#2618: Who, What or How but Never All Three

0:00This message comes from Intuit TurboTax. With TurboTax expert full service, match with a dedicated expert who will do your taxes for you from start to finish getting you every dollar you deserve. It's that easy. Visit TurboTax.com to match with an expert today. Hello and welcome to CarTalk from National Public Radio with us clicking collect the tap of brothers and we're broadcasting this week from the center for a more utopian. Is it proper to say more utopian? It's more perfect. It's more perfect. More perfect. Yeah. More utopian society here at CarTalk. It's more. So Thomas more utopian society. Anyway, here's an idea that has been proposed to us by a listener named Eric Schaeffer.

1:00We would add that he sent it by email so he might not be proposing it. He might be stealing the idea from someone else. How would we know? Why would we care? Why would we care? It doesn't matter. You can steal everything. Here's Eric's idea. Go ahead. Here it is. It knocks your socks off when you hear it. Stupid people should have to wear a sign that says, I'm stupid. That way you wouldn't rely on them. Would you? I mean, you wouldn't ask them anything. It would be like, excuse me. Oops, never mind. I didn't see your sign. It's like before my wife and I moved from Texas to California, our house was full of boxes and there was a U-Haul truck in our driveway. My neighbor comes over and says, hey, moving? No. We just pack up our stuff once or twice a week. See how many boxes it takes? And then we put it back in the house. Here's your sign. A couple of months ago, I went fishing with a buddy of mine. We pulled his boat out of the dock. I lifted up this big ol' stringer of bass and the idiot on the dock says, hey, y'all catched them fish?

2:00No, I talked them into giving up. Here's your sign. Last time I had a flat tire. I pulled into one of those side of the road gas stations. The attendant walks out, looks at my truck, looks at me and says, tire go flat? I couldn't resist. I said, nope. I was driving around and the other three just swelled up. I don't know what happened. Here's your sign. I'm stupid. It's so simple. Yeah. Well, I would however have to wear one. Yeah. I think. Yeah. I mean, and how would you select people? Would they have to be like nominated or just a self-selected? No, I think everyone's given a supply of signs. And you just put hang them on people. Just like Eric and you hand them out and if someone hands you one, you got to wear for at least a month. Yeah. If someone hands you one, obviously means you need it. Right. And it might be just temporary fleeting stupidity. It might be, but usually it isn't, is it? No. No, not usually. That's a lifetime.

3:00Well, in your case, in case it has. Anyway, if you have any life-altering ideas that you want to share with us or you just want to talk to us about your car or anything else, our number is 888 car talk that's 8882-782-55. Hello, you're on car talk. Hello, this is Ben from Northwood, New Hampshire. Ben! Have you got a car problem here? Where's my sign? Where'd you say you're from? Northwood, New Hampshire. Northwood. Northwood. That sounds like it's way, way up in the Northwoods. It's actually not that far north at all. Oh. It's kind of towards mid-New Hampshire, around Concord and sportsmen. Oh. Did they give a sign to the guy who named this one? Yeah. Okay. All right, we're ready. So what's up, Ben, baby? Well, it's kind of the argument that I'm having with my girlfriend. Should never argue with your girlfriend. I know, but I can't let this one go.

4:00You can't, huh? Well, it's about, I have a 1979 rabbit diesel. Because of these cold mornings that we have in New Hampshire, I'm forced to plug my car in. So it's easier to start in the morning. Right. So you just let the thing idle in the driveway? Yeah. And while you're shaving or having breakfast or whatever you do in the morning. Yeah. Okay. Well, because of the new windshield factor, my girlfriend thinks that I need to start my car up earlier because she believes the car is aware of the windshield factor. And I'm not buying this at all. I just need your help. Please tell me that the car does not know what windshield factor is because that would terrify me. Well, it depends on whether or not your car has feelings. Yeah. VWs. They don't have feelings because they're made in Germany. Fiat's, on the other hand, are very sensitive. Very emotional. I have. Very sensitive to windshield factor. Fiat's, Alfa Romeo's stuff like that. Any car made in Mexico, for example, would be susceptible to windshield effects.

