The Best of Car Talk - #2679: Hot and Cold

Episode Date: October 3, 2026

Dinesh calls in to let us know how his stroll through the length of Death Valley went last summer, and Linda from Alaska needs help with her sled dogs. Unusual extremes in temperature are met with our usually mediocre advice on this episode of the Best of Car Talk.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. Car Talk's perks include full archive access, new call-in bonus episodes with Ray, and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Hello and welcome to Car Talk from National Public Radio with us Click and Clack to Tappert Brothers, and we're broadcasting this week from the signage department here at Car Talk Plaza. Thanks to some guy named Bill Dom. I had a bad signage headache a couple of months ago. You know what you should take for that? No. Gillotine. These are signs found at various businesses.

For example, on the door of a plastic surgeon's office. Hello, can we help you pick your nose? On a plumber's truck, we repair what your husband fixed. Yeah, that's my house. On another plumber's truck, don't sleep with a drip. Call your plumber. At an automistress office, if you don't see what you're looking for, you've come to the right place.

Get it? And my favorite was this one in a veterinarian's waiting room. Be back in five minutes. Sit. Stay. That's it. I don't have anything else. That's pretty good.

Back in five minutes. We'll be back in five minutes, too. If you have a question about it. Stay, your car. Which is the reason we're here, by the way, in case you hadn't noticed. What is the reason? We're here to answer. questions about people's cars.

You can call us at 888-8-8-8-2-2-7-8-255. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, my name is Bridget. I'm from Boston. Bridget. How would you spell it? With T's, T's or D's? One T, bridge with a T on the end.

Yeah, that's the German Bridget. Oh, no. As opposed to the Brigitte? Yeah, I don't have the E-T-T-E going on. It's just a tapancy, Bridget. No, I think the Brigid, the German, is the ID. Oh, that's from the ID. That's the German.

Yeah. Ah, this must be the... That was Fraubleuque's first name. This must be the Belgian. Frau Bricid Brucker. Anyway, what's going on? Well, when I'm driving down the street, using my air conditioner, I noticed that there was some vapor sort of coming out of the air conditioner, like mist and steam. Yeah.

And then maybe a day or so. later I noticed this trickling water sound, like flossing water kind of going across the car, but it only happens when I'm turning to the left. So I had to leave the car for a week. I came back, and the whole car smelled like musty, you know, gross smell. So I reached down and I look on the passenger side format is completely soaking wet, sopping right through. Just like an 86-tursell?

It's a 96-Jetta. Perfect. I had a remedy for the 86 to a cell. 96 Jeddah. 96 Jeddah. There's a pretty consistent drip going on now, and I only hear the water sloshing every now and then. It's not consistent.

It's not every day. Well, no, the more you run the air conditioner, the more you're going to hear the sloshing water. Yeah. The smell is like moldy smell? Yeah, the smell was definitely because I had the car locked up for the week. The liquid was just odorless and just it appeared. I thought it was water.

I'm assuming it's water. Oh, yeah, there was water. It was water, but now you have mold spores. Yeah, that was what prompted me to realize that this leak was somewhat considerable. Yeah. Well, it isn't a leak. This is not a big deal. Oh, good.

But you need a leak. You should have a leak. Or take, no. No. Don't sleep with a drip. Call your plumber. You're missing a leak. That's the but the trouble is.

You see, the way the air conditioner works is that you have this device inside the car called the evaporator. Okay. The hot, humid air that's inside your car that's making your sweat. Yeah. Gets passed through this by the fan. Mm-hmm. And it gets conditioned in that the water is removed from it. And that water goes into this little pan that's got a little drain pipe attached to it.

Remember in the old days when you first bought this car, when you, You parked it after running it on a hot day. Yeah. You would see a little stream of water underneath it somewhere. Have you ever noticed that? Maybe, yeah. Well, you don't notice it anymore. No.

Because that water is inside your car. Because now it's inside my car. Right, it's not draining out. And when you turn a corner, there's enough in there to slosh over this little tray and spill out onto the carpet. Okay. So you need to have the evaporator drain cleaned out. Okay.

