The Best of Car Talk - #2597: We're Part of the Solution

Episode Date: December 6, 2025

Ivan was enduring an attempt to upsell him on a special oil treatment when he heard this doozy from the mechanic-turned-salesman: “We’re not the problem. We’re part of the solution.” We agree, if the solution he’s referring to is a sleazy soup of grease and jargon. Click and Clack wade through this and other messes on this episode of the Best of Car Talk.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

NPR's podcast, Trump's Terms, is your source for same-day updates on big news about the Trump administration. Short, focused episodes, one topic at a time, about five minutes or so. We carry it reporting from across all of NPR's coverage, so you are always getting the biggest, most urgent stories. Listen to Trump's terms on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello and welcome to Car Talk from National Public Radio with us, Click and Clack the Tappertar Brothers, and we're broadcasting this week from the male division here at Carataw Plaza. My brother has a new philosophy that we shouldn't prepare anything for the show anymore.

Well, I mean, we usually do prepare by saying where we're going to broadcast from, and then we have a little thing. A little ditty. Yeah, and we didn't have any ideas for today. Yeah, well, yeah, well, it happens. But we did have a pile of mail, and I have here in front of me, this is the opening of the show, so I'm going to open a priority mail package, and I have no idea what's in it, and whatever it is, we'll discuss it.

There's a letter? Ah. Oh, geez. Aromatherapy. Really? The Aaron Drive, it's not a letter. What that? Oh, I love it already.

Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, oh, oh, oh, look at all this stuff. Little bottles of things and things that take AA batteries. Anything that takes a double-A battery is all right in my book. Well, I'll just read it here. Just plug it in, it says. Place the power of electronic aroma diffusion at your fingertips. Reduce the stress and road fatigue. Eliminate cigarette smells and unwanted odors.

Oh, that'll come in handy in your car. Easily change scents or aroma intensity, and it's got a, thing. No, it is not a double A battery. It pours into your cigarette lighter. Well, I have been a big advocate of aromatherapy for a long time because have you ever been someplace where you smell something?

And you say, boy, that brings me back. Brings me back. Well, I don't know how it works. The time I walked my dog in the dark or something like that. Without a flashlight. Oh, oh man, alive. I've got it. Well, next week, we'll have to have a full report on these things because

these promise to be. I mean, Reduce stress and road fatigue. All the one that I have here is called Stress Away. This one I have here is called Tommy Away. All right, baby. Same thing. But wait a minute. You plug this into what?

Oh. Alas, you do not have a cigarette lighter on that. I do not have a cigarette lighter. Barbaric vehicle that you own. No, I don't. That's all right. I'll just pour this stuff in my hair. Oh, boy, if you'd like to call us about your car, the number is 888 Car Talk.

That's 888-227-8255. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Judy. I'm calling from Blue Ash in Ohio. From who? Blue-ash-ashing? Blue-ash. Two words?

Two words. Blue ash. That's the tree. Exactly. Yeah. Oh, I was wondering if there was some kind of chemical plant nearby. No, actually, Cincinnati is nearby. Oh, that's like the whole town's a chemical plant.

What's up? I have a 1998 Toyota Camry, L.E.V.6. And about three weeks ago, when I started putting on the left-hand turn signal, it went, click, click, click, click, click, click. So I called up the dealership, and they said, you have a light out. Yes. So I went out to the car, and I looked. No lights are out. Well, what happens when you put on the left blinker and look around?

What do you see? The left blinker, it just going click, click, click, and the lights are flashing fast. So then my husband drove the car And the left turned signal went click, click, click Perfectly okay Perfectly okay So the conclusion is it's you Well, possibly, then I went away

And he drove it for a while And it seemed to be fine And then I came back And I put my kids in the car And took him to daycare And my four-year-old weighs in on the issue Yes When daddy drives the car

The four-year-old kid was Wow Oh, yeah. When daddy drives the car, this side goes slow, and that side goes slow. But when mommy drives the car, this side goes slow, and that side goes really fast. Oh, you're going to have trouble with this kid. He's only four? Do you give him a dope slap right away? Straighten him off? Well, but then the problem is he wanted to know why. And so, of course, I have no clue. So then I start...

