The Best of Car Talk - #2515: Dave from Bemidji

Episode Date: February 22, 2025

On this episode of the Best of Car Talk we meet one of our most memorable (and whacko) callers: Dave from Bemidji. 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

When she teaches her students how to write a song, musician Scarlett Keys says they need to ask themselves certain questions. What is the thing that keeps you up at night? What's the thing you can't stop thinking about? As songwriters, we are repurposing human tropes and a new viewpoint with new words, with new music. The people and technology behind the soundtracks of our lives. That's on the TED Radio Hour podcast from NPR. Hello and welcome to Car Talk from National Public Radio with us, Click and Clack the

Tap It, brothers. And we're broadcasting this week from the Sports Wisdom Department. Before we get the sports wisdom I thought I find it curious that this is a radio show where people call us and ask us questions about cars right and what were we just talking about before the mics came on we were both talking about what's wrong with our respective vehicles. This is happening to mine, the chargers, the systems aren't working, and it's pretty sad. Well the real question is, who do we call? Who do we call?

I call you when I have a problem. I know enough not to call you. All right, back to sports wisdom we have here from David Leventhal from God only knows where a bunch of quotations presumably made by people in sports now you know how much I loved sports not on not only sports but the people involved in sports because they are such men of such erudition men that you what I love more than anything is hearing guys say well if we're gonna get to the playoffs I guess we're gonna have to win a lot of games no kidding yeah we're gonna take this one game at a time oh here are a few real quotes here we go we're gonna

try to win two games with the next game we play. Shelby Metcalf, basketball coach at Texas A&M recounting what he told a player who received four F's and one D for grades. Son, looks to me like you're spending too much time on one subject. Frank Layden, Utah Jazz president on a former player I told him son what is it with you is it ignorance or apathy and he said coach I don't know and I don't care here's my personal favorite Pat Williams Orlando this is a good Pat Williams Orlando Magic General Manager on his team's 7 and 27 record. We can't win at home, we can't win on the road. As general manager I just can't figure out where else to play.

I love it. Well if you have some of your own wisdom to share with us, please share with us. 1-800-332-9287. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Michaela. I'm in Arlington, Texas. How are you guys? Michaela? Yes.

Does it have an A in the middle of it or is it just E-L-A? It's A-L-A. M-I-C-H-A-L-A? That's correct. That's not Michaela. Yes. Does it have an A in the middle of it or is it just E-L-A? It's A-L-A. M-I-C-H-A-L-A? That's correct. That's not Micaela. That's Micaela. No, it's Micaela. Whatever you say, dear.

I'm going to tell my mom to call you and tell you it's Micaela. Oh, no, no. That's all right. Because she came up with the spelling. She did? Yes, she did. I mean, what national origin is she? She is Irish.

Well that answers it. Well that explains everything. What does she know about Michaela? All she knows is she heard the name when she was young and liked it and decided to name a daughter that. Yeah, so I like it. Anyway, what's up? This last New Year's Eve I parted ways with the Toyota MR2,

which had served me very, very well for 10 years, and bought a Camry. Brand new? It was a 96. It was a year-end model. Yeah. Had about 5,800 miles on it. Good.

I drive it quite a bit, but then when I took a longer road trip, where it was like, I drove to Austin, which is like three hours away. Yeah. And when I get up and it's all highway, so of course you get the radio going and you're talking in the car, you're not listening.

And plus it's like a new car, you know? Who listens to a new car? Exactly. So I get down there and I get off the highway to pull into a gas station and the engine is making a noise that sounds like choke choke, I'm not getting any oil. I'm like, no, this can't be. i've heard the time before and that it was like right before i had to put a new engine

and i'm going out of can't be true so i'm picking up a little guy like that when i get back i bought the hundred thousand mile warranty and i called the dealership that book doesn't sound happy they could change your more often and i can't get like the big party like every twenty five hundred miles just to be they actually are like that we find it a lot forever tell it that they talk like the dual to do or for you just making

fun of mechanics i'm a general i don't know and i'm terribly sorry because they didn't sound like that at all because they're from texas uh... because they didn't sound like that at all because they're from texas they said it a little slower they said it a little reassuringly like no big deal and all that kind of stuff what is this noise exactly? it just sounds like a clatter, not a real loud clatter but it sounds like there's

a valve knocking or something. Yeah. Like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a,

like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like a, like because I don't drive at least 100 miles a day. And it only happens when you drive the car the greatest distance. Is this a four-cylinder Camry? It is a four-cylinder Camry, and it's an automatic. Yeah, I think you have sticky valves.

