The Best of Car Talk - #2589: Help Me Rhonda

Episode Date: November 8, 2025

Rhonda’s minivan needs help, Mike’s Subaru shuns Sundays and Gwen’s van has literally gone to the dogs on this episode of the Best of Car Talk.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Support for NPR and the following message comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. RWJF is a national philanthropy working toward a future where health is no longer a privilege but a right. Learn more at RWJF.org. Hello and welcome to Car Talk from National Public Radio with us, Click and Clack for Tappert Brothers, and we're broadcasting from the politically incorrect but funny division here at Car Talk Plaza. Bebe, beep, beep, beep, beef, beef. Special news item here, Phoenix, Arizona, Reuters. Police say they are hunting a, quote, very ugly woman, end quote, suspected of a string of bank robberies in Arizona and justify using the description by saying it is the best they have.

She is believed to have robbed seven Phoenix area bank branches like that. She's been described by every victim who has seen her as a very ugly woman. Now, you know what's going to happen, don't you? Well, the ACLU is going to come and sue the police department in Phoenix because they're going to say it's detrimental to this poor woman's self-esteem and that she's going to suffer irreparably because she was referred to as very ugly in the media. Doug says the ACLU is going to support it

because it's free speech. They're going to be on the horns of a dilemma. Well, free speech is only free speech. It's only free speech if it's uttered by an individual. If it's uttered by a government agency, it is not free speech. So you think they're going to be on the side of the woman? Absolutely.

If they can stand to look at it. I hope they try to defend her. Then she'll have to sit next to them in court for a month. Well, fortunately, you don't have to stand looking at us. You can call us on the phone. The number is 1-888-car talk.

Well, maybe this woman should have a radio show. She's obviously going to face-made for radio. As do we. 888-227-8255. Hello, you're on Car Talk. This is Warren from Miami. Warren. How are you?

Good. How are you? Are you a retiree in Miami, or are you one of the other people? No, I'm not. Hardworking. A hard worker. Absolutely. Great.

You sound young. That's why I asked. No. No, you don't sound young. Mid-40s. You sound young. He's young. Why, really?

That's young, right? Yeah. Compared to me? With regard to the bank robberies, what I wanted to know is when did my mother-in-law move to fear? Your mother-in-law, I thought it was my mother-law. Oh, I'm in trouble with that. Sheesh. My mother-in-law's ugly

than your mother-in-law. Okay. I'll take your word. Actually, mine is quite beautiful. I better cover this quickly. Oh, mine is the most... Both of you guys better, shut up. My mother-in-law is one of the most beautiful

women in the world. In fact, my wife looks like her, and she is the most beautiful... It's too late, Frank. I'm in trouble. Go ahead, but try to get yourself out of it. It's entertaining. So, Warren.

Now that we're both in trouble, what's up, man? My wife's Camry, 94 Camry, about 58,000 on it. The check engine light came on. We went to the dealer, and they said it needs something called O2 sensors for $590. But then my wife said, well, what do they do? And the dealer kind of said, well, they don't do anything. And actually, your engine's running fine, so you don't really need them. So given that, who's going to pay that kind of bucks for something that doesn't apparently do anything?

so they wrote customer declined repairs. And we're wondering, now the engine light stays on. The car's running fine. Are we missing something? Yeah. Besides the O2 sensor. Well, the O2 sensor does do something. And they're not right about that.

Uh-oh. I mean, and it may in fact appear to be running fine, but it would run finer if the O2 sensor were operating. Really? Well, yeah. We kind of found it believable because usually they're trying to sell you something, not the other one. Yeah, I mean, I think they're setting you up.

I find it very strange that they took this approach. Right. Well, what the O2 sensors do, this vehicle has two of them, is they monitor the amount of oxygen that's present in the exhaust flow. And if there's too much, it's telling them that there is not enough fuel being put in because it's not using up all the available oxygen. So it allows the computer then to adjust the mixture. Uh-huh.