5:05But, you know, those two tonic countries, like Germany and Germany and, you know, like Germany. Sweet, too. Well, the Swedes, I'm not so sure. I don't know about that. But Germany, no. Not to my prejudice. Get tough. Not to my prejudice. Well, I mean, how are we going to handle this, Ben? Delegately. I mean, you don't want to offend your girlfriend. On the other hand, you could give her a sign. I could give her a sign. She could give me the boot. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, of course, you're right because windshield is specifically. How does it feel so that when it's zero degrees and the wind is blowing at 40 miles an hour, it feels like it's minus 30 degrees, not the real temperature of zero. Not me if only because the cold air can penetrate your Bronco Nagerski long underwear more readily when it's blowing at 30 miles an hour than when there's no wind.

6:06And that does have a very minor effect on the car. And that minor effect is this. If you park the car, everything is going to cool off much faster. So you stop the engine and everything in there is hundreds of degrees. For example, just the coolant is 250 degrees or something. And within a very short time, it's going to be zero if the temperature outside is zero. And that short time is going to be shorter if the wind is blowing. But once it gets to zero, the wind can keep blowing and it ain't going to get any colder for the car. Wonderful. So now the question is, are you going to tell her this and make her feel stupid? Well, that is a... That's always a problem, isn't it? We people who are so much smarter than everybody else, we have the problem of wanting to tell them. And when we do, we don't make any friends. Right? I mean, I've learned. I've trusted me.

7:06I've suffered this through my entire life. Oh, yes. I've got used to tie a pork chop around the neck to get the dog to play with them. I mean, I got a brother who's... I'm just between you and me Ben. He's a couple of sandwiches short of a whole picnic. Oh, we have another brother? I didn't even know. He's just... I don't know what to do, Ben. I mean, you can just basically kiss this girlfriend goodbye, literally, if you want to tell her this. I might suggest that it would be helpful for a third party to introduce the correct answer to this. Ooh. While you even, in fact, try to support her position and you say, oh, geez, I guess you are right. I guess Winchulf doesn't really affect internal combustion engines. But get out of my house anyway. Right. See you, Ben. And get out of my house. You got it, Ben. Bye-bye. Thanks for the call. Ben, you're absolutely right. And get out of my... Yeah, that's about it. 1-8-8-8. So many wives have done that online.

8:068-8-2. What's the number? 8-2. 278-255. Something like that. Something like that. Yeah, that's right. Hello, you're on Card Talk. Hi. My name is Sonia. I'm calling from Seattle. Well, then I or why? With a J. I... I knew that. A J. Sonia. Like in Sonia, Henny's Tutu. Something like that. Yeah. Sonia. What's your ethnic background? ethnic background. Okay. I'm part Puerto Rican, part Norwegian, and part Scottish, as far as I know. I love it. I love it. No, we... Isn't that awesome? Wow. We don't want to ask you how that happened. Somewhere there was a sailor in that group. Where are you from, Sonia? Seattle. Seattle. Seattle. Never mind. Never mind. I don't know what I'm talking about. Well, Seattle. It's the Seattle Ocean. It's right. Okay. So what can we get?

9:06And it's right near Norway in Puerto Rico, sadly. So Sonia, what's up? Okay. Well, I have an 84 Saab 900 turbo. And recently, it's left axle just broke. I mean, it just started choking and then stopped. And it's... I think it's TV joint actually fell under the ground. Yeah. That's how it happened. That happens. By the way, before we get to your question, I have to tell you... Oh, shoot. A little storm. A little storm. A little storm. A little storm. A little storm. A little storm. A little storm. A little storm. A little storm. A little storm. So like when you are less aggressive vehicles, what happens? It'll be assigned... It'll be assigned to replace on water pump on it. In fact, there was an 84 Saab 900. And he's looking at the thing... And of course, you may not realize it. But the engine and this vehicle is in backwards. In other words, the front of the crankshaft that runs all of the accessories, like the wind, the air conditioner, it splendid. It staging. It brings access to the driver. And that the business end of the crankshaft, is the part that ultimately goes into the transmission, is farthest from the driver.