Because here's the answer. Because mommy is electric. That's right up there with those special mommy. So then I thought about it, and here's the thing. When I drive the car, I have the headlights on all the time, and my husband hates that. He always has them off, and that's the thing, because when I turn the headlights off, it goes click, click, click. Really? Yes. Oh, I have it.

And so then I called the dealership backup, and I told them this, and they said they had absolutely no idea, but I could bring it in for lots of tests, and I could hear the guy like creating the plants. The thing going, ka-ching, ka-ching, the cash. No, you're under warranty, and it's a bumper-to-bumper warranty you have, and that does include the light bulbs. Okay. So no matter what it is, it's not going to cost you anything. However, what it's going to take to fix it is a new light bulb. I believe what's going on is that the parking light bulb, which comes on when you turn the headlights on, is the same bulb that operates the directional. Okay.

And those bulbs have two filaments in them, one for the parking light and one for the directional. and I think what's happened is one of those bulbs is defective and the two filaments are touching Wow Yeah I think so I think so So if you were to just take out the bulbs

Well let them do it Okay Tell them to replace them until they fix the problem But now you've got it Because now the problem before was that you were going to show up And it was going to work fine But now that you know what makes it do it

Then they'll see it at the same time When you bring it in And they'll fix it It's very easy Yeah, so what's happening when you have the headlights on you, you are short-circuiting one of those bulbs. And they shouldn't really charge me for this? Oh, they shouldn't charge you anything. No matter what it is, they're not going to charge you.

And if they do, you let us know. I will. And we will get Vinny Gumbats to go give them a little visit. All right, attitude adjustment. See you, Judy. Thanks so much. Thanks for your call. Good luck.

Bye-bye. Bye-bye. 1-888-8-8-288-2-282-8-2-5. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hello, my name is Ivan Zervigan from Miami, Florida. Wow, nice name. Zervagon. Wow, it's good.

Is it Russian? No, actually, it's from Spain. My first name, obviously. Oh, Zvergone is Spanish. Yes. Where did you say you were from? Miami, Florida. Cool.

So what's up? Well, about three weeks ago, I went to get a simple oil change. It was after 5,000 miles between oil changes. And I got the oil change, and I came back 45 minutes later, and they said that due to clumpy oil they have to put this special detergent in

that cost another $15 to the oil change was 25, whatever. And then I would have to come back two weeks later and do the same thing, get an oil change, and put in the same detergent, then possibly

two weeks after that. What kind of a car do you drive, Ivan? Okay. I have a 95 Camry. How many miles on it? It's about 65. Okay. And if you changed the oil in the last five years?

Sure. Every 5,000 miles, he says. Okay. All right. So, in my humble opinion, there's a very, very high probability that these guys are sleaze balls. Right. Yeah, they're trying to flim flam you. And, you know, the thing, he had like this automatic response that was kind of funny.

He was like, I'm not part of the problem. I'm part of the solution. And as I was waiting for my car to be done, he said that to like two or three other customers after me. You know what? He went to a seminar. I think the MBAs have taken over auto repair. They've taken over everything.

Yeah. This guy go to Harvard. I don't know. Was he wearing a blue blazer? Did he carry a spoon in his car? Well, first of all, it's unlikely. Clumpy,000-mile old Camry had clumpy, I don't know what, the clumpy oil even is.

But I doubt that you have that condition. Right. Maybe it's you, Ivan. Do you look especially stupid? Well, maybe I've been known to. People have told me that. Yeah, I mean, people tell me that. That's why I get stuck with all this stuff.

At least people try, because I just look stupid. I look gullible. Right. And you may have looked gullible that day, and that's why it was it. Clumpy oil, clumpy oil. The guy just sold my brother an oil tank for his basement. He has gas heat. But now he has $2.

