The Best of Car Talk - #2574: Oh Shut Up!

Episode Date: September 16, 2025

Courtesy of Tommy’s wife, JoAnne: a simple phrase to deal with a spouse, a mechanic -or both, in JoAnne’s case, who’s laying it on a bit too thick. Hear about all the applications on this episode of the Best of Car Talk.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

A lot of short daily news podcasts focus on just one story. But right now, you probably need more. On Up First from NPR, we bring you three of the world's top headlines every day in under 15 minutes. Because no one story can capture all that's happening in this big, crazy world of ours on any given morning. Listen now to the Up First podcast from NPR. Hello and welcome to Car Talk from National Public Radio with us Click and Clack the Tappert Brothers, and we're broadcasting this week once again from the Center for New Luddite Studies here in Car Talk. Getting to me a habit, isn't it?

Well, peep, beep, beep, beep, peep, get this. Talk about a curious accident, all because of technology. man, this happened someplace in Russia, didn't it? I think so. Actually, I heard this the other day on, wait, wait, don't tell me. You know, they read three news stories and you have to guess which one is complete baloney and which one is real. Right.

Which two are complete baloney. Which one is real. Man crashes car as 50 pagers ring at once. Kiev. It was Russia. A Ukraine businessman who bought a pager for each member of his staff. as a New Year's gift, was so alarmed when all 50 of them went off at the same time, but he drove his car into a lamppost.

The unnamed businessman was returning from the Pages Shop when the accident happened. After he had assessed the damage to the car, the businessman turned his attention to the message that was on the 50 pages. It read, congratulations on a successful purchase. Oh, man, you deserve it. Absolutely. If you want to talk to us about your car or your pager problems, our number is 1888 Car Talk. That's 888-227-8-255. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, John, from White Bear Lake, Minnesota. Oh, white bear, that sounds cold. Yeah, you betcha. Frozen White Bear Lake, Minnesota.

Yeah. What's up? Well, here's a deal. I've got a 90 Honda Accord with about 182,000 miles on it. And recently took it in for a clutch replacement and got it back from the shop and I noticed that the evening I got it back from the shop that as I was turning off or on or off and off ramp or an on ramp, I don't know how you call it, but noticed the squeak and that squeak has been with me ever since I got the car back. And it sounds kind of like rubber rubbing on rubber. And if you'd like me to do my impersonation of my car. First tell us exactly When the squeak occurs Are you stepping on the gas

Off the gas, on the clutch On the brake I've tried all that stuff I even took it back to the shop And had the mechanic who put the clutch in Drive the car We tried all those combinations And the squeak persists

And it's a squeak that's made when you're turning Yep Got it All right Give us the noise It's kind of like rubber Rubber Rubber on rubber excellent how's that that's good can we hear it one more time

yeah and that's about how long it lasts or it goes on forever and ever no it's like it's it's weird because it's like I can catch it at a certain turning angle and then it'll stay with me and then when I straighten and if you straighten the wheel it goes away correct And this occurred immediately after you picked it up from the clutch job or not? Yeah, I asked the mechanics if there was a settling in period for a new clutch. They would explain that. And, of course, they said yes.

Actually, they said no. Oh, good for them. Good news for them. Yeah. And they've heard the noise, too. They did. They heard it as well. Do you have any clue as to what corner of the car it's coming from?

It feels to me like it's left front. The mechanic thought, well, let me check the bushings. It might be the transmission mounts or mountings. I'm not familiar with that. Unlikely. Unlikely. We're hard-pressed to come up with something that he could have done. Well, no, I have one thing.

You have a theory. Don't forget, I've done everything wrong at one time or another. Yeah. Given an opportunity to do something wrong, I've done it. I mean, everyone has that works on cars. Eventually, you make all the mistakes. Yeah, and it's great. As long as you sort of remember them.

Oh, you definitely remember. He could easily have done one of two things, or two of two things. Yeah. Because they had to remove the axles, he could have not tightened sufficiently. Oh, that's true. The axle retaining nut on the left front axle, if in fact that's where the noise is coming from. Okay. And that could cause a noise, and because of the load, what do they call that, imparted to that piece.

Okay. When you make a turn, it could be causing it. to flex. And the load would be in the right place because taking an off-ramp, you're moving to the right most of the time, so there would be extra force on the left. On the left front.

