The Best of Car Talk - #2614: The Sludgehammer

Episode Date: February 17, 2026

Bernardo needs to get the crud out of his engine, but he can’t afford an expensive trip to his mechanic. Could a can of miracle goo from the auto parts store possibly be the answer? Enter, ‘The Sludgehammer’ on this episode of the Best of Car Talk.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

On the ThruLine podcast from NPR, the former slaveholder who took on the KKK and won. He became more and more and more militant as time went on. Listen to ThruLine in 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 Tappert Brothers. And we're broadcasting this week from the Wonders of Technology Division, not department. Division. It's an entire division, yeah. Here at Car Talk Plaza.

Go ahead, Tommy. And here it is. Man goes to his dealership and picks up one of those brand new Mercedes SUVs. As he's driving home, he turns on the radio and nothing happens. Furious, he goes back and tells the sales consultant, when I buy a $50,000 vehicle, I expect a stupid radio to work. Salesman says, the radio has been pre-programmed to your voice, sir, and all you have to do is tell the radio what you want to hear.

And it will play. Guy gets back in his car and he says, country music. And Willie Nelson starts singing. Wow. He says, rock and roll. And immediately Elvis started crooning. Easy listening, he remarks.

And all at once, it sounded like he was in an elevator. Later that day, he was relaxed. He's driving up Route 128 outside of Boston, listening to smooth sounds, when all of a sudden another SUV with two typical Boston drivers, almost runs them off the road. Morons, he screams. The radio immediately blurts out.

This is click and clack the tapper for the national public radio. I saw it coming a mile away. That was said to us by Pierce Reed or Reed Pierce. I don't know who he is. Morons. Well, if you want to talk to these morons, The number is 888 Car Talk. That's 888-227-8255.

Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Marge from Houston, Texas. Marge. Marge, you have such a soothing voice. Wow. Thank you. I love y'all's show. Well, thanks.

Great. You've calmed me right down. Which is something his wife hasn't managed to do in 20-some-odd years. You know, that's the reaction I have to most men. They're just, like, snoozing away. It's terrible. Yeah, I know. What do you do for a living march?

I fix things for a large company that can't tell you their name, but they mean service and their initials are. Well, no, I can't tell us that either. You fix physical things, mental things, or systemic things? Well, in my business, often you have to fix them all at the same time. Wow. I specialize in mechanical things. Good. Really?

What an interesting. So we can call you a mechanic. Yeah, you could. Great. Which is why I'm calling you guys. Sister. Yeah, so what's up? Well, I have a 1985 Nissan pickup truck.

It is my little baby. I bought it new, and I work on it myself when I can. It has 150,000 miles on it. And I've come up into a very unusual problem that nobody seems to know what is causing it. I know what you guys. I know what's wrong with it. Already? She hasn't even give you any clue.

She just told you the kind of vehicle. I'm going to tell you, Mark. What's wrong with it? Then that holding the steering wheel? Uh-uh, uh, don't tell him. Don't tell him anything more. Okay. Let's see how good he is.

Is the truck blue? Yes. That's what's wrong with it. It's blue. I'm going to just take a wild guess. Yeah. Yeah. Occasionally, and without warning, it just cuts out on you.

No, huh? All right. No. No. But close. Amazingly close. Amazingly close. Amazingly close.

Amazingly close. Well, that's good. Yes. I'll be driving down the freeway, and it only happens when the weather is cold, like 40 degrees and below, and slowly the car starts to slow down. It's going 75, then 70, then 65, then 60. And the more I step on the gas, the slower it goes, which is a cruel metaphor for my life. You know what I mean?

So, adding insult to injury there. So, I mean, by the time I'm going 55 miles an hour, I'm fixing to be a hood ornament for a Mack truck. Yeah. So I pull off the side of the road and turn the car off and let it sit for two or three minutes, turn it back on and, you know, just... Roars to life. Yeah, roars to life for another... It used to be 30 miles, but now it's more like 14 to 20 miles and then it starts doing the same thing. Well, I'll tell you, my guess was remarkably close.

Well, it could well be that your solution. to whatever you thought was the symptom may in fact be the solution. I didn't have a solution. Oh, you didn't. Let me tell you what I've replaced. Oh, that would be good, yeah. Okay. I've replaced the fuel filter.