10:07And I guess not having worked on Sobsworth, but she looks at this thing and he says, they must have come up with this design during those six months of darkness. You see? And I can just see it now. They put the engine in nails. The engine's in backwards. We can make it work. We love to make the most of it now. Yeah, you bet, yeah. I think that's what they can do, Ty. I was kind of interested. It is interesting. I think the air filter, and it took me, you know, probably about an hour, half just to find it. Yeah. Well, whenever, when the engine's in backwards, then all bets are off. Yeah, who knows what's going to happen. The stuff could be anyplace. Right. But anyway, that's the CV joint broke. The axle fell out into the street. You'd stop dead, of course. Right. But anyway, I had it towed to the shop, and they fixed it, and I got it back a couple days later. And I noticed a few changes. I noticed it was a lot easier to shift. But turning the ignition on suddenly became incredibly difficult, like, to where it would hurt my finger and stress the key.

11:09Yeah. And the headlights used to turn on and off with the ignition. But now they just stay on, even if I turn them off. You know, a week or so ago, a woman called us, and she had been to the dealership and complained about some symptom. The dealer basically told her that she was nuts and sent her away. And I got all in a tizzy saying, why do dealers do this? Why did they tell women? And it's mostly women. Why do they tell them that they're crazy when something is actually happening? Oh, they did do that. And now I know. You're crazy, Sonya. None of this could possibly have happened. Was the vehicle was towed? Yeah, it was towed. Oh, looks like something. Yeah, I think something got disturbed in the towing. I think you may have even something as simple as a broken motor mount. Or maybe somehow another, the shift linkage got disturbed. Oh, I see. Yeah, and my vote is for a broken motor mount.

12:11I mean, everything that you've suggested sort of leans toward the engine and transmission somehow getting out of whack, literally physically out of whack. And that's also why the lights won't go off. Because you're not turning the key all the way off. Oh, OK. Take it back to them before you break the key off, because then it's going to cost you a lot more. Then you have to jump the car. Oh, that's a pain. And you're going to have to use a lot of tact and diplomacy. And while it's there, see if they can move, turn the engine around and have it face the right way. That's more of most of your problem, I think. Say, Sonya. OK, baby. Good luck. Bye. Hey, I get to ask you this question this week. Do you remember last week's puzzler? Yes, it was about fishes and triplicate. Very good. I mean, do you know the answer? Of course I do. Would you be willing to share it with your sweet older brother? Oh, I know the answer. You're dead pissed and pussed. This message comes from eBay.

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14:15Rolling delicate roses of Capacola alongside meandering ribbons of Amon Serrano, transforming a humble plank of weathered barnwood into a show-stopping charcootery spread. Rinse, it's time to be great. Hi, we're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us, clicking collect the taper brothers. And we hit a discuss cars, car repair, and DAW, the answer to last week's very, very good, puzzler. I didn't make it up. No, it is. Oh, this was a top drawer, man. I like it. I like it. Here it is. Three guys go all fishing. And they decide they're going to split whatever catch there is. But this isn't a boat. They're deep sea fishing. They collect a bunch of fish. They throw them on the deck. And they decide they're going to divvy up everything the next morning. So they pull into the dock. They sit there, and they have a few beers, and they sleep the night away in the boat.

15:17However, in the middle of the night, one of the guys has severe cramps. And the size, he's not going to stay the night. He's going to go home, and he wants some pepped ol' bismar. So he says, I'll take my third. He goes onto the deck. He counts the fish and says, hmm, not divisible by three. He throws one of the fish overboard. Takes his third, and he leaves. And I will later, one of the other guys wakes up and realizes that he's going to be up real early tomorrow morning to go to a meeting. He can't stay on the boat all night. He says, I'll take my third, and I'll go home. So he looks at the counts the fish. And says, oops, not divisible by three. This throws one fish overboard. Takes his third, and leaves. The other guy wakes up seven o'clock in the morning. He doesn't know the other two guys have gone, but he decides, well, it's time to leave. He looks at the fish. He looks constant. Trolls one overboard and says, his might third, and he leaves also. And no fish will left except the two thirds. No, the fish that I left, he's figuring

