The Best of Car Talk - #2449: Oops!

Episode Date: June 18, 2024

A classic Car Talk diagnosis is derived from our hosts' intimate knowledge of modern automotive systems and their failure points, plus a healthy dose of finger-crossing in the hopes that the caller doesn't add that one last detail that flushes an otherwise elegant diagnosis right down the tubes. Listen as Click and Clack circle the bowl on this episode of the Best of Car Talk.Get access to hundreds of episodes in the Car Talk archive when you sign up for Car Talk+ at plus.npr.org/cartalkLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Last year, over 20,000 people joined the Body Electric study to change their sedentary screen-filled lives. And guess what? We saw amazing effects! Now you can try NPR's Body Electric Challenge yourself. Listen to updated and new episodes wherever you get your podcasts. Hello and welcome to Car Talk from National Public Radio with us, Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers and we're broadcasting this week from the not-so-quick oil change place here at Car Talk Plaza. Now, Consumer Reports in their latest issue,

that is July, has found, with regards to changing your oil, if you're planning on keeping your car for no more than, say, 60,000 miles, you can do whatever you want. Well, I mean, this is not a surprising finding, as far as I'm concerned. But what they did is they took a whole bunch of New York taxi cabs.

Took 75 taxi cabs. And they took their engines out and rebuilt them. Right. And then they reinstalled the engines and they... And they weighed and measured all the critical parts. And then they went and had these cars driven and they did the recommended oil change. As only a New York cabbie can drive them. And then they tore them down afterwards and measured all these critical factors and looked

also for sludge and varnish deposits and all that and their conclusion was that there wasn't a heck of a lot of difference. Well actually they did several things. One is some of the cars they changed the oil every 3000 miles. Right and some every 6,000 miles. And they used five or six or eight different oils and the conclusion was. Including some synthetics including synthetics and including our pals at slick 50 right well we'll discuss that in a moment but I mean they concluded a it doesn't matter

whether you change the oil every 3,000 miles or every 6,000 miles do whatever you want makes you feel better three fine six good maybe 12 is good and secondly it also doesn't matter and boy are they gonna be bent and all the oil companies when they read this and they must have read it already it doesn't matter what oil you use because who big surprise duh they're all the same no kidding well they're not all the same although all the ones that have the starburst thing on them and and and which is all of them.

Well, no, not all of them. I mean, there are many oils that you can buy that do not... Yeah, if you buy a thing that says Murray's Oil on it, you deserve whatever you get. I happen to use Murray's. You got a problem with that? Yeah, Bill Murray. And then you deserve whatever you get. But if you buy one with a name that you make sort of can recognize

Then they're all the same and we don't have the API Logo on it and it'll tell you that the oil is rated SG which is the highest rating you can get sh now sh is the highest rating you can get and Presumably if you if you follow your recommendation in your owner's manual, that's good enough, which most manufacturers recommend that 7500 miles. Yeah. Now there are a couple of weaknesses in this study which we must point out, right? It's our duty, our responsibility, and it's fun to point out mistakes that other people have made. Yeah. Well, people point out our mistakes every week. First of all, the 60,000 mile test is in my estimation

not good enough. Right, because I suspect that if you didn't change the oil at all for 60,000 miles, you'd probably not notice much difference. I think if you changed it once. Once? When? At 30 or at 59? No, you changed it... Or at 1. Actually, at 1 might be the best. No, I think 55.

No, I'd change it at 1,000 miles and then that's it. That's it, huh? Forget it. But I'd never buy a leased car from you. How about a used car? Nor that. So the fact that they only went 60,000 miles is somewhat misleading because 120 would have been

a nice number to know. It would have been, and all they have to do is wait another few weeks And all these cash 20,000 hopefully they they put these engines back together. Maybe they're gonna do it again at 120,000 miles. I don't know they did I felt Give short shrift to slick 50 Yes, I agree with that and although we have never been strong proponents of slick 50 I don't think this test was valid for what slick 50 purports to do. Well slick 50 gives you, I believe, the greatest amount of protection when the engine has started

up cold, when it's been sitting overnight and all the oil has dripped down. Slick 50 remains behind, they claim, and it protects the engine during those vital few seconds. But as we know, they never shut cabs off. Cabs don't get to sit overnight like your like your car does. And in many cases I would imagine that the cabs may even be in cold or whether they may even be garaged someplace, so they're not outside. I don't know. They drew the same conclusion about STP, which in that case probably is correct. Actually my brother explained to me the purpose of STP the other day, which I admit I had

not really considered. STP is not for cars that are running. Not for the living. Not for the living. STP is the can of last resort. Absolutely. When your engine is making so much noise. And five bucks doesn't really matter.