Good. I replaced the fuel pump. Oh, excellent. This has an electric pump. Yes. Those are two beauties. Yeah, it's unfortunate that they didn't work. No, they didn't fix it.

I, for another previous problem, I replaced the relay that's underneath the dash. Oh. I also swapped out the carburetor for a used carburetor I got from a junkyard. Yeah, it wouldn't be the carburetor. Well, it could be. Did you ever replace the catalytic converter? No. I have a feeling.

My crystal ball says that that's in the cards for you. A friend of mine went back. He said that if it was the catalytic converter that you wouldn't get any exhaust coming out of the exhaust pipe. How do you know what you're getting out of the exhaust pipe? You're behind the wheel. Well, I have a friend. You go to stand back there. And, well, when it's running, you're getting exhaust.

Right. But it can be when the thing heats up that it sufficiently blocks the flow of exhaust to slow the vehicle down from 70 to 60 to 50. And then finally, it won't run anymore. And you pull over. And what do you do? You let it cool off. Just about two minutes, maybe. Yeah, sometimes that's all it takes.

And then you start the thing back up again. I mean, I have to say that the fuel pump would have been a much better answer. Yeah. But since you replaced it and it didn't help, I mean, it's a classic symptom of a fuel filter or a fuel pump. But if it's neither of those, it's almost for sure. Does it do this during damp weather? No, mostly during cold weather. Cold, but doesn't have to be any moisture in the air?

It doesn't have to be any moisture in the air. I was listening. I listen to y'all all the time. I love it. And you had one show where a woman seemed to have a similar problem, and you said that something with the gas was icing up. Yeah, carburetorre icing, but it requires moisture in the air for that to happen. The Venturi effect will actually cause a drop in temperature.

As the cold air goes through the carburetor, the temperature will actually drop, and it can form ice, which can, in fact, block the passage of air. But it requires that there be some moisture in the air. Well, this is Houston. Well, it's Houston. There's always moisture in the air. What I think is not moisture is a nice dry day. You know, fish are swimming past my face.

So, you know, what do you do for something like that? Well, next time it does it, you have to pull over immediately and whip off the cover to the air cleaner. Okay. And look down there with a flashlight and see if, in fact, you can see ice. Oh. And if you can see ice, that means, in fact, that ice is blocked the carburetor passage and obviously prevented the thing from running. And, of course, when the ice melts, once you shut it off,

And you can start it up and drive it again. If that's the case, what's wrong is that you're missing the tube that's called the stove that conducts warm air into the snorkel of the air cleaner. There's a little cardboard tube that fell off about 70,000 miles ago? If that's missing, then that's definitely it. Is that missing? Yeah, I think it is. I said, what the hell is this? And I tossed it out the window.

Ah, then that's it. Well, I'm not so sure that that's it. I like it. But try that first. If that isn't it. If you can't see ice down there, then it's more likely to be the cat converter, the Kether converter. Oh, wonderful.

Thank you, guys, so much. See you, Marge. Marge, it's a pleasure talking to you. Bye, bye, bye-bye. You've calmed me down. Okay. For the moment, anyway. Oh.

See you later. Bye. Thank you, guys. All right, Tommy. Yes. Do you remember last week's puzzler? No, I don't. But if you give me a hint, there's a possibility that something might happen.

It was about Vinny Gumbats and his strong armed tactics. Oh, was there an unfortunate industrial accident involved? Yeah. They do happen, you know. This message comes from Wise, the app for international people using money around the globe. You can send, spend, and receive in up to 40 currencies with only a few simple taps. Be smart. Get Wise.

Download the Wise app today or visit Wise.com. Tees and Cs apply. There's a lot going on right now. mounting economic inequality, threats to democracy, environmental disaster, the sour stench of chaos in the air. I'm Brooke Gladstone, host of WNYC's On the Media. Want to understand the reasons and the meanings of the narratives that led us here and maybe how to head them off at the past? That's on the media's specialty. Take a listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Hi, we're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us. Click and Clack the Tappert Brothers here to talk about. cars, car repair, and of course, the answer to last week's puzzler. Yeah, which I remember now so clearly, how could I have forgotten it? I have no idea. In brief, our erstwhile mechanic, Vinnie Gumbach, known by all, and he's also known for his prowess in arm wrestling, a little known fact. Coming back to me now?