Okay, to make the fuel air ratio correct. And the difference in how you perceive the car to be running may be so small that you wouldn't notice it, but it is running more efficiently when the O2 sensors are working. Right. We recently had a Ford in the shop that had the check engine light coming on. Did it look like a truck? Yeah, it was a truck. Oh, it was a truck. And we ran the scan test on it, and it said nothing about any malfunction with the oxygen sensor.

And I just happened to be looking under the truck an hour later. and noticed that the oxygen sensor was missing. Really? It was absolutely gone. Really? Yeah. And the computer had failed to pick it up. But if the oxygen sensor is malfunctioning or it's not there, what it can do is damage the catalytic converter.

I see. So they may be setting you up for a bigger kill. For example, if you ruin the catalytic converter and you're beyond the 50,000-mile manufacturer's warranty on it, then they're going to charge you for a new converter, which is like $1,000. Wow. Plus the sensors because you wouldn't want to risk damaging the new converter. Oh. So I think this is a sting operation.

So they're setting you up instead of getting immediately $590 out of you, they're going to get $2,000. There you go. Well, now at least we've discovered the motive. I thank you. And they certainly have the means and the opportunity. Exactly. Yeah, no, I would probably have them replaced. It may be that you need just one of them, but there's a way for them to test the voltage output of the oxygen sensor,

and they can determine if it's one or both. Oh, okay. All right? It would be unusual for both of them to go at exactly the same time, but they probably would go at approximately the same time. Well, that sounds like a dealer approach to replace both, even if one went. Well, it's moved in my approach to, actually. And more lucrative.

And full-proof. And send your mother-in-law some flowers. Wait a minute. Warren, when you retire, where are you going to move to? I've been worried about that. Well, I guess it's going to be Phoenix. It'll probably be Phoenix. Are you ugly enough?

To join my beautiful mom. Thanks for calling, Lauren. Thank you, guys. Bye-bye. Oh, boy, 1-888-8-8-8-8-2-25. That's 888-227-8-25. Hello, you're on car talk. This is Rhonda, and I'm from Washuga, Washington.

Rhonda with an H? Yes. Washuga? Yes. Across Columbia River from Portland. Okay. We're with you. Got it.

Okay. I have a 93 Dodge Caravan. Mm-hmm. and it has a real low, loud, idle. All of a sudden, it's gotten gradually worse. Yeah. It sounds kind of like, buta-da-da-da-da-da-da. And whenever I go to step on the gas, it'll accelerate very, very slowly.

The RPMs will go really high, and then it'll either lurch forward and slow way down, or it will start to accelerate slowly and make a lot of loud, low banging noises. Yeah, so? I need to go faster. People honk at me because I'm accelerating so slowly. So let me get this right. While you're sitting at a light, without trying to move the thing. Right.

You're in drive. Yeah. And it's going br-br-br-br-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r------------. Yeah. And then you try to accelerate and it doesn't want to go. Well, the RPMs will go up really high, and it'll start to accelerate really slowly, and then it'll get to where it's ready to show. shift again and it'll either lurch really hard and then go jerk faster, or it'll make a lot

of loud banging sounds and continue to accelerate slow. Well, uh, banging sounds. Yeah, I like it. Good. I don't like it. I'm a lead foot, and I can't go anymore. You haven't had anyone look at this thing yet? I took it into our transmission guy, and he said it's not the transmission, it's engine performance.

Exactly my point. I didn't think you could have two things so awfully wrong. wrong with it. Well, she does have. I've had caravans in the past, and they have, they're notorious for bad transmissions. Yes, I know that. But this thing is a V6. That's all, yes. Is a V6 is probably a 3.3 liter engine. And I think you're running on five cylinders. That would explain the loping at idle and the rough running. And it would also explain the lack of power, because you only have five, six, or maybe even less. Okay. You might have just even two-thirds of the available power. Yikes.

But it doesn't explain the low, loud idol. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it does because it's running on five cylinders. Yes, while you're sitting there and drive, the engine is shake, the car is shaking. Blah, blub, blub, blub. Yes. Tell me how quickly you forget. This is just the way your dart ran.