75 gallons of oil there, too. You never know. I mean, you might need it. And the thing is, I have to fill the thing up a couple of times every winter. I don't understand it. So you could have that vulnerable look. Right. That special

detergent look. The truth is, at 25 bucks in oil change, they ain't making any money. I mean, we do oil changes at our shop. And there's nothing that's nice about oil changes. They're messy. They're inconvenient. You make no money on them. You've got to dispose of the oil. You've got to

Put the car up on the lift. You've got to dispose of the filters. You've got to dispose of the oil. And then you park the car outside of doing this and somebody steals the radio. I mean, you know, so at 25 bucks, they're losing money on every oil change. So they're going to set of the anti-clumping thing. I see. So I think I could have a major problem with the engine later on if I don't.

Sure, he would say that. That was all part of the seminar he went to. Don't forget, he's not part of the problem. You're the problem, Ivan. Right. He's here to help. I'm here to help you, you're a fool. Right.

You've never heard of clumpy oil, huh? Yeah, well, it just shows how far ignorance can carry some people. That's right. Right. And, oh, one more thing, they said that, I said, well, how could that have happened? And he said that maybe, well, I told him I added oil, because at one point, the oil was a little low. My oil, I came on.

So I went to, you know, the auto parts store, and I put some oil in it. I put, like, three or four quarts in it. And then he said that adding oil was very bad because it makes the oil clumpy. Yeah. Okay. Why were you adding three or four quarts of oil to a relatively new car? I don't know, because the oil I came on. Oh, you may have overfilled it, I suspect.

It probably needed one quart. Okay. And you put in four. Okay. That can cause clumping, you know. Oh, really? It won't cause clumping, but it could cause frothing. Yeah.

That's another, that's the time, another call. Well, okay. Next time you go, he'll tell you you have frothy oil. Right. They have a special frothy detergent. But I don't think I'd do anything. Just keep an eye on the oil, too. And I'll put on my best treat-wise look.

Yeah. I think one gas fill-up out of three or four, you ought to go to the full-serve island and have them check your oil just for the heck of it. It doesn't hurt. Yeah, and don't overfill it. Don't forget, if you add a quart of oil, it takes a while before it shows up on the stick, like several minutes. Mm-hmm.

So if you add a quart of oil, stand there and wait a few minutes and then check it to make sure... Because if you just put two or three in, when you do check it, it'll be like way up in the stick, and then what do you do? Right. Yeah, so... But keep an eye on it. Cool. See, Ivan. Good luck.

Thank you. Okay. Now, Tommy, do you remember last week's puzzler? Yeah. It was... Bang! Bang! No, Frank!

Don't shoot! No, no, that was our conversation before the show. 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.

Plus, eligible vehicle purchases are backed by up to $100,000 in protection. So buy your next car on eBay. eBay, things people love. Secure purchase is powered by Caramel Dealer Services LLC, an eBay subsidy. Hey, for you, T-shirt wearers out there, all relatives of T-shirt wears, we just got a veritable shipload, that's shipload with a P, of new Car Talk T-shirts at the Shameless Commerce Division. The folks there made a great series of T-shirts out of their favorite car talk quotes.

So in addition to the classics, you know, don't drive like my brother, Dewey Cheatham, how, you can now get Car Talk T-shirts that, say, for instance, if money can fix it, it's not a problem. Life is too short to drive boring cars. while you're young. You may never have a chance to do anything this stupid again. Reality often astonishes theory or happiness equals reality minus expectation. How about this one? Lousy car advice since 1977 and many, many more. If you'd like one or want one to ship to a friend or relative, you don't really like. Just head over to shamelesscommerce.com. That's shamelesscommerce.com.

Hi, we're back. We're listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Clack the Tappert Brothers, and we're here to talk about cars, car repair, and not the answer to last week's Puzzler. The Puzzler, as our regular listener knows, is on summer vacation. Listener? Listener. We only have one regular listener? Well, I know we have... We have more than one listener. Yes, but we have at least one guy that's out there.

Yeah, that's dead. Well, I didn't want to spoil it. Yeah. And it is our fondest hope that the Puzzler returns in the fall, refreshed, renewed, and maybe even less stinkly. In the meantime, we're here sweating over a hot microphone trying to help the motoring public. And speaking of helping the motoring public, you may have missed our announcement last week that as a public service to all the drivers on the road, we are offering a free bumper sticker that is designed to shape up mobile cell phone users.