Sticky valves. Sticky valves. Sticky valves, sounds like a Christmas treat. Yes, it is. And when you drive a great distance, like from Arlington to Drano, Texas, you're going to heat the engine up enough to make one or more of the valve stick and you will hear the cam whacking against the valve, which is not completely closed and the engine will not only make a

noise but it may even run rough. And when it gets real bad, you'll begin to lose power. Okay. They should try putting a cleaner in, run a cleaner through the engine. Sure. Snap-on Tools sells this thing called the MotorVac. MotorVac. MotorVac and it's a system that flushes out the valve train and cleans all the crud out of the valve trainer and frees up sticky valves. Flushes out the valve train?

Yeah. Okay. Did you buy this from valve train? Yeah. Okay. Did you buy this from the dealer? Yes, I did. Oh, yeah, they're gonna do this for nothing. They are? Yeah, absolutely. So in other words, they were just pushing me away

because they don't wanna mess with warranty work. Of course. Okay. I mean, they were giving you, we call here in the Northeast, the Bums Rush. Oh, no. I would go back to the dealership and make as much noise as the engine is making yeah I can do that see you Michaela

okay thank you bye bye 1-800-332-9287 hello you're on car talk yeah hello this is Jed Smith calling in from Budapest Hungary yeah sure okay, sure, okay. You're really calling from Hungary? Yeah, I'm calling from Hungary. You really are. It sounds like you are. What are you doing in Budapest? What am I doing? I work for the United States Treasury Department and I go around helping ministries of finance in Central Europe. Counterfeit American money. Money in the international market. Cool. Interesting. So what kind of a car do you have there in budapest under state department guidelines i was allowed to bring one car from the united states are you live there i live here you're not just on a little

junket i'm not on a junket i've been here for three years wow oh so you brought your car from washington dc they gave me a 20-foot container and they said you know you can take anything you want that fits in there And it fits in there. Yeah, and I'm from New England, and I like a good deal So I if I got a 20-foot container I was gonna use the whole thing yeah, so I brought a 91 Chevrolet suburban over a suburban over you come over hungry to take a five-packing spots if you car she has but i you know you guys left but this thing is a great thing to have in

hungary i know you guys are from boston area budapest traffic is just like boston traffic i mean roads go nine roads converge on one square yeah and you put on top of that the fact that most of these people didn't have their driver's license until after the fall of communism most people have their licenses about five years

so imagined driving in Boston where every other car is driven by the equivalent of a teenager. Sounds like Boston. It sounds like Boston. Yeah. And the intimidation value of the suburban is great. Yeah, so what's the question, if any? This is the question. Yeah. You know, it's a ninety one fifteen hundred so it's a half-ton four-by-four and i have the six-two diesel engine in it as opposed to the gas engine now i i must be hit a rock driving down in romania i i start looking underneath the car and it's dripping fuel for the first time

and the fuel is dripping right off the fuel pump. So I called my father back in Gloucester and he went down to Sudby's, which is the local Chevy dealer. Got me a pump, sent it over to Hungary and I sat there with my Haynes manual out and grease all over my hands and I put this new unit in. Cool. Good. This is just a feed pump. This is. Good. This is just a feed pump.

