Blinker Problems and Show Credits

Hello and welcome to Karart Talk from National Public Radio with us Click and Clack the Taapppet Brothers and we're broadcasting this week from the Center for continontuing Eeducation here at Kar Talk Clus. and everyone knows how interested in education we are. Oh We certainly are This came from cyberspace from Samantha Morris, wherever she may be And it says something fun for Tom. Evidently there was some conscious of the worst analogies in high school essays. And these are some of the ones won the prize for the Interesting ones. Okay. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality. Like When you're on vacation in another city in jeopardy comes on at seven o'clock instead of seven thirty That is Ea sururreal for the sure.ere's another one He was as tall as a six foot three inch tree John and Mary had never met They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met this one, the little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't the wisdom that can only come from experience. Like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhol in it and now goes around the country speaking in high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhle. Well, they'd like to complain about the lack of clear thinking in our schools. You gott to give them an A for effort though. Oh, I mean mean, the box with the pinhole in it, I mean, sure not everyone knows that Evidently. He was as tall as a six foot tre street. Or if you'd like to complain about the lack of clear thinking on our show, you can call us with your car question at eight C T talk. that's eight. Whatever that is two two seven eight two five five. Yeah. Hello, you're in car talk Hello, Virginia Ellington from Talahoma, Tennessee. Hi, Virginia from Talahoma. Yes Okahoma, Tennessee. Right, neear between Chatanooga and Nashville. Okay. So how are you today, Virginia? I'm fan, you guys? We're not bad You sound wonderful. Yeah. Well, well I look pretty good. My brother looks like hell, but I guess he feels good. on. That is that New Year's Eve celebration I haven't recovered from yet. So what's going on? I've got a nineteen ninety one Lincoln Contental and I took it and set it in the sun in the summertime, of course, on asphalt I came back to get in and I looked at it and I thought, I don't know that car It was up. The back end was bucking up at least eight to ten inches off the c I think it doesn't like the hot sun A. So guys, help, help Ah, Jeez, the part of your car that is is not working is something that we avoid have avoided fixing. like the plague. Yeah And what's wrong with it is the level ride system. Your car has the ability to to change the ride height in the back. by means of inflating bladders. Oh that are inside the I believe inside the springs on this car There' a little compressor and it pumps air to it and raises up the back of the car Why anybody? Oh, we know why N mind. Y for me so for example, let's say let's say you were you were taking a ride to I don't know, some place that was going be fun like Gatlinburg. Oh yeah. All right. And you had three or four your girlfriends in there and some of them were a little on the heavy side. and you piled them all in the back. that it's possible that the back end would sink down. You know, with your suitcases and all that in the trunk and this system would compensate and little pump would come on and it would raise the back end up so the car was level You don't even know that you have this Well, I knew it had some kind of thing. Yeah. O of my mechanics said G get rid of it, it'll go up and never come down. If it does, it'll come down and eat your tires ew tiars, I didn't like that idea. Yeah What you can probably you can probably get rid of it Oh sell the car. No, no, get rid of the level ride system Yeah, I mean, who usually rides in the car with you? Me. Just you I must be way too happy I only weigh little over one hundred barely five pounds. No, no, and it's not it's not you that's doing this. there's something wr. Thank you. by all means there's something wrong with the sensors that make making the car think that there's a lot of weight in it and it turns this thing on and he keeps raising it up and up and up because it thinks that there's a lot of weight in the back Okay. And it's possible that whoever worked in the car, I believe when you when you lift these cars up on the lift, you have to turn this thing off. Yeah. Otherwise it gets all confused. So you I think if your local guy can't figure this out, I would take this thing to your Lincoln Mercury dealer and tell them what it's doing and they're going to be able to fix this And nobody else is going to be able to fix it because because no one else has