It says, drive now, talk later. Yeah, this was our compromise slogan after NPR vetoed the first choice, which... Here it was. I mean, it was a little long for a bumper sticker, but I thought it put everything It was kind of a wrap-around bumper sticker. Would you drive better if I stuck that cell phone up your keister? I thought that was nice. It had a nice ring to it, so to speak. Anyway, so if you want a free car talk, drive now, talk later, bumper sticker, which I guess says it all.

Just send a stamped self-addressed envelope to bumper sticker. Hmm, good. Car Talk Plaza, Box 3,500, Harvard Square, Cambridge. Our Fair City. Matt 02238. This is a public service of Dewey Cheathenhow and the cell phone industry. Yeah, right. Sure.

Well, I'm sure the cell phone industry will be right behind us on this. Well, they should be. They should be. And they might even say it, knowing that we don't have a snowball's chance in hell of getting anything done. They've been paying lip service to the cause. Yeah. They wouldn't know that it would be distance. fail. Right. And they say, well, these guys, you know, they're right. You shouldn't drive the car and

talk on the phone at the same time. Pull over when it's time to talk on the phone. They'll say, yeah, we've always promoted that and they'll know. Well, they probably, I bet you if you get your brochure from your cell phone, I don't have a cell phone. They tell you not to drive and use the thing, because otherwise, you'd sue them. Yeah. On the other hand, all the stupid legislators in the country, you don't have the guts to make it a law. Except in Massachusetts. Well, they do. Well, they do, except that they're using their cell phones while they're driving too. Well, they're stupid then. Well, of course. Yeah. Yeah. What are you running anyway? If you want more information about this, by the way, it's all on our website, the cart talk section

of cars.com. And even more. And even more. There's all kinds of stuff going on. This is a real war. Oh, this is a hotbed of activity. This is war. This is war. And my brother's going to be in the trenches. I got the helmet already. Car talk. That's 8-8-2-27-8-25. Hello, you're in Car Talk. Hi, this is Emily from New Marlboro, Massachusetts. Hi, Emily. Where's New Marlboro? It's about two and a half hours west of Marlborough.

Wow, what a suburb. Yeah. Yeah, I guess a bunch of people from Marlborough got... Oh, secessionists. Yeah, they just moved out. When was it incorporated? Like, 1989? Oh, no, 17-something.

New Marlboro, huh? Boy, people got ticked off that quickly in Old Marlboro. that they left in a huff. Right. Yeah. Or a Conistoga wagon back in 1789, and they said, well, and stay out. Oh, maybe they were thrown out. Oh, yeah.

Why would you name your town after the old one if you were thrown out? Hmm. I don't know. These are all weighty questions, Emily. If only we had to study art history. That you can't answer them for them. What's on your mind, Emily? All right.

Well, my question is not so much. automotive as it is an inquiry into the male psyche. Oh, man alive. Yes, indeed. Well, I will defer to my brother in this regard. He knows he's a psycho. Okay. And I can spell psyche.

Yeah, go ahead. All right. Well, I have this friend, and he will henceforth be known as Bob. Okay, Bob, in quotes. Yes. Yeah. Well, I was over at Bob's house a little while ago, and he was just mentioned. mentioning to me that he had kind of a problem with this car.

He wasn't really sure what was happening to it. So eventually we made our way down to the garage, and we're just sort of poking around under the hood and running the engine and owing and iron over the fan belt. Well, this is a new technique. I was just trying to get girls to listen to my stereo. And it never worked. This is good.

This is good. And I know a little bit about cars. I can see what's happening. I know exactly what happened. You showed him up, didn't you? You fixed his damn car. Well, you have to wait, yes. Oh, God.

