say a national public radio but i got a time one to to bow even

zven zven you know what zven if you if you if you live in norway your name is two seven nine twelve

yeah that's it cool zven who's our winner this week? oh winner the winner Nine, twelve. Yeah. That's it. Cool. Zen. Who's our winner this week? Oh, winner. The winner is Frank Freeman from Greensboro, North Carolina. And for being chosen at random as our winner, Frank, you're going to get a brand new car. Talk tour jacket. What? What does he get?

What's he get? You're going to win a brand new car. Talk t-shirt. A tour jacket? We're giving those away? We're giving away the tour jacket? That costs like 75 bucks! Like a thousand dollar prize! Holy cow!

Don't worry though, this is the one that Berman spilled that Chezouan and Kurt stuff on. It's actually a beautiful black lined tour style jacket. This is a beautiful thing. With the Car Talk logo embroidered on it and the words Hate Male Division identifying that specific area in which you may work. That's a new item and it's yours Frank from Greensboro for being smart enough to be a member of Mensa. My brother and I are members of Densa, which is a sister organization, a stepchild sort of organization Good work there Frank good work. You're right first person to win the jacket

Wow, you're gonna love it anyway We'll have another new puzzler coming up later in today's show in the meantime We'll take your calls at 1-888 car talk. That's eight double eight double two seven eighty two double five hello you're in car talk Hey guys, this is Paul in Somerville, Massachusetts. Hey hey all America City. Yeah, how y'all doing? We're doing great How you doing Paul? I'm doing good, too. What part of some of all you from I'm in West Somerville. Where's that? My brother knows some of like the back of his head. What's west? It's near Davis Square. Oh!

Yeah, right over there. Oh, the center of the universe. Oh, yes. Cool. And I'm doing what I can to help promote it that way, too. Yeah, good for you. Well, first I gotta say that I'm recently relocated from Mobile, Alabama, where my dad listens to you guys religiously.

So religiously, in fact, that last Christmas, I got him all of your merchandising things. He got a car talk mug and a car talk book and a car talk this and that. Oh, you're the guy. You're the guy who bought all that stuff. Well, he tried to send it back. Yeah, no, we close right after.

As soon as you buy the stuff, we close. Oh, yeah. You're gonna close out sale? That's it. That's it. We have a close up sale. So what's up Paul? Well let's see. I bought a Plymouth Grand Voyager the other day that was actually originally built in 1988. So it's really old and it's got a lot of miles on it. The problem with the van is that when it's idling,

it goes everywhere from, it jumps up to 2,000 RPMs and it dips all the way down to, you know, very low. Sometimes so low that it just dies on me. I really can't afford to just take it into a mechanic and say, you figure out what's wrong. If there's some sort of history of this, I mean, could this be something as simple as spark plugs or could this be a cracked cylinder head or... keep going nothing rings a bell yet you got any other ideas? no that's what i call on you how does it run i mean other than idling poorly or peculiarly does it seem to have good power can you climb hills with it yes it seems to have really good power you know it does fine off the start

uh... and it goes up hills i load it down with all kinds of music equipment drive all over town and it runs fine. And every time you come to a stop like at a traffic light even though if you've been driving for a half an hour it will do this business of going... No if I've been driving for a long time and coming to a stop it's better. It's better but then but if I sit at that stop for a minute and a half it starts up again This is a v6 engine. Yes, and it didn't do this when you test drove it before you bought it test drove it You didn't test drive it out. Yeah It was a Thursday afternoon and I needed the van by Thursday night.

Yeah. Do the words, looks good enough to me, ring a bell. OK, that's fine. You don't have to tell. And has the check engine light ever come on when it's doing this erratic idle? No. Only when it dies.