Physics. I like that. I like that. Am I glad I took that physics course? That's one possibility. The other possibility is that he bent the little, there's a little dust cover that goes behind each of the discs. This is part of the brakes.

Okay. And it shields the backside of the side of the, the disc from grease that might get thrown off of a broken CV boot, et cetera, et cetera. But that wouldn't give you a rubber-on-rubber kind of stuff. It would give you a high-pitched noise that would be intermittent and almost impossible to reproduce except under load. So that's another possibility. But I'll tell you what I would do.

I would try to find... We have a time-honored method that we use. We use a long stethoscope. And what we do is we attach a piece of hole. to the suspected area of the car and then run the piece the other end of the hose into the window so you can hear it as you drive it no seriously that way you can move the end of the stethoscope around until you find the loudest place and you know that that's where the sound and we attach that the end of the business end that is the listening end with a piece of duct tape or mechanics wire or some such thing and you can usually home in on the area pretty quickly the all-purpose tool and it well because of insurance regulations they won't let us hang anyone out the office the hood anymore. Like we used to in the old days. Right. We used to strap Nigel to the hood of cars. And he'd listen for the noises, but we lost a few guys that way, including Nigel. So we don't do that anymore.

But try this technique. You may find it. Okay. Good luck, John. Thanks much. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. 1-888-8-2-27-8-255. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, guys. This is Kathy from Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania, so it's Kathy. with a K! No. Oh, darn.

Were you from Washington? And it ends with a Y. Washington Crossing? Washington Crossing. Washington Crossing. Washington Crossing. You must be to the Delaware River. You got it.

There you go. And did Washington cross the Delaware River there? Certainly did, and he does every Christmas still. No kidding. Yep, he crossed there, go take Trenton. I mean, what is the Delaware River doing way up there in Pennsylvania? Well, it's in a lot of Pennsylvania. It is, huh?

Yeah. And does it actually go through Delaware? Or it's just a name? No, no, I think it ends there. I think it ends in Delaware. No kidding. Yeah, I mean, that's the, the river was there first. Yeah.

Then they named the state after it. Pennsylvania, that was a silly name. Anyway, Kathy, with a C, what's going on? Well, I wanted to know about something. Yeah. I have a 95 Camry, and I really was, well, in fact, I got reprimanded for this, because I didn't bring in my car for enough oil changes last year. Says who?

Says the dealership. Well, don't believe them. I know, I don't. That's why I'm calling you guys. They said, well, I went 10,000 miles the first time. And then I went 5,000 miles. And they said my engine is terribly dirty and needs to be washed out. How many miles you have in the car?

Oh, now I'm about almost 70. And I promise to take it for more oil changes. So you drove 15,000 miles last year and had the oil changed twice? Right. Yep. You average 7,500 miles an oil change, which is what the book recommends. Which is what the book recommends. So where are they? Well, the dealership says every 3,000 miles.

Oh, stop it. And I have a nasty, dirty engine. Oh, stop it. I should see the dirty oil that came out of it. No, I believe if you look in your book under the maintenance schedule, it's going to say... That's 7,000 miles, right? It's going to say 7,500 miles or some such a mile. So tell them to flake off.

I can say with conviction the next time those guys say I need an oil, I mean, I need my oil wash. out of my card that I don't have to. Well, you should adopt, my wife has a new philosophy. And maybe you can use this. I'll just pass it on to you, and I'll tell you how it all started. Every once in a while, you may know I occasionally go into a rant on the show. Well, that happens no matter where I am. I mean, it happens in church.

You know, it could happen anywhere. I suddenly break into a rant. and my wife's new philosophy or strategy is when she hears me starting one, she says to me, oh, shut up. And it seems to be working. It's very direct, you know, oh, shut up. Well, now I know I can say that before I wasn't sure. It was just a gut feeling that this was not right.

Well, that's exactly what you have to do. When these guys say your engine is wrecked, it's ruined, didn't change the oil, you just say, oh, shut up. Good. And walk out. How much, by the way, did this? they want for this treatment? It's $100. Mm-hmm.

And it just sounded stupid to me because I feel you put in new oil and it goes through and it takes out the old stuff. So why do I need to wash it out and vacuum? They gave me a long explanation. I would say you don't need to do it. By the way, we recommend an oil change every 5,000 miles. I promise.