And then you need to set the car on fire to get rid of the smell. No, I've got air freshener going, so the smell is manageable. Well, air freshener won't do it. No, because it's mold. You need to spray the carpet with the lysol. Okay. Because otherwise, you know, the power of two. First you have one moles, more than two, and then four, than eight.

There's a whole little family going on down there. And you're going to have, but you probably have billions of them by now. Oh, no. Yeah, they'll be crawling up your leg. Oh, no. Good luck. Thanks so much for your help. See you.

All right, bye. Hey, Tommy, it's time for something completely different. Oh, we're going to discuss Plunk's constant? Not Plunk. Plunk. Plunk. You call them Plank, I know. But we call them here in the scientific community, Plunk.

No, no, it's time for, where are they now, Tommy? This is the part of the show where we chase down one of our more memorable callers. Yeah, memorable. That's a code word for Wackle. There you go. So who is the memorable caller that we have? this week. Pray tell. You're ready for this? It's Dinesh, California, the wacko of all wackos. Dinesh, I think, called us back in like 1998, because he and three others, including his long

suffering soon-to-be ex-wife, were planning to walk 180 miles in the heat of midday sun. How well I remember. The middle of summer through where else? Death Valley. Aptly named. Maybe he didn't understand why I was named. The plan was to park one car at the of the day's trek and one at the middle and one at the end. We are in the north end of Death Valley where hardly anybody ever goes in winter, let alone in summer. Nobody's crazy enough to go there in the summer, Dinesh. Another question is, if one of these cars, for some reason, break down, we are in big doo-doo.

A big, deep. How hot could it be? 130 degrees in the sun? Yeah, it is. 125 in shade In the shade In the shade So maybe 150 in the sun

Yeah What are you nuts Well You know I want to be first at something Yeah That's great Everything in the world is done You know

Somebody climbed the Everest That's right Discover America There's nothing left for me So you want to be the first Indian American Whose skeletal remains Are found in Death Valley

Well Well, I mean, he must have made it if he's going to be on the show today. I think so. Let's find out. Dinesh. Are you there? Yes, I am. Wow.

How the heck are you? Well, actually, it's only about 98 here, and I'm thinking about going to Death Valley, but my wife got me chained. Did you make it through Death Valley? Yes, I did. What happened? How was... Were you the only one who made it? Okay, my wife, Joy, and a brother friend warned.

Three of us had planned to walk the entire 180. miles. And then two other people were going to do half each. So we'll have four people at all times. Well, my wife made it 150 miles. And after that, she had 17 blisters, and she could not even walk from the car to the bathroom. So she had to give up. And how many bruises do you, did you have from the times that she hit you over the head with a stick? Believe it or not, I'm sitting right here with my arm in a cat. But that's another story. I'm sure.

Anyway, the other friend, Warren, he was doing all right, or so I thought. But still at 150 miles, he said, you know, I think I'd done enough. And he and your wife ran off together. So it was left for me to just continue the journey. Alone? Well, not really. The other woman who had come, Melissa. Yeah.

The second half. She was with me. Now, she's a tough woman. She had heat exhaustion. and at one point, she laid down under the car because inside the car was probably 145 degrees. She laid there like about 10 minutes. We threw some water on her and said, come on, get going.

Come on, old girl, we can make it. Yeah. We can make it. And she did. And she did. How long did it take you to do this whole thing? Twelve days. You're in the record book, man.

So, I mean, did you call the Guinness Book of World Records? Ah, this is... Well, you said you wanted to be first at something. Well, I am, but they want proof of everything. Well, you have proof. You have the blisters to prove it. How am I going to prove it? There's nobody around there to see me walking.

Oh, that's right. No one saw you do it. You'll have to do it again. Do it again. Okay. So are you cured now, or what's the next challenge? You know, I just came back from a place in India where it rains about 450 inches every year.