This is, yeah, this is just a feed pump. This is conveying fuel from the tank up to the injector pump. Exactly. Got it. Now, I turn the car on, it starts right up, and it runs for about a minute. And then all of a sudden it starts going, bup, bup, bup, bup, bup, bup, bup, bup, bup,

bucking away and bam, it dies. I love it. And it's dead cold. away at can't get back up i love it and it's dead call and i suddenly started thinking i could all my god you know that i think has been dripping on in the garage for about two weeks waiting for the part to get to america

and it's got to be here in the fuel lines and i've got a taken that air from the fuel pump and rammed it into the injectors. Yeah you did. I did. You did yeah it's all air bound. It's all air bound. And so this is my question and I'm trying to get up to Warsaw for Thanksgiving so I got to get this thing started. You might make it. Is this the kind of thing where I charge up the batteries and despite the fact that the manual says don't don't do it Don't give it a spray starting fluid don't oh don't don't

Know first of all, there's probably a bleed. I don't know anything about these. We don't let diesels in the building But I'm sure there's a bleeder someplace. There's a bleeder Yeah and you and you may be able to even in fact you may be able to crack the line where it comes from the feeder pump to the injector pump. Yeah. And you may be able to run the electric pump. Put a coffee can under the place where you loosen the line.

And use that to prime the thing and purge the system of air. Okay. There's always the possibility, albeit small, that you have wired the injector, the electric pump backwards so that the injector pump's trying to pull fuel out of the tank and you're trying to push it back in with this thing. No, but I think I got it in the right way. From what you described, it's more likely that it's air bound than it is that you hooked it up backwards.

Yeah, I don't think I hooked it up backwards. I don't think you did either. I mean, I really followed the manual. Yeah, but I would definitely check I hooked it up back. I don't think you did. I mean I really followed the manual. Yeah I would definitely check that though Well see if the if the fuel level in the tank is going up If not you can bleed it easily okay, well Jed hope you make it to Warsaw for the holiday Okay, if not call us back Bye bye good luck and thanks for calling by the way if anyone else wants to call us back. We'll have some other sage advice.

Good luck and thanks for calling. By the way, if anyone else wants to call us from Europe and feels like spending 25 or 30 at all is on a non-toll free call, you can call whatever the country code is for the U.S. of A. Dial that and then 617-353-6350. There's a lot more stuff coming up right after the following message so stick around. Technologist Paul Garcia is using AI to create photos of people's most precious memories. How her mother was dressed, the haircut that she remembered. We generated tens of images and then she saw two

images that was like, that was it. Ideas about the future of memory. That's on the Ted Radio Hour podcast from NPR. My defining characteristic for him is love. I'm Jesse Thorne on Bullseye Kelsey Grammar on the thing that makes Frasier, Fr Frazier. That he loves so deeply that it almost harpoons him. Plus, sideshow Bob, cheers, and so much more on Bullseye for MaximumFun.org and NPR. On the Throughline podcast, the myth linking autism and vaccines was decades in the making and was a major moment for vaccine hesitancy in America, tapping into fears involving the pharmaceutical industry and the federal government. No matter how many studies you do showing that this is not a problem, it's very hard to unring the bell. Listen to Throughline from NPR, wherever you get your podcasts. Support for

NPR and the following message come from the Lemelson Foundation, dedicated to improving lives through invention, innovation, and climate action. Since my brother always remembers the puzzle these days. I mean, we're not, I'll just. I guess I'll just have to launch right into it. In fact, you know what?

Why don't you do it? I mean, because you remember it so well. I do. And I remember very clearly that when you proposed this puzzle last week, I said, this is so simple. It can't possibly be that it's as simple as that. Right. What part of it particularly was simplistic? It had to do with headlights, did it not? Ooh! It just came to me. It had to do with headlights, did it not? Oh! It just came to me!

It had to do with headlights! I had them on the ropes, folks! We're standing eight counts! But under pressure, you notice? Saved by the belt. I mean, earlier today I couldn't remember it. Here's the scenario. We're driving through the Sahara Desert.

No, I don't remember it. Should I just do it? Yeah, you do it. I don't remember it that well. This was submitted by Christine Hahn via Cyberspace. And I think I mentioned last week that all the information you need is embedded in this little narrative.

She says, I lived for a year doing medical research in Tanzania, East Africa. And at my disposal were two vehicles, a blue Mitsubishi Pajero of unknown vintage and an 81 Land Cruiser. I lived several miles outside of town on a long bumpy dirt road which became a long muddy road during rainy season. It was always a challenge to drive. Yes.