Leg breaking and a few other things, anyway. Anyway, he's asked to set up an arm wrestling tournament at the local watering hole. It's to be a single elimination tournament. That is, once you've lost, you're out. No ties allowed in arm wrestling. No. To his horror, 247 people sign up for the tournament, and the barkeeper wants to know how many bouts will have to be fought.

Figuring each bout takes like five minutes. He wants to know at what time he should start the event, so it'll conclude before, say, he retires. I got it. So now Vinny's in a tizzy. He's thinking he's got to draw up like a branching tree and count all the branches, and since he can't count beyond 14, he's getting nervous.

But fortunately, there's a little guy sitting next to Vinny at the bar and he says, Seven. What does he say? I know the answer. Oh, he says, I know the answer. Vinny says, what? You're some kind of genius or something? The guy says, no, but there's a simple reasoning process that will allow you to instantly know how many bouts have to be fought.

Finney says, well, tell me or I'll break both your legs. So the question is, how many bouts have to be fought in order to determine one winner, one winner. So you start off with 247 people. Yeah. Right? Yeah. And so, let's divide that group in half, right? You're going to half of them are going to wrestle the other half.

Then you're going to lose half of those people. Right. And that half is going to wrestle. Right? Yeah, I got it. You can go and do all this, but there's a simpler way to figure it out. There is. You just add up the numbers, four, two, and seven, which comes out to be 13.

Four? You're divided by two, which is almost seven, and the answer is seven. seven what matches we already had a hundred and twenty three matches to begin with oh you call those matches yeah we don't need no stinking matches oh the answer is not seven what is the answer well according to john latore who sent this to us he claims that albert einstein used this as an example of elegant reasoning that is reaching a conclusion in the fewest number of steps in his math lectures really from time to time gave math lectures He knew a little bit about the topic.

He did. And here's the answer. Since you can't have any ties, every bout must have a winner and a loser. You with me? I'm with you. And since the thing is a single elimination, everyone will lose once and only once except for whom? One guy. One guy.

The winner. Therefore, how many losers are we going to have? 246. How many matches are we going to have? I don't know. 246. Really? Yeah.

Do the math, as they say. Do we have a winner? What if you started off with seven people? Yeah, if I had seven people. You divide them. You got two, two, two, and one. The answer would be six. And one guy left over.

Yeah. All right. So each pair of two fights, right? And you get one, one, one. That's three matches. Yeah, two, two and two. Each other. Three matches and one guy just hanging out.

One guy hanging out. All right. All right. After those three matches, you've got three winners and the guy hanging out. All right. So how many more matches? Four people. They're going to have two more matches.

Right, that's five. That's five. And then what happens? Out of that? You got two people. I got two people. You're going to have one match and you're going to determine a winner. Right?

So the answer's six. There you go. God, that's cool. Who was the little guy sitting in the bar? I know who it was. It was Jack Samuels from Cave Creek, Arizona. Exactly. And for having his answer selected at random from among the thousands of correct

answers and incorrect answers that we got, Jack is going to get a $25 gift certificate to the Car Talk, shameless commerce division with which he can purchase anything or at least any cheap thing from the car talk line of fine apparel and audio products. Anyway, we will have a new, I think, automotive puzzler coming up in the third half of today's show. So stay tuned for that. In the meantime, you can call us and ask us questions about your car or a neighbor's car. Yeah, you can remain anonymous.

Indeed, 1-888-8-8-2-7-8-25. Hello, you're on car talk. Hi, my name is Laura, and I'm calling from Bainbridge Island. Hi, Laura. From where? Bainbridge Island. Bainbridge. Got it. Okay.

Are you ready for my story? You must be, like, surrounded by water. Island, yeah, that would make sense. Nice to guess. So quick, you know? That might have something to do with what's wrong with your car. And I hope it does. Oh, no, it doesn't.

It doesn't. Oh, all right. Yeah. Actually, right now there's really nothing wrong with my car. Great. Well, thanks for calling, Laura. We'll get back. Back to you.

No, what I need to find out is if I need to get my car checked out for a potential problem that might be there, but I haven't figured out yet. Here's the story. I've got a 97 Ford F-150 pickup. It's got the third door extended cab, and it's great for my little kids getting in and out with car seats and all that. What possessed you, just out of curiosity, to buy a pickup truck? I like having the flat, you know, the open bed in the back.