I thought you were going to say 450 days a year. No, no. 450 inches a year. You know, I got cheated out of it. When I was there, it only rained at night. Seven days, it never rained at daytime. Ten inches, and that's all it rained in the night. Oh, what a rip-off.

I'd ask for my money back. I'm going to go back there next year, I think. How old are you? I'm 62. No. See, I would have guessed you were much younger. I would have guessed you were 25. Well, that's the way I act.

You're 62 and you walked in death... You crazy? So listen, listen, you don't want to die in a restroom in this country. I would rather die in Death Valley or some such mountain or something. Yeah, you're right. I mean, what better place to die than Death Valley? That's right. See you, the next.

Okay. Hey, good luck. Bye-bye. I thought he was a young guy. So did I. I never would have guessed. Never would have guessed. His age of six.

I would have guessed 40. Yeah, when he said he was living in Silicon Valley, I thought he was, you know, taking a little sabbatical. I thought he was a high-tech guy, made a lot of money. Yeah. And was... And fried his brains in Death Valley. That's a book title.

I fried my brains in Death Valley by Dinesh. If you hear someone on the show that you'd like us to check in with, you know, drop us a note. Maybe we'll try to bring them back for the where are they now Tommy segment of the show. You can email us your suggestion from the car talk section of cars.com. Okay, Tommy, are you ready for your puzzler hints? I couldn't be ready here. I believe that.

I'm going to give you fill in the blank hints. Here we go. Fill in the blank. Years ago, you sought out a career in academia because you didn't want to work blank. Oh, didn't want to work more than three hours a week. No, I was looking for summers. You didn't want to work summers. Okay, well, it was close.

All right. And that was right. Three hours a week was about right for you. Okay, here's your next hand. Once in academia, you couldn't wait to get blank so you could work even less. I couldn't wait to get fired. No. Sabatical.

The puzzler is on summer sabbatical. So when we come back, instead of a puzzler, my brother is going to entertain us with some pearls from his mailbag. Hi, we're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Collect the Tappert Brothers, and we're here to talk about cars, car repair, and the... Anda, some famous last words. We've discussed this once before. These are some new ones. Really?

I can't wait. Famous last words. I mean, the one we discussed the other day was you could be trail of trash if any one of your friends died and his last words were, Hey, guys, watch this. Well, here, there was a few more like that. What does this button do? Famous last words. That's probably just a rash.

How about this one? I wonder where the mother bear is. No, no, no, these are the good kind of mushrooms. Yeah, I'll have this one. I'll hold it, you'll light the fuse. How about this one? Doggy. That's odd.

Boom. And then, of course, watch this. That's it. That's good. Well, look, if you thought that eye, that was lame. Wait a little here. What's coming up in the third half of today's show, or Betty Yet, you send us something.

decent. If you've got something my brother, you know, can use. I'm hungry for mail. I'm hungry for it. Starving. Yeah. Thirsting. Just send your readables to him at Car Talk Plaza, Box 3500, Harvard Square, Cambridge. Our Fair City. Matt 02238. Or of course, you can email him stuff from the Car Talk section of Cars.com. Yeah, please. Send me something. Ready for call? Yeah. You sure? Yeah. If you have a question about your car, the number is 888 Car Talk. That's 8882. 227-825-lawyer on Car Talk. Hi, this is Linda from Katsabu, Alaska. Linda from... Another wacko from Alaska.

How you doing, Linda? I'm doing good. Where in Alaska? Way up, all way down. Way up. Cotsabue is about 30 miles north of the Arctic Circle. I can't even conceive of that. So what frozen fish facility?

you're working at. I can't believe. I mean, and get this. She wasn't born there. She went there. Of her own free will. Of my own volition. Of your own free will, you went to Oceipachi, there, Alaska.

Okifanokey, Alaska, yeah. Well, you know, it's not as bad as people might say. Yeah, I guess. Beautiful case. Right. No, I'll bet it's not. I'll bet it's worse. I can't even conceive.