this. I mean, this is a whackle thing Too bad. And eat a little more, you're too skinny. Right? There you go. one hundred five pounds. A rotin in the back. My b's for calling, Virginia One eight eight eight c talk that's eight eight two two, seven eight two, five, five a lawyer on c talk Hi, this is Garner Mayry from Coronado, California. Hi, Garner, Garner Mayry. canan I use that name? I've been thinking of changing my name. Well, it's actually Garner Allen Mayry IId, so there's three others. Oh There's four others. and he See, I was gonna change my name to Sipping Bradshaw Throckmortin the fourth Gana neighbor Yeah. Okay. so what's up, G. Where are you from again? Coronado, California. L Ronado. It's a little island five minutes away from San Diego. Oh yeah, it sounds romantic. Yeah, it's old And they've got a hotel here called the Hotel Del Coronado, which is kind of responsible for the entire island And what do you do there? That's part of my call. I'm a partner in a one bus historical tour company the bus breaks down and you're out of business. That's right. This is an important call. What I drive my passengers in is a is it a bluebird?' no, it's a fully restored classic. Volkswagon nineteen sixty five twenty one Window Deluxe Microbus Andold it holds nine passengers. sixty five, huh? And it' it's blue, green and white and it's completely restored and it's beautiful. It's got a full three foot by five foot sun roof on it that retracts. v of that? I took my wife and my son for a ride and I hit a bump And after I hit that bump, queak came out and I'll make the noise for you if you'd like. Oh, by all means. Okay, as good as I can. It goes A a A a Depending on. Sounds like yourean over a donkey. It it now you hit a bump and And the squeak came out from it's coming from underneath the driver's side Yeah. And when I stop the car and it's not moving and I rock it back and forth, it will squeak Good, good. But then Sometimes the squeak goes away Bad, bad, bad, bad. Bad bad Yeah, I know. For us. When I turn left, The squeak goes away. So I'm considering designing a tour of just left turn. You could do it. And I could on this island it was pretty small. So that the squeak is there, it goes away. I took it to a mechanic. we put it on the rack. I needed to put heavy duty shocks on it anyway, because I carry a lot of passengers hoping that would get rid of it Well, as soon as he took the shock off that particular wheel, I rocked the thing back and forth and it still squeaked even without. So you knew I knew then at that point. We brought it down Before bringing it down, he put on a stethoscope. And he ran all along the axle. Great He isolated the noise Inside this, know simple little microbus axle lookswagons are pretty simple And he isolated This is the front axles. Right. He put it up underneath the driver's side and he said, that's where your noise is coming from. I don't know what it is. Well, there's a bearing in there. Oh God. Yeah, there' a big bch of bearing make that kind of. Oh, yeah, there's a bearing in there because this thing doesn't have springs. This thing has torsion bars. Exactly And the torsion barars attached to the upper control arm. Okay. And I believe the lower control arm too I thought it was the control arm. And well it could be the ball joint, but if he hears it coming from inside there, there's a grease fitting on that on that Well we've lubed it until I've got Grease oozing out everywhere. But is but is it making it all the way to the bearing? I think you need to take the Hoozy whatzies off Do undo the ball joints and pull the control arms out. Okay, ball joints, control arms. Right. And then then you're gonna be laid up you try to run these tours every day When' the slow season? I do have another job. I don This is just not my day job. But I think that you're going to need I think if you spread enough grease, I don't think the grease is getting all the way out to the bearings because the bearings are at the outer end Okay. And I don't think the Grease is making it out there, but if you pull those those control arms out You can grease them manually, put them back in and the noise will be gone. Awesome By the way, my brother wants to buy this thing from you. