The Best of Car Talk - #2568: Ace in the Hole

Episode Date: August 26, 2025

Our more hands-on callers often try(and fail) to repair their vehicles before taking the desperate measure of calling us for help. But what happens when a caller has tried absolutely everything? Find out on this episode of the Best of Car Talk.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

It's been 20 years since Hurricane Katrina, and the StoryCorps podcast is bringing you the voices of those who lived through it. We hear the door blow open like a cannon shot. The water was up to my waist, and I heard fear in my dad's voice. Hear the eyewitness accounts of the survivors. Some recorded only weeks after on the StoryCorps podcast from NPR. Hello and welcome to Car Talk from National Public Radio with us Click and Collect the Tappert Brothers, and we're broadcasting this week from Oscar De La Rental's office here at Car Talk Plaza.

This is from Dave Barry. I mean, if you haven't read this, and I was just commenting to Dougie, I think I read Dave Barry every week. somehow, I never read the ones that people send me. The good ones, you mean? The good ones. And I like, we are here in Oscar D. Laurentel's office, but you wouldn't know that from the opening. Here's how he opens.

I believe that in general, women are saner than men. For example, if you see people who have paid good money to stand in an outdoor stadium on a freezing December day, wearing nothing on the upper halves of their bodies except paint, those people will be male. That's true. Yeah. And if they weren't, more people would be watching on television. Without males, there would be no such words as wedgy and nougie. Women would never come up with a word like nougie.

No. And what was the last time a woman gave another woman a wedgie? Probably never. My wife gave me a wedgy the other day. We'll talk about that some other times. So I sincerely believe that women are wiser than men with the exception of one key area. And that area is clothing sizes. In this particular area, women are insane.

We've discussed this in the past. We have. Usually around Christmas when we tried to buy something for our wives. When a man shops for clothes, his primary objective, follow me closely here, is to purchase clothes that fit on his particular body. A man will try and a pair of pants, and if those pants are too small, who are trying a large a pair. And when he finds a pair that fits, he buys them.

Most men don't spend a lot of time fretting about the size of their pants. Many men wear jeans with the size printed right on the back label so that if you're standing behind a man in the supermarket line, you can read his waist in in-seam size. A man could have, say, a 52-inch waist and a 3-inch inseam, and his label would proudly display this information, which is basically the same as having a sign that says, Howdy, my butt is the size of a Federal Express truck.

The situation is very different with women. When a woman shops for clothes, her primary objective is not to find clothes that fit her particular body. She would like for that to be the case, but her primary objective is to purchase the clothes that are the size she wore when she was 19 years old. This will be some arbitrary numbers such as 8 or 10. If a size 8 outfit doesn't fit her, she won't move on to a larger size. She can't. Her size is 8.

Her size is 8. That's right. So she will keep trying on size 8. items until they start fitting her. The other day my wife, Michelle, was in a terrific mood. And you know why? Because she had successfully put on a size six outfit. She said this made her feel wonderful. She said this is a direct quote. I wouldn't care if these pants were this big. Here she holds her arms far apart, as long as they have a six on them. Well, here's how you could get rich. Start a women's clothing store called size two, in which all garments, including those who were

originally intended to be restaurant awnings had labels with the words size two. I bet you'd sell clothes like crazy. You'd probably get rich and you could retire and maybe take up

some philanthropic activity to benefit humanity. I'm thinking here of something like professional lawnmower racing. Size two. Well, as is almost always the case, Dave Barry hits the nail

on the head. Now, if you want to talk to us about your car, or whatever women's clothing you happen to be wearing, the number is 1-888-car Talk. That's 888-227-8-255. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Dara, calling from a glass studio, Prescott, Arizona.

Dora. Calling from what? A glass studio. Yeah. So you guys sculpt in glass? Is that what you do? Yeah, and I make glass beads, and also I make figures. Really?

Artistic figures, yeah. Like, what kind of figures? You mean, like... Well, like we do trees and stars for the holidays. Well, we were thinking of doing porcelain miniatures of click and clack. Could you do them in glass? Well, if you send me a picture, we'll see what we can do. Well, we were hoping you'd use your imagination.