Oh, you do? I do, and you know, I have been a victim of not have, you know, all my life I've had to ask friends for help to move things and pick up things. And, you know, when I finally got enough cash, I got a pickup truck. I don't have to ask me. Well, that's the same reason I bought mine. It does give one a sense of independence and self-sufficiency and all that. And always something to do on the weekend because someone, you know, is always moving something. Absolutely. People love me because they can borrow. Yeah, and you get more friends and it's like hanging a pork chopper on your neck so the dog will play with them. Well, here's my problem. You know, I don't have a garage. I have a gravel driveway. I discovered through error one time as I jumped in my truck and pulled out of my driveway to this tremendous screeching noise that my sweet little then two-year-old had filled the wheel wells with gravel. Cool.

Yeah, he's cool, and he was so very pleased with himself. What do you mean the wheel wells? Well, you know, I think that's what I'm talking about. Okay, you've got your tire. You've got your hubcap. the openings in the hubcap. He'd fill the wheel openings. The wheel opening.

All right, yeah. So I stopped, I jumped out of the truck, and I picked all the gravel out. But as I was picking the gravel out, I noticed that there was this big shiny scratch on the round disc. On the disc rotor. Yes, yeah. Now, what is that? That's part of the brakes. That's the thing that the brake pads squeeze against to stop the vehicle.

So is this a problem for me? Well, it isn't good, but I wouldn't stay up at night thinking about it. Okay, which brings me to my second question. Yeah. My second question is on a different occasion, my also then two-year-old was inside the truck, inside the cab, and my husband had been using the cup holder as a change dish, and my son, one by one, put about ten pennies in the vents. Now, this is a, this kid's going to be watched.

You know, he's three and a half now, and he's, he's a deer, you know. Yeah. He knows better. He's been severely reprimanded. He knows, he knows now. But now the question is, there's no problem yet, but is this a problem? Probably not if it hasn't happened yet. What would happen?

It's unlikely. No, there's no problem. It's not going to be able. There's nothing that could happen. What else has he done, this kid? Well, actually, you know, I have. Has he tried painting? the truck yet well no but you know what somehow he got a hold of my purse in the backseat

when he was in his car seat and I've now got a couple of credit cards stuck in the interior of the back door and I've been wondering that you know my balances have never been so low but I can't get them out better to leave them in there but I wonder if this is this in some way points to this kid has the assembly gene putting things into things putting things Into things. The rocks in the wheels. Right. He could be...

A credit card in the window. Right. He could be like a banker. Putting things in the safe. I hope so. He'll carry his mama through old age, I think. Yeah. Or he could work at McDonald's, putting the burgers in the bags.

Could be that. Could be anything. Oh. Well, thank you. That was my question. I just want to make sure I wasn't going to have problems down the line and I needed to get it fixed now. Now, I wouldn't worry about any of those things. You're all set.

No. They're all normal. kid things to do. Yeah. Okay. And they can't really do any damage. Let them do anything you want. Yeah.

When he starts painting the truck with rollers, call us. We'll do. Thank you. Say, yeah, Laura. Bye-bye. Thanks a lot. Bye-bye. 1-888-8-8-8-2-7-8-25-5.

Hello, you're on Car Talk. This is Bernardo in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Fort Lauderdale. Bernardo. Yes. And you use that name in your day-to-day doings? That's my name. I'm kind of stuck with it.

So they don't call you Bernie? When I was younger, but it just kind of got contributed down here in Florida, you know. Bernardo's good. I like it. Yeah. No, I like Bernardo as well. Yeah. Were you Fort Lauderdale?

Fort Lauderdale. When's spring break? You know, they kind of have cut down on spring break. They don't encourage the college kids to come down here. No, the Fort Lauderdale police just about drove them away. Right. Probably a good idea, but they ended up going west on Pedro. Island on one of those places?

Right. They're going to be each. South Padre Islands. South Padre. That's it. Yeah. So what you guys do for fun now? That's like it's kind of wild.

Just not as many college kids. Not as many college kids is right. So what's up, Bernardo? Well, I have a 1985 740 Gilly turbo-diesel Volvo wagon. It's got about 125,000 miles on it. The one thing it does do is it burns oil. uh... burned about maybe maybe a quarter to be five hundred miles or so five hundred to a thousand miles i don't know if that had something to do with the fact that it had this turbo diesel thing going on

because it does have this what i call uh the james bond effect you hit the gas or you accelerate and the smoke screen comes up the back right it comes out the back you know i usually drive so that doesn't happen but you know every once in a while you get you're being tailgated by somebody in a convertible and it comes in handy Oh, you have a mean streak, man. Yeah, that's great. You just gave my brother an idea. I love it.