16:18he's leaving the other guys there, two thirds. It's there to peace. Yeah, got it. So everyone did the same thing. The question simply was, what is the smallest number, the fewest number of fish by which this could happen? That each guy does the same thing, and blah, blah, blah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And? And? No, what? And I give the answer? Just a simple example of that. Well, I mean, you could do it simply by trial and error. Just keep trying numbers. The original is little equation, which was in the book that I read, and I can't remember where I got this plus one because I lost the book. But I did remember the equation, and it was very simple. It was said y equals two thirds parenthesis x minus one. So that y is what you end up with, x is what you start with, and you keep plugging in numbers for x, what you start with, until you can solve that equation three times without running into non integers. And that doesn't happen until you get to 25.

17:20Wow. So they caught 25 fish. The first guy tosses one overboard because he can't divide 25 by three. That's 24. He takes his third, which is eight. That leaves 16 fish. The next guy comes, he can't divide 16 by three. Trolls on over one over one over one. There's 15. I can see it's beginning to play out, right? He takes five. That leaves 10 fish. The third guy shows up in the morning. There's 10 fish. He thinks he's dividing it up again into threes. He can't divide it by three. He throws one fish overboard, takes his three, leaving six fish on the deck to rot and attract flies. And attract flies, and God knows what kind of evil vermin. But the answer is that they caught 25 fish. Who's our winner, Ramy? Our winner this week, is it some kind of a sneaky plot to get me to do well work? Don't try, that's hopeless.

18:21Our winner this week is Constantine Russo's from Arlington, Virginia, and for having his correct answer selected at random from among all the correct answers, Constantine will get a $25 gift certificate to the Car Talk Shameless Commerce Division, with which he can pick up a Car Talk baseball hat. Mm, mm, mm. Whoopee. Don't forget, spring training is right around the corner. And it's going on right now. It is? The baseball season is right around the corner. You don't want to burn your noggin while you're sitting in the bleachers, do you? No, I want one of those Car Talk baseball hats, man. 25 bucks? Well, no, you can get a couple of them for 25 bucks. You can get one in a third. One in an extra visa. Ha, ha, ha, ha. Hey, do you happen to know what time it is? Time to give up wrong answers for lent. No, no, that's not a bad idea though. It's time to play Stump the Chups. This is the part of the show where we check in on a previous caller

19:26and find out whether our answer gave him courage, solace, spiritual inspiration, or just ajana. So who's our supplicant this week? It's Eddie from New Hampshire. Fast Eddie from the land of Livfree or Die. Oh, die young. That's him. It says here, Eddie had a Ford. Oh, must have been a pickup truck, right? It's mandatory in New Hampshire. Of course, I mean, everyone in New Hampshire has a pickup truck. And it wouldn't start. And after a succession of rapid fire penetrating questions, we were able to ascertain that the truck had an automatic transmission. Now, that's detective work, huh? Oh, yeah, dig tracing. So we narrowed it down to a couple of possible culprits. It's getting energized because it's either, in this case, the neutral safety switch or the ignition switch itself. But if I get powered to the solenoid to that thin wire, that means it's not the ignition switch. And it's not the neutral safety switch. In that case, it's the solenoid. It's the solenoid. Yeah, the solenoid only costs seven bucks. You might as well try one of those first. All right, maybe I'll go.

20:26Or if you really trust yourself, you can bypass the neutral safety switch. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Very dangerous thing to do. But in New Hampshire, you'll find anyone to do that. I should have said that that was cruel. That was warranted. No, it wasn't unwarranted, but it was cruel. You see, Annie? Funny. No one ever uses the expression kind and unwarranted. So let's find out how we did Eddie. Are you there? I'm here. Look at Eddie, before we find out whether our advice was cruel and unwarranted, or just unwarranted, we need to verify that the answer about to give here in Stump that Chums has not been influenced by our staff for staff of national public radio or the Society for the Provincial of Cruelty to New Hampshire rights. Is that true? That is absolutely true. All right, so where are we on the right track with the neutral safety switch on the solenoid? What do you think? As we say in wood shop, you're hitting now right on the head. Oh, man. So really, I replaced the solenoid and since then,