Well, Emily. He was just wondering what was wrong with it, and I said, well, you know, I think it might possibly be your alternator. And he said, oh, no, no, no, no, definitely not the alternator. There's no way in the world that it could be the alternator. So he takes it to a mechanic, and I see him a few days later, and I said, so, Bob, what was wrong with your car? And he looks at me, and then he looks down at his feet rather sheepishly and says, well,

was the alternator. Cool. Yeah. And what happened after that? Did you just change the subject immediately and was everything okay? I did, because I felt like he'd been through enough. Yeah. Okay.

Has he called since? I haven't spoken with him in about a week. Yeah. I don't think you'll hear from him again. Probably not. Yeah. Yeah, so what's your question? Do you like Bob?

I mean, that's a nice guy, yeah. Yeah. Well, my question, basically, is why do men feel that they have to be superior to women in knowledge that women stereotypically are not supposed to know anything about? Like, for instance, cars and computers and professional sports. This is an hour show. I mean, you come and you call it, you ask us a question that would we quiet. It has taken 30,000 years of Homo erectus to even come close to being civilized. And you come and you ask us just a little, simple little question like this.

Holy cow. How long will it take you to get here? Oh, my God. Yeah, no, this, I mean. Shoof. How old are you, Emily? I'm 18. Ah.

Oh, God. Okay. You sound so much more. So much older than that. I was going to say mature, but I don't mean that. I mean, you are probably very mature. But, wow. Why do men feel that women don't have knowledge of these things?

Males feel that they have to know something about things mechanical. It's just the way it is. Well, it all goes back to evolution. I mean, if you have to go back to where we have all come from, because we have not finished evolving by a long shot. And if you just look back a little bit into the... the animal kingdom, whence we came, I think. That's what science would have us believe, and I think it might be true.

Then in the animal kingdom, it is almost always the male of the species, which is the more powerful. And power in current society has turned not from physical power necessarily, unless you live in Mississippi. There goes that station. We just did a bunch of promos for them. We can't lose that. All right. Alabama. All right, Texas. We're done for it. But not in a sort of semi-civilized society, that has turned into knowledge. Knowledge is power.

And so men feel as though they have to continue this evolutionary legacy, I suppose it is, and be the more powerful of the species. And that turns into her. I can fix anything. So it isn't just cars, it's anything. It's anything, yeah. And you'll soon find that out. You're only 18 years old. Uh-huh. And after you've had two or three husbands, you'll begin to understand what the hell is really going on here.

Yeah, there may be some way to patch things up with Bob. Maybe you can, you know, a plant, it would be, you would have to be very cleverly done. Exactly. I can hardly wait. Yeah. It would have to be very deceitful. Yeah. Yeah.

Maybe you and your mother could work on it. Have you discussed this with your mother? A little bit. Yeah. Yeah, but see, she's certainly got more experienced than you. Yes, she is. So I would have a long talk with Mommy, or I can give you the numbers of some of my ex-wives,

and they could tell you also. But I would just scratch Bob off and just chalk it up to a learning experience. Okay. And read some evolution in books. All right. Yeah, and Emily, And you knew the answer anyway, didn't you, your little sneak? Probably.

Well, you get the prize for asking us the weightiest question of the day. Of the day? Of the century. Maybe of the century. And we'll work on an answer. Okay. I wish there were a good one, but there isn't. The answer is we're animals.

Okay. Yeah, I'm sorry to have to break this to you. I kind of had an inkling, didn't you? Emily, it's been a pleasure talking to you. Oh, thank you. Bye, bye. Wow. Talk about weightiness.

If my microwave oven broke, my wife would say, it's broken, I'll take it someplace. What would you do if your microwave oven? I would take it apart. Right. Well, that's the first thing you would do. What stuff before you took it apart?

I'd hit it. Right. And that's the privilege of hitting it with your club. Oh, exactly. Right? Boom. You'd grunt a little bit. It's all fixed, huh?

And you'd whack it with the. with anything, but probably your hand, because you don't have your club at the ready. Yeah. And if that fixed it, you'd be a hero. Yeah. You pound on your chest like Tarzan. All right, look, we're going to take a short break. We need it.