Yeah. And then, of course, the lights come on. And all the lights come on. Yeah. Have you opened the hood at all? Yes all kinds of all kinds of new stuff did you hear anything peculiar under there well actually when I first got it when it would when it would uh when it was idling and even accelerating I would I would hear like a sound like a whistle almost oh I love it good that's gone you

know you haven't given us it's gone. He says the noise is gone the whistling is good That's okay. That's alright. That's all we needed was the sucking sound of a whistle Ah because you gave all the right answers, you know after 15 or 20 minutes of driving does it still come does it? Is it still there? No, it's not But if I sit there for a while it comes back and boom boom boom boom and do you hear there hear any? Noises you get all your answers were absolutely correct, so thanks for calling I wish you the very best Well, I was pursuing my my my hunch my brother

I'm I but my brother's gonna agree with me on this He have you ever heard my brother agree with me no not yet He's gonna my brother is gonna say it's a vacuum leak. And he's not going to agree with me? You're not going to agree with me? The guy gave every correct answer to my question. I just can't. I can't in all fairness. In all good faith. Really? I just can't. Would a vacuum leak also affect the cruise control? Yes. The cruise control does not work. Oh, that hasn't worked for five years. Guy has...

Forget the cruise control. Paul has answered every question. The engine's ready to blow up and he's worried about the cruise control. He's the guy that didn't even test drive it. Don't... Oh, I'm sorry. He said let's move on from here. Alright, we've moved on.

Well, in spite of your poor judgment, I'm going to tell you how to extricate yourself from this mess. Excellent. If you sit at the wheel and turn the key on and off, don't start it, but go from off to on, off, on, off, on, rapidly within a period of about 15 seconds, and then leave the key on, you'll notice the check engine light will light up. Okay. And then it'll begin to flash, and you'll get one long flash for the tens digits. Okay. And then quicker flashes for the ones column. Gotcha.

So for example, you'll get one, two, and then one, one, which is code, rather one, two, one, which is code 21. Got it. You'd get one, two, one, one, which is code 22. Okay. Yeah, and then. and they will come up in sequence. All right. Okay, so you'll get you won't get a code 13 after you've gotten a code 27. Got it. And if you miss it, you will continue to get the codes, they'll just keep coming back, and the last code you will get is 5 5. Okay. So you'll get five flashes followed by a short pause,

followed by another five flashes. That means I'm done. Okay. Then you can go someplace, maybe like your neighborhood gas station, and ask them if they can tell you what these codes mean. Okay. And then you can start experimenting yourself. I suspect that one of them is going to come up a bad map sensor. All right.

Okay. Or a bad throttle position sensor. Okay, we haven't used that for a while Well, these are common problems that these that these vehicles have all right So and then you can try replacing these things on your own But be aware of the fact that they may not fix it because you don't have the whole the whole diagnostic chart in front of you You're just going by the seat of your pants, but I can tell you're not the kind of guy that does that. I mean, you don't go off half-cocked and just do something bare-brained. You're a studied guy.

No, he's got plans. He plans things. Yeah. Yeah. So if you want this to help you, you've got to have a little bit of luck on your side. Okay. And he will because he's a musician. Exactly.

God watches over musicians because musicians need all the help they can all better still will be called those that disregard all the above haha okay yeah the next the next non rainy Saturday afternoon drive over to nissen bombs auto recycling universe yeah and you can go there and you can they'll direct you to the section of the the the Dodge Caravan Plymouth Voyages And you can merely take off a map sensor off one of those vehicles and put it on yours, okay? That's cool, so you can buy a map sensor and a TPS and a few maybe a few other goodies

Okay, you know for a few bucks my car before this van was a Fiero, so I visited John Oh, you know how to do this, okay. Yeah. So you can find a couple out in the yard there and take these pieces off. Okay. And with any luck, one of them's gonna fix it. Oh, great.

What do you play, Paul? What do I play? Yeah. Drums and guitar, mostly. What kind of music, loud? Yeah, rock. Yeah, loud. Rock, hey, hey, hey.

Here you go. Well, welcome to Summival, Massachusetts, and good luck, man. Thank you very much, guys. See ya. Okay, bye-bye. Y'all take it easy. Alright, it's time to take another short break. Time to gear up for that new puzzler, huh, man?