This is the classic two seasons, you know, like July 15th and winter. Yeah. But we'll give you the benefit of the doubt, and we'll give you an opportunity to extol the virtues of Okina, Alaska, wherever it is you live. But how can we help you in the meantime? Well, here's my question. I have a team of nine sled dogs,

and they need to get exercise in the summer as well as the winter. Winter part is easy, but in the summer, we have to hook them up to something with wheels and have them run up and down the few roads that we have around here to get a little exercise. So you want some kind of vehicle on wheels that they can pull around? We have a vehicle, and what I want to know is how best we should use this. It's a brand-new all-terrain vehicle.

It's a Honda with four-wheel drive manual transmission, and we'll hook the dogs up to the front of this and have them pull it down the road with us sitting on the back. we were debating on whether we should leave it in neutral and have the dogs pull it. However, we think we might wear our brakes out really fast, holding the dogs back, or trying to slow them down or stop them. Or should we leave it in gear and let them pull it? Or would that be bad for the transmission?

That would be bad for the dogs. How big is this thing? It's an ATV. It's a little thing. It's one of those things you drive in the woods, right? Mm-hmm, right. And you're wondering if you could leave it, if you put it in gear. No, you don't want to do that.

The engine's going to turn over. And I don't think I'd want you to do that. I don't want to do that. Because I think you're going to wreck the engine. Okay. Here's what I like better. Plus, I mean, it's going to be tough. I guess the problem is this thing is too easy to pull for these nine dogs?

Yeah, we need to be able to slow them down. Or for training purposes, too, we need them to work a little harder. Well, this thing is too small. I mean, what does this thing weigh? It can't even weigh a thousand pounds. I don't know how much it weighs, but yeah, I think it's under a thousand. Well, I think that's the problem. It's too light, and you need ballast.

Yeah. And what the best ballast I can come up with is... More dogs. No, nine dogs in the front, two in the back. Pulling the other way. That's it. We'll do a tug of war with them. The cement blocks.

Some such thing. You're going to sit in this thing, right? while they pull? Oh, yeah. That's right. And you're going to say mush, mush. Yeah. Hike.

Hike. Hike. Hike. Let's go back. Can we go back a step? Yeah, I want to go back two steps. Okay. How'd you get there?

Where are you really from? Well, I grew up in Illinois, but I've been working for the National Park Service for a lot of years, and we park rangers like to travel around, and Alaska is a pretty exciting place to come to. It's sort of like being in the people. Peace Corps up here, so we thought this would be an interesting place to go. So there are other people up there besides just you. Is that true?

Yes, there's actually 3,000 people in this town. And how many dogs? Oh. Sounds like it's about 10 to one ratio. 30,000 dogs. That's why they call it the Cal Can Hunt. highway. I mean, I would use the brakes, and then if you really have to slow the thing down, like on a downhill, I would put it in gear. Now, you don't have to put it in first. You can put it

in high gear. Well, whatever gear seems to maintain the right speed so you don't run over the dogs. I mean, that would be important. I mean, I'm not worried about the engine. Is it under warranty? Yeah, it's brand new. You should read the book to find out if there are any prohibition. about such, I mean, what's the chance that they're going to have something in there? About pulling it with the dogs. I think you've got a pretty good chance of being able to do it without damaging the thing. Okay, so you suggest using the brakes mostly, but if I really need a lot of help then to go ahead and put it in gear and use the gears.

Yeah, because the brakes are easy to replace. And, I mean, my first choice would be cement blocks. Yeah, that would be the best and easiest thing to do. Just make the thing heavier. Yeah. Or you could rig something up that would drag on the ground. Exactly. You know, like some kind of a stick that you could use to dig into the ground

that would slow you down enough maybe. Mm-hmm. Yeah, you need like a blade. It would be nice if you could make this useful. Right, well, like a blade that you'd use on a road grader. Yeah. So maybe we could grade the road. You could grade the road.

You could make new roads, right? All right. You say, where do you want the road? And that's why you take the dog. And the amount of cut that you take with the blade will determine how slow the vehicles. I would try to fashion. Don't forget, you got plenty of time. Well, we have to be good at making up things from scratch and a lot of jerry-rigging up here in this faraway place.