And when we come back, we'll tell you what to do if you find yourself in urgent need of a puzzle. Sounds painful. Yes. We'll be back in a minute. Hey, for you, T-shirt wearers out there, all relatives of T-shirtwearers, we just got a veritable shipload, that's shipload with a P, of new Car Talk T-shirts at the Shameless Commerce Division. The folks there made a great series of T-shirts out of their favorite car talk quotes.

So in addition to the classics, you know, don't drive like my brother, Dewey Cheatham and how. You can now get Car Talk T-shirts, let's say, for instance, if money can fix it, it's not a problem. Life is too short to drive boring cars. Do it while you're young. You may never have a chance to do anything this stupid again. Reality often astonishes theory or happiness equals reality minus expectation. How about this one? Lousy car advice since 1977 and many, many more.

If you'd like one or want one to ship to a friend or relative, you don't really like. Just head over to shamelesscommerce.com. That's shamelesscommerce.com. 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 No New Puzzler.

The Puzzler is taking its annual summer hiatus. Now, if you're going through some sort of puzzler withdrawal, aside from Xanax, you recommend you head over to the Car Talk section of Cars.com and feast on this week's archival puzzler from the Car Talk Fine Puzzler collection. That consists of, like, four puzzles. And by the way, and more importantly, If you have a puzzler that you think we can use in the fall,

please send it to me here at Car Talk Plaza, box 3,500, Harvard Square, Cambridge, Our Fair City, Matt 02238, or email me your puzzler suggestion from the Car Talk section of cars.com. The puzzles are due back in a few ways. And I'm starting to get the night sweats. Okay, don't throw these little things away because these are the aroma pads.

Oh, I was chewing on it. I thought it was part of the packaging. I thought they were chiklets. Oh, God. Yeah. All right. Well, look, we're going to take a call. 1-888-8-8-2-7-8-255.

Hello, you're on car talk. Hello, my name is Gil McCann, and I'm from Flint, Michigan. Hey, Gil. Hey, are you related to our sexual harassment director? I don't think so. Pat McCann. He works for us. Well, I don't know.

It might be in the jeans. I might be. What's up, Gil? Well, I've just acquired an 86 astrovan. It's got a 4.3-liter V6 in it, and I did a tune-up on it. It's a head of shutter. What it has is when you, it starts rather badly, and as you drive it, and you come to a stop, and it's in gear, it shudders.

It kind of sits there and goes like, and it does that the whole time you stopped? Pretty much the whole time. Unless it stalls. Unless it stalls, then it goes, br-be-b-b-blah. Then it starts right up again. Yeah. But if you then put it back in drive after it's stalled and you've restarted it,

does it run smoothly then? Not really. Okay. How long have you had this thing? I've had this about two weeks now. Oh, okay. And so it was like this when you bought it. Yeah, the lady I got it from said that it's been doing that since she owned it.

Which was two weeks before you got it. Did you save the first sale sign? Yeah. You just scratch out the number, man. I'm dusting that off. So when you say you did a tune-up, what did that consist of? Okay. Put six new plugs in it and an air filter.

Yeah, air filter plugs, distributed cap, and the rotor. The wires appear to be pretty well new. They look good, so. And I did, I pulled off the carburetor, or not the carburet the injection. The throttle body. And it was filthy. I squirted it out with some cleaner. And I also put some gas cleaner in the,

in the fuel. Yeah. How long ago did you put the gas cleaner in the fuel? What? A week? Yeah. Yeah. About a half a tank of gas is whatever.

Oh, half a tank worth. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it would be a miracle if gas additive fixed this problem. Yeah, this is serious. If you're really lucky, Gil, you have a vacuum leak, which could account for just about everything you described, and the stalling and the dead spot and the live spot. and sun spots and everything.

And so if you're lucky that you have that, and the only way you're going to find that is to get something like a soda straw or a piece of hose, you know, rubber hose, like vacuum hose, and stick one end in your ear and just probe around, and you may find a spot where you hear a hissing or sucking noise. Get a listen, okay.

Now, one of the things you can also do is while the engine's running, cover up that throttle body. Yeah, that way you won't find out where the leak is, but you'll find out if you have a leak. That should be the first step. So as you choke off the air that's being sucked in through the throttle body, it will compensate for the air that's leaking in someplace else, maybe.