That's our recommendation. Based on a lot of different parameters. 5,000 sounds like a good number. That's a good round number, yeah. I will feel really good when I say no next time because I'll know you guys. me so. Don't say no. You'll say, oh, shut up. Oh, shut up. See, you, Kathy. And then I'll find a new place to take my car. Definitely. Yeah, of course.

Hey, thanks for calling, Kathy. Thank you. Bye-bye. Okay, now, Tommy, do remember last week's puzzler? Oh, shut up. All right, I'll give you a few hints. All right. Here they are. Old lady. Yeah. Lincoln Town car. Yeah. New Hampshire. Mother-in-law. wheel of Camembert cheese You made that up

I made up the cheese thing But the rest really are hints And we'll have the whole story In just a minute Hi we're back You're listening to car talk with us Click and Clack the Tappert Brothers And we're here to talk about cars

Of course, maybe sometimes Car repair sometimes And the answer So it's a last week's puzzler, and here it is. It's a true story. An old lady and a Lincoln Town car and a wheel of Canada. Cheese wheel. Yeah.

I'll do it quickly because this is rather lengthy. A few weeks ago, an elderly woman came into the garage of their elderly Lincoln Town car. I think it was like an 85 or something. And she's talking to Manny, the youngest of our technicians. She says there are two things that need to be looked at. One is I need a tune-up. Now, I've instructed all the guys over the years when anyone asks for anything to ask, to ask why.

So he says, what makes you think you need a tune-up? He says, well, my mileage has been off. The engine seems to be laboring. The power's diminished. So I know I need a tune-up. He says, okay, what's the other thing? She says, well, my shift indicator is off. You know, when I put the thing in park,

it says I'm in reverse, and when I'm in drive, it says I'm really in two. And he says, ah, I know what's wrong with your car. You're driving in the wrong gear. Right? You're driving around in second gear, and that's why your mileage is off and the engine sounds funny.

She's laboring, it's revving too high. Yeah, exactly, exactly. She says, oh, contrary, Pist and Puss. Oh, shut up. Oh, contrary, young Piston Pussy. She says, I can feel all the shifts. As I start driving, I can feel a shift from first to second. I shifts from second to third.

If I stomping the gas, it down shifts. And he says, okay, back to square one. How do you know your mileage is off? And she says, well, I check it all the time. Every month I take a trip to visit my mother-in-law in New Hampshire. and I noticed on my most recent return trip, the car seemed to be laboring, and my mileage was terrible for the whole return trip. Plus, I'd noticed all these other symptoms.

He asked her a bunch of other questions, and then he says, whereabouts in New Hampshire does your mother-in-law live? Wow. He says, what an interrogation technique to get his guy? Well, he had to tie her up for the second part of this. She says, North Crunchy Granolaville. And he asks, by any chance, does she live on a. dirt road. She says, as a matter of fact, she does. And it's a lousy dirt road at that, full of

potholes. And I hate driving on it. He says, I know what's wrong with your car. Wow. I don't think you need a tune up. And I think one repair is going to fix everything, the drop in mileage, the laboring, the poor performance. And what did he learn from that question that enabled him to figure out what was wrong with her car? I have no idea. Well, the hint was that the gear shift thing was off. That's a weird. It's weird. But it's a true story.

Would I ever doubt that you would tell us something that wasn't true? Every week. Whilst she was driving on that dirt road. Yeah. Because of the age of her car, something broke. And that's something that broke caused her gear shift indicator to be off. Also caused her drop in mileage and her drop in performance. And what broke was the mount that holds the transmission up.

And when the transmission broke, the transmission crossmember broke, it sat down on the emergency brake cable. Oh, my. Her emergency brake was on. God. Enough to make her mileage drop off, the power drop off. And, of course, because the transmission now was closer to the ground, the shift indicator was off. So fixing this one thing, and man, he figured it out all by himself. And, of course, you gave him a race.