No, time to take some more ass-men so I can get through the next 20 minutes sitting next to you! Support for NPR and the following message come from the estate of Joan B. Kroc, whose bequest serves as an enduring investment in the future of public radio and seeks to help NPR be the model for high-quality journalism in the 21st century. Ha! We're back listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Collect the Tappet Brothers, and we're here to discuss cars, car repair, and the new puzzler. Yes.

Now, first off, don't send this one. I've gotten this puzzler and the one about the ice cream and Pontiac motor division 5,000 times. If you're of a mind to send in the one about the vanilla ice cream and the Pontiac Motor Division complaint, don't send that one in. I've used it already. I know. And don't send this one anymore because I've been getting this puzzler for about ten years. And you finally decided to use it?

And I finally decided. Well see, if you don't use it, people say, well he doesn't have... Well that's why I'm using it. I'm getting sick of reading it. Here it is. I'll set the scene. Go ahead. It's a dark and stormy night. I knew it. You're on Isla Nublar. Yeah, Jurassic Park stuff.

Jurassic Park stuff. Pterodactyls are circling overhead. Tyrannosaurus rexii are nippingipping at your heels and you're done for. The only hope to escape this hell is to get to the dock. You're driving along this road in your Nissan Pathfinder heading forward. Your hope is the dock and you come to a what? Spoon in the road. You come to the proverbial fork in the road. Now unfortunately on this island there are liars and there are truth tellers. The liars always what?

Lie. And the truth tellers always what? Tell the truth. They do whatever they want to do. They tell the truth. Yeah, I got it. Lo and behold, you come to the fork in the road and there are two guys there. And you know that they always travel in pairs.

There's always one liar and one truth teller. Oh, interesting. But you don't know which is which, and you need to find the road to the dock. Oh. So the question very simply is, what one question could you ask either one of them that would unquestionably get you onto the right road

and to safety where your boat awaits at the dock, obviously? Got it? I got it. I got the answer, too. You can't make any threatening at the dock, obviously. Got it? I got it. I got the answer too. You can't make any threatening statements. Oh, okay. You can't threaten to cut anything off. It's going to be a question.

You can ask either guy one question. Yeah. And he's going to give you an answer. And in doing so, you have to be able to ascertain without a doubt that that's the road to the dock. Yeah. Okay? Yeah, I like it.

And you can point too. You can mention this road, that road, but you can ask one question. What's the question? If you think you know the answer, write it 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. Matt 02238. You can also do an electronic fund transfer and email your answer on a $20 bill

To us from the car talk section of cars comm if you'd like to call us the numbers 1 8 8 8 car talk That's 8 8 8 2 2 7 8 2 5 5. Hello. You're on car talk. Hey guys. How are you? This is Mike from New Jersey. Hey, my you're doing Mike. I'm doing okay. What's happening? You have dual registry Yeah, doesn't everyone? Do you have dual registry? Dual registry? Yeah, doesn't everyone in New Jersey have dual registry? I'm not sure what that means, actually. No, never mind. No, they weren't in ships register.

Oh, ships register in two different countries? Yeah. It's like a ship thing. Oh, so you register your car in New Jersey and in some other state where it's cheaper. Oh, okay. No, I guess I'm just not savvy enough to do that kind of thing. thing also you register your car in new jersey and and in some of the state where it's cheaper uh... i guess i'm not happy enough to do that uh... well everyone in new hampshire uh...

no i don't know that i don't start but i don't know that that that that that so what's going on mike i have a nineteen eighty seven nissan stanza and it's got well over a hundred,000 miles on it and it drives great except for one little thing and that is when I first start the car up I can barely steer it for the first about minute that the car started it's like the power steering isn't there and I've almost hit a couple of things going out

of my driveway after about after about a minute the steering seems to you know sort of come back and it's a lot more controllable. Do you have any idea what that is? Is this GM syndrome in a stanza? Could be. Is it worse when the weather's cold? Yeah. Yeah, it is.