And you may notice the things start to run very smoothly. Okay, so if I sort of choke that off and it picks up speed and run smoothly, I've got a vacuum. In which case you'll have to drive with your hands on the throttle body. Right, which will come in handy in the winter. Which you can actually do in that vehicle. Right. Because the engine's next to you.

Assuming you don't have a cell phone. Right. So you can try that. I mean, the other possibility is that there's bad compression. Right. I didn't want to ask you. Don't mention that. How many miles are on this thing?

I'd say probably about $117,000. Yeah. I mean, in order, I guess the things that could be wrong in order of, thank Godness, would be the vacuum league because the cost to fix that might be almost zero. And you would find that out by choking off the throttle body. Great. If you can't find an obvious vacuum leak in covering up the throttle body doesn't yield some results, then the next step is to do a bona fide compression test.

Okay. You're going to have to bite the bullet and do it. I mean, when you find out you've got 43 pounds in number six cylinder, then you'll know without a doubt. Yeah, that that's it. And you'll put the sign back. At least you'll stop looking for other things. You'll start looking for another vehicle.

Would I be able to have that detected, say, if I took it and had to put on a Computer? Yeah. Well, maybe, yeah. I mean, scanning the engine is not going to help. But they can still, those guys have compression testers, too. Okay. And they can figure out what's wrong with it.

And you could do this yourself, and it would require that you buy a new tool that you probably don't currently have. Uh-huh. Well, I had one until I loaned it out. Ah, well, it's time to buy another one. Yes, it is. Good luck, Gil. I appreciate that. All right.

Thanks a lot, guys. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. 1-888-car talk. That's 888-227-8-25. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Loretta from Delaware Loretta, how are you?

I'm fine, and before I ask you about the problem with my car, I was on vacation in Maine, and I heard you guys were from Maine. Yeah. I heard a DJ on the radio that sounded just like you guys. Well, everyone in Maine sounds like that. We were on vacation, and we have another job up in Maine.

We're moonlighting. We were moonlighting up there. We would, we do heavy metal stuff. Well, that's what I told my husband. I mean, I know. It's clicking crack. I know. Yeah, you know. Transmission. We moonlight in Vermont. Yeah, okay.

I've never been to Maine in my life, and I don't know what you're talking about. Yeah, so what's up, Loretta? What's your car problem? I drive in 1988 Toyota Camry. I bought it used, and the problem came with a car. What the problem is that when you turn the key, you get a real high-pitched grinding noise.

Ah, yes. And it takes two or three times, you know, before it'll start. start. Yeah. The mechanic said, look, you know, you've got some broken teeth on your starting gear plate. Yeah. Finally in February of 98, we took it in and got it fixed to the tune of $700. And then a few months ago, it starts again.

Same exact sound, same exact problem. I'm thinking the teeth are broken again? Well, yes and no. I mean, I'll tell you, I've heard yours is not the first case of a case. Camry where the thing gets fixed, the flywheel gets replaced, and then a short time later, the problem returns. And yet there are millions of these Camrys out there without the problem. Yours is an automatic transmission, right?

Yes. Yeah, that seems to affect only the automatics. But there are millions of them out there that have automatic transmissions that never have this problem and have hundreds of thousands of miles on them. So there may be some underlying cause for the problem. That's what I asked. My mechanic, I said. What is causing the teeth to break off of the flywheel?

I mean, the underlying thing that usually happens is that there's a misalignment between the starter and the flywheel of some kind. So that when the starter engages, when you turn that key, what happens is there's a little gear that pops out of the starter, and it engages with the teeth on the end of the flywheel. And if there's some misalignment there, or the starter doesn't get out far enough to engage, and only engages like halfway, then every time you start the car, you chew up a little piece of tooth until pretty soon there's not much left.