Races. A pat on the back No No You said Good job He got on lunch hour That day

Who's our winner Tommy? Wow That is That was One of the world's great Puzzlers Wow The length

How was it for length It was very long John Wayne He's very tall And the winner Is Margaret Lowe From Minet North Dakota

And for having her answers selected at random. From among the thousands of correct answers that we may have gotten this week, our pal Margaret Lowe from Minot. Mino? No, it's Minot. Well, I know they pronounce it Minot, but isn't it Minot? They pronounce it Minot.

And that's how I pronounce... Well, a lot of French people live in North Dakota. Yeah. So it could be Minot. Those fur trappers, they're still up there, right? Maybe the North Dakotans don't like French, and they're just trying to get them ticked off, and they pronounce it, Minot. I love it. And if they do that, they're going...

That's how we're going to pronounce it in the hell with you. Well, anyway, Margaret Lowe from mine at North Dakota is going to get a $25 gift certificate to the Car Talk, shameless commerce division where Robert Siegel will personally wrap and ship your t-shirt for you if you ask really nicely fat chance. Anyway, we will have a brand-new puzzler coming up in the third half of today's show, almost as lengthy as this one, yeah. Lenthy is good. Well, I came to a realization of the day. Quality is out.

I can't do quality anymore. It just doesn't happen. So I'm going for distance. Yeah, well, distance is good because it's even more interesting because the longer it is, the more obfuscation opportunity. And the more people gnaught off. Yeah, they just give up and say, who cares about this stupid puzzler so the way a shift that doesn't work. Anyway, if you'd like to call us, the number is 1-888-car talk. That's 888-227-8-2-4.

5-5. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Margie in Seattle. What's shaking? I have an 87-5,000 S Audi station wagon, and I'd like it to run forever. Yeah. Since I bought it, I've had to put like $3,000 or $4,000 into things that have fallen apart, leaked, or broke, and I'm just a little nervous about what's going to fall apart next. Oh, just about everything.

Just about everything. How many miles on this baby? 147,99, but that's when the odometer broke. That was last spring. I don't know how many miles legitimately I have on it. But I have this piece of information now that I want to check out with you because I don't know if it's good information or bad. Go ahead. Last week I was on the Internet, and I found a website that had a list of technical service

bulletins from my car. And I ran them off, and I was shocked, and I found 266 things. they have spent Yeah, but a lot of those are really nonsensical little things like engine and transmission problems and all that.

Little things that might just blow up. Yeah, sure. But now that I know that there are these 266 items, what do I do with it? I mean, I have some things on my car that are not functioning very well,

and I think some of them might be related to these TSBs, and I would want to know if I should go waving this at the Audi dealer and say, fix it, fix it, or if doing that, I'm going to...

Oh, I mean, that's almost like giving them a gun. I know. I mean, you're kidding me? You might as well just go in there and throw yourself on the floor. I could just see, you know, dollar signs flashing in their eyes and boat payments being made for the next six months. Beat me up and take my lunch money. And kick me while you're at it. That was one of the lines from one of the kids on home improvement.

His mother wanted him to wear some kind of a pink jacket. He said, I might as well put a sign on my head. says, beat me up and take my lunch money. This is the equivalent of that. This website that you went on, the TSBs, all you have, I believe, is the title of the TSP and not what the actual problem is or how to fix it. Is that correct? That's right.

What were the ones that scared you the most? Give us the titles. Well, the one that I'm having a big problem with is number 45. sagging sun visors. That's not the biggest one, but that's, for example. I mean, that's my brother's point, that there are lots of them that have to do with things like sagging sun vizers. So I wouldn't worry about that. Okay.

There may be other things to worry about, but... Well, I have a hydraulic lifter that's broken and clanking around in there. They all do that. They all do that. They've been doing that for 104,000 miles. Yeah, probably. No, they all do that. Okay.

They all do that. So you can ignore that. Okay. Well, I had a relay that fried on me. It almost caught fire. I have a lot of electrical problems. What of the things happen, you know what I mean? I know it's an old car, but.

I mean, if you're really worried, then what you might want to do is I would take it to the mechanic that you normally take it to. And ask him to check out everything as though it were a car you were thinking of buying. Okay. And he might want a hundred bucks to do this. but he will check out the transmission, the engine, the brakes, the cooling system, and he should be able to give you a pretty good list of all the things that are either currently broken are imminently going to be. Okay.