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. no matter what it costs. He wants it because he needs a microb. I certainly do. How many people does this seat again? Nine. It'll hold nine, including the driver. Nine people And does it have an engine in the front the in the back? No it's got the thirty six horsepower Yeah. G think there were no hills on Corona That to be only on flat. land and only if you don't have to go over five miles an hour You have the perfect application for this vehicle. Well, and that's my passion. The tour is an excuse to have the bus. Yeah. I can understand that. I went on the internet And there's all sorts of people that work on Volkswagens theoretically. One of them referred to a Basalone flange. You you ever heard of that No, I think the heat play with the Gailumbato. Okay. Yeah. All right. There could be, I mean, there's a lot of nomenclature about these that I've forgotten. Yeah. But that isn't one of the pieces. I do remember Gailumbato and the Basilon flange. Yeah. Oh they were great. They were great. Chastternetis, I believe. See you later reat. Thank for your help. Bye luck. Bye bye Hey, don't go anywhere because we've got a lot more calls, well, a few anyway, and the puzzler answer coming up right after this Heel we're back,'reistening to car T talk with us Click andlack the Tappard Brothers and we' here to talk about cars, car repair, and the answer to our most recent zler Yeah, which was It old It's old. Well, this was an automotive puzzler kind of. You remember our Pal Vinig Gumbatzs? Yes. Well, he had Tw cousins, Rockco and Rrock Morton. And from different genealogical pieces. Oh yeah, very. And they found themselves in the middle of a little mob Fraacus once and next thing you know, they're both locked in the airtight trunk of a late modortel Lincoln town car Yeah. So after the gunpl subsides Rockco and Thrckco. Reize that they don't get out 're going die. So Rockco begins Beating on the trunk and screaming, let us out, let us out, of course, nothing happens because there's nobody around But he expends considerable energy and most of the air supply Finally after several hours, this is an airtight trunk, which is not usual in many cars, but the Lincoln Town car is particularly purposely m. Well, I mean, for that purpose, as most of us know. It turns out it's an option. You want the airtight trk? No Yeah We shouldnt we should No no it's not just. We're in enough trouble now. We also get this models of Cadillac. That's right. Don't go any further. No, you're in enough trouble now Anyway After the cadillag has d. After several hours, Rocco ceases his begging and screaming and in fact He expires. Oh man. During this time, Throckmorton has done nothing, hasasn't made a sound. He's been like in a trance He's just been lying there, saving his breath, breathing very slowly while Rocco sucked up all the air Hours later Morton is still alive He has a car approach and he figures this is his chance for good or bad. he's going to bang on the trunk. Sure enough, it's the police. They open the trunk and let him out The question is, how could Throckmorton have possibly survived hours after Rocco had sucked up All the air and expired Pretty good little nifty little story, huh pretty crummy little answer coming up. Oh really? I wondered I don't know what the answer is. We don't. And I know that you're Im not gonna like. I I knew three weeks ago when you brought up this puzzler that I wasn't gonna like the answer. Could I expect the I would. Go ahead, you might as well just do it No I'll go ahead. I want what would you do, Throckco? If you were in there. How would you have survived? How would I have survived I would have stuck a plastic bag over my head, so at least I would have a little air after Rockco sucks up all the rest. No, you should have put the plastic bag over his head. No Yeah, the plastic bag would have been a good idea. That would have been no. But if you're gonna hold your breath, you want to at least save some of the air. Yeah. that Rockco is gonna be suing up. Yeah, yeah but you didn't have a plastic.id I say you had a plastic bag? No, you didn't. So why would you Duce that you had a plastic bag. I don't know. What else is in the trunk? besides ruckles? Oh, the spare tire. Exactly Mort being the low life that he is that we knew he was hadad to wait till Rockco expired. to maximize the time he would have on the spare tire air So he waited and did nothing. while Rockco beat his brains in the poor. thing I can just see him now Heating the meatball grinder. The sauce dripping on his thie. Actually, that's not bad. So who's our winner, man? The winner is Sean DeVaney isn't it? Yeah, Seaan Devaney from Stain. Louis, Missouri And for having his answer selected at random from among all the correct answers to that we got, Sean will get a twenty five dollars gift certificate to the shameless Commerce division at the cart Talks section of cars dot com And with that twenty five dollars gift certificate, he can get five ninths of an official C talkk all season show Which is what? What is a shell? It's a blue and a red nylon jacket with a hood Kart Tk logo on it, which you can rip off if you don't want it It's according to those who know, one