Shaking because either one of your spark plug wires has fallen off or some such thing. You know, either you have a... Wouldn't the transmission guy have seen that the spark plug wire was not attached? No. Maybe. I mean, he, first of all, you should go back and hug this guy because he could have rebuilt the transmission and then told you, oh, by the way. And then just plugged in the wire. It's my friend's brother, so he wouldn't have done that to me.

Oh. Okay, so you think it's just a spark plug wire? Well, I'm just guessing that it could be a fouled plug or you could actually have a burned valve. I mean, you could have a vacuum leak. There are any number of things that could make the engine run on four or five cylinders and would give you. you all the symptoms that you have. The rough running, the poor performance, the inadequate acceleration, everything could be explained

by something very simple. Okay. So you should get it someplace. Okay. Soon. Okay. All right? Good luck. Hey, I love your show, guys. I listen to you every weekend. Thanks for listening and thanks for calling. Thanks, Rhonda. Bye-bye. Okay, Tommy, do you remember last week's puzzle? Do I remember last week's you do this every week?

No, not that. Not like completely seems, right? Absolutely. This message comes from NPR sponsor, eBay. Buying a car should feel secure, start to finish. That's why you should buy your next ride on eBay. Now with secure purchase, sellers and titles are verified, and financing, delivery, and insurance options are built right in.

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But what does it mean to monetize all this creativity? Ted Radio Hour's two-part series explores the creator economy. Listen on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Support for NPR and the following message comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. RWJF is a national philanthropy, working toward a future where health is no longer a privilege, but a right. Learn more at RWJF.org Hi, we're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us,

Click and Clack the Tappert Brothers, and we're here, of course, to talk about cars, car repair, and first and foremost, the answer to last week's puzzling. But first, the question. Here you go. This little beauty came to us. I don't know, email, snail mail, I forget, from someone named William Morrison from Midland, Michigan,

and here it is. Yeah, I can hardly wait I remember when you said this last week You mentioned his name because I thought of my classmate Bill Morrison Who has done all the artwork But I like that, I like that I can hardly wait

Such enthusiasm, such excitement I can hardly wait Because how long do you think you could hardly wait If it were like five minutes Could you hardly wait five minutes? How about a week Can you hardly wait a week? I have waited a week

Every morning on his way to work Billy Bob Beaumont stops at the corner gas station and spends 25 cents for gas. That puzzler. That was good. Well, it remains to be seen. On his way home from work, he stops at the same gas station and again spends 25 cents for gas. He continues this pattern for months. The amount he spends never varies nor does the twice a day schedule. Yeah, man.

Oh, this thing is rife with hints, right? It is. I mean, always in retrospect you say, ah-ha, aha. That's what that meant. Finally, the attendant, who has observed Billy Bob's routine, says, you know, if you spent about $10 on a repair, you wouldn't have to stop here so often, or maybe even at all. The question is, what simple repair does the attendant have in mind? And the excellent hint is that it has nothing to do with the fuel system. Oh, now, there are lots of potential answers to this. there are well i suppose so i mean he could say well you know he was buying gasoline and he had

his thing was running so badly that he had to adjust the carburet or anything but there was only one elegant answer oh and it is elegant that the gas he's buying is not gasoline but he instead he's buying gas which is air for his tires or a tire that has a leak and that's why it's always 25 cents he puts 25 cents in a little machine the thing goes ding ding ding ding he fills up his tire. Off he goes, because he buys his gasoline someplace else. Doesn't say dingling? Dingling. And then of course the tire is flat after his day

at work. He starts at the same filling station again. Inserts another quarter. 25 cents worth of gas. Some may go boo-woo, whiz, et cetera. But as we all did when you told us the answer. Yeah. But in retrospect, I have to say, it's

brilliant. Well, if you think that one was bad, what do you hear this week's? Because a puzzler this should be a puzzler. It should be puzzling. Indeed. All right, who's our winner this week? Our winner is Elise de Smit. Oh, come on.