And he could even prioritize it by saying this is dangerous, this isn't dangerous. I would do this right away. I wouldn't do that. I would forget about this completely, blah, blah, blah. And then you'll have some sense of what to really expect. Okay, well, I was looking for a new mechanic anyway, So maybe I will make an appointment with the guy that did the oil change the last time and say, I don't know if there's anything serious going on here, but I'm concerned. Sure.

Would you do the checkup and let me know what's falling apart? Do you have access to the Internet, Margie? Yes, I do, and I looked it up, and I found somebody on your website. Oh, you did? That I went to, and I was very pleased with them. Great. So I will probably go back and try it again. Very good.

Okay. Thanks for your call, Margie. Okay, thank you. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. All right. The new Puzzler is next, but not until we take a minute to give thanks. Thanks for what?

Thanks for this minute off. We have to think of the new Puzzler. Support for NPR and the following message come from the Kreske Foundation with Pathbreakers, a podcast about transforming communities through innovation, from revolutionizing higher education to supporting artists who are driving change. Pathbreakers is available. on podcast platforms. 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 new puzzler.

Now, I want you to pay careful attention because this is a lengthy narrative. And I can say that nothing, there are no hints whatsoever embedded in this story. It's just for the sake of telling a story. Okay. But, of course, I lie. And nothing is relevant to the... Nothing is almost nothing. Yeah.

Many, many years ago, when I was 23, I was engaged in the noble profession of pedagogyry. Yeah. In the frozen state of Vermont. Yeah. I was teaching science to seventh and eighth graders. I was no good. Anyway.

Who'd was these in shorts? Anyway, there I was one Saturday morning sitting in front of, on my TV watching some educational program, I think it was like Mighty Mouse. That's the mystery. And the phone rang, and I knew who it was. It was one of my fellow teachers who happened to live across the street, who I knew was going to ask me to help move a cast iron stove into his house.

Because he'd asked me about it the day before. He said, you know, would you help? So I tried all the usual stuff. The phone rang, and I said, hello, there's nobody home. You got it the wrong number, but it didn't work. And he explained to me that he didn't have the stove right then and there. He was going to pick it up at the factory. And he'd be back in a few hours.

And if I were available, you could be in Canada or in a few hours. Could I help it? I said, well, what about that no good brother-in-law that lives with you? Can't he help? He said, well, he won't be back until late tonight. And you're here, and he's not, so you're on. Yeah. And I said, okay, I said, go get the stove, and I'll be waiting.

So I immediately got dressed and engaged in every manner of household activity, hoping that I had some kind of an accident. You know, I try like rewiring the house, cleaning the ice off the room. Spilling hot oil, deep-frying wet stuff. Spilling hot coffee on my lap, everything. Nothing worked. And as I waited, I noticed a wonderful thing began to happen, the snow that was falling down. change to freezing rain. Oh, what could be better?

And I said to myself, oh, this could be good, because I can see right now he's at the factory. Yep. And they're loading the stove into his Volkswagen microbus. Except he's never going to be able to get up his steep driveway when he returns, and I'll be off the hook. And maybe by tomorrow, when the ice melts, his brother-in-law will be home. Yeah.

And I'll be all set. So sure enough, there I am hiding behind the drapes as he pulls up. And I'm peeking out, and he can't get up the driveway. Oh, what a shame. He's slipping and sliding all over the place. Every time he lets the clutch out, that wheels just spin like crazy. Even with the additional weight of that cast iron. You know, and I told him, I said, you know, we talked in the phone.

I said, I would be honored to help you move. Cast iron, one of the best materials in no demand. I mean, what better way to solidify a friendship than to have a double hernia simultaneously? Sure. I mean, yeah. In any event, here he is slipping and sliding and he gets out and throw some sand under the wheel. And I say, oh, gee, that's probably going to do it. The sand doesn't help at all. Great.

He gets out again, slams the door, opens the engine compartment door. Remember that little door they had in the back? Certainly. He does something, which takes about a second or two, closes the engine compartment door. And the next thing I know, he's climbed his drive. driveway. Oh, no. And he's on the phone saying, come over and help me move the stove. The question is, what did he do? That literally took a second that enabled him to get up his driveway under the same conditions that it prevented him from doing this a minute earlier. Now, if you think you know the

answer, write it on the back of a $20 bill and send it to Puzzler Tower. Yes. Car Talk Plaza, Box 3,500, Harvard, Square, Cambridge, Our Fair City, Ma, 02238, or of course, you can email us your answer from the Car Talk section of Cars.com. If you'd like to call us, the number is 1-888-8-8-2-27-8-255, and we will misinform you like we have all the other callers today. Hello, you're on Car Talk. This is Steve from Cape Cod. Steve. In Card, Massachusetts. Yeah, well, okay.