Yeah, and might come up with something better. So, Dora, what's up? Well, here's what's up. I just got a Subaru. It's wonderful. I love it. It's a 1983. It's a little Subaru four-wheel drive.

And most recently, on a trip to Texas with a friend, it started making a sort of clicking noise. And I could sort of trick it into not making it. It started in about second gear, and it would hang in there until about midway three third gear. And you could trick it by taking your foot off the gas a little bit, right? Yeah, by either sort of, if I felt like it was coming up, I'd sort of back off of it. And then when I felt like we were at the speed where I could, I'd sort of blast through it pretty rapidly. Yeah. Aha. Cool.

There's another noise, too, just so you know that I think might be more serious, but I have two noises. Give us all the noises. Okay. The second noise happened when we got all the way back to Arizona. We're driving along the highway. We're in the middle of God knows nowhere. And all of a sudden, it starts... And we're looking at each other thinking it's a drone in the music. You know, if I turn off the radio, and I turn off the fan, the heater, because it was nighttime. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And it kept going. And I get off. I'm getting ready to exit, and the noise goes away. I say, hey, that's good enough for me. Any idea where it's coming from, front, back, top, bottom, side? It sounded like it was under the dash. Like right behind the dash? Kind of, yeah, and forward a little bit. Like under the engine compartment.

Kind of in there somewhere. Yeah. I kind of thought it might have been the fan, and it went away because of that. But since then, it hasn't happened again. Well, the fan is the most likely candidate. But you know what? It didn't stop right when I turned off the same. fan, it stopped, I don't know, a pretty, you know, like, it would have been a very

slow wind down later. Oh, like it was minutes later? When I saw the exit ramp up ahead, if I turned off the fan, and it would have stopped within seconds. When we got to the exit ramp, maybe three-quarters a mile later, it went, it stopped. And when it stopped, did it stop abruptly, or did it go? Abruptly, I think. I think it was abrupt.

It was just there one second and gone the next. Do we have our choices to which question? Now, which noise would you like us to think about? Both. We can't do both. It's doing both. Come on, guys. We can't do both.

I mean, as you know, you had to pay 50 bucks to get an answer. Now, can you afford $100 for two answers? Well, send me your pictures. Oh, okay. And you'll do that. And you can send a check. To Barbie and Ken, Tom and Ray, glass things. Glass miniatures.

All right, let's go back to the first one. Okay. The first one is relatively easy. The car was pinging. Oh. And it's pinging because you were driving with the wrong octane gas or you're driving under extreme load or the timing is off. Or more likely, you have a lazy or a sticking EGR valve. Oh.

The other noise sounds remarkably like, obviously it sounded to us like the blower motor, but it obviously isn't that. Okay. But it could have been a stuck caliper. Okay. That could make that noise. Is that the wheel caliper? Yeah, the brake caliper. It could have been a stuck emergency break, why it hasn't done it again on a trip.

You may have to drive at the same distance to get it to do it. You may have to drive for a few hours. You have to go back to Texas. No. I loved it. It was great. I'll go back again, but not right now. But you might want to have your mechanic if you have one.

Check to see if it has a stuck caliber. Okay. Because that has the potential to be dangerous. And then for the pinging? The pinging, I wouldn't do much of anything, although you might want to check to see if the EGR valve is operating. Okay. If there still is one. Should I treat it to good gas?

Will that make a difference? Well, higher octane gas might diminish the pinging. I mean, if it's going to cost you $200 to replace the EGR valve, you may just want to use the next level up octane. Okay. Guys, thank you so much. See you, Dara. Bye-bye.

Hey, good luck. All right. Wow. All right. I know you don't remember last week's puzzle, so I'm going to give you some key word. All right. Here we go again. Driving.

Pleasure. Very good. Exit. Ramp. Urgent. Hey, it's work. looks. You got it, man. So what do we got? Pleasure, ramp, hair cut. This was the haircut and horse town puzzler. Hey, it was! That's right. Which is in our new book, and I'll have the answer in just a minute.