Five bucks doesn't really matter compared to the 500 or 5,000 that you would otherwise spend then it's one of those cases where what can you lose which is the way that all of these things have worked in the first place and in fact STP does give you another few minutes of life in the engine maybe a week maybe the month oh no I mean it could be even doctors can't do better than that well maybe you'll have six months. Yeah, what are they doing? They're giving you the medical equivalent of STP.

The medical equivalent of STP. All right, that's enough of that. We'll put that to rest. By the way, we have mentioned in the past, and we should repeat, that we have recommended an oil change into all of 5,000 miles. Some years ago, we decided to change from 3,000 to 5,000.

Yeah, actually we used to be proponents of the frequent oil change, and I've gone away from that. I don't believe it anymore. We noticed. You've abandoned regular maintenance for that matter. Abandoned all of it. Right. If you'd like to call us about your car, our number is 1-800-332-9287. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Linda calling from coming from detroit island uh... hi i thought you know we haven't had any calls from detroit for a long time

kidding blackballed in detroit uh... i thought some strange reason which i can understand there are certain people in detroit who actually don't like us your king yeah i can't imagine like i don't know who we see're kidding! Yeah. I can't imagine why. I don't know who. Let me see. Bob Lutz. That name comes to mind. Yeah, Bobby Jack Smith. That's it. That's truly a surprise. So anyway. So anyway, my 1966 Ford Falcon,

which I drive daily, is giving me quite a learning experience and regards to the coolant which keeps it boiling Uh-huh, it's making a noise at the top of the radiator Like something's dying like something dying. You know, it's not a hammering kind of noise When I stop oh you have a leak someplace or your radiator cap is fa says that when it's way way up high in the top tank what happens is it doesn't leak because it's above the level of the liquid but when it starts to when it gets really hot and expands then it leaks and usually when you go look for the leak you don't find it because what happens up too high what happens actually is that the pressure that's built up in the radiator is supposed to

keep it from boiling. And you cannot build any pressure because you have a leak. So as the coolant gets hotter and hotter, it will tend to boil because you're not elevating the boiling point by pressurizing the system. The pressure in there is supposed to be about 14 pounds, which is enough to raise the boiling point significantly. Exactly how much? I don't know. It depends on what the mixture is of oil and

Anti-freeze, but if you don't have a radiator that's holding pressure And I suspect you don't then the thing's gonna boil over and then when it boils over you're gonna lose even more coolant So you need to take it to someone who can test the radiator? Yeah, I'll bet you if someone puts a pressure tester on it. You have no pressure in it as Pressure test was the thing that replaces the radiator cap and you pump it up by hand and there's a little needle on it and the needle is supposed to stay put after you finish pumping. But I would guess that your needle is going to just very gradually slide back down to

zero and what they have to do is fill the radiator up to the tippity top and then put this pressure tester back on and you'll see the stuff. And you'll see a little squirt coming out and you'll see the stuff and you're a little squirt coming coming out You're saying ah ha that's it And you'll be all set for another six weeks now if you don't want to fix it if you don't want to take it and Spend money on it which I suspect may be the case you can try eggs Or pepper right yeah both of those things were or a pepper and egg hero or pepper. Right. Yeah. Both of those things were. Or a pepper and egg hero.

Yeah, throw the whole thing in. No mayo. The mayo's not gonna... Now take it to your local gas station and they'll find this leak in five minutes. All right. Good luck. Cool. Thank you very much. See ya. Bye-bye. Thanks for calling. Hey, hey, the puzzler answer and more calls are coming up right after this. All that sitting and swiping. Your body is adapting to your technology. Learn how and what you can do about it. I really felt like the cloud in my brain kind of dissipated.