I'm from Cape Cod. I'm in California right now. So did you move to California from Cape Cod? I keep a residence in Cape Cod, and I'm out here for a couple months, just in Lake Tahoe. Really? So that's the other... The ski, I assume. Yeah, well, I'm snowboarding.

And I'm working, too. I have a small business on the Cape Cade. Right. And I have a computer with me, so... I do some work, and I do some other stuff, too. You know, sort of a snow bomb, though. Yeah, that definitely. Excellent.

Very good. And I'm proud of it. I'm not. ashamed in the slightest bit. Well, I don't think you should be. Well, okay. Everybody else is running around trying to work an extra 20 hours a day, and you're happy to be a bum. I make just enough money to keep myself out of trouble. God bless you. But if I make any more money, then I get into more trouble, and then I just going to work. You're absolutely right, and I want to thank you for calling. It's been an absolute pleasure talking to a man of such perspicacity. I'll see you

later. Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, I have a problem. Yeah. So here's the thing. We're driving across country and going across the plain states, you get big time winds coming across you know, diagonally across the highway. Oh, Oklahoma, honest. No, actually, well, okay,

the problem really man-invested itself in, I think it was Nebraska, where you get really, really high winds coming, diagonally across the highway. We're driving an 88, my girlfriend's 88 Pathfinder. Now, I don't know if you know the makeup up of the outside of a pathfinder, but the doors have some sort of an aerodynamic deal where

they come up towards the roof as opposed to, you know, and your average proven car design with gutters. Oh, right. It has no gutters. Yeah, gutterless. Right. Yes. So what happens is on the leeward side of the car, so if the wind is blowing from the passenger

side of the highway across, the driver's side door, the top of the door actually gets opened by the wind. Does it? to the point where snow and wind comes in the car, which can be kind of tedious when you're driving, you know, 18, 20 hours a day. Probably a Venturi effect. Absolutely. Wow.

Yeah. Physics. I'm not. I'm glad I took that course. Although, wait, isn't the Venturi effect when you squeeze wind down into a fluid? No. It's the vacuum which is created by the flow of a fluid. Uh-huh.

Wow. Air being the fluid in this case. Yeah. Right. So as the air is flowing over that driver's door, it's sucking the door open. It's creating a vacuum. Right. Okay.

Well, that I understand. Yeah. The question is, how do I keep that from happening? Right. A rope from one door to the other. Across the roof. Okay. No, right inside the vehicle.

Yeah, well, across the roof and then inside the vehicle, and you'll get to gnaut it, like, right over your head. Right. So what I'd need to do then is notch the glass so that the glass came up around the rope. Perhaps use a nylon strap. Believe me, driving. across country, you have plenty of time to sit here and think about all these things. All those big states.

Trying to explain it to, say, a mechanic at a Nissan dealership, trying to replicate the problem is... Well, you're not going to replicate it because you need a wind tunnel. However, there may be a solution short of the rope. Okay, and don't tell me to duct tape it

because... No, I'm not going to tell you to duct tape it, but the doors can be adjusted, you know. Okay. The door may not be adjusted properly. That's a possibility, Because I don't think they want this to happen. No, I mean, you can take it to a body shop and explain your problem, and they can adjust the door hinges or if they're not adjustable in some cars, they're not.

They can actually bend the door. Hmm. They will bend the frame. And I'd have to pay someone to come and bend the door frame. Alternatively, you could try it yourself. I could. You could. Or what you do is you open the door all the way.

Oh, don't, no. You jump, you put the window down. Oh. You jump up and rest your feet on the store. Sill, you know what I'm talking about? Yeah. Okay, where you would rest your arm if you were driving. And you're facing outward.

And you're facing outward. And you grab. Now, the good news is you don't have to be in motion when you do this. You're going to grab on the frame and you're going to go, uh, uh, uh, and you're going to pull that frame for the window close to your chest. Yeah. And think about how much snow's going to get in the vehicle. From the bottom.