So I think we can probably fashion a road grader. You can do it, Linda. Yep. See ya. Thanks for your help. Good luck. Have fun. Good luck.

Good luck. Anytime. Bye-bye. Wow. Well, she sounds like a lot of fun. You know, all the people we've talked to. who from Alaska, who we think are wackos, all sound like they're having a lot of fun. Well, don't forget, there's hardly anyone there that doesn't want to be there.

Yeah, well, that's true. Yeah. They're there because they want to be there, and that's where they want to be, and that's it. And they seem to be pretty happy about it. I mean, most of us stay where we are because we feel that we have to. And we don't know how to get out of here. And we can't escape, right. Our wives won't let us.

Yeah. They're not driving to work getting stuck in traffic every day. No. So there's something to be said for that. And you don't have a horn on a dog sled. So you can't hear, blah, blah, all that's craziness that we're here in the city. I think I might be considering this.

I love the cold. We'll be right back right after these very important messages. Ha! We're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Clack the Tappert Brothers. And we're here to discuss cars, car repair, and the little R&R.

Well, I haven't ranted for months. Oh, that's what you meant by R&R? R&R is rant and rave. And I have a rant. And you might agree with me on this one. I want to know whose idea was it to allow passing on the right. Now, how did that sneak into our lives? That is the worst idea.

I can't think of any good reason to do it, and I can think of hundreds of reasons to know. not do it. Well, I know who started it. I want to know why do we do this and I want to stop it. I know who started. I'm fed up with passing on the right. Libby Owens Ford. Lippie Owens Ford? They wanted to sell more mirrors. You got it. You got it. You got it. You got it. They make the right hand. You didn't need any mirror on the right hand side of that car. You didn't need no stinking mirror out there because there was nothing going on. There was nothing happening there. Exactly. What was there was the breakdown.

lane. Now you've got wackos trying to pass you on all sides. Worse than that trucks because they can't pass on the other side. They can't. They're not allowed in that lane. They're not allowed in that lane. So they come zipping by you on the right-hand side. What is the purpose of being able to pass on the right? What's the upside of this? Why is it good? Selling more mirrors. Well, I would like to, we have to start a campaign. I don't know when it sneaked in. I honestly don't. I do remember one day, many, many years ago,

Hearing. It's okay to pass on the right now. And you said, huh? No, I can't remember when it happened. It might have been 40 years ago. No, it isn't that long ago. 35. Could be.

Well, we're about to find out. Well, I want to find out. And, in fact, I want to know how other people feel about this. And I think I think, I think, oh, you'll hear. I think it's time, I think it's time to do a little poll question on the website, which I will do tomorrow. And I'm asking people. We're really steamed about this. I want to ask people, how do you feel about this?

Is it a good idea or a bad idea? And should it be repealed? And should it be repealed? And third, whose idea was it? There had to have been some compelling reason. I mean, if someone says, hey, how about you can pass over the top from now on? It's coming. You can drive up the backside and go right over the top.

Someone's saying, I like it. Someone had to have said, how come we can't pass on the right? Let's do it. And someone said, okay. Okay. Who was that? Well, if you have any information regarding this matter, feel free to communicate with my brother through the usual channels. One, two, or seven. Hey, by the way, if you're saying to yourself, self, isn't this where this knuckleheads usually introduced a new puzzler, you would be right.

But this being summer and we being what? Lazy. There you go. The puzzler is on summer vacation. But if you're dying for a puzzler, we're posting a classic puzzler, classic, on our website every week while the puzzler is away. Just go to the Car Talk section of Cars.com and you'll be able to puzzle away the hours

to your heart's content. And if you have a question about your car, that we can puzzle over, you can call us right now at 888 Car Talk. That's 888 227-8255, a lawyer on Car Talk. Hi, this is Cheryl calling from Windermere. With a C or an S? A C. From Windermere. Wintermere, Florida.