Oh, I mean, hints galore. Ah! One evening as I was cruising in the Mitsubishi, I noticed that whenever I lit up in the gas pedal, the headlights dimmed and I was forced to keep my foot on the accelerator the entire way into town where my trusty mechanic diagnosed an electrical problem, a wire had apparently shaken loose, da da da da da da da da. Parenthesis, red herring. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Red alert. Red herring. The wire was refastened and the problem was solved. Not more than two weeks later, I was navigating the road in the other vehicle, the Land Cruiser, when I noticed much to my dismay that the headlights were dimming on that one too. It was getting dark and in fear of being stranded out in the middle of nowhere, I accelerated again, wondering if I had another loose wire. The headlights didn't really seem to respond, but in my anxiety I wasn't sure, so I kept

accelerating. I was making steady progress toward town when just as I reached the paved road, I hit a stationary object like a rock and blew out one of my tires. With a heavy heart, I came to a stop, Lyndon Johnson must have a point. Turned off the car and began to change the flat tire, and during the course of the tire change,

I discovered what was wrong with the car. I managed to fix it without opening the hood. In fact, I fixed it with the sleeve of my jacket. Well, I mean, I had to put that in because you've got to give people a fightin' chance. It could have been a lot of different things. I don't think so. I don't think... I thought that hint was going a little bit too far. Well, you should have said something at the time. I thought you had a good reason for making it that simple because maybe you had a relative

who wanted to win and didn't have the brains to come up with anything for an answer except for this one. So you think it's fixed, eh? The fix is in? Oh, it could be. It could be. And I left it up to you. It was what was wrong with Christine's car that she was able to affect a repair with her sleeve on. Whoa, yes. And what was wrong was that her headlights were covered with mud. Yeah. From the dusty, dirty road of the first paragraph, which was not a red herring. Who's our winner?

Our winner this week is Dave Weingartner from Anaheim, California. He sent this answer in my email, and since we know because of that that he has a computer, instead of sending him a CD, we're going to send him one of the brand new full-color car talk mouse pads which shows my brother and myself performing surgery on an engine in an operating room this is part of the holiday customer fleece collection now on sale at car talks shameless Commerce Division on the website www.now.com. He probably doesn't have a computer at home he has one at work of course he brings the mouse pad to work sure oh works and ask where he got Now, he probably doesn't have a computer at home. He has one at work. Of course. So he brings the mouse pad to work.

His co-worker's going to ask where he got it. He'll have to admit that he answered the puzzler correctly, and they'll know that because he doesn't have one at home that he used a work computer, and he'll get fired. That's it for Dave. Right, and they'll say, hey Dave, when you get fired, can I have your mouse pad? Anyway, we'll have a brand new puzzler coming up during the second half of today's show, having to do with folklore and history. Ooh, I love those.

Baseball. So don't touch that dial. In the meantime, we'll take your calls at 1-800-332-9287. Hello, you're on Car Talk. My name is Alana and I'm calling you from Rogers, Arkansas. Alana with an A? Mm-hmm. A-L-A-N-A?

All right. Where in Arkansas are you? Rogers. Not that it makes any difference to me because I don't know a single thing. I couldn't even name you a city in Arkansas. Oh, really? Well, we're in the northwest corner. Our president is from Arkansas.

Right. Little Rock? Little Rock. That's four hours away from here. Hey, I named a city. There you go. I knew you could do it. How about Selma?

No, that's Alabama, but. It starts with an A. Anyway, Alana, what can we do for you today? Well, I had kind of a little problem, but it was kind of scary to me. I have a 91 Honda Civic that has 156,000 miles on it and I've been putting gasoline in my own car ever since we started doing that sort of thing and what I do is I fill up the gas tank until it quicks off at the pump. I don't pop it. You don't burp it. I don't burp it. Good. Okay, so I filled the tank and I didn't put the cap on right away. I just went into the station to pay my bill. 25 bucks. Yeah, right. And when I came back, the gas was flowing out of the gasaffing from the filler

from the from my cake we don't know where from the tank you know you mean right out the right out where i put where you put the gas and it was coming out you know so i put the cap back on and i drove out because i didn't want to be you know and bob i didn't want to have that gasoline around me and and then nothing it never happened again but I was just wondering what would cause it to have the gas because I don't want it to happen again Hmm. Well, I believe

Hmm, I believe what's going on here. I have to ask a question first Okay, once I get the answer to that question and all the question go ahead. Was it a hot day? No I know the question. Go ahead. Was it a hot day? No. No, it's not a hot day. Has anyone done work on the car because you had a problem with the car losing power at high speed?