Although, you know, it used to be I only had the problem in the winter. Now, even in the summer when I started up, I have to do it. Oh, wait till this winter comes. Oh, yeah. Oh, man. I'm going to have to get that thing warmed up like half an hour before I get in it. Well, in fact, it might be cheaper if you figure the cost of a new rack and pinion, Oh yeah. I'm gonna have to get that thing warmed up like a half an hour before I get in it. Well in fact it might be cheaper if you figure the cost of a new rack and pinion, which is gonna be, I don't know, many hundreds of dollars.

Five. Oh, more money. Seven. Yeah, it might be cheaper for you to just leave the car running all winter. Yeah, yeah. Alright. I think so. I mean. Makes sense to me. Yeah, how much do the gas costs? It is dangerous though.

But it would be especially dangerous if someone else were driving your car. At least you now know that you should wait a minute before you actually try to steer it. That's right. But it is bad. Yeah. It's almost a certainty that it's the rack and pinion. Although I will confess that I haven't seen any other stanzas with this problem. And of course it could be the power steering pump. You

should have your shop put a gauge on the pump and see if it's putting on enough pressure. And if it is, you're done for. Yeah, it would be nice if it wasn't because that's a heck of a lot cheaper than the rack and pinion. So they can replace the power steering pump, right? Yeah. Oh yeah, but that won't fix it if that's not the problem. Right, right. But you could put one in anyway. It never stopped us. Now, Mr. Rackenton, what does that mean?

What's going on down there? Well, it means that the thing is worn out, and that until it heats up and expands, that it can't hold the pressure from the pump. I see. So that's why you don't get any power steering effect. Okay, now is that, you know, after it warms up and it's driving okay is that still dangerous? Not really. No, it's only dangerous those first few minutes. Okay. Because once it warms up it will continue to work as long as it's warm.

But I suspect when the cold weather comes, right, that it's not going to be a few minutes this year. It may be a half an hour this year. Yeah. Yeah. Or maybe not at all. You might not be able to drive it period. It's going to get progressively worse. There you go. Yeah. Or maybe not at all. You might not be able to drive it, period. That's gonna get progressively worse. There you go. Yeah. So here's what I would do. Check the pressure on the pump,

and if it's bad, you replace the pump and your troubles are over. Otherwise, you might be able to get a rack at a junkyard, but it's possible that it'll be just the same as this one. Oh no, if you're gonna do it, put a rebuilt one in there. Right, how much does that cost? i don't know many hundreds yes many hundreds uh... because we're going to have to get between five hundred and a thousand it's

certainly more than the car is worth but as we've pointed out many times that should never be your criterion because if it were i would never be able to put gas in my dot uh... that's why i don't know what i think Yeah, $8 worth. See ya Mike. Okay, hey, thanks a lot. Good luck. Take care. Bye bye. 1-888-CAR-TALK that's 888-227-8255. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi. Yeah, what? Stop with the noise. Who's this? I'm Julie Jagger. Hi Julie. Julie Jagger, last names, please. Where are you from Julie? Oh, sorry

I'm from Maple Heights, Ohio Yeah All I'm trying to do is I try and take care of my 1993 Ford Explorer very well because it cost so much money and because I'll never be able to afford another one So you want it to last forever are as close to forever as you can get? Yeah, since it's paid for now, forever is good. Yeah, good, forever's good. But anyway, I rotate my tires, every other oil change, I try and change between 3,000

and 3,500 miles. Now I had a friend tell me, Julie, you're an educated woman and you're smart and you can do all these handy things. I can fix concrete, I can crawl up on a roof and fix a shingle. Why can't I change my oil? Can you fry up the bacon? Yeah. Ronald, then pot the pan.