21:29did it cost you seven bucks? A little bit more, $17.04. Really? Well, that's the import taxes. Oh, we're New Hampshire right now. No taxes. This isn't Massachusetts. No, the taxes they added on before the parties get to New Hampshire. Oh, that one that one. Yeah, you guys think you're not paying taxes, but you're really out. That's seven bucks here in Massachusetts. Oh, yeah. Hey, thanks for playing Stump to Chums, Eddie. Okay, guys. Nice talking with you. Take it easy. All right. And we'd like to remind our other listeners that if you're happening here, someone on the show that you'd like us to bring back for this little Stump to Chums portion of the show, email us with your suggestion from the Car Talk section of cars.com. All give us a call here at 888 Car Talk, and maybe you can stump the Chums right now. It's not that hard, you know. Anyway, I do it. Anyway, the number is 88, 82, 27, 82, 55. Hi! Hello, you're a white car. I love it. What was the 88, 82, 27, 82, 55? That's it. Hi.

22:30How can it be? That's 10 digits. Yeah. 7 and 3 is 10. Sonia. Hey, he's Tutu. Hello, who's this? Hello, this is my house, David. Hi, my Marge. Hi, I'm from Long Beach, California. Long Beach. Oh, and we have a sunny day out here today. Oh, rub it in, will you, Marge? You're trying to want to ring lately, right? As you can, when I start talking, you'll know where I'm from. Oh. I have a problem with my car. My car? You must be from Massachusetts. Right. Grizzly from Lynn. Lynn? So how did you wind up in Long Beach? Well, I left Lynn and went to the Philippines and then came back to Long Beach, California. Oh, we were, it was like a shoe buyer for a Melda Marco swoop. No. No, I didn't. We were at the super back. Oh, yeah. C-I-A. C-I-A, yeah. Yeah, the spy. She was a spy. And on the way back, you said, why should I go all the way back to Lynn where it's cold? Right. Stay right here, huh? Yeah. So what's your problem, Margie, baby?

23:30Oh, OK. Where did I get a problem? Yeah. OK. I have a car. My car is a ADA grandma key mercury. I noticed everyone's, I get a smell of gasoline. And especially sometimes when they pocket in the garage. And I brought it to my mechanic and they checked everything out. And it still went away. And he said that he's sun heads. Sometimes they've gotten gas someplace and they could smell it. So anyways, I thought, well, maybe it's a gas. I don't know, but I still could smell it. Then occasionally, I've also not getting this good a gas mileage. And when these got, when you brought it into these mechanics, they looked for a gas leak and were unable to find one. Yeah, they couldn't find a gas leak. Now, I did get it filmed up yesterday at a mobile gas station. I went out this morning. And I couldn't smell anything today. So I don't know if it is the gas. It's not the gas. It's not the gas. No, gas is the same. And you notice it mostly when you pull it into the garage. Yeah, it smells.

24:31I already been to go out the next morning and I still smell it. It sure sounds like you have a gas leak. Yeah, I think so. I have to agree with my brother. You have a gas leak. And they didn't find it, but they have to look some more. OK, because you have a gas leak. Yeah, and I'm afraid of a fire. We had one time, we had a car that caught on fire because it was a gas problem. Sometimes that's a blessing in disguise. I'm going to get this like, huh? Here's what I suggest. I think the leak is probably coming from one of your injectors. Injectors? Yeah, you have eight fuel injectors in this car, I believe. And they're going to have to sniff the injectors with their emissions tester, with the small tester. Yeah, you're going to get a small test. So that would maybe get a test. No, no, they're going to use the small tester in an unusual way. They're not going to stick it in the tailpipe. They're going to use that small tester to check for the presence of unburnt hydrocarbons, which would, in this case, would be gasoline, which is leaking out. OK, I keep a piece of cardboard underneath my car.