Who are all these people with names that I can't pronounce? Here's what you do from now on. Her name is Alice Smith. Alice D'S-Smith. Alice de Smith, when she spells it, A-L-L-I-S-E for Alice. That's okay. Perfectly acceptable.

That's what she wants to do? Fine. And the Smith, she spells D-E. S-E. M.E.T. She's from Amherst, New Hamster. And for having her correct answer chosen from among the thousands of correct answers that we got this week, Elise or Alice, will get a $25 gift certificate to the Car Talk, Shameless Commerce Division, where she can get all kinds of wonderful car talk stuff, T-shirts, CDs, car emergency kits. Actually, I shouldn't use the plural. With 25 bucks, she's only

going to get singular, whatever she gets, and the car emergency kit ain't one of them. That's for sure. Unless she's got about five of these. Anyway, we're going to have a new puzzle. Well, I can't really say new. New for most coming up in the third half of today show. A repurposed puzzler? Not really. You'll see.

In the meantime, we'll take your calls at 1-888-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-2-5. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi. Hi. Glad to be here. Nice to talk to you guys. Me too. We're glad to have you.

Who are you? My name's Gwen. I'm calling from Washington, D.C. Gwen. D.C. Are you a lawyer or a politician? No. Are you married to a lawyer or a politician?

politician. Oh, Lord, no. Okay. God bless you, my child. Now, they have to have a few of us working around here, you know. What's up? Okay, I have a great vehicle that I'm sitting in right now, talking to you, parked by the side of the road, by the way. Good, thank you. Ford E150, 1988 van, which runs like a top. It's great. It is my business. I am a mobile dog groomer. No, no kidding. No, no kidding. Good idea. My imagination's not that good to make something like up. My question is, as old as this van is, 160,000 miles, it desperately needs repainting because of the size of it and the logos and all, it's going to run me about $4,000 to do that. What type of things should I have my mechanic be looking for to see if this is a good idea or not?

Wow, Z. It runs great. I've had no major problems. Yeah, but with 160,000 D.C. miles on it. Exactly. You know that you need stuff. Yeah. And a lot of that stuff might simply be invisible to you.

That's true. $4,000. Well, you know, hey. What are they going to do for $4,000? Oh, wow. You're going to not only paint the vehicle, then you've got to do the lettering. The lettering, it's a tall van. It won't fit in any of the commercial chain shop.

Also, it's got the high top on it. You can stand up in it. That's it, yeah. Oh. Yeah. So what do you do is you drive around, people call you up and they say, Gwen, I need my dog shampooed and vacuumed. That's it.

So you show up and they bring their schnauzer out. That's it. Very good. Yeah, we do. Do you have a siren and a flashing light in case it's an emergency? No, no, no, no problem. You should get one. Most of them are just, you know, happy to get done.

As many of the dogs run out to greet me and just as many crawl under the bed. How many growl and snarl and try to bite your leg off? And what do you do? I've often wondered because I would like to be a dog groomer. And I've often wondered what you do when you encounter dogs that don't particularly like to be washed or groomed. You don't. You just say no. I've only had one in 11 years that I walked in and the lady could not pick up the dog.

She couldn't put a leash on him. She couldn't touch the dog. And I just said, honey, I was born at night, but not last night. I'm not going to do that dog. So he was a somewhat unruly little creature. Just, yes. Was it a little dog? It was a Cocker Spaniel.

Oh, they can be a pain in the butt. They can be, yes. All right, well, so now that we've got to establish that you were successful in your business. Yes, God be praise. And it would be a considerable expense to get rid of this van and buy another one because you'd have to have that high top put on it and all that. It's all rigged. It's ready to go.