Hey, it's Robin Hilton from NPR Music with some big news for everyone who loves the Tiny Desk. We're giving away a trip to D.C. to see a tiny desk concert in person. hotel and flights included. Learn more and enter for free at npr.org slash tiny desk giveaway. No purchase or donation required for entry must be 18 years or older to enter. Links to the entry page and official rules can be found at npr.org slash tiny desk giveaway. Hi, we're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Clack the Tapper Brothers. We're here to talk about, of course, what, cars, car repair, and the answer to the last week's puzzler. Yeah.

Here it is in a nutshell. This fellow's driving across the desert from Salt Lake City to Janet Reno, Nevada. And somewhere in the middle, he finds himself in urgent need of a haircut. Yeah. He's driving. He happens to look in the rearview mirror, and he goes, yikes! So he gets off at exit 321, which is between Winamucka and Elko. He just pulls right off, and he finds himself in a beautiful downtown,

Horsetown, Nevada, where there are, of course, two barbershops. Wow, you wouldn't think. You wouldn't think. Unfortunately, it's Wednesday, and the barbershop is closed. He has to hang around in it. Why are barbershops closed on Wednesday? They are? Not anymore.

It sure are. Hairdressers are. You know why? Hairdressers and stylists. Right, but barbershops. Because they're playing golf with the doctors. The doctors who are also out on Wednesday. Yeah, what are they?

Blood letters. They're all blood letters. Anyway, he strolls past barbershop number one and looks in the window. There are no customers in the shop. It's kind of messy. And even the barber who's, the only one in the place looks kind of messy too. He's unshaven. He's got a rumpled shirt on, there's hair on the floor, and even his haircut is lousy. The guy says,

My kind of place. Maybe I should check out the other joint. So he moseys along and arrives at Barbershop number two. It looks in that window. Looks terrific. It's nice and clean. The mirrors are clean and shiny. There's no hair in the floor. And even the barber looks neat and well-groomed, and he's got the good haircut. Yeah. The question is, based on the information you have, which barbershop does he go to? Wait a minute. Which barber is named Mario? They're both named Mario.

Oh, they're both. Oh, geez, that was going to be my criterion. And why does he go to the first barbershop, the one that was messy and disgusting and, you know, lousy haircut? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, he goes there because it's clear that each barber gives the other one his haircut. I mean, they're not going to drive to Janet Reno. Absolutely not. It's 300 exits.

You're staying put, man. If you live in one horse, you're staying put. So the guy that has the great haircut. He's getting it from the other guy. He's getting it from the slob, the guy with the rumpled shirt and the hair on the floor, and that's the barber that he wants to go to to get his hair cut. And who's our winner this week? Comey.

The winner is Michael Hall from Toledo, Ohio. And for having his correct answer chosen at random this week, Michael gets a $25 gift certificate to the Car Talk's Shameless Commerce Division with which he can get for himself our brand new video featuring us and other famous brothers our brand new puzzle a book from which you just heard a sample

the head cut in the house town you can get one of our CDs like men are from GM women are from Ford lawyers are from Chrysler there are lots of ways to squander your 25 bucks Michael you just call the Shameless Commerce Division at 888 card junk or you can go visit it on your computer by clicking on the Car Talk session of Cars.com

and you shop till you drop. And that's it. But I have a thing here. This will qualify, this is a brilliant thing. This will qualify as reading mail. This is from Doug Redding. And I don't know where Doug is from. I have a suggestion on how you can solve

the world economic crisis by increasing the number of puzzles. And here's how it works. Got it. I got it already. You have more puzzlers, and you have more winners. You give away $25 gift certificates to more people. To the winners.

But, and here's the key, you make sure that nothing in the shameless commerce division sells for exactly $25. There you go. You allow winners to contribute unused portions of their gift certificates to the click-and-clack solve the world's economic crisis fund. Right. a.k.a. retirement funds. If we assume that you only gave away one gift certificate each week and that the winners spend on average $23, you could contribute $104 a year to solving this problem.