I love it. But I didn't know whether there's something wrong with the engine or if it's something. Yeah, of course, there's something wrong with the engine. Okay. But it's unusual because it's only got 125,000 miles on it. Has anyone ever changed the oil? Yeah, I get the oil changed regularly. Well, because diesel engines do have, if the oil isn't changed enough,

tendency to begin to burn oil to beat the band, as they say. So you could have one of those engines. I mean, it's possible also that the turbo is sucking oil out of the engine. But usually once it gets to that point, the decline is rather rapid. You'll go from a quarter of every 500 to a quarter of every five miles pretty quickly. Yeah. Oh, it sucks it out fast. Yeah. It might be time for the engine flush for you.

Engine flush? Yeah, there are certain companies. In fact, I'm sure there's one in the Fort Lauderdale area that have a machine that will run a solvent through your engine. Ah. And clean out all the sludge. And for example, this may be burning oil because your piston rings are stuck. And the sludge breaker will get in there. Maybe.

You know what they should call it? The sludge hammer. Sludge? Man, and I'm the one with a PhD in marketing, and you come up with sludge hammer. The sludge hammer. What a brook. Quick copywriter. So I need somebody to take a sludge hammer to me.

You need to have the sludge hammer put to this thing. Yeah. Because this will in fact, if you have any rings left. See, if you have no rings left, the sludge hammer is not going to help. See, what happens to the rings is that they're springy and they push out against the cylinder walls. But if they get sludged up, they don't spring anymore. And they get stuck there. And they got no way now to take up.

a little bit of slack between the piston and the cylinder wall, and oil just burns up. Yeah, of course, the other possibility is that you have bad or worn valve guides. Yeah, but I would definitely try the sludge. There's no way to tell with the diesel, because on spark plug engines, you can take the plugs out and see if they're oil fouled or whatever, and that will tell you. No plugs in this thing. You've got no stinking plugs. So you may have bad valve guides, which may require someone taking the valve cover off and checking them out.

You may have to actually spend money on this thing. Are you willing to do that? Oh, sure. This is a great car. I'd like to keep it for a long time. It should go another 125K without any trouble. First, I would go have someone look at the valve guide seals and make sure that they're okay. If they are okay, I would then go find one of these sludgehammer places and have the engine flushed.

Okay. On the other hand, there were many other miracle cures which we have, you know, refrain from suggesting. It's easy. You just walk into any parts store and you look for any bottle or jar or can that has the word miracle on it. And you'll just buy it. You know, like Miracle Whip. Just to name one. Right.

Yeah. Good luck, Bernato. All right. Well, thanks, bye. See you'll see. Later. Bye-bye. Stick around for more calls and the new puzzler coming right up.

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. Hmm. So you sent this, Kent to Hartfield from Texas, somewhere in Texas. Ah. And you're going to like this. I think you're going to like it.

Okay. He says, I was driving my Ford Aerostar down the road in Arlington, Texas last June, when all of a sudden I heard a muffled bang that was immediately followed by the motor dying. So you got this, he's driving along, Ford Aero Star. All these things are important. Pay attention. You don't have to tell me that, man. I know that every word you speak driving along is a pearl.

Boom. Muffled. The motor dies. I pulled off to the side of the road and popped the hood. This has a little hood because the engine is kind of buried. And look to see what had happened. Once I saw what had happened, I thought, gee, this is going to cost a lot to have fixed. I closed the hood, got back in the van, started the engine, and drove off.

Wow. What happened? He didn't say where the boom bang came from. But since he opened the hood, we can assume that it came from the front of the vehicle. I'll give you that. The muffled bang came from under the hood. Okay. From the engine compartment.

Engine compartment. And the motor stopped running. Stopped running. And he said this is going to be expensive to fix, yet it started right up again. This is puzzling. This is. That's what? If you think you know the answer, write that answer on the back of a $20 bill or a dry porcini mushroom.