of the least fashion challenged pieces of clothing we have ever offered. In other words, people actually like this one. No, they didn't dislike it as much I'm sorry, I was I was you're going a little bit too far away. By the way, if you got stiffed over the holidays and you want to visit the Samless Commerce division, you know, pick up something for yourself. It's at the car Talks section of cars. com Anyway, we'll have a new puzzleer coming up in the third half of T today's show. So stay tuned for that. In the meantime, if you'd like to call us or if you wouldn't like to call us, the number remains one eight eight eight C talkalk. that's eight eight two two seven eight two five five, Hello you' on Car talkalk Hey, my name is Jason. I'm calling from Needam Mass. Hi Jason from Needam, right in our room Bactly. I never get calls from Massachusetts We used to get all our calls for Massachusetts because we were only on in . Yeah we were in the truck. We used to broadcast from the truck. So what's new, Jason? All right, well, here's the deal. Yeah I have a nineteen ninety seven Honda Civic EX And I bought it new. And as I was thinking about the car, I was remembering an issue which I've had since I bought it And that is whenever I'm driving And it's just me in the car. And I go over a rough road surface while driving at a decent clip, the car rattles. There's like this intense rattle which feels like it's coming from the center bottom of the car. Butas it tinny? I mean, is it metallic sounding? No, it's not metallic soundingom. Yeah, it's more like a vibration type thingound And when I first got the car, I guess maybe the first time we brought it into the dealer I asked them that and they said, oh that's because one of your wheels is airborne And I like that. What' to say again? onene of your wheels?, wait a minute. Yeah need to know wheels air one. Wheel I've never used that. And when most people wouldn't have fallen for it. Jason, you're very, very suspceptible. Well they putut you off for four years. Yeah. Well, I figured all whatever, I'll just let it pass. It seems fine. So this has been gnawing away at you for four years. Exactly, exactly. so then' Does it make a difference if you hit the bump with one wheel as opposed to another U, I don't think so. For example, if you singled out a bump and decided to try to hit it with your left front wheel first. Yeah. Would that elicit the same resp You're asking an awful lot. That is okay. This is very important. Of course it's important, but Jason is not obliged to have it. He's been listening to it for four years. He ought to have a complete dossier on the rb now. You are right. I mean, as long as you've got a noise that you're going to put up with for four years, you ought to at least I've been gathering data. All. Well, it only happens when I'm alone, which is difficult. Well, isn't that interesting? And do the voices only come when you're alone? That's what I was thinking. with me. I. But no, no, no. It only happens when you're alone. See, that's important. I wrote down alone onn my little scrap of paper here. you would Be I knew that was going to be important. Really? Yeah, alone. Because you thought I was making it up Well, it was one way or the other, it was going to be important. No, but there's a certain dynamic that gets caught changed when there's a passenger in the car. Absolutely.. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So definitely you hit railad tracks bom. Yeah, but it it tends to be kind of I don't think it's really related to one particular wheel. It seems like when the whole car is going over a rough road surface. Right. And it's been the same for four years. It hasn't gotten worse Yeah I mean, I don't know. I mean Rest assured that that Things are tight in this car. I mean, what I mean by that is the exhaust system is pretty close to the undercarriage. Yeah. and it could easily be that with just you in the car, that that and under the right circumstances the exhaust system is hitting the heat shield O the floor of the car and that would make a bl. it would It's like But here's what I don't like about that answer.. He was going for it You know, but I feel as though I must be an advocate for Jason because Jason is extraordinarily gullible.. And I'm going to try to protect you from my brother. Because I mean, if my brother is correct, it would be Wse with two people in the car, not one Brother Bplain me that. Talking to me Well, you know, when thoseed off. No, when someone else is in the car, you're engaged in conversation. You're not paying attention. It's actually worse, but you just don't notice it. He's going for the psycle. And And what you don't realize is when there are two people in the car