The Best of Car Talk - "Rats!"(Bonus Episode)

Episode Date: September 3, 2026

It’s ‘Special Podcast Extra’ day here at the ‘Best of Car Talk!’ We thought that those of you who weren’t enjoying the ‘exclusive’ NPR+ extras that we roll out regularly might like to hear Ray take a few of your car questions. That’s right, we managed to lure him off of the bocce court last week with promises of all-you-can-eat cannolli and he fell for it! Listen in to find out if he can help Elizabeth with her ‘unwanted passengers’ and Rory with his suspiciously shiny motor oil. And while you’re listening, head over to plus.npr.org and you can hear the rest of Ray’s attempts to rescue callers over the past year -and into the future. You’ll ensure regular laughs and support NPR and Public Radio, too.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

Happy end of summer, everyone. It is I, Ray Malayasi, and it's time once again to take a few calls from you. That's right, in case you hadn't heard, about a year or so ago, they pulled me out of mothballs. I'm glad they did that to talk to you guys once again about your car problems. Now, NPR Plus and public radio supporters, of course, already know this, but if this is news to you, then you must not be a supporter yet. I am purposely stressing yet. So head over to plus.npr.org right now and sign up.

Okay, got it. It's cheap and gives you access to lots of extras from the best of Car Talk and all the other actually really good NPR programs too. Now, while you're doing that, we'll get back to the business of giving out wrong answers like I usually do. The number is 888-522-5478. That's the number to call 888-522-5478. Hello, who's on the line?

Hi, this is Elizabeth from New York City. Hi, Elizabeth. What's up? All right. So I have a 22-22 Chevy Spark, although I'm not sure if that's relevant or not. A couple months ago, my check engine light went on, although the car seemed to be driving okay. I eventually brought it to my local mechanic to ask him to check it out, comes back very quickly, and says, come on over here. I've got to show you something.

He shines the flashlight under the hood and shows me the most disgusting sight I've ever seen. A most nest. because I've, yeah, well, not a mouse, a rat's nest. Oh. Yeah, it was, they had chewed through a bunch of wires. They had left everything you could imagine in there. There was all kinds of rat poop and garbage, and I don't even know what else. It was not great.

No, I'm sure it wasn't. It was vomit-inducing. So, you know, they rewired everything. cleaned it all out, you know, I'm out $400. And so my question is like, now what? How do I, is there anything I can do to deter them, to stop them from coming back, or at least make my car the least desirable car on the block? Oh, so they go somewhere else.

Yeah, you could make your car the least desirable car, making the others more desirable. Maybe you can go around the other cars and put food around. I don't know what rats like to eat, but they like to eat, probably. just about anything. I didn't think about that. I didn't go that far. Oh, you see, you don't have a devious mind, Elizabeth.

So there are... Not when it comes to cars. There are lots of things you can spray under your hood. Okay. Does your car sit parked and not driven for days at a time?

I don't use it every day. I move it twice a week for street cleaning, but that's not very far. You know, it's back and forth. No, and if the rats were out that day, they wouldn't even know you moved it. Right, exactly.

Right, maybe they went on the... They're coming back. The museum or something. I don't know. I know. Well, maybe. The bad part is I work at a museum, so I'm hoping that they're not going to be a museum. Because that's the one other place I do park my car is in a garage at a museum on the rare occasion that I do drive to work. But for the most part, I'm using the car on the weekends to get out of the city. Got it. Well, look, there are lots of rodent deterrence out there. And I found, from my vast experience, that peppermint spray works pretty well.

I don't think they like the smell of peppermint. Rats might require that you buy a cat. That's another option. So I should have a cat just living in my car. So we had a customer that came into the garage last year sometime with a Volvo that wouldn't start and they couldn't even unlock the doors and whatever. So the thing gets towed in. And one of our guys determined that the problem is some wiring under the dashboard.

And he starts taking the dashboard apart. And he's looking, he sees some wires that look. like they've been chewed, and he's trying to figure what's going on, and he shines a light, and looking right back at him is an enormous rat. Oh, my God. You never saw it or move so fast as Jack that day. Yeah, rats have the chilling effect on people. It's because of the movies and whatnot.

You know, but anyway, I would try peppermint spray, but I'd go online and maybe there were other things. But I think the key is, whatever you apply, you're probably going to do often. What a pain in the neck. Right. Okay. Like a couple times a week, you think? Oh, maybe every night. I don't know.