25:33You never find it that way. In the garage. Yeah, when the leak gets that big that you'll find it with the cardboard, the car will have caught on fire already. Oh, well, I don't want that to happen. No, yeah. OK, well, that sounds good. Well, all right, I'll tell that to my mechanic and have him do a little more checking on it. Excellent. What kind of a dog, is that a German Shepherd you have? No, that's a cock-a-spaniel. He is a German Shepherd's bark. You're giving him the wrong dog food. Hey, good luck, Mark. OK, well, thank you very much. Thank you for calling. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. All right, before we get to the new puzzler, we're going to pause so my brother can beg me to take back responsibility for the puzzler from now on. I have a newfound respect for you, my brother. Turns out that you're not quite the moron that I thought you were, and how's that for me? I guess that's what it's going to get, huh? We'll be back in a minute. This message comes from Intuit TurboTax.

26:34With TurboTax expert full service, match with a dedicated expert who will do your taxes for you from start to finish getting you every dollar you deserve. It's that easy. Visit TurboTax.com to match with an expert today. This message comes from LinkedIn, who knows the wrong hire can cost small businesses more than just time. That's why LinkedIn Hiring Pro goes beyond resumes. Using insights you can't find anywhere else to give you a short list of candidates who truly fit. So you can hire right the first time. Post your first job and get $100 off at LinkedIn.com. Slash NPR author, terms and conditions apply. This message comes from Adobe. You need to make a huge presentation in an hour. Luckily Adobe Acrobat uses AI and Adobe Express to take your files and generate a presentation in a few clicks. Need a last minute pitch deck? Do that with Acrobat. Need to level up your presentation design? Do that with Acrobat.

27:35Have 30 plus documents that need to be simplified into a proposal? Do that with Acrobat. Learn more at Adobe.com slash do that with Acrobat. This message comes from duck.ai. Looking for AI that protects your data? Go to duck.ai slash NPR to chat privately with popular AIs. It's free. No account required. By duck.go, where AI is always optional. This message comes from Mint Mobile. If you're tired of spending hundreds on big wireless bills, bogus fees and free perks, Mint Mobile might be right for you with plans starting from $15 a month. Shop plans today at MintMobile.com slash switch. Up front payment of $45 for three month, five gigabyte plan required. New customer offer for first three months only. Then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. See Mint Mobile for details. Hi, we're back. Listening to Car Talk with us, clicking collect the tapet brothers. And we hit a discuss cars, car repair,

28:36and the new puzzle. I can hide. Well, this is interesting. Uh, on October 15, 1996, I received, this is a real dance. October 15, 1996. Well, hey, yeah, you're catching up. Well, I received the following email. It says, despite your completely incomprehensible failure to use the last puzzler I submitted, I'm giving you another chance. By the way, I'm a cute little kid confined to a hospital bed with a wasting disease. The doctors don't hold out much hope of my surviving past. The end of your show's current season. And my last wish is to have a puzzler used on Car Talk. Oh, man. But don't let that influence you. Well, I didn't. I'm definitely not. On Tuesday, 18 January, 2000, I received the following email. Despite your completely incomprehensible failure to use the last puzzler I submitted, the exact same one. Same puzzler. Same puzzler. And the kid has survived.

29:37He survived. Yeah. Pretty good, huh? Great. And maybe it was just the hope that you gave him that someday you would read his puzzler. Well, in fact, it saved his life. It was considerable reservation that I used his puzzler. I know, because now if you use it, the kid will be dead in an hour. Maybe. I mean, this has been keeping him alive. Every week, this is just pups that use my puzzler. Yeah. This is dangerous. I mean, you sure you want to do this? Well, you think he's lying, don't you? Yeah, I think he's a lie a little snot. Well, let's hope so. Here we go. I'm just going to read his puzzler, because I think it's, don't forget, he had four years to revise it. And he didn't. He didn't. So he must have thought it was pretty good. Yeah. On the hottest day of the summer, my mother was driving her decrepit 88 Toyota Corolla from New York City to Philadelphia with her a significant other. They were going to a wedding, and the bride had asked them to courier a shipment of gourmet, frozen sorbet centerpieces from a little known sorbet Emporium in Queens. Believe it or not, sorbet centerpieces that are considered quite the thing at wedding receptions,