If we also assume that we need to save up to $100 billion to solve this problem, it would take roughly a billion years to save up enough money. However, if you started having two puzzlers a week, you could save the world in 500 million years. No hurry That's 500 million years sooner Than with only one puzzle for a week Wow

He did He didn't come up with a great idea I mean actually we have made sure That nothing sells for exactly 25 bucks And we were hoping that people would just Buy something else You're saying gee I got $7 credit here I might as well spend it

Because I know I'll never get the seven bucks back from them I never get the seven bucks back And instead of spending the seven They'll spend 12 So we'll have to get five bucks more But if they contribute it to the Click and Clack Solved the World's Problems Fund. Yeah, I think it should be contributed

to the Click and Clack World Tour Fund. How's that sound? Yeah. Yeah, okay. Sounds good. Anyway, we'll have a new puzzle. How many Amtrak tickets can you buy with $104? Too many.

We'll have a new puzzle coming up later in today's show. In the meantime, we'll take your calls at 888-88-car talk. That's 888-227-8-25-0. you're on Car Talk. This is Jimmy Stenica calling you from Aborn Road. Hi, but a beautiful downtown San Jose, California. How are you doing? Jim, you sound like you used to have a career in radio.

Oh, no, no, no, not me. I just have too much fun. Oh, are you a politician? Oh, God, I don't have that much fun. Well, you do have a certain professional air about you, though. Well, thank you very much. Thank you very much. You do, too. You must be listening to someone else.

So what's on your mind, Jimmy? Well, I tell you what, I got 1986 Toyota 4-wheel-drive shortbed pickup truck with the four-cylinder fuel-injected motor. Mm-hmm. Yeah. This particular vehicle has got 247,000 miles on it. Wow. Gentlemen, what's going on with this doggone thing is in the morning on a cold start,

okay, if it hasn't been started in a couple of hours, or first thing in the morning, I go and I put the key into the ignition, and I turn it all the way to the start position. Man, by golly, the motor starts up and fires up just fine, and that doggone starter keeps going. So I've got the motor running and the starter running. So what happens is I'll go ahead and I'll cycle through, right, counterclockwise, clockwise rotations. I may do this two or three times before the starter will finally disengage. But have you brought it to a mechanic? I got you guys.

You guys are the greatest. Yeah. So, yeah, gentlemen, and after that, okay, when the starter stops to run and everything's quiet. It's fine. Right? Life is good. I'm wondering to be honest with you if the starter isn't just cold and it just likes that current going through. It's kind of like that morning cup of coffee. So warm it up, you're feeling good. It's like, I'm not shutting down because this feels good. I think you have a bad starter drive. And what's happened, the starter drive is the thing that kicks the gear out and engages it with the flywheel when you turn the key and engage the

solenoid. So the sequence is you turn the key all the way to the start position. You send current from the key probably to a relay on this thing. Toyota's have relays for everything. That, in turn, sends current to the solenoid. That solenoid closes the switch, which thrusts the starter drive toward the flywheel, the pinion gear on the starter drive, and then the starter starts to turn. But if you have a bad starter drive, it won't kick out when you've released the key, and it keeps the solenoid engaged.

So the thing is turning. It keeps the starter engaged to the flywheel, too. Yeah. I think you need a starter motor. I mean, there is a possibility that there's something wrong with the ignition switch as well. So that even though you think you're putting it from the start position to the run position, it may not, in fact, be going into the run position. Small possibility.

Uh-huh. Have you tried revving up the engine to see if it'll kick out the starter? No. That's the thing. That's the test. But that is the test. Okay. If that doesn't work, try taking the key and slowly turning it back. Okay.

In other words, you turn the key all the way to crank. If you just let the key go, the key will return to what's called the run position. Okay. But it does that because there's a spring in there that does that. It may just may be the fact that the spring is worn out. So here's the two things you're going to do. You're turning the key counterclockwise a little bit. If it does this and it starts making the horrible noises, you give it a little gas.

It should kick out. If it does not kick out, that's an indication that maybe it's the ignition switch. So now if you turn the ignition switch counterclockwise As if you're turning it off As though you're turning it off But you get it so that the noise goes away And it keeps running Then it's the ignition switch and not the starter

Pretty good, huh Jim? I like it. I like it too. Fly with it, baby. I like it very much. Okay, see you later. Good luck, Jim. Thanks for calling. Bye-bye.