So I think it's a Toyota problem. So in other words, my mechanic, who I trust in 11 and a half to 20 years, is it something that he could fix? Well, I don't think so. I don't know. The next time you have to do it, I would go to a Toyota dealer

and say to them, hey, look, guys, what's the story here? I think you probably, should do this job for nothing because, I mean, I bought this car back in 88 in good faith and I've now put in four flywheels. You'll have to lie, see. Oh. You've only put in one. Yeah, Xerox, the repair orders.

Make it look like you had it done four times. Take whatever repair order you have and, well, even better, go in and have an oil chains done by a Toyota dealer in another town. And then throw it into your computer and delete all the stuff that's on there and put just write in, replace flywheel. Scan it in, you mean. Yeah, scan it in. People go to J. What? It's better than making $20 bills.

We've got to use this technology for something. The $20 bills is easier. I mean, you can make $700 worth of the counterfeit bills in probably 15 minutes. You think it's a manufacturing defect? I think it's a, yes, I think it's a manufacturing or

some kind of design defect. And I think as my brother says that the mesh of the starter gear and the flywheel is not correct and that's what leads to the premature failure. I mean, your mechanic could put a chemical. We use this stuff called Prussian Blue. Doesn't say miracle on the box? Which allows you to see how the gears are meshing

when you put gear assemblies together and he may be able to do that and he may be able to Mickey Mouse something like file a hole in the starter so that he can actually move the starter farther away or closer to the the flywheel. He may be able to affect some kind of a fix that would even spare this flywheel. Right. And I mean, the dealer is the one more likely to know if there is a fix because he's the one

who has seen more of these than anybody else. So the best of my knowledge, there is no fix for this. No known fix as far as the bulletins go. You mean as far as Toyota is admitting to? Well, maybe, maybe. But they may have some secret fix. They may have a secret fix. But it would certainly be worth the call to your Toyota dealer and tell them what's happening, they may say, oh, yeah, we have a kit that can fix that, and you can go right in and get it. Well, listen, I appreciate your help very much. Good luck, Loretta. Thank you. Thank you. Bye, bye. Thanks. See you. 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 social producer is Ken the

diaper slayer Rogers. We're still working on a better name for him. Our assistant producer is Frow Pertudy Fennelosa. Yeah. Wow. She has gone from a frulein. The last time we see her, she's a frulein, and now she is a frow. Oh, frau. Like frau, brouca. That's bad.

Our engineer is Dennis de Minis Foley. Our senior web lackey is Doug Sheep Boy Mayor, and our technical, spiritual, and menu advisor is the buggster John Bugsy, make that three triple cheeseburgers loller. Our public opinion pollster is Paul Murky of Merkey Research, assisted by statistician Marge and Overa. He said Marge and Overa.

Our customer care representative is Haywood Jabuzoff. Our sales director in Iraq is Aziz No Warranty. Our daylight savings time manager is Conrad Adonauer, who's assisted by our director of standard time, read Our Back. Hourback. Oh, I like it. Tom's personal matchmaker is Robin DeCradle. Robin DeCradle.

And our chief counsel from the law firm of Dewey Chewley-in-How is U. Lewis Dewey, known to the crossing guards and mini-skirts, as you and Louis Dewey. Thanks so much for listening. We're clicking clack. The Tappan Brothers. Don't drive like my brother. Don't drive like his brother. We'll be back next week. Bye-bye. And now here is Car Talk Plaza's chief mechanic, Mr. Vincent Q. Gumbats. Hey, thank you very much. Now, if you've worn a copy at this here show, which is number 35,

just pick up your phone and call this number 1888 card junk. Now, what if I wanted like a T-shirt, Vinnie? What would I call it? Oh, third draw on the left, right above your U-TRA. What is the matter with you anyway? No, no, I'm in a Car Talk T-shirt. Oh, yeah, you called the same number, the Shameless Commerce Division at 888 Car Junk or visit it online at the Card Talk section of Cars.com.

Thank you, Vinnie. That was quite educational. Hey, hey, educate this, pal. Car Talk is a production of Dewee Cheatham and Howe and WBUR in Boston. And even though the Dalai Lama considers his no ill-will toward all sentient beings' policy, when he hears us say it, This is NPR National Public Radio.