Not a cheap thing to put together. You've got to fix this van no matter what. wrong with it. It's unlikely that the undercarriage is rusted because they don't use much salt on the roads, if any, in D.C. That's true. So I think no matter what, you're going to keep this for another 10 years. So I'd have the mechanic go through it and find everything that's wrong with it. And you're going to be prepared to spend perhaps thousands of dollars. But why not? I mean, just add it to the paint job. Well, that's true. Sure. Because replacing it's going to cost you 30 grand. Yeah, exactly. That is what we're talking about. Yeah. So my brother is right. I mean,

you've got to keep it forever, and who says you can't? Okay. When are you planning to retire? Oh, well, I'm not. No, she's not. I'm not thinking that far ahead right now. No. I can be a little old lady dog groomer running around.

Yeah, I mean, the only thing that you really can't fix is really, really progressed rust. Okay. And you probably don't have that, as my brother says. Not really. And the rest of it, everything, one piece of the time, you can replace the entire van. Okay. And you've got to do it. Okay, I'm glad to have somebody official tell me that.

And don't do everything at once. Do it as it comes about. All right. That sounds like a reasonable plan. And you're only driving little short distances now with this thing, right? I mean, you're not driving miles and miles a day still? You know, not a lot, 40 or 50 miles a day on it. No, it's good for another 10 years.

And then you'll retire. Oh, you'll have so much money that the dogs will come to you. You can whistle and they'll come. And we'll arrange financing when the time comes. Oh, good, good. They'll be glad to hear that. See you, Gwen. Thanks so much for your help.

Good luck. Bye, bye, bye, bye. What's an interesting business? She created her own business. You don't have to go looking for a job. Stay away from those big companies. They're nothing but sleaze balls anyway. Make your own business.

Make it. Go for it. Go for it. Exactly right. 1-888-card talk. That's 8-8-2-27-8-8-25, a lawyer on car talk. Hi, brothers. This is Bill from Phoenix, Arizona.

Bill or Phil? Phil, P-H-I-L from Phoenix. You haven't robbed any banks lately, have you? No, no, no. Well, I realize that what they may be describing as a really ugly woman could be a guy. Oh, they think it might be. Yeah.

Have you heard of this very ugly woman who's been robbing banks in Arizona? No, but someone robbed something the other day and tried to make their getaway in an AMC Gremlin. They made it about a block and a half of the robbery site. Yeah, well. He has to go back to Theft 101.

So what's happening, Phil? Oh, you know, I have a shelf life question for you. I drive a 1994 Nissan pickup truck with a mere 225,000 miles on it. Wow. Yeah. You know, I deliver boat parts to car mechanics. That's like 40,000 miles a year. Yeah, well, I do drive it for a living.

Wow. At about 100 grand, I was going to do the brakes myself, I bought wheel cylinders, the whole show. But then I had a sticking caliper, so I took it right in, and when the guys did the front brakes, they checked the rear, and there was a leaking wheel cylinder, so they rebuilt those. Now, three years later, I still have these wheeled zone. There's another $100,000 on the truck.

I'm wondering, are they still any good, you know, sealed in the bag, hermetically sealed in a little box? Perfect. They're perfect. Well, they're probably not hermetically sealed, but they usually are wrapped up in paper, brown paper. Well, no, they're in a plastic bag, and I open one that smells. like a three-day-old mackerel, so, you know.

Ah, that's good. That's good. Because that three-day-old mackerel smell comes from the brake fluid they used when they assembled it. Uh-huh. Yeah, you can actually take the thing apart, you know. If you pull off the two little boots on the end, you can push the guts of it out. It consists of a couple of pistons and a spring and two rubber cups. And if there's no evidence of rust in there, and you can remember how to put it back together,

you can use this wheel cylinder as well as the one that you haven't damaged. Right. And they should be fine. No, they should be fine. I mean, don't forget, there's a lot of stuff that gets sold. It's known as N-O-S, new old stock. It's brand new. It's never been used.

Right. And it's been on somebody's shelf for decades. For example, when we used to buy stuff like this for my brother's 63 dart, you don't think they are still making that stuff, do you? I mean, come on. I mean, you buy a wheel cylinder for a dart. It was made in like 1965. Yeah.