Once I started realizing what a difference these little breaks were making, there's no turning back for me. Take NPR's Body Electric Challenge, listen to the series wherever you get your podcasts. David Lynch's films explore dark themes, but in a rare interview on Wildcard this week, he says he's remarkably content and you can be too.

We're supposed to be like little dogs with our tail just wagging and being happy, little smiles on our face all day long. This is the way it's supposed to be. I'm Rachel Martin. Join us on NPR's Wild Card Podcast, the game where cards control the conversation. I'm Rachel Martin. After hosting Morning Edition for years, I know that the news can wear you down. So we made a new podcast called Wild Card, where a special deck of cards and a whole bunch of fascinating guests

help us sort out what makes life meaningful. It's part game show, part existential deep dive, and it is seriously fun. Join me on Wild Card wherever you get your podcasts, only from NPR. Listening to the news can feel like a journey, but the 1A podcast guides you beyond the headlines and cuts through the noise. Listen to 1A, where we celebrate your freedom to listen by getting to the heart of the story together, only from NPR. Anyway, it's time to answer last week's puzzler. Normally, at this time during the show, my brother racks his brain trying to remember the puzzler, as he's doing right now. Isn't the puzzler gone?

With Jennifer? How astute! Well, it isn't gone. And I hate to bring this up. Take. But, we finally, after 15 to fifteen twenty years we dumped jennifer low because she was constantly on vacation her job is taken over by kathryn

or cathode ray at the time though petunia as we call her the first act of kathryn's tenure is that she goes on vacation well jennifer showed a how to fill out the forms. But, but, but, but... And she said, don't go the first week. That'll really tick them off. Wait a week. Wait one week and then disappear for a month.

Fine. Well, she's gone but not forgotten. Not forgotten. We may remember her when she comes back. Anyway, while the puzzler is on vacation with Catherine, we have several puzzler-related activities that we can suggest. Here's one. If you visit the Puzzler section of Cartalk.com on the World Wide Web, you will find an historical puzzler from the Archives. Oh.

Yeah. We will be digging into the library. That cardboard box full of the sets in the trunk of your dart, isn't it? And posting a puzzler from Cartalk's past on our website every week this summer so you won't have puzzler withdrawal. Well, if it's archives, why isn't that Ann Covey's? It is. So if you feel a sudden urgent need for a puzzler, you can find one every week this summer at CarTalk.com. Isn't that nice? Pretty nifty, eh? That's nice of us.

Yeah, I think so. Darn it. Isn't that nice? Pretty nifty, eh? That's nice of us. Yeah, I think so. Darn it. Consarn it. Consarn it. If you'd like to call us, our number is 1-800-332-9287. Hello, you're on Car Talk.

This is Chris Collins from Rockville, Maryland. Chris Collins? Rockville? Good God, you never heard of it, did you? Of course we've heard of Rockville. You kidding? Yeah, Rockville, Illinois. No, Rockville, Maryland is as popular as Pueblo, Colorado. It's a nice

place and i think this was up well in rockville we have a pike that uh... is basically an eight lane parking lot and a couple times i had this problem with my car it's uh... eighty six accurate hundred and forty eight thousand miles and i was driving along one day in traffic

really hot but ninety five degrees and eighty six accurate integral legend integral take i got a step on the break and stop and slowly can i go a little every time i put on the break to go a little further to the floor and pretty thin all of the floor and nothing won't break anything so i'd start to pump it and i get the pressure back

and then it'll break but then i let it go and thirty second later there's nothing you're in bumper to bumper stop and go traffic a life-threatening situation and i don't know what my car is just gonna there are the breaks okay who uh... but that i have a friend in the can i can i take it to him he checked it out

so that it looks fine and was this person a friend first and a mechanic second-hand mechanic for a time became a friend which is a by the way would be a first So I presume it's the other way around yes, okay But he checked it out and it only happened a second time when it was the same situation Otherwise the brakes were fine. You were in Real stop-and-go traffic literally stopping and going yet but how long but before that you had been in high-speed traffic and not really hardly and traffic lights probably for about forty five minutes

what happened is that the brake fluid and i'm trying to figure out why and figure out yet i'm what i'm figure if i keep talking my brother will figure it out i think out I let me down well I have shouldn't have it shouldn't have and I think it's because I might as well get us into taking neck right out I'm gonna stick my neck right out I think it's something to do with the wacko breaking system that Acura uses my brother apologizes. I shouldn't have said that. Otherwise it's a great part. Our brother apologized. We haven't given birth to him. Well I suspect, I think my part of my brother's statement is right and it isn't

the second part. I thought that said in my opinion. I think the brake fluid may be boiling and I think it's due to the fact that you have a faulty power brake booster. No, I don't think so. Yes, and I'll tell you why. You got a stuck caliper, man. I don't think so. Oh yeah. No.