30:37at least in Philadelphia. At the Emporium, they loaded a crate packed with sorbet centerpieces into the backseat of the car. The merchant warned them that they had three hours before the sorbet would begin to melt. Philadelphia is two hours away. Flushed with the urgency of their charge, they set out. Yeah. All went well until they ran into bumper to bumper traffic. Oh, man. Heading over the 59th Street Bridge. You knew it had to happen. Sure. A significant other began showing symptoms of cardiac distress and mum changed course to New York Hospital. Oh, man. The next thing she knew, a policeman was reviving her. She had lost consciousness and crashed into a guardrail but was miraculously uninjured. She recovered sufficiently to drive significant other to the hospital. A folk cardiac workup showed no medical problem. The sorbet must go through. So they set out again, having lost an hour. Now they're in trouble. Significant had a few more rough moments as they passed through the Lincoln tunnel

31:39but he seemed to have recovered on the Jersey Turnpike. The story has a happy ending. They made it to the wedding with moments of spare and without further incident. The sorbet was a smashing success. Wait a minute. What could the question possibly be? Go ahead. Go ahead, keep going. No, keep going. I'm done. You're done. I'm done. Is there a question? No, no. A folk cardiac workup showed no medical problem. The question is, what happened? They load the sorbet, they get into hot days. Hot, hot day. They have to hurry. They have to rush to Philadelphia. The guy says you got three hours. They know Philadelphia's two hours away. They're on the, crossing the 59th Street Bridge. The old man starts to show symptoms of a heart attack. She changes course for New York Hospital. The next thing she know of, a cop is reviving her. Her. Her.

32:39Her. She takes them to the hospital because she's concerned. Damn the sorbes. Yeah, for a moment at least. For a moment. When they find out he's all right, back in the car. Back in the car, the sorbes must go on. Okay, so you just devolved that it really, her significant other was actually a person. We didn't know that before. I did. Didn't I? Well, the question is what happened? If you think you know the answer, right on the back of a $20 bill, or a stale croissant, and send it to Puzzle Tower, Car Talk Plaza, Box 3500 Havid Square, Cambridge. Our fair city, Matt 02238, or you can email your answer from the Car Talk section of cars.com. If you'd like to call us, the number is 1888 Car Talk, that's 8882278255, hello, you're on Car Talk. This is Amy from San Francisco. Amy, how you been? Good, how are you? I've been waiting to hear from you. It's all good.

33:40I've been waiting to hear from you. What kind of a Honda do you have? What kind of Honda? No, wrong, huh? No, I don't know how I like it. All right. I just had Honda feelings there. I wonder if my mom's cell phone does. Maybe that's how you got this. Oh, that's it. Oh, that's it. That'll do it. So, okay. I'm calling actually about a 1992 geo-prison, with about 135,000 miles on it. And it's got this weird thing, where if you drive it for any length of time, like over half an hour, and then stop it, it won't start back up again. But then if you leave it alone for an hour, or sometimes two hours, depending on how long I was driving it, it starts right back up, no problem. It usually starts right back up, right after I've called the tow truck, actually. It's way to me to call the tow truck. And then as soon as they get there, it starts right back up, and they look at me like I'm a total fool who doesn't know how to turn on the car. So, you could almost make this do it. So, for example, if you wanted to demonstrate this to your mechanic, you could drive the car for an hour,

34:40and make sure you ended up at the shop, and pulling to his shop, and shut the thing off, and demonstrate to him that it didn't restart. Well, we could do that if it wasn't so. It's deliberately thwarting us, from trying to figure out what it is. Like, one time my husband did exactly that, he had an hour and a half drive, and he drove, he drove right to the gas station, and the mechanic is, stopped when the side talked to the guy, went back out, tried to turn it back on, started right back up, then drove the three blocks back to our house, turned off the car, and just had a curiosity turned it back on, wouldn't start off. Well, either your husband has to become the detective here, because otherwise, this is going to drive you to the loony bin. Well, it's really, it's a hassle. We can't ever drive any place where we're not going to be there more than an hour or two hours. Yeah, well, maybe it's the car's way of dictating your social life. Yeah, because we're going out too much. This is either a fuel, a fuel problem, or a spark problem. And a spark. Yeah, or oxygen. And I don't think the car's suffering