Bye-bye. 1-888-Cart talk That's 888-227-8-25. Hello, you're on car talk. This is Mariuca from Fairplay, Colorado. Yeah, good pronunciation. Maruka. I don't know how to spell it, though.

Give us a hint. M-A-R-J-U-K-K-A. M-A-R-J-U-K-A. Mar-U-K-A. And what does that name originate? Maria, it's Finnish, from Helsinki, Finland. Oh. Oh, your ski jumper.

Jumper, yumper. Jumper. Well, I come down ski slopes lots of different ways. Hell, from Finnish. Mar-Y-U-C-I-L-I-L-U-K, I love it. I have a puzzling car problem. Okay, Marjuka. Tell us about it. Well, I have a 94 GMC Jimmy.

Just got it in August. 4.3-liter vortex engine and four-wheel drive and manual transmission. Got it. And it has a noise on the right front tire. Can I make the noise on your show? Sure, yeah. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. And it goes with the revolution.

Really? And immediately I slow down because it sounds awful, and it goes away before I come to a full stop. Oh. And there is nothing going on with the driving of the vehicle. When this happens, it goes great. Exactly. And this happens whether you step on the brake or not. Well, it usually just happens during straight driving.

It happened at 40 miles an hour. It happened at 60 and 55 months an hour. Oh, it did. And, of course, it's 60. It's who, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Yeah, exactly. And finally, I heard it, and I had my hand held a little phone with me, so I called the mechanic here in town, and I said, listen to this now.

Here it is. Yeah. And he did it, and I drove over there, we drove around, it didn't do it again. But it's done it about five, six times in the last eight weeks. But he heard it on the phone. Yeah, it's loud. Did he have any idea? I had the idler arm replaced.

I've had the brake pads checked. I've had bearings looked at. It's been aligned. Now, his latest idea is that maybe the four-wheel drive is somehow trying to engage. Oh, I like it. But I haven't, the weather's great. I haven't used four-wheel drive except a couple times. I can't tell you.

I can't say, honestly, that I've ever worked on the four-wheel drive of a Jimmy, a late model, Jimmy. Jimmy. Jimmy. And the noise is always coming from the same wheel? Same right front side. And, I mean, it's, yeah. Has anyone ever moved that tire to a different spot on the vehicle?

Oh. I'll tell you why. We had a customer that came in recently with a noise. The only thing that reminded me of it is his also was a four-wheel drive vehicle. It was an explorer. And he had this noise that was similar to your noise, but it was kind of a... A wimpy one. Like a creaking door.

Uh-huh. Yeah. And he was convinced that there was a warp disc or a bad wheelbase. bearing in the front, and so were we, until we finally moved the left front tire to the left rear, and lo and behold, that's where the noise went. Whoop! Move the right front tire back? Well, move it anywhere else and see if the noise moves with it.

It turned out he had a bad tire. Oh. He had a bad tire, and he had what's called tread separation, and the tread was squirming against the underbells, and you could hear the thing going, er, er, er, er. And tires make very unusual noises. Okay Well, I would start with moving the tire And if that doesn't work

I would take it to the Chevrolet dealer Or the GMC dealer It may be a service bulletin on this Okay Good luck, Mariuca Sounds good, thanks a lot Okay, so long Bye-bye

All right, it's time to take another short break What break? Why do you always want to take a break? Well, for one thing Your hair's on fire And I thought I'd go get the extinguisher And put it out All right, we'll be back in a minute

Ha! What? 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 new puzzler. Yes. I'm looking forward to what I might say. I have at my disposal a... In your disposal? No, well, most of them are in. But I have at my disposal a plethora of potentially putrid puzzles. Puzzlers I'm going to use and I've been tempted to use a few automotive ones because I know people really detest the automotive ones

and that cuts way down in the mail but I'm going to use this one which I have stolen well that's such an ugly word I have excerpted from Martin Gardner with a little twist I've added a twist to it interesting here it is

this is with all the kitties out there and for their parents who like to help them with their homework Was this from one of Martin Gardner's books, or was it from Scientific American? No, I was written on his underwear. Yes, it was from one of his many, many books that he wrote before he died. He'd have to write any book before he died because you can't write any, what, after you die. Even if he's still alive, he'd have to write them before he died, wouldn't he? That's correct.