I think the booster's staying on with repeated application of the brakes and ordinarily you drive the car and you probably don't step on the brakes more than a few times in a given day. But when you're stuck in this traffic, you're going, stopping, going, stopping, going, stopping, going, stopping. If you had a stuck caliper, it would be stuck, it would stay stuck, it would be getting worse and worse and worse every day. And the reason that your friend couldn't find anything wrong was that a caliper wasn't stuck

because you don't have a stuck caliper now that the booster has recovered. Tell your friend to do this. We try to keep him shut up as much as possible. This mic constantly interrupting him is just one step away from shoving a sock down his throat. What's that remote switch that's connected to the microphone? But why would repeated application cause the booster to stay on? Well, I don't... You haven't worked on that one, have you?

You were hoping... You were trying to shut me up so I wouldn't ask you that question. Admit it! Fess up! The problem is either in the booster or the master cylinder, and I'm going to suggest that it's very easy for your friend to figure it out. First of all, he has got to reproduce the symptoms, and he's going to reproduce it by pumping the brake pedal several hundred times with the car on the lift.

At which point he's probably going to notice that more than one wheel is stuck. If it's just one, it could be something as simple as a stuck or constricted brake hose. But when he determines, for example, that two front wheels are stuck or one front and one rear, you've got to start doing some detective work. And the first thing he should do is unbolt the master cylinder from the booster. If all of a sudden the problem is fixed, then the problem is the booster. If the problem isn't fixed, then you have to start undoing individual brake lines at the, at the wheels to see where the problem is.

But I suspect he's going to find that it's the booster. That's my guess. So if he, if you unbolt. I'm sticking with it. So he's gonna try that but you've got to fix this because this is dangerous. Absolutely I don't like to drive the car. And this has happened only this one time? Twice it's happened. So are similar situations but it was like a month later. Yeah, now I suspect that it's gonna begin happening more often but you've

got to try to reproduce it in the shop and tell them what to do. Tell them to pump. You have to reproduce it. If it takes your driving around the block from his shop repeatedly and using the brakes just as you would use them and coming into his shop with the brake pedal down at the floor. And I suspect when the pedal was on the floor, the car had difficulty even moving because the brakes were stuck on. I suspect. Is that true? No, the brakes wouldn't work at all. No, the brakes wouldn't work. But did the car, do you feel that the car moved as readily when you, when you were experiencing this condition? Yes.

Oops. The case. Always have to have a bailout position. When one is traumatized like this, reality gets distorted dramatically. So I think Chris was in such a traumatized condition. Did he even realize he was flooring the gas pedal and going six miles an hour? He didn't even notice.

Well the other thing is my wife was in the car and her nails were dug in the back of my neck so that could be true. That'll do it too. Well I mean I think that pretty much eliminates the brake booster theory. No it doesn't eliminate the brake booster theory because I think he has distorted reality. Have your mechanic try to reproduce this. If he can't then for good measure replace the master cylinder okay think so i have another minor problem yeah sure go ahead i what the heck uh... okay i'm in my car i leave i don't drive for a couple days i get back in the car you have chris and all the kids that are mysteriously out of the case

they're all separated laying everywhere the only thing i can figure out is it's my wife And I was wondering if there's something kind of a Dale Carnegie course or special training for her So, you know, she could learn how to put the cassettes back in the cases or maybe a course for me to take care of my anal compulsive behavior Years why don't you ask us this question first much more much more interesting who cares about Why don't you ask us this question first? This is much more interesting. Much more interesting. Who cares about whether or not I get breaks?

Yeah, so what if you get killed with no breaks? This is the issue here. You keep the cassettes in the case, huh? Yeah. In the case. You might be the only person in the world who does that. I used to do that, and I liberated myself some years ago by throwing away all the cases. I too, I think, I'm going through this anal compulsive stage of my life.