No, when there's no door there. Oh, when you break the door out. I would take it to a body shop because it, there's an art to, this. Oh, yes. And I had a similar, although not as dramatic, a problem with my wife's Dodge Caravan, that at high speed, you would get a, the whistling effect, the wind noise. Right. And the body shop next to us was kind enough to bend those doors. No kidding. And they made it worse, actually. And made it almost go away. Right. Now, the problem is, okay, presuming, I did this at the body shop.

I'd have to pay these guys. And you wouldn't know that they fixed it for six months. I wouldn't know. Oh, never, you'd never know. Until I hit the middle of the country where there's, you know, eight mile an hour crossways. That's why, Steve, you have to do it yourself. Right. You might want to pay them to do it and watch what they do.

So whatever you pay them will be a lesson so that you will know when you're out there in Nebraska, you will know how to do it yourself. Right. And then when I'm watching what they do and realizing how much of their pay, I'm paying them. I'll be smacking myself in the head saying I could have done that myself. But you'll now know how to do it, and you'll be the expert, and you can flag down other cars on the middle of Nebraska

and offer the service of them for a nominal fee. You might be able to pay for your gas. It's making sense me now. What I can do is I can make up flyers. There you go. I bend the doors. In high crosswind areas, at trucks, I'm saying, do you have this problem?

That wind noise driving you crazy? Snow coming in, getting your pants wet? Amazing fix. Amazing fix. Yeah. It's magic, and I can't show you how I do it. I have to take it around the back. The snow's getting to you, Steve.

Well, yeah, it is. It's piling up outside the windows. I don't even know I'm going to get a job, Steve. No, no, no, no, no. You got way too much time. Way too much free time. I think you guys have a little too much free time. Yeah, you're right.

You guys need jobs, too, I think. Yeah, we do. Maybe we can have a little support group. You get one, we'll get one. All right, well, it's a deal. See you. See you, Steve. Thanks for calling.

All right, thank you. They've got a little business in Cape Cod, but I'm here in Lake Tahoe. He's selling sunglasses in Cape Caw in the summer. And snowboarding lessons. Oh, sunglasses at Lake Tahoe. Same sunglasses at Lake Taho. The ones he couldn't sell him the Cape, he brings him to. Right.

Sounds like a pretty... He's out here for a couple of months. Does he need a partner? 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 is Ken the diaper slayer Rogers. Our assistant producer is Catherine E. Meldaree.

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and our staff chiropractor is Winston Payne. And our chief negotiator is Bernadette Britt. Turned a debt to bridge. And back by popular demand, our document security expert from the island of Jamaica is Euripides-upman, who is not related to our tailor Euripides, I meant a-dez. Or to our staff bouncer, Euripides, I break your face.

Or to the proprietor of our men's clothing shop, Euripides, Eur. Our chief counsel from the law firm of Dewey Cheyman How is Uly-Lewis-Douy, known to the other thugs in his office as Ui-Louis-Douy. Thanks so much for listening. We're clicking clack. The Tappert Brothers, remember, above all. Don't drive like my brother. Whatever you do, don't drive like my brother.

We'll be back next week. Bye-bye. And now, here is Kat Talk Plaza's very own commodities expert. Hey, Vinnie Goombats. Thank you very much. Now, if emerging market funds ain't got enough pizzazz for you, then I suggest you invest heavily in copies of this. week's Card Talk show, which is number five.

You can order them directly from the U.S. Treasury. I call them 1-8-8-8-8-car junk. Kenny, that is not the number for the U.S. Treasury. Oh, not? Well, I must have transposed a digit or something. Now, if you want to get it to Card Talk CDs, tapes, tapes, books, and all that stuff, you can also call Card Talk Treasury direct at 1-888 Carjunk.

Or you can visit the Shameless Commerce Division at the Cart Talk section of Cards.com. Finney, you're going to land us in jail. Whoa, you're going to need some tapes to listen to in jail, won't you? That, hey! Car Talk is a production of Dewey Cheaterman Howe and WBUR in Boston. And even though Larry Flint criticizes NPR for having such low standards when he hears us say it. This is NPR National Public Radio.