and you go over railroad tracks, two wheels are airbound. Air bor. Air bor Two wheels are bo. That's right. One the front, one of the back likeike diagon front diagonally off. Yeah. Yeah. and that they cancel each other out Oh that what it is. Yeah, I think so. Okay. I don't know what this is. I don't think I'd be too worried about it, but it would be nice to drive another Hondauh Now is the time you could go to a dealership and ask if they have any ninety seven EXs for sale. Okay. and you'd like to test drive a couple So I can make them go over and think that I'm trying to Well So you at least make the comparison. seeee if they all do that. Yeah. And if the noise is there in those cars, then just turn your radio up Oh yeah, okay. S it, Chase. You know, I've been working on a theory here. You have, mayaybe you can help me with this Noises are the bane of the existence of a mechanic. Oh, without a doubt. I can't get this I have a theory It's first of all, it's very difficult to know where the noise is coming from What what's making the noise is a function of where it is and Big it is Right? And there are noises, bubom. he said, buubbble boom. First of all, the Buba bp has a pitch, so it could be a lull , you're going be you're going to devise a matrix and the frequency of the noise pitch frequen, but if it's b, boom versus how often it ocurs Boom, Right, right. Oh youre gonna need a multiimension matrix. I think it's at least three. and Oh yeah. And it might be four or five Right. We might have to go into the fifth dimension You want to work beautiful balloon. So would you like to join me in this writing a little monograph on this? Yes, I would We'll be right back with more callalls and the new puzzler after these messages We're back. you're listening to car talkalk with us, Click and Cect the Tappart Brothers and we're here to discuss cars, car repair and The new puzzer from the Insect kingdom We haven We haven't delved into the wonderful world of No we. I mean, we've had the string series of puzzlers. Oh yeah. We've had u The Krusty series? Oh yes. And this is from the Bug collllection In honor of Bugsy, who happens to be here today. Yeah I mean, here there was a free lunch and te actually. He got the aroma wafting out of the cafeteria Okay, you ready now pay attention. Okay, go ahead Tw grasshoppers are hanging around one day And each of them is boasting that he can jump faster than the other one Jump faster. Yes, in other words, cover a greater distance in the same amount of time. You mean father No faster. I mean, if if two guys are running, if you and I are racing can I get to the finish line first And admittly at that very instant, I will have run farther, but the objective is to see you can go faster. Yeah, yeah, o. Okay. so that's how they do it. They jump and then they jump again and they jump again, each jump being like a step that we would take or some I don't know a grasshopp, whatever they call them. Anyway, to settle the argument, they decide to have what? A race. There you go. I'm quick, huh? Yeah. The larger of the two grasshoppers who can jump ten inches at a bound Yeah. his name is Throck Morton, Throck you Okay, and the other one, whose name Rocky can jump six inches at a shot. Yeah Okay. Oh I get it now. So the larger guy says, Okaykay, here's what we're going to do So we're going to set up a race that consists of twenty four feet twwelve feet out. twelve feet back Yeah. So he's going to start start off with the starting point Okay. I got you. Vinny's going to I see the whole shing gun Yeah. and we're going to take off. okay. Now even though even though the bigger guy can jump inches at a shot The other guy jumps more often. So when they get to the five foot mark which is sixty inches.. The little guy will have jumped ten times Right? The big guy will have jumped six times, but they're dead even. Exactly. Neck and. They have necks Wrest up It' tell their're inttena to antenna ota. You got it. Okay. So the big the bigger grasshopper who who makes the takes the bigger leaps has designed the course and it's twelve feet out Yeah and it's twelve feet back. Gota Can either one of them win the race. And what is there a pod B What and out' p three? What's fun?. Good question, right You do want to know who If you want T if you chose. All right You thin you know the answer. Write it on a postcard. This is very good. or freeze it inside a ten foot high ice sculpture of Britney Spears. And send it to my Sonnyrew, care ofuzzler Tower Hart Tal Plaza Box three thousand five hundred, Harvard Square, Cambridge. Our Fair city. Matt zero, two, two, three eight Of course, you can email your answer from the C Talk section of cars. com. If you'd like to call us, the numberbers