Every night. Oh, gosh. I spray peppermint spray in my garden to keep the rabbits and squirrels away, and it works until it rains, but it doesn't rain under your hood. You've also got to like the smell, too, because you're going to get the smell in the car. Right. Okay. Well, peppermint isn't that bad. I can put up with peppermint more than the musty smell I was smelling when they were in there, which I now understand.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's too bad they have to poop in there. there too. I mean, geez, they should show some. It was awful. Yeah. I don't know. But geez, Elizabeth, good luck. And if you find out what works the best after trying six or seven things, let me know. I will. I will. Thank you so much. I appreciate your time. I grew up listening to you with my dad. So it was a real pleasure to talk to you today, Ray. Thank you so much. Good luck, Elizabeth. Bye, bye. Okay. Take care. Bye-bye. All right. Let's tempt the fates again, shall we? 5478.

That's the number to call. It's 888-522-5478. By the way, anyone can call, not just NPR Plus supporters. But if you call and you aren't an NPR plus supporter, fat chance you can get through. Anyway, just kidding. Okay, who do we have on the line? Hey, Ray, this is Rory from Guilford, Vermont.

How are you? Hey, Rory. I used to live in Vermont. Where's Guilford? Which point? It's just out of Brattleboro. It's right on the Mast line. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think I knew that other than Shaftesbury for a while. Oh, yeah. You know, oh, yeah. Nice, yes. Anyway, what's up, Rory? All right. So I'll try to give you the short version. I'd have a meniscus repair surgery in my left knee this past winter, and all of my wife

and my cars are standard. And being my left knee, I was kind of like, you know, they told me I couldn't drive for three months. So I was trying to figure out what I was going to do. So I decided to buy something cheap, automatic to get me through the. surgery. And what I ended up getting was a 2002 Nissan X-Tera, bright yellow and supercharged, immaculately clean. Like, every, you know, the frame is perfect. There's no rough. And the story I got when I bought it was that it had been abandoned at a mosque. And this guy who runs the mosque took it

and paid to have a used engine installed and then decided he didn't need it. So I bought it from him. You know, it drove great. Everything seemed fine. It needed breaks. You know, so I did breaks. Anyway, first oil change. The oil comes out real sparkly. Oh. Like it looked like a galaxy to me. Oh, really?

Like liquid glitter. Yeah. Specks of aluminum in there. Yeah, I would say more like gold glitter. Very fine golden glitter. Okay. Yeah. And I did cut open the oil filter.

I didn't find any chunks. So because of all of that in the oil, I decided that I changed the oil again in just a few hundred. miles to sort of flush it out, and it kind of looked the same. Really? Yeah. But in spite of this, the thing seems to run okay. It does.

It runs fine. I've only put 5,000 miles on it since I bought it last fall. Well, I'm going to predict that this uneventful driving here is not going to last very long. I don't know what's going on, but something is getting chewed up. That's my sense as well. And so I guess my question is sort of twofold. It's mechanical.

and it's ethical. The mechanical question is, you know, how long do you think I can go like this and what are the signs I should be looking out for? And then the ethical question is... The answer is no to the other question. Yeah, exactly. Well, no, you can sell it, but you sell it as is. So here's what I would do. If you don't have one available to you, take it someplace and have them to check the oil pressure. I wouldn't be surprised that the oil pump is eating itself up or one of the bearings is getting shoot up. So if you keep driving this without doing anything to it, it's eventually going to start losing oil pressure and the angel will self-destruct. You'll be driving on the

highway someday and you'll say, what the hell is that that just flew through my hood and it'll be one of your pistons? So this thing is on its last legs, but you could certainly ethically sell it by telling somebody the whole story you told me. Yeah, well, the issue is, you know, I haven't had a mechanic look at it, but I talked to a few and, you know, pricing out like what it would cost to put another engine, another used engine in. And I couldn't find anybody to touch it for under 10 grand. So is your knee all better? It is. Yeah, I'm fine. I don't need the truck anymore, but I do kind of love it is the thing. If you did an oil pressure test on it and the oil pressure were good, then it would tell you that the problem is not specific to the engine. Right.

But it's going to be one of these days. Okay. All right. Because if you don't fix it soon, it's going to blow on you. The cost of having someone crack into that engine would just be extreme. Well, an oil pressure test will tell you a lot. Okay. For example, if it's supposed to be 25 PSI at Idol and it's 15, then it's time to say a aidos. Okay.

Good luck, man. All right. Thanks so much. And I just want to say also as well that your show has been a bright spot in my life, you know, basically for the entirety of it. And I really appreciate, you know, what you've done. So thank you. Yeah, things will be looking up soon.

Don't worry. All right. Take my much. Thanks for calling, Roy. Bye-bye. Bye. Well, that was fun and a nice way to waste a little time. Don't forget to call 888-5-2-25478 and leave me a message with your car question.

And if you're lucky, our staff of one, that's Ken, will actually do his job and call you back, and you could be in the next installment. Until then, don't drive with my grandchildren. Bye-bye.