There you know. I think we're pretty safe. I'm saying that he wrote this book before he died. Get your pencil. I've got it. Pencil. Pick out a three-digit number. Any three-digit number like...

I just did. 7-8-9, 27. I can understand a three-digit number concept. Now, repeat those three digits. So if you pick 271, you get 271, 271, 271. Yeah. So I write it next to the three-digit number? Yeah.

I got it. 271 comma, 271. How did you know it was 271, by the way? Okay, I got it. Could be any three-digit number. It is any three-digit number. All right. Now, I want you to divide that number.

This big number. By seven. I've got it. Okay. Okay. Okay. That's, um... All right. Okay, that's good.

Now, if you have that quotient, three, two, yeah. If you have a remainder, put it off to the side. Like, the remainder is one, two, zero, whatever it is. Yeah. Put it off to the side. Yeah. Take the quotient that you got and divide that by 11.

11. Oh, God. Another prime number. And whatever remains you have, put that off to the side too. Got it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now divide that remaining quotient, the question you just got. By 17.

By 13. 13 I skipped. Another prime number. Okay, now take that number. Wait a minute, I'm not finished yet. Come on what is this? Third grade? Yeah.

Okay, now take the number that you got and the quotients, and the remainders that you had from the previous divisions, add them all together. Add what together? Add the remainder and the last quotient that you got. The last one, yeah. The last quotient and the remainders. Got it.

And you're going to wind up with the original number. What do you mean the original number? What, the 271 that you started with? I did not. You screwed it up. Oh, no. I did. I got ended up with the original number.

I did end up with the original number, which was, I'll tell you now, now that it's no secret anymore. 271? No, close. 247. 247, very good. Which had no remainder is because everything was evenly divisible. Sonia Henny's tutu. Imagine that.

So the question is, why does this work? Wow. Okay, so you take any three-digit number, repeat those three digits. So you had 247. So I got 247, 247. Divide by seven. Divide by 11. And then put whatever remainder there is.

If there is one, you put it aside. Divide by 11. If there's a remainder, put that aside. And by 13, if there's a remainder, you'll put that aside. Add up the remainders and add them to the last quotient that you got. and you're going to wind up with your original number. And I want to know very simply, why does this work? If you think you know the answer, write that answer on the back of a $20 bill, those nice new ones.

Well, there's lots of room on the back. Lots of room. And mail that answer to Puzzler Tower, Car Talk Plaza, Box 3,500, Harvard Square, Cambridge. Our Fair City. Ma, 2,2238. I might add that if you have a puzzler suggestion, you can also mail it to that address. Now, if you want to respond electronically, you can visit the car talk section of cars.com and send your answer in that way. And you're sending your $20 by an electronics.

Fund transfer. But don't send a puzzler in that way. No. We heard enough about that last week. 1-888-car talk. That's 888-227-8255. That's the numbers he called if you want to talk to us. Hello, you're on car talk.

This is Bob in Greensboro. Greensboro, North Carolina. Actually, no, the state. I'm impressed. Oh, I thought you were going to say South Carolina. I said, oh, screw up those Carolinas. No, no, don't say South Carolina. People around here get offended by that.

No, no, no. We know Greensboro. But it's warmer in South Carolina. Not by much. No? 70-some degrees. Well, it's 70-something degrees here, too. Well, that's indoors.

Well, yeah. Why? Where are you? I don't have the heat on it. That's the outdoor temperature. Oh, what's up, Bob? I have a cavalier. that's got a deceptively simple problem.

Sort of. Don't be fooled. Okay, the heater doesn't work. Uh-huh. You want to guess wrong before or after I tell you what I've done? Well, I know you've replaced the blower motor, and that didn't fix it. Well, that didn't fix it now. In what way does it not work?