Florida. What part of Florida is Windermere? Right by Disney World. Oh, yeah? Yeah. Tiger Woods lives here. Oh, is that right? Does he? Yeah.

I haven't met him, but, you know. He's probably about town someplace, right? But he must be on the road like 300 days out of the year. Everyone sooner or later has to go to the hardware store. So if you're going to meet him, that's where you're going to meet him. Right, everyone's toilet leaks sooner or later. You'll bet. So what's up, Cheryl?

I have a 1996 Chevy Cavalier, and whenever I drive through water, standing water, like puddles, the belt's slits. the belt slips really bad and it squeals really loud and then the power steering starts to lose it and you're in the middle of the rain and you don't have any steering. I had the belt replaced and then they said that fixed it but it didn't. So they said it needed a belt tensioner. That didn't fix it. Then they looked to see like on schematics to see if there were any pieces missing like a splash guard or something.

There's nothing missing. So how can I drive to water? Well, I mean, she used up all the answers that I had. Yeah, me too. Slash God, tensioner. You're no fun, Cheryl. It is true. You should go for this?

What is true? Go ahead. Give it a try. Your car has what's called a serpentine belt or serpentine belt. Back in the old days, everyone's fan belt was called a V belt. Right. And they decided that they didn't like that anymore, and they went to these new style belts. which are wonderful in that one belt drives everything on the car,

which makes it easier for us to change the belts. There are other drawbacks which you won't get into. One of them is, however, that when they get wet, sometimes they slip. And if there's no provision for a splash guard on this thing, and it may be that you're driving through water that's just too deep. And even if you had a splash guard, it wouldn't make any difference. You're driving through like big puddles? It doesn't, I mean, a big puddle is really bad.

but even just like a couple of inch puddle will do it. Well, here's what I'm going to suggest. Okay. I should. A Toyota Camry. That was my second suggestion. There may be a bulletin on this car, and by that I mean the manufacturer may have decided that either the tensioner doesn't tension the belt enough or the belt is too long.

And if the belt is too long, it can't get tensioned enough to keep this from happening. Okay. So you ought to check with it. with your Chevrolet dealer and ask if there's a bulletin on the on the on this thing but I wouldn't you know if they if no one can come up with a solution you may try a belt that's maybe a quarter of an inch shorter okay it may solve the problem all right on the other hand it may burn out your water pump your alternator and then I call you back yeah but but other than that I don't see that even fashioning any kind of a splash car is going to really help you I think the belt must be I mean

A lot of cars have these belts. A lot of cars have some kind of slippage when they get really wet, but not to the extent that you have it. Okay. Say a show. Thank you. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. 1-888-car talk.

That's 888-227-8255. Hello, you're on car talk. Hi, this is George from Parker, Colorado. Hi, George from Parker, Colorado. What's up, man? Well, I've got this 1986 Ford F-150, four-by-four. Yeah. And this thing, I think, is vapor locking.

Uh-huh. I'll be driving along, and then the thing will just cut out. It'll sputter. I'll let it sit for 20 minutes. And more recently, I've taken to carrying a five-gallon bucket around to the back of it. And I just throw that over the top of the engine, kind of cool it down a little bit. Yeah. Then it starts right up.

And I've got a friend of mine who fancies himself as a bit of a, experts, he maintains that it can't vapor lock because it's fuel injected. Well, that's not entirely true, but it's a heck of a lot harder for a fuel-injected car of vapor lock. Well, my cause any damage to this thing by just throwing a bucket of water. Of course you are! Like what? It's a four-by-four.

You see these things on the commercials driving them through creeks and stuff. Look, you could have shrinkage if you use the cold water. No, the danger would throw in cold water on a hot engine is you could crack the block or the heads. Unlikely, though. I mean, because like you said, they drive these things if you're chasing a water buffalo. You have to drive through a stream.