So that stuff will last forever. All right, great. Well, use them. All right. Before you forget how to do it. See it, Phil. See you. All right.

We're going to take a short break. Great idea. I mean, it's been minutes since our last break. I mean, minutes. We'll be right back. Hi, we're back. We're back 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. When I said this was a new old puzzler, you're going to remember. New old stock. Yeah. This was sent by a guy named John Tomassetti from somewhere out there, some dot-com place. About voo-bub-d-com. Anyway, he says this is a real-life situation. Actually happened to me, et cetera, et cetera.

He has a 1982 Jeep CJ7, and it had sticky front brake calipers. So he decided that he was going to rebuild them himself. So he said, I bought the rebuilding kids. for both front wheels and proceeded to rebuild the calipers myself. The rebuilding kits included all the necessary O-rings, dust boots, as well as new steel pistons to complete the job. I proceeded to rebuild both of these front calipers, feeling good that I had no spare parts left over.

And I was satisfied that I did the rebuild job correctly, and in fact, my work was flawless. However, he goes on, when I finished the job, I couldn't seem to believe. the brakes properly. The pedal went to the floor as if they were air trapped in the system. I must have bled a gallon of brake fluid through the system to no avail, but there were no leaks. Finally, I take the Jeep to a shop and using their professional equipment, they bleed them to no avail. Wow!

Finally, they say, you need a new master cylinder. They what? Replace the master cylinder. Three times to no avail. They check the lines, they check the rear brakes. Everything in perfect condition, they give up. Wow. No, what? I'm odd.

After five days, three more master cylinders and many more gallons of brake fluid. He takes a thing to the Jeep dealer. Yeah. They bleed the brakes. They put in master cylinders. They do all this. And finally, someone figures it out. and it cost no money to get it fixed.

Yeah. So what did they do? What did this one brilliant guy notice? Yeah, as you stood there saying, hey, hey, hey, hey, jerk. Yeah. So if you think you know the answer, write it on the back of a soft melon or a $20 bill and send it to Puzzler Tower, Car Talk Plaza, Box 3,500, Harvard Square, Cambridge. Our Fair City. Matt, 02238, or you can email your answer to us from the Car Talk section of Cars.com.

Wow. If you'd like to call us, the number is 1-8-8-8-C-R-T-T-A-T-A-T-A-T-A-R-T-A-R-T-A-R-T-A-R-T-A-R-K. Hello, you're on. Here's Mike from B-O-F-L-A-L-B-O-T-H-E-L-L-B-O-T-H-E-L-L-B-H-L-E-L-L-B-L-L-T-L-L. No kidding. Which end of Washington are you in? North end of Lake Washington, about 30 miles north of Seattle. I got it. Yeah. So you're from brothel, Washington.

Yes. Yes. We got it. It's from a brothel in Washington. You got it. Yeah. There are a lot of them down there. So what's shaken?

Oh, I've got a 93 Subaru Legacy wagon with 145,000 miles on it. And I've got a problem where every Sunday morning, when my wife and I are going ice, skating, it has a tendency to want to die in the very same spot on the road. It's the most bizarre thing you ever saw. Only on Sunday. I thought the movie was never on Sunday. Essentially, I live in a real small little valley, a small depression. And when I go to work Monday through Friday, I'm driving up and down the low part of the valley. Never get over 45 miles an hour. Do you have to go up and down hills to get to work? No. No. We're in the valley. Yeah. On Sunday, we have to go out of the valley and there's up the hill yep about two and a half mile it's a real long low gradual gradient

okay and the engine is still cold when no it is warm by that's what i thought by the time i get yeah by the time i get to the freeway it's it's warm now i got to get on the freeway and uh one and a half miles up that gradient it dies and you can feel at one cylinder will drop out then another then another until you got the foot to the floor and it's just dying you pull over to the side of the road, turn the key off, wait about 30 seconds, turn it on, starts right back up and runs fine the rest of the day. I can go up and downhills, do whatever I want. So after a mile and a half, it conks out, but it makes the next mile and a half. Just fine.