What do you mean it doesn't work? I don't get much heat at all out of it. Just a little bit. A trickle. Yeah. But when you turn it on the heater, the fan does make noise. Oh, yeah, the fan's working fine. And it blows cold air.

vaguely warm but plenty of air oh yeah yeah fans working fine good good good good keep going okay here's what I've replaced so far the thermostat lower radiator hose

good start nice the radiator bad bad starter he needed that anyway needed that anyway that we tell our customers four new tires do you get four new tires

and an alignment oh yeah absolutely that's good the line of steering rack yeah go ahead Keep going. Upper and lower heater hoses. Oh, so close.

He's getting... Oh, jeez, bar. Yeah, water pump. Oh, my ace of the hole. While I had the cover off of the heater core, I checked to make sure that the baffle was moving. We're fine. There is no valve.

No, there's no valve. No, there's no valve. No, you're kidding me. They couldn't afford a valve. It's only a cavalier. Tell me about it. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, If you sit still and don't move the car, do you then get heat?

No. Oh, well, no more. I get, like I say, at 50 degrees outside, it'll keep me warm. Warmish. No, but I'm trying to ascertain if the problem is when the car is in motion. It doesn't seem to be, no. No, it doesn't seem to be, because this is our only hope here. There's nothing else left.

This is it. I mean, you replaced everything else. The tires, the air freshener, the heat of core. There really is nothing else. The belt, sure. The heater core is easily accessible in this car. Oh, I know. And can you take your hand and put it on the heater core?

Is it hot? It is not hot. Oh, Bob. You're a deep duton, man. Wow. Now, if you touch the heater hoses under the hood. They are cool. They are cool.

The engine occasionally overheats. The engine occasionally overheats. Because the fan only comes on when it feels like it. Yes, I have replaced. placed both of the temperature sensors on the engine. Have you ever stuck a thermometer in the radiated to see what the temperature is in there? No, but it's hot to the touch. Well, look, the coolant is hot.

This is pretty simple. You have two hoses that connect to the heater core. Correct. If you were to take off the two hoses and run the engine, water should come pouring out of one of them. Well, I haven't done that. You've got to do that because I think. Well, I mean, you don't have to do that. There's a small chance that the heater is airbound.

Okay. Except he's had everything apart. Well, that's all the more reason why he's got air trapped in it, I think. But that's, why would he have had the problem in the first place? I like it. I see it now. He sprang a leak. No, what happened is...

No, no, he did the thermostat that first time. Right. And air got in. In where? In the system. In other words, in order to get heat, you must purge the air out of the heater. If you have air trapped in the heater, the air won't. the coolant won't circulate.

Okay, well, do you know the layout of the engine? I do. Okay, the manifold is on the back side of the engine, and the hot water comes out of that, runs into the heater core, runs back into the block. And that water should be pouring out of there, and it should be so hot that you can't hold onto that hose. That's my thing.

I propose that you take that hose off where it connects to the heater core and rev the engine. Even at idle, water should be pouring out of the air as fast as your garden hose would supply. And boiling hot. Yeah. And if it ain't, there's something wrong. Either that new water pump you put in is not pumping, or there's an obstruction someplace.

If there's water flowing and it's ice cold and it's your thermostat, but we know it ain't the thermostat because the radiator gets hot. Yes. And it overheats. And it overheats. And it overheats it. And if it's overheating there, it should be overheating at the other end. I think you have air trapped in it. And here's the remedy.

Okay. I think you should take those hoses off. When you do this test, you'll find out that I'm correct. Then you can fill those hoses at that end with a small funnel. Okay. And you let the cooling flow in there and start to flow out the other hose, and you'll maybe push a lot of antifers out and maybe some bubbles of air. You're going to make a mess when you do this.

You're going to make a mess. So do it in a neighbor's driveway. Well, that's a thought. I don't like him anyway. Right in front of his house. He doesn't like you now either. I'll do it in the lawn. And then what you've got to do is that without losing that coolant you've poured in there,

you've got to quickly put the hose back on. Yeah, with your thumb over the end of the hose and stick the thing back on the heat. Or fast with the hose clamp. Yeah. Yeah. And that's the only hope. And then the other thing you can do is jack the front of the car up. Okay.

Yeah. Well, I have ramps. That's no problem. Drive it up on the ramps. Perfect. And run it and bleed it through the remainder of the arrow through the radiator. That'll keep him busy for a couple of weeks. See you, Bob.

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