Well, I just had the ignition switch replaced, or the ignition timer replaced a couple of weeks ago. Oh, the igniter. The igniter. Did the guys who put the igniter in, did they work on the car several times before they figured out it was the igniter? No, I just described the situation where I had to keep the key turned all the way over

before it would go. Oh, okay. And they knew what it was. Yeah. And they said fine. All right. Well, there goes that. I thought that if you had had one of these problems, it was possible that somebody in

an effort, in an attempt to solve it, had drilled out the gas cap to allow it to vent to the atmosphere. Oh, right. But that gas cap you have is faulty. It is? Yeah, because when it's on there, it ain't supposed to leak. No, she didn't put the gas cap on. I didn't have the gas cap in. What the hell were you doing paying your bill without the gas cap on?

I didn't know I'd never done that before. Weren't you paying attention? I'm still on Alana from Ken Rogers, Alabama. Arkansas. Oh, right. paying attention she said I'm still on Alana from Ken Rogers Alabama Arkansas oh right no no she specifically said she didn't put the gas cap on until she went into pay and when she came out the gas was pouring out the open uncapped I got filler neck tube I got it well I wondered why you had a theory and I didn't understand what it was. Why didn't you give me a ghost slap? All right. Whoa. Yeah. So now what?

Big brain. Well, I don't know. I'm back to square zero here. Back to square zero. Yeah, that's where I've been all the time. You see now the beauty of misunderstanding the question. Would it be alright if I answered that other question? No, sure, fine. Well, I mean there are strange dynamics inside the tank because don't forget there's air trapped in the air, there are baffles. I mean the tank is not just a container, it's not like the kind of a gas can that you fill up for your lawnmower. Yeah, that's true and the little flap does in fact prevent the air from getting out. Okay.

Was the tank completely empty when you started this operation or was the tank half full? No, it usually is pretty empty. It was pretty empty. When I fill it up. No, I suspect that some air that was trapped inside pushed the gasoline up the filler neck and it's nothing to worry about. I thought it was leaking with the cap on. No.

No, no, no. And obviously that's wrong. I mean the cap would be have been bad The most obvious conclusion here is you put the gasoline in the tank is full of air As you put the gasoline in here's a clap But here's a few should have just said it's been a pleasure talking to you Okay, and I hope we answered your question. No, no. But instead, you have to go off and try to explain dark matter. I mean, give it up. You've done a good enough job.

No, no, no. I mean, Stephen Hawking doesn't go places he ain't supposed to. He knows when to stop. No, he goes everywhere, man. No, no. He goes everywhere. He knows when to stop! No, he goes everywhere man. No, no, he goes everywhere! He knows where to stop. I was going to have a disclaimer at the end, because you recall what I said was the most

obvious conclusion to reach is that you put the gasoline in and the gasoline is trying to displace the air that was in the tank, because the tank wasn't empty, it was full of air. Okay. And as you put the gasoline in, the air goes up to the top, up to the top, up to the top, and gets what? Compressed up there. Uh huh.

Then you pull out the nozzle and you got compressed air sitting on top of gasoline. Okay. And so it doesn't like to be compressed. And because the flap is closed. That's where I was getting stuck. It takes a while before that gas can get past the little flap. Exactly. And it takes about as much time as it takes for an ordinary cash transaction. Did you pay cash or did you charge?

Charge. Oh, there goes that theory. There you go. Yeah, I don't understand it now. Charge is slower. Charge is slower. That's good. So it took longer.

Oh, all right. That's good. So it took longer. Oh, alright. That's good. Sounds good. It took longer, and by the time you get out, the pressure had decreased and brought with it, how does it decrease? By sneaking out that little flap and brought with it some gasoline. Alright.

I think you're alright. Okay. Don't drive like my brother. I really appreciate you calling. See ya. Thank you. See ya, Lola. Bye bye.