Bring home the bacon. Bring home the bacon, fry it up in the pan. I'm not much of a cook, but we won't go there, okay? We won't go there. But you're a roofer, huh? Yeah, I can actually do that. My father was a contractor and a carpenter, and he used to take me with him. So I can do a lot of different things. Did he ever take you with him to the parallel universe?

No, no he didn't do that. He didn't do that, but I know how to fix a lot of things. Well actually you bring up an interesting point because as we all know, all contractors do occasionally disappear into the parallel universe. Did he spend long times away from home did he suddenly like now not be home for five or six oh no there's a wormhole to get your home oh well they're always getting a third down from somebody anyway here's my problem yeah I can get the oil the oil filter off and everything and inevitably I'm always draining

the oil filter off but I have a difficult time getting the bolt out of the oil pan. And I don't know if it's because years of me taking it to the garage and them using some kind of hydraulic thing on it or it doesn't appear to be stripped but I always end up calling a neighbor or somebody to help me get that bolt out of the oil pan. To get it loosened. Yeah, no self-respecting garage would use any pneumatic tool to loosen or tighten, maybe to loosen under extreme circumstances, but never, never, never to tighten an oil pan drain plug.

No, because it's going into kind of thin metal, and it's easily deformable and you don't want to bend it and strip it and do all that so they would always put that on by hand but tightly and the reason that you can't get it off is because they're gorillas and you're not well what you need is the magic of leverage uh-huh so I need maybe the right tool for the right time? You need a breaker bar and a six point socket. I don't know what size the drain plug is. It's probably, I don't know, probably 15 millimeters or something, but I'm guessing. But you must know what size it is because you put the wrench on, except you don't have enough strength because the

wrench is too short. The handle to the wrench is too short Okay, you need a nice 18 inch breaker bar and a six point six sided socket That's the size of that drain plug and you'll be able to waltz that off I will caution you that you should put it on how with the wrench and not this contraption Because otherwise you'll put it on too tightly Okay, and you'll strip the pin or the plug What kind of a wrench you using julie to take a keeping you know i got a regular packet that i have a basic tool for you and you're a combination wrench which is probably she's using a socket yeah i think you can talk at that if you look inside the inside the working end

of that socket you'll see a whole bunch of points there are 12 little ridges sticking out you want to buy one that only has six because it fits tighter and you want a bar that's much longer than the ratchet so an 18 inch breaker bar in a six-point socket you got it and you'll never have to call that pesky neighbor again get a new oil drain plug in a new oil drain plug gasket or washer whatever you there's a washer that goes behind it. You'll notice when you take it off. All right.

And it's always good to have one of those anyway if you do your own oil changes because you never know when you're going to strip it with that 18-inch breaker bar. Well, I'll cross my fingers that I won't. Hey, I think you guys are great and I listen to you guys all the time and thank you very much for taking my call. Thanks, Mom. Thanks for calling. You're great too, Julie. And if I ever need any roofing done, you'll be the last person I can, I mean, you'll be the first one I call.

Hey, I can fix the roof. We know that. Okay. See ya. Well, listen, thanks again and greetings from Cleveland, Ohio. All righty. Okay, bye-bye. Bye-bye.

Well, it's happened again. You've squandered another perfectly good hour listening to Car Talk. Our esteemed producer is Doug the Subway Fugitive, not a slave to Fashion Berman. Our associate producer and dean of the College of Automusicology is Ken Tukar-Garages. Our assistant producer is Catherine and Melder Ray Marcos. Our engineer is Dennis the Menace Foley. And our technical, spiritual, and menu and travel advisor too now is Mr. John Bugsy-Lawler. He's here today.

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Gee Vinnie, do you think that's the appropriate motivational approach to be taking? Why don't you approach this and see if you feel motivated enough, okay? Now where was it? Oh yeah, now if you want a cassette of the show or any other Card Talk junk, you can get any of this stuff, you know, by going to the Card Talk section at cars.com, you know, and visit the Shameless Commerce Division. Oh. Yeah. Now, you got that?

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