Just fine. Yeah. When it does die and you pull over, if you try and start it immediately, it won't start. Well, no, yeah, it won't start, but it makes it sound like... You have no compression. Yes, exactly. Good guess, huh? It cranks real fast.

Yeah, because the first thing that came to my mind. Whoa, yes. The first thing that came to my mind. Lay it on us, baby. The first thing that came to my mind. Mind? Can you remember? That you have a, your car, that is, has a rare disease,

which it may have contracted from another car in the neighborhood. Is it WD? WD? What's the WD? Wash down. No. No. No, you have Toyota Camry syndrome. No kidding. I believe so. TCS. TCS. Yeah, well known among cardiologists. Because you have 145,000 miles on your car, I think it's very susceptible to this. And what you have is carbon buildup on the valve train, which causes some of the valves to stick open and not close, that's rendering the engine compression level. Oh.

So that, and it's most likely to happen when the engine is under the greatest load and it's the hottest, et cetera, et cetera. Yeah. And you're trying to climb a hill. So you wouldn't notice it if you were on flat ground, if you lost a cylinder. Yeah. Necessarily. Correct.

Correct. But you might notice it climbing a hill and then once you lost one cylinder, the engine would run even harder because three cylinders would be trying to do the work of four and then you'd lose another and another until finally you were down to one or maybe two cylinders and the car would conk out. Okay. letting it sit down, letting it sit, allows it to cool, and then it's okay after that, unless you actually replicate it exactly the conditions, which are unlikely.

How long do you have to make it sit to cool? Oh, 30 seconds. I don't like that. I don't like it. I like it. I don't like it. You don't like it, huh? No.

All right. It's not going to cool in 30 seconds. It doesn't feel it doesn't to cool that much, just enough to close the valves. Yeah. And once it does, boom, it's going to fire right up. Oh, I tell you what, you guys have come up with a better idea than anybody else has. And they tested the fuel pump? No, I have not had that.

Well, they should do that. I mean, that's... Do that before you go doing anything to the valves. Okay. Well, I was going to suggest you do much of anything to the valves. What about the walnuts? Would you pardon? No, there are two treatments you can try.

One is a quick and dirty treatment, but you can throw an additive in the fuel tank. Okay. We use a product called 44K, which is made by... BG industries. The BGs, you may ever remember them from the 60s. Well, they're into making additives now. But we found that in some cases, in fact, many cases where the thing is badly carboned up, we have to hook up a machine tool.

We have a machine made by Snap-on tools, which cost many millions of dollars, that's called the motor vac. And what that does is it flushes out, not only your fuel injectors, but also sprays this stuff into the area where the intake valves accumulate all these deposits. deposits, and it dissolves all this stuff, and pushes it into your catalytic converter where it plugs that up. But it'll run for at least a week. We've had extraordinarily good luck with the motor vac. So if you put an additive in the tank and it doesn't help, find someone in your area that has a motorvac.

Okay. Most likely it will be a Toyota dealer. Well, it will because the Toyotas are the ones that have had this problem more than any other vehicle. Okay. In your car, as my brother says, probably caught this disease. Are there any Toyotas that you park near at work? Yes, on either side of me, both neighbors. That'll do it.

I did. Late at night, when you're asleep, you don't know what's going on out in those driveways. See you, Mike. All right, thanks a lot, guys. I appreciate it. Bye. Well, it's happened again. You squandered another perfectly good hour listening to Car Talk.

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We'll be back next week. Bye-bye. And now here is Cat Talk Plaza's chief mechanic, Mr. Vinnie Gombats. Hey, thank you very much now. If somebody you love suddenly turns to you, clutches his or her heart, and says, show me copy of Card Talk show.

Here's what you do. Tell them to call our shameless commerce division. Better still do it yourself. At 888 car junk and ask for this week's show, which is number 23. But Vinny, I mean, what if that person was in serious medical trouble? Well, Den Yus could recommend the copy of our new puzzler book, which makes for excellent hospital reading.

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