Actually, the Portobellos are better. Portobellos, you can put a whole dissertation on that. This is move for a stamp, too. And send your answer to Puzzler Tower, Car Talk Plaza, Box 3,500, Harvard Square, Cambridge. Our Fair City. Matt 02238. Or, of course, you can email your answer from the Car Talk section of Cars.com. 1-88-8-8-8-8-8-car talk. That's the number to call.

If you want to talk to us, that's 888-227-8-25-5. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Fred Bulls from Cambridge. Fred. Hi, Fred. Cambridge, Massachusetts. Yes, the Fair City. Man.

What's up? Well, I got a 94-900. It's a four-cylinder, and it's got some idling problems. And it usually happens in the morning when I turn the engine on. It's really cold outside. The engine, you know, it starts, and then, you know, it's idling. and then the idling kind of oscillates, kind of up and down. So it goes, rear, rear like that.

Very good. Very nicely done. Nicely done, Fred. And then once it warms up, it smooths out. Yeah, exactly. Once it warms up, it smooths out. And I've taken it to my mechanic. I've taken it to Chuck over and Alton.

He's looked at it, and he's plugged it in the computer. And he says it comes back fine. He says there's nothing wrong with it. Right, because there isn't. Yeah, but the time he gets it, there isn't. Yeah, but it's kind of dangerous. You know, a couple times I've been at an interesting. intersection and you know the cars just started up and it's doing that and I pop the

clutch and I stall I stole the car right or the intersection how long does it take for the what do you call that surging to subside 10 minutes yeah it takes about takes about 10 or 15 minutes you know everything's fine after that how long is it take you to get from Cambridge to Austin 15 minutes 15 minutes you're going to have to move to get this thing fixed so I'd have to leave it overnight huh Oh, sleep in the car. Sleep in the car outside of Chuck's place. So that when he gets there in the morning, you can start it right up, and then he'll find something wrong.

Yeah, in fact, we had a, what did we have the other day in the shop? We had a car in the shop the other day. I tell you? No. We had a Honda Accord, which was doing exactly the same thing. And where, pray-tel was the vacuum leak. And that's exactly what it was. And the moral of the story is this, because all the cars now are,

computer controlled, we immediately think the worst and we have abandoned all the traditional things that have gone wrong with cars since the beginning of time. And we assume that all the answers are to be found in the scanner, which is the machine you plug into the car's computer to tell you what's wrong. And unfortunately, most scanners are not going to tell you if there's a vacuum leak anyplace. And a vacuum leak can be there when the engine is cold and then disappear when it warms up. And what happens to your car, I think, if you have a small vacuum leak, it starts to surge, and the idle air control thing is trying to compensate or offset the vacuum leak.

So it may even exacerbate the surging. So what does that have to do with the temperature, though? Why is this only happening? Well, because once the engine warms up, and in fact, and whatever is causing the leak goes away because a piece of metal twists or distorts and whatever and makes the leak go away, the surging stops because then everything is okay. and when Chuck or Chip or Jack or whatever his name is gets a hold of it and does his test, he finds nothing wrong with it.

So you need to leave it overnight with him and tell him you suspect that there's a vacuum leak, maybe even an intake manifold leak. Yeah. I have to just warn you that the bad part of it is the fact that it goes away probably means that something is expanding as it gets warm, and that something is probably metal. Well, it could be, but there are a lot of possibilities, one of which is a faulty coolant temp sensor as well. He should check that out.

Oh, okay. And if he's not sure whether or not it's bad, if he doesn't want to go, just I'm going to put another one in there. That may fix it. Okay. This is not rocket science, Fred. Well, it's kind of embarrassing because I am a rocket scientist. I went to that institute up the street, and I'm beginning to think that maybe isn't worth the papers printed on. Really?

Yeah, well, I try and leave my car to professionals, you know. So who are you rocket-sciencing for? You are Russians. No, no, I'm working. I'm working over here. at MIT for a place called Draper Labs. Heard of it. Yeah. Good place.

I always thought they made draperies there. Yeah, I thought so, too. Well, we make a lot of things, but not draperies. No, they make... Okay, well, since it isn't rocket science, even Chuck from Alston is going to be able to find us. Okay. And leave it overnight a few nights, so if he fixes something,

he'll know the next day where the naughty's really fixed it. Okay, I will do. See you, Fred. All right, thank you, guys. Bye. Bye-bye. 1-888-car talk. That's 888-227-8-8-25.