I have been cleaning out my garage for about two months now and I spent this past weekend building a device so I can hang scrap wood from the rafters. Which you should have thrown out ten years ago. My father had a brilliant suggestion. No I shouldn't have because I used the scrap wood to build the device. But my father suggested a more efficient method of cleaning out his garage that involved a gallon of gasoline and a match. Anyway, Chris, good luck with your car. Good luck with your tapes. Thank you very much. See you later. It's been a pleasure. Bye bye.

Don't go anywhere. Stick around for more calls coming right up. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the most powerful man in Indian politics. But big questions remain about how he's held onto power. India is really in danger now. All the democratic structures have been compromised. Cyber hacking, mass arrest, and what it means for India's democracy on the latest episode of the Sunday story from NPR's Up First podcast. Rickwood field is the oldest baseball field in the U S it's also where comedian

Roy Wood Jr. Spent a lot of time growing up. Racism was around, but this baseball field somehow was a separate oasis from all of that for blacks and white. Baseball, Birmingham, and Race in America on the latest episode of the Sunday Story from NPR's Up First podcast. On Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, our celebrity interviews aren't quite like anybody else's.

For example, country star Brad Paisley has multiple Grammys, but do his teenaged kids like his songs? So we listened to it in the kitchen and it happened. Huck, my oldest, said, well, they can't all be gems. I'm Peter Sagal. Join us for the show that asks the questions nobody else seems to want to know the answer to.

Listen to the Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me podcast from NPR. NPR Plus is a new way to support public media and get more from your favorite NPR podcasts like Fresh Air. Sometimes I'll actually preface the question with if it makes you too uncomfortable to talk about, if it's too personal, just tell me. Here's the question. For behind the scenes content, bonus episodes and more, sign up at plus.npr.org. Music Music Music Music

Hi, we're back. You're listening to Car Talk on National Public Radio with us, click and clack the Tappert Brothers, and we're here to discuss cars, car repair and latently lousy literature. This was sent to us by Alex Pimentel, a Pimentel from Pimentel construction in California somewhere and evidently high school teacher is trying to teach their class his or her class the the fine art of analogy and ask them to write opening paragraphs or include analogy in their in their writing and this is some view Her vocabulary was as bad as like whatever. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

And my favorite of all time here was he was as tall as a six foot three inch tree. Well, the spirit of it's there. They haven't got the fine points yet. Exactly. I mean you have to start out, I mean, of course, that's it. I think it's a great effort. A great effort. Now normally, if it can be said that there is anything normal about this show, this is the time where we deliver the new puzzler, you know, the weekly puzzler. Yeah.

But alas. Alas. Well, thank God, actually. Yeah, thank God it's better. For the next several weeks, our dear puzzler will be on summer vacation. Thank God. Did I, did you say that already? I did already.

Now, earlier in the show, we told that if you need a fix, you can listen to one of our archival puzzlers on our website, Kartalk.com. Arch rival. No. And you can also send us your puzzle suggestions so that when I prepare for the fall puzzler debut, which is like 10 minutes before the first show in the fall, I'll have more good puzzlers to choose from. So if you have a puzzler that you think we can use, send it to us at Puzzler Tower, Car

Talk Plaza, Box 3500, Harvard Square, Cambridge, Our Fair City, MA 02238, or of course you can email it to us from cartalk.com on the web by clicking on the Talk to Car Talk section. And if we use your puzzler and your notice, we'll send you a Best of car talk CD, which has proven to be very useful as a dog frisbee. Our number is 1-800-332-9287. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, guys. My name is Nancy. I'm from Encinitas, California. Yes. Nancy. Okay. This is kind of a multi-part to question. It's about the phenomena of the two-footed

driving, you know, in an automatic transmission. You knowed driving automatic transmission you know what yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah okay I want to know do you think it's a gender thing I my other used to do it and I have an elderly aunt that does this and I was wondering if you know some morning I'll go out and jump in my car and perhaps not all you that way you'll know. Is it genetic? That something's happened.

You've reached that point in your life. It's genetic. Well, actually I've discovered that most of the people that do this are guys wearing hats. Yeah, I would have said it. There is almost nobody that drives with two feet that doesn't wear a hat in the car. Really? Yeah. I mean if you said gender, I immediately thought yes, it is gender specific and it's men who do it.