Don't move because more calls and the new puzzler are coming right up. Support for NPR and the following message come from Yarle and Pamela Mone. Thanking the people who make public radio great every day and also those who listen. This message comes from the Kresge Foundation. Established 100 years ago, the Kresge Foundation

works to expand equity and opportunity in cities across America. A century of impact, a future of opportunity. More at kresge.org. Hi, we're back. You're listening to Car Talk from National Public Radio with us, Click and Clack the Tappet Brothers, and we're here to discuss cars, car repair and a brief rant. What's this about underwear? Not a brief rant in that respect.

Oh, okay. Actually, it's a brief rant and another interesting little thing. Watching TV the other day and I see an ad for Lexus. Was your mouth open when you were watching this? No. Were you lying down? I was upright. I was upright, sitting in a chair.

And Lexus is advertising, I believe it was the SC300, which they advertise, and one of the features they advertise was the fastest luxury sports car on the road. Accelerates to 60 miles an hour in a minute a second and a half whatever 100 whatever it was then yesterday I was also sitting upright not watching television doing something else and reading a magazine and I read an ad for the 1998 4x4 of the year Jeep Cherokee, Grand Cherokee. Never before has a Jeep offered so much power. 5.9 liters, 0 to 60 in 7 seconds.

I've noticed a general trend among advertisers for speed and muscle. Are we back in the 50s? Yes. The 60s? Yes. And by what right do they do this? Don't they have any moral sense? I will give you three numbers which will explain it all to you.

Thirty-eight, twenty- No, no, no. No, no, no. Pamela Anderson does not- That ain't it. Yeah? A dollar, twenty-nine. A dollar, twenty-nine. No, no, no, no, no, no, Pamela Anderson did not. That ain't it. Yeah?

A dollar twenty-nine. A dollar twenty-nine. Which is what I paid for gas today when I filled up the tank of the Camry, which you left me empty. I never even drove the Camry. It must have been Berman then. No I mean I don't think it's right to be pushing this power speed thing. They have to push something. Come on. They have to push, they have to differentiate their vehicle from the competition. Well that is not the way to do it. First of all they should.

If gasoline were five bucks a gallon do you think they'd be building a 5.9 liter engine? Well then gasoline should be five bucks a gallon. Well that's what you really should be ranting about. I'm sick of it! Get your rants in order! And I would recommend people don't buy the Grand Cherokee because they're doing advertising that's unacceptable to us and don't buy a Lexus for the very same reason. Now what? Well, it's time for the new puzzler.

I can't take credit or discredit for this. Good. I will assign that to its author, Philip Brett, who sent this to us via email and you can heap either praise or criticism on him as his... Yeah, we're gonna give out his home address and everything. Phone numbers. This has to do... Well, he writes... This has to do with baseball. He says, this puzzle involves an historic baseball game, which took place in June of this past year, IE 1997. It was notable, not for what happened that day, but for what didn't happen.

And it had nothing to do with the actual playing of the game, so to speak. It was not a statistical kind of thing. Is that a fair hint? Yeah, okay. You know, it was not a no hitter or a double no hitter or it was, you know. Yeah, okay, that's a good hint. That's a good hint.

So what happened in June? Or what didn't happen? Or what, more importantly, a lot of things didn't happen. But what, of the things that didn't happen, what was the most important of all? Vis-a-vis Major League Baseball. And by the way, the last time that this didn't happen was like maybe more than 50 years ago. Really? I think so.

And if you think you know the answer, send it to puzzler tower, Car Talk Plaza, Box 3500, Harvard Square, Cambridge. Our Fair City. Meh, 022-38, or you can email us your answer, of course, from our website, cartalk.msn.com. Just click on the Talk to Car Talk section. And if we choose your correct answer at random,

from all the correct answers that we are apt to receive. Both. You'll get your copy of our brand new CD called Men Are From GM, Women Are From Ford, or you'll get our mouse pad or some other crummy gift that we're trying to get rid of. By the way the number is 1-800-332-9287 if you'd like to talk to us. Hello you're on Car Talk. This is Dave from Bemidji, Minnesota. Say it again. Dave from Bemamiji, Minnesota