is one eight Car Talks. it's eight two, seven eight two five, five, Hello you're on car talkal. Hey guys, this is John from San Francisco. John, hello, John. How are you? We're doing well How are you? Good. I am doing terrific. Great. What can we do for you today? Okay, I have a ninetine hundred eighty nine Ferrari three hundred twenty eight GTS. And I bought this car because the guy that sold it to me told me that it was cheap and reliable transportation. Did he have any bridges that he was selling? Most of the time, I'm a happy and well adjusted owner. However, I've had this problem now for about two years that just does not go away The issue is this The car works fine when it's going forward. It works fine when it's stopping The problem comes when I try and put it into reverse. about twenty five percent of the time if you try and engage reverse with the car ata complete stop The gear goes in with this horrible crunch. It's as if you were trying to engage reverse with the car moving. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You look like a real plunker And it's difficult to look suave Well, look at the bright side In the two years, it hasn't gotten worse No, No, that's true. Yep. That's good. That is good. Yeah. mean What it means is that you have no more teeth on that synchronizer to grind off. You grind off every one of them off. And I just want you to know, this is about the only Ferrari question that we would have had a snowball's chance of answering Yeah, so lucky you Lucky you. If you had said anything else, like if you asked us like is the engine in the back or in front? we wouldn't have known Okay, you know this far. All right? So So what's wrong is that you no longer have a synchronizer left for reverse Thankfully, the other gears still have their synchronizers. Right. And that's why you can shift into those gears without the grinding I would recommend you could have the transmission rebuilt whichich would cost you about four hundred million litira. Or is that four hundred billion lira? I don't remember It is billion. but you have to bring the car to Rome. Now the other possibility is that the clutch is not sufficiently disengaging. When you drive the car, is the clutch engag very close to the floor I guess the friction point is maybe two thirds of the way down, run about where it should be I mean, the Ferrari mechanic guides, I mean, if you own one of these cars, you enter into a deep and meaningful relationship with a whole bunch of different mechan.es it involve holding hands and candle light dinners Yeah, ye, Yeah that happens before and after. Yeah. Yeah. And they claim that pretty much all of the time when they look at the clutch, the friction point is okay. Do you have any idea how much free play there is in the clutch? When you push it down with your fingers, how far down does it go before before you with it Yeah essentially none No play. Well, very, very little. I've never pushed it down with my fingers but you can't feel any with your feet. Is that an insufficiently Yeah the feet are not sensitive. Well, you might know, I think John has sufficient sensitity. He sounds like a sensitive guy to me. He does. he's very s. We are a legendarily sensitive people. You are. I mean, it's known throughout the world. You want to find sensitivity. right, drink warm beer. Well anyway, I would have to say that it could easily be that the clutch is not disengaging and reverse would be the most difficult gear to get into If the clutch weren't disengaging fully But I'm still going to stick with my original theory that you've ground up the synchronizers. Okay. But I would ask them to bleed the clutch first Okay. I think you're in for some huge bucks here. Yeah. But I mean, why else would you own a Ferrari if you weren't prepared for that? Right. And on some level, you must enjoy it. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you could have bought a holden and you wouldn't have any trouble like this. Well heres what here's the order in which I'd recommend you do things. Okay. You ready? If bleeding doesn't help, I would then go ahead and replace the Cutch master cylinder Right And maybe even the slave cylinder, but you can do them separately. Okay. If neither one of those helps and you're still embarrassed by this condition and or you have any money left. Right. You can go ahead and replace the clutch itself. Oh if that when not if, but when that doesn't solve the problem then you'd have to go ahead and rebuild the transmission, But that's last on the list. But I think before you get to that point, you one of several things will have happened. Either you will have solved the problem or run out of money Or an earthquake would have struck and your part of