Oh. So now you're telling us that it's women that do it, but now we have to conclude that it's age specific. That's what I'm afraid of. That's what I'm afraid of, that as Medicare comes closer, you know, I'm going to fall victim to this. Have you received your first free issue of modern maturity yet? No, no, not yet you have it my brother has yeah i've been getting it for fifteen years dot get it you got married the other day he gets it

uh... here at the end of the morning in the tour well the a i a r p is right on top of the situation about you think it's legal is it legal yeah it's legal it is legal okay and it's legal is it legal yeah it's legal it is legal okay and it's not necessarily dangerous in fact I mean I think what what happens is it comes with the onset of the loss of confidence in one's reflexes you realize I don't have time anymore to get my foot up off the gas pedal and onto

the brake pedal and then you start using your cane to push down on the road in the absence of that confidence in your cane to push down on the brake pedal. So in the absence of that confidence in your ability you begin to adopt the coping strategies as we call them. Exactly you begin to drive with that foot resting on the brake pedal and the left turn signal on all the time. Oh yeah I forgot that one. And the seatbelt buckle hanging out the door. You guys have really made my day.

I was really looking forward to the rest. You've done all these things already, eh? No, she hasn't. No, no, no, I'm desperately trying to avoid all of these signs. But you can't. I mean, sooner or later it will happen. So I think the best thing to do is to be tolerant of those people who have already reached the point where these things are happening Oh, so that when they when it happens to you others will be tolerant of you as they say

Expect my children to be tolerant of me when I am reduced to my doh-he's doing They always say be kind to your children because they're the ones who are gonna pick the rest home for you Oh, that is frightening. You better be nice to them. All right. Okay. But it's all right to drive with two feet, although it is an annoyance to people behind you, but I think when you reach a certain age, you've earned the right to annoy other people on the road.

I think I'm just going to get a Harley and forget the whole thing. Yeah. That's it. There you go. Good luck, Nancy. Okay. Thanks a lot, guys. See you. See you later. There you go. Good luck, Nancy. Okay, thanks a lot, guys. See ya. See ya later.

Bye-bye. Bye. Hey, by the way, I should mention that our esteemed producer is in the lab. Is he? Yes. As we speak? With the lab. I don't know.

Beginning work on the best of, you ready for this? Car Talk, Volume B. Impossible. And he's collecting listener suggestions for that collection. So we know that the closing credits are a fan favorite because the signals that the show is almost over But besides that we'd like to know what your favorite calls and letters have been if you have a favorite And you don't have to have the details if you say ah was a long time ago six or eight months There was a call about some guy blah blah blah blah that did something just

There was a call about some guy blah blah blah blah that did something just We'll figure it out now you needn't send him any notes about the call from Maximilian because everyone's gonna send that one in Yeah, he's already got he's already got that that's half the CD. So his job is half done already Yeah, so anything else that you'd like to have included in the best of car talk part? Do you want to send Dougie a note or send him an email from CarTalk.com. In the meantime, if you'd like to call us, our number is 1-800-332-9287. Hello, you're on Car Talk. My name's John McCormack and I'm calling from Florida. Hi, John. Florida?

Yeah, from Florida. Yeah, we picked it up right from your florida accent yellow we talk funny daddy that i have a nineteen eighty-six uh... chevrolet uh... pick up a quick look at the three fifty uh... engine in it i use it occasionally for calling and it got there uh... it's going to be habit of

uh... occasionally not all the time losing power and uh... uh... i'm thinking and losing power and people pick him up and all you like uh... but he reached com underneath the uh... but really

yeah it's entertaining but what he richard yeah uh... but uh... it's entertaining but... Buddy Rich, huh? Yeah, but it's also disconcerting because then it'll quit doing it. And whenever I take it to a mechanic, it quits doing it and they kind of look at me strange, you know? Hmm. So it sounds like it's rapping. Would that be a fair description? No, more jazz than rapping. Jazz? Oh, I more jazz than rapping. Jazz?