Bamiji, yeah, how do you spell it? BMI DJI Wow, yeah And what state are we in? Minnesota Minnesota, but me that is great Wow, of course, where are you guys from? We're from the bubba bubba bostany So what's up Dave? Okay? Yeah look here. Yeah, you ready for a story sure okay? What I did is I came on from the great state of

Washington yeah, and I met a girl in the great state of Minnesota Yeah, cool. Okay, And she wanted to go see Alaska, right? Yeah. So I says, okay, we'll load up the car and we got no troubles and we happen to have the finances at the time and we threw everything into an 85 Cavalier. Yeah. Okay. Anyway, we drive across and we we get to uh... washington we jump on the ferry and we go up and i'm going to well he's alaska and we we do alaska

never think she did it by the way haha uh... why he said well you know it it's uh... uh... it looks like northern minnesota and a lot of other way so anyway we come back and we decide, well hell, we'll drive through British Columbia and come down the Alcan Highway, the famous Alcan Highway. Yep.

And we're coming down the road and the car just overheats. We got a lot of stuff in there now. All those treasures you bought up in Alaska. And the dogs! Oh my god, the dogs! Seal skins and whatever you got. All that contraband. And all those phony, phony Cubans.

Alright, so you're on the Cal-Can Highway and the thing's overheating. Right. And I'm the man, you know, I said, no problem, it just overheated. things all the right and on the man you know i had no problem with just over here we need some radio fluid or whatever you know i get out and i go to you that i can get in the trunk because we got eight thousand-pound well uh... whatever you know what i read it cigarettes are good to you know but uh... so i pull all the stuff out you know when i get back to this little

teeny toolbox that i thought would suffice once we left minnesota which is a uh... uh... how you call it the uh... lower bar fishing box yeah and i got a crescent wrench and uh... three different kinds of uh... ratchets that have no sockets. And you don't have any vice grips? Nope. That's kind of a Minnesotan are you? So anyway, so I go, no problem, you know, we'll go up underneath the hood, so we pop the hood and look in there and sure enough the car just doesn't go, doesn't go, you know. It starts up, but we get it going.

I load everything and it won't go but four or five miles an hour. So we pulled over to this, luckily we found a gas station there and spent the night there. No, before we spent the night, the woman walked, my girlfriend, walked into the house there and I said, you know, if we stop here, we're not here to rob you, you know. And she says, yeah, yeah, no problem. My husband will come out and look at it in the morning. All right, all right, so we spend the night. Here comes his client, right? He goes, pop the hood. So what he does is he takes, okay, we got an electric fan, you know? And he takes the wire from the electric fan.

And runs it right to the battery. It runs it right to the battery. There you go. Cool. All right. Now we're down the road, right? Okay. Then it overheats again.

I'm going, geez. So I call my brother on Woodby Island, my brother Mike. And I say, hey, we're trying to get back down there. What's the trouble? And he says, what will it do? And I says, well, it just feels like it's clogged up. Feels like it's clogged up, you know? And trying to get back down there. What's the trouble? He says what will it do? I says which is feels like it's clogged up feels like it's clogged up You know, I just won't do it. I put everything in a high-task gas and everything He says take a piece of steel if you can find a piece of steel and

grind punch a hole in the and the Cadillac converter and grind it around in there and get rid all that junk and he says that'll blow out of there and grind it around in there and get rid of all that junk and he says that'll blow out of there. Right? So. What? Yeah. Am I wrong?

No, you're wrong. You're right as rain, man. So, I go back over there to the place where we're at and I see an old campfire grill and I grab one of them rails, you know, and I punch it in there with the tire iron, grind it all around, boy, here we go, me and the old day boy, 65 miles an hour, boy, we're moving now. Anyway, I get down to Washington, oh, we'll be on and talk to my brother, hey, do you like the trick?