Hello, you're on car talk. Hey, guys, this is Smitty down in Murfreesboro. Hey. Murphysboro, Tennessee? That's correct. Is there another one? There is no other one. No, that's why I had to be Tennessee.

So what's cooking, Smitty? Well, I'm actually calling about my father's car, although it could apply to anybody. He's got an 88 Buick Park Avenue with about 150,000 miles on it. And somebody's told him that when he starts the car, if he'll put the key in the start position and let it sit there until he hears a clicking noise, the fuel injection. That means the fuel injection system has warmed up and then start the car. And what they told him was the fuel injection system will last longer that way. Sounds good to me.

It's a good story, but does it have any validity? I love these little tricks that people develop, you know? I remember what my father was in the oil business. he had a big oil truck and on winter days he used to do the following and maybe it worked I don't really know

when he shut the engine off the night before he knew it was going to be a very very cold night he would this car had a hand choke he would start it up and he would

instead of shutting it off he would pull out the choke until it stalled for lack of air. Right. Then he would push the choke back in, assuring that it would start the next morning. And it worked for 30 years.

No. Why did he do that? Why did he do that? Because some other old geezer told him that he should do that, it would make the fuel injection last longer. Well, I don't see, I can't imagine.

I've been sitting here for a minute and a half trying to conjure up some kind of explanation for this, and I can't think of anything. The clicking. Don't forget the clicking sound. Yeah, I don't know what that is, and this Buick, it clicks anyway. It does click. Yeah, well, 150,000 miles on it, it's going to click.

When the engine's running, when the engine's not. You name it. The clicking sound. I mean, that might be the directional signals for all we know. Is he been doing this for 150,000 miles? Oh, no. No, no. He just started this recently.

Somebody told him that it would make the fuel injection system last longer. Jeez. Well, he ought to do it because if you convince him to abandon this philosophy. Yeah, as soon as the next thing that happens to the car, he's going to blame you. And us. And us. Quite honestly, we can't take it anymore. I mean, he'll get a flat tire a week later, and he'll be suing us.

But you've never heard, this wouldn't apply to just any car. It's just something weird. No, tell him it's peculiar to this car. Okay. Yeah. And I would tell him to continue to do it, whatever it is, because even click and clack have to agree that that it works. There's something to it.

Okay. Yeah. And I think either, when you tell him that, he'll probably stop doing it immediately. Especially for the 88s, tell him. And tell him it only works after you get 150,000 miles on the engine. Coming from a couple of Yankees, he'll probably believe that. See you, Smitty. Bye, guys.

We should make a list of all the little tricks that people use like that. Yeah. That's business. He used to pull out the choke. I remember sitting there freezing in the truck. Well, I think I know what. they did that because you really wanted to rich in that mixture up. You wanted to make sure you poured

extra gasoline in there so the next morning you could flood it and not go to work. Well, it's happened again. You've vaporized. You're another hour listening to Car Talk. Our esteemed producer is Doug the Subway Fugitive, not a slave to fashion Berman, who recently got a haircut. He looks a lot

better. Thank God. Our associate producers are Ken the Diaper Slayer Rogers, Frau Catherine Fenalosa. and Louis the Barbarian Cronin. Our engineer is Dennis DeMennis Foley. Our senior Webb Blackie is Doug the Old Grey Mayor, and our technical spiritual menu advisor

is John Bugsy, free lunch, lawler. Our public opinion poster is Paul Murky of Merkey Research, assisted by statistician Marge and Overa. Marge and Overa. Our customer care representative is Haywood Chubuzoff. Our director of new product repair is warranty my foot. Our pseudonym consultant, is Norm Diplum. Our assistant director of strategic planning is Kent, see the trees.

The head of our division of threat assessment is U.N. What are me? Our director of luxury car horns is Tony Blair, and our new Russian chauffeur is peek-off and drop-off. Our chief counsel from the law firm of Dewey Cheeverman Howe is U. Louis Dewey, known to the snowboarders in Harvard Square as U.E. Louis Dewey. Thanks so much for listening. We're clicking and clack to Tappert Brothers. And don't drive like my brother. Don't drive like my brother. reader. And don't drive like my brother. We'll be back next week. Bye-bye. Car Talk is a production of Dewee Cheatham and Howe and WBUR on Boston. And even though Corey Flintoff wishes he was still bagging groceries in Duluth,

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