35:41from lack of oxygen, so it's going to be fuel or spark. And the way to determine easily, is the way to go about this easily, is to test the spark first. And the easiest way to do this is to take it to your mechanic, and have him show you, how to determine when the engine has spark. Okay. Okay, when the ignition system is creating spark, and you can do it very simply with a screwdriver on a car like this. It requires opening the hood and pulling off a spark plug wire, but it's not hard to do. Okay, we can figure that out. But you're going to figure out, you're going to say to him, one of two things, either when it doesn't start, it has great spark, or it has no spark. Okay. And if it has no spark, and he's going to go ahead and replace the coil on the igniter, and if it does have good spark, then he's going to begin to look at the fuel system, but at least he'll know that the ignition system is okay, and have eliminated many costly pieces, that he's not going to replace. But my vote, if I had to guess here,

36:41I'd say, I'd say it's the coil or the igniter. I'm with you, man. But why does it have it only after we've been driving for a while? Oh, we can't answer that. I mean, why? We'll have to trouble with that. We don't have to kill you then, Amy. You can't ask all these questions. Why and what? You want what? You want why? Come on. Next thing you can be asking us how? We don't even know how. Oh, who? No, when the coil heats up, it's often the case that when the engine is shut off, that the built up heat will prevent the coil from working, and the same thing happens with igniters. So, and the heat actually, under hood temperature goes higher when you've turned the key off for a short period of time. Okay. Okay, because you've stopped moving the car and the heat that the engine has, built up, is liberated to these parts. And then once they get hot enough to create what's called an open circuit, they won't work. And you'll have to think cool off for a while and boom, it starts up and it runs perfectly.

37:42Yeah. And if you check for spark and you get no spark, that'll tell the mechanic that one of those two things has done this. Okay. And that's the answer to what? The answer to why we'll have to wait for our next book. Okay. C.A.D. Okay, thanks a lot. Right, bye-bye. Bye-bye. Well, it's happened again. You've squandered another perfectly good hour listening to car talk. Our steam producer is dug the subway fugitive, not a slave to fashion, punk and lips, bourbon. Our associate producers are Froucassan Fennelosa. And Louis Cronen, the barbarian, our engineer is Dennis the coworker, Menace Foley, our senior way black, he is Doug, the old gray mayor, and our technical spiritual and manual advisor is John Bugsy, free lunch, lawler. Our public opinion pollster is Paul Murky of Murky Research, assisted, of course, by statistician Marge in Overa. Marge in Overa, our customer care representative is Haywood Jebusov. Our director of new product repair is Warren T. Myfoot.

38:43Our official spokesperson is Luke Scannan, and our shopwoman is Luke Busy. Our pseudonym consult is great people. Don DePoom, the head of our division of threat assessment is you and what army? Our director of luxury car horns is Tony Blair, and our staffed divorce attorney is Carmine Not Yours. And our Russian chauffeur is Peek Off and Drup Off. Our chief counsel from the law firm of Dewey Cheetah, but how is Yulu as Dewey known to the sidewalk snowboarders in Harvard Square, as you and Louis Dewey, thanks so much for listening. We're click and click to tap it, brothers, and above all, don't drive like my brother. And above all, don't drive like my brother. We'll be back next week. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Take care. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Hey, thank you very much.

39:44Now look, a few swan to copy of this year's show, which is number 10. Just pick up your phone and call this number 1-888-CodJunk. Hey Vinnie, what if I wanted something else like maybe a car talk CD, a baseball hat? What do I call that same number, Vin? No, you call Bajigaloob Bajigaloob Bajigaloob Bajigaloob Bajigaloob Bajigaloob Bajigaloob Bajigaloob Bajigaloob Bajigaloob Bajigaloob Bajigaloob A dirty set law you'll dump. Of course you call that same number, there's only one number. You call the Shameless Commerce Division at 8888-CodJunk or visit it online at the car talk section of CARS.com. Thank you, Vinnie. You stayed right on message today. Hey, message is just radio boy. Ha-ha-ha. Ha-ha-ha. CAR talk is a production of Dewey Cheatermint Howe and WBWR Boston. And even though Sylvia Pujoli launches one of her news the puppet issue tear gas, ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. In our general direction, whatever she hears us say that this is NPR National Public Radio.

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