Yeah, I said yet it worked great okay we get back to minnesota and this wire you know is it goes on and off on off you know and it doesn't work right so i figured what they want to go up a little switch on it like a burning toggle switches are all wires this with what for the family yeah we're back to the fan always look at the fear mickey mouse to the battery yeah yeah i was thinking well i just run a wire from the from the from the from the battery up underneath the car

I drove a hole up at beautiful car, you know We got 350,000 miles on it So I said well, I'll just put a toggle switch on it. Uh-huh. Well, the problem is the when I okay the car starts up and everything fine and all of a sudden when you turn on the toggle switch the car goes way down like it's really lugging hard. Now did I mess with the computer or did he mess with the computer in Canada or what? No, not really. What you need to do, do you still have that iron bar? You need to do the same thing. Use it on the windshield. The computer. The cat litter. I suspect that

because you've been running this electric fan continuously for like 45,000 miles. Well no, see the toggle switch turns it off when you go in to get something to eat or something like that. No, I understand that, but otherwise it's running all the time. And it has been running, that same fan, for 300,000 miles, off and on. But that's the original one. And it's fried. And it may be that you're pulling so much current, that's why you burned up the switch. And that's why now when you turn the thing on, everything goes dim. Yeah, because it's sucking so much current. And that fan should draw nothing.

I would forget the toggle switch, because either're gonna forget to turn it on or you're gonna forget to turn it off. That's why we got the toggle switch. Yeah, but you could actually go ahead. But it's warm. But you could fix this the way it's supposed to be fixed. You could replace either the coolant temp sensor or the fan relay, whatever it is that's making the thing not work. It may well be that the fan's been running 24 hours a day. Yeah, I would think that you might have to go to the junkyard and get another used fan

for 20 bucks. If you want to adhere to this philosophy. Okay, so what you're saying is get another fan and the RPMs won't go down. You know what I'm saying? Right. This fan's just drawing so much current that you're imposing a huge load on the charging system and- And it's going to burst into flame one of these days you're gonna burn out the alternator

don't laugh he's laughing he laughs it would not bother me at all well you've gotten your money's worth out of it certainly have geez don't I get a record for having a we're gonna give you a record Cavalier for almost 400 thousand miles and the fact that you were able to affect two repairs on this We're gonna give you a record. We're gonna give you a record. We're gonna give you a record. We're gonna give you a record. We're gonna give you a record. We're gonna give you a record. We're gonna give you a record. We're gonna give you a record.

We're gonna give you a record. We're gonna give you a record. We're gonna give you a record. We're gonna give you a record. We're gonna give you a record. We're gonna give you a record. We're gonna give you a record. We're gonna give you a record.

We're gonna give you a record. We're gonna give you a record. We're gonna give you a record. We're gonna give you a record. We're gonna give you a record. We're gonna give you a record. We're gonna give you a record. We're gonna give you a record. We're gonna give you a record. We're gonna give you a record. We're gonna give you a record. We're gonna give you deserve something. You deserve some kind of award, Dave. All right. Yeah.

Any time during this trip when the car was malfunctioning, were you at all worried? Yeah, actually I did get a zit on top of my head. Ha ha ha ha! Hey Dave, anytime that car makes it to Boston, you give me a call and we will have coffee. Me too! Are you buying? I will buy.

He's buying. We'll buy you a new fan, so. And I'll take it down in this and bombs I'll get you a whole lifetime supply of fans. Thanks for calling, Dave. Thanks a lot, guys. See ya, bye. Don't mean to bother you, but thank you.

Bye. Now there is a one in a million guy, there is a one in a million guy. There is a one in a million guy. Woohoo! It was a lot of fun. Well, it's happened again. You've wasted another perfectly good hour listening to Car Talk. Our esteemed producer is Doug the Subway Fugitive, not a slave to fashion, Berman.

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Q. Gumbaz. Vinny? All right, now listen up. Now if you want a copy of this week's Car Talk Show, which is number 47, it's a pretty big number, huh? Here is what you gotta do, alright? Are you going now to give out the phone number, Vinny, is that correct? No, I'm gonna do the foxhole, Mikhail Baryshnikov, you moron.

The number to call is 303-823-8000. And if a listener wanted our new CD about couples in cars Which is called men are from GM women are from Ford or they wanted anything else from our new holiday collection Would they use the same number? No, you'd call dear on war with you jerk and utter it psychically Oh, thanks for all kinds of car talk holiday gifts called 303 823 8000 Or you can peruse our shameless commerce division at cartalk.msn.com. You got anything to add to this, huh? Uh, oh yes, I was going to... Yeah, shut up.

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