You're not going to worry about cracking a head or a block or a manifold. Right. If we're vapor lock, this would be doing it when you drove it, let it sit, and came back to it and tried to start it an hour later. But this is conking out while you're driving it. It sputters. it coughs a couple times

Yeah Does it wheeze? Cough, wheeze, sputter, all that? Yeah, well, boom, you know, something like that But after you throw the cold water on it Does it start? Oh yeah!

Every time. Yes. I think the problem is one of two things. I lost my train of thought. I'm coming trouble coming up with even one of them now. You could have either a bad fuel pump which could cause sputtering, wheezing, coughing. Uh-huh.

Okay, and when the thing shuts down finally, or you shut it down, and it cools off, it begins to work properly. That's an easy test. I see. The other possibility is that it's a faulty electronic ignition module. Okay. Which is located, I believe, on the distributor on this thing. It's screwed into the side of it. I see.

Those go all the time. All right. And it's very temperature dependent. Here's what you're going to do, George. Yeah, what's that? The next time, don't throw the bucket of water on it. You need an assistant who is going to crank the thing over for you, and you're going to see if you have spark.

Okay. By pulling off one of the spark plug wires, sticking a screwdriver in there and grounding the screwdriver blade. Right. And you'll see a spark jump from the blade to this piece of metal to which you're grounding it. Right, I know. And you'll hear a snap, snap, snap. And you'll get an idea of how far the spark can jump,

which you should be like a half an inch or more. Oh, geez, yeah. When the thing doesn't start, you're then going to check for spark again. Okay. If you have the same spark, then you'll know it isn't that, and you'll know it's the fuel pump. Right. If you don't have spark, or it's not with every turn of the crankshaft, then you'll know it's the spark. All right.

You know, this kind of brings to mind when I was growing up in Pittsburgh, my dad had this old 46 Oldsmobile, which used to vapor lock. And a friend of his told him to put a half of a grapefruit. Maybe you heard of this before. Oh, yeah. The top of the sediment bowl. It's on page 22. Yeah. Well, I mean, this does have all the symptoms of vapor lock, but as my brother says, it's very unlikely that it is vapor lock.

I'll do the spark test then. Say it, George. Good luck. Thanks, watch. Bye, bye. Bye, bye. Well, it's happened again. You've underutilized a perfectly good hour listening to Car Talk. Our esteemed producer is Doug the subway fugitive Bongo boy Berman.

I love saying that Bongo boy. Bongo boy. It just rolls off the time. It does indeed. Our associate producers are Louis Crona, the Barbarian, and David Gibraltar, Green. Our engineer is Tad Masamon Kari. Our senior web lackey is Doug Sheep Boy Mayor and our technical, spiritual, and menu advisor. Just back from the Chatt-Nugger Chamber of Commerce,

Chile, Charizo, and Chimichanga Chacha is John Bugsy-Lawler. Our public opinion poster is Paul Murky of Merkey Research, assisted by statistician Margin Overa. Our customer care representative is Hayward Jabuzov. Our director of allergy research is Teresa Pollinating. Our director of roadway resurfacing is Sylvia Potholi. The driver of our moving van is Carrival, is Carrie DeSofa, and our air traffic controller is Yulanda Yulaki.

Our paternity suit researcher is Orange Jewison. Our meteorologist from the New Delhi office is Luke out of window. Our Elvis impersonator from the Cairo office is Amal shook up. Our accounts payable administrator is Imelda Checks. Our director of summer visits to the in-laws is Don Juan Goh. Our Russian chauffeur is peek-off and drop-off, and our seat cushioned tester is Mike Easter. Our chief counsel from the law firm of Dewey Cheeverman-How is U-Louis-Douy, known to the New York. York City subway rats.

Summering in Harvard Square as Ui Louis Dewey. Thanks so much for listening. We're clicking clack to Tapit Brothers. And remember don't drive like my brother. And remember, don't drive like my brother. We'll be back next week. Bye-bye. Car Talk is a production of Dewey Cheyerman Howe and WBUR in Boston.

And even though patriotic French nationals complain that we give Fraternite a bad name whenever they hear us say it, this is NPR National Public Radio. Thank you.