Oh, I didn't mean rapping. I suppose one has to choose his words carefully these days. Yeah, a banging sound. Yeah, it's clattering and surging, losing power. I took it to one mechanic and he said it was definitely the fuel pump needed replacing. Well, that sounds good. So I did. I replaced the fuel pump but it still occasionally does it. I took another mechanic said that maybe I had a little bit of dirt under a lifter. Well it's funny that you should mention that. I just wrote on my paper here, my

brother can attest to this. Oh yeah. Bring home a loaf of bread. Loaf of bread. You can read my mind, man. I think the clattering noise is coming from a lifter that's collapsing, which would account for a significant loss of power, and the noise, and the sudden disappearance of both. Yeah. And maybe the lifter isn't collapsing. I think rather a valve is sticking.

A sticking valve. A sticking valve. Now I'm going to guess that you've got about 125,000 miles on this. Yeah, at least. At least. At least. You don't know because you unhooked the odometer. Well. Hop's been around so many times, it's hard for me to decipher the numbers now.

It might be 225. It could be. It could be. I put probably 30,000 miles a year on it. You know what it's time for? STP. I think we can get you maybe a month to six months out of that if you throw a couple of cans or gallons of STP. Right, and for an extra ten bucks we'll touch up the x-rays too.

No you... It doesn't use any oil. It doesn't? No. Well that's okay. That's cool. It doesn't have to use any oil to have to have a sticky valve. You could have so much carbon buildup in the valve train that you'd get a sticky valve and it would most likely happen under the Severe conditions that is Towing a trailer hot weather climbing a hill even though there are no hills in Florida But there is hot weather and there is towing right right and that's what that's when it's likely to happen And I suspect that you're gonna have to try to use some kind of a cleaner

There are various cleaners on the market that will break up some of these deposits. Like, um... Well, Chevron, Tecron, you know, they come into the description of fuel injector cleaners, although it's not really a fuel injector. It's a fuel system cleaner, but it's designed to clean... You want to read the container. Designed to clean carbon deposits off the valve train. Yeah, I go to an auto pot store.

Okay, that sounds good. We use the stuff called 44K, which is made by B and G, somebody or other, I don't know who they are, Bob and George. Bob and George. I once suggested turpentine, the oil change, fill the crankcase with turpentine, start it up for a minute or so and then drop the turpentine out. What do you think about that idea? I don't think so. I actually tried that one time. I didn't use turpentine. I used kerosene. You can only do this, John, if you're willing to drive it right to the junkyard. But the kerosene is not going to solve your problem because your problem is not down there. Your problem is up at the top of the engine where the valves

are. I believe. I believe. So you have to try one of these cleaners and try to break up those carbon deposits on the intake valves so that the valve won't stick when the engine gets hot and is overworked. Yeah, I mean you might want to try both of these techniques because if the problem is in the lifter, then the lubrication system will get at it. But if the problem is in the valves, then it's the fuel system that's going to get at it. But under no circumstances put kerosene in your crankcase.

What? You told me to do it to my truck! You said let's throw a couple of quarts of kerosene in it. And what do we end up doing to your truck? Junking it? See you John Good luck. Good luck. Thanks for calling John. Thank you Mike. I'm the accent they have in Florida Huh, it is it is strange. I don't get it. I don't know I don't get it either well you squandered another hour of your fleeting summer listening to car talk. Our esteemed producer is Doug the subway fugitive, not a slave to fashion, Punkin Lips, Berman.

Our associate producer and dean of the College of Automusicology is Ken Babyface Rogers. Our assistant producer is Katherine Cathode Ptooty Ray. Our engineer this week is Karen Given and our technical advisor, heading out again on the free lunch North American summer tour. Is John Bugsy Sebastian Mr. Heights sweet cheeks free lunch. I'll find free lunch. Donut breath twinkle toes hula hips two gigabyte make that

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And our timing director is Benjamin Not Yet Yu-Yahoo. And of course our chief counsel from the law firm of Dewey Cheatham and how is you Louis Dewey? Don't the other guys sleeping under the newspapers in the Harvard Square as you e Louie Dewey. Thanks so much for listening we're Click and Clack the Tappet brothers and don't drive like my brother. Don't drive like my brother. We'll be back next week. Bye bye. If you want a cassette copy of this week's show, which is number 28, you can order it electronically on the World Wide Web through the Shameless Commerce Division of CarTalk.com. Or if you prefer the phone, call 303-823-8000.

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