the city would have fallen into the ocean. Oh you would have sold a car. O of the I would have sold a car?. Or you'd build a circular driveway. See you later, John. It would be cheaper by the way. Thanks guys. Good luck. Good luck O That really was the only question he could have asked us maybe about maybe about the cooling system we might have had a shot at something about a Ferrari. Oave you ever seen a Ferrari Oh yeah, I go to the auto show real I see. Yeah. Yeah, I'm kind of disappointed in all these years, they've never offered to let us test drive one You're not surprised though. None at all. No. one eight eight Car talk. It's eight eight two two, seven eight two five five, a lawyer on Car talk Hey, hey. My name is Katie I live in Durham, California Durham, California. the heck Yeah. Durham, California. the land of the nuts and fruits Oh, you're in the San Joquin Valley. North North North in the Sacramento Valley. Sacramento Valley. Yeah, aboutout ninety miles north of Sacramento. Boy, you know, I was amazed how much stuff is grown in California. You probably don't have an appreciation for it because you've been there your whole life Not exactly. We moved from Syracuse, New York. You have to have great appreciation. I mean you dri if you've driven the area, obviously and seen the stuff, it's amazing. It is amazing. California feeds the whole country. Thank you. I hope it doesn't slide into the ocean in the near future. So anyway, Katie, what's shaking Well, an eighty eight Mercury Marquis. And the shake is only in the front. Oh there is a shake. Get out. I was using a figure of speech. I know. Yeah. Here's my question Yeah The mercury when I turn on the left hand signal Blinker goes blink, blink, blink, blink blink When I turn on the right hand signal.. the opposite. B It means there's a light out on the left side The right one's working correctly. Here's here's the puzzler. Yeah. I had an eighty nine Subaru wagon that did the exact same thing. And my girlfriend has A seventy something Volvo and her car does the exact same thing. They all have same problem. You know why? No? Beause you're living on the left coast. That's it Yeah. And if you take a left turn there, you'll be right in the ocean And so it's warning you when you say left turn, it's saying, No, don't do it. Wh are you crazy? So all the cars in California are plotting against it. They want us all to go to the right. Exactly. You guys are focusing too much time on the electron. Yes, we are, aren't we? Yes you are. But all of those cars really do have the same problem. bulb probably not working in the front or the back on the left side or a bedground or some such thing. many cars will have more than one directional bulb in the front or back And if one of them, for example, is out in the left rear When you turn the thing on One of them will blink in the left rear, the one in the front the left front will blink, but it'll cause because there's not enough resistance in the circuit It causes the flasher to actuate faster so youick And's a message to you that check the bulbs because something is wrong So here's what you do. turn on the key, turn on the right blinker and notice how many lights light up Be that side's working correctly.. then get out of the car and you can just walk back and forth and look And then you can do the same thing with the left and you'll say, aha I've got a dead bulpe You're so clever. It's not easy. We are clever if you ask a simple question. So what are you doing in Durham? picking nuts Are you really? No. You lying to us? I have figured. But a blinker problem really exists. But you obviously recently relocated from Syracuse to Durham My husband teaches at the state College here and just ten miles north of it. Oh yeah, what does he teach? Exercise physiology Is that a good living? You know, it's Better than being free for public radio. All right, rub it in. All right. Okay.. You have your MIT degree. Yeah, ye. we could have been cont we could have been somebody. Instead we were a couple of losers. Yeah. By the way, I'm listening.re Are there any jobs out there picking nuts? 'cause we like we have the summer off Really? Yeah. I can see it now Two nuts picking nuts. There you go. See you, Katie. Hey, thanks for calling. Thank you. Well it's happened again You've misappropriated another perfectly good hour listening to car talk or misjudged maybe. Our esteemed producer is doug the subway fugitive Bongo Boy Burbber. There's a ring to it, doesn't it? Bong B boy. And the fact that his name is Berman Yeah. I mean, it's great. It's so alliterative Bungle boy Berman. His first name were Bob. Bob, Bungle boy Bermman Bill Bill you left to work on that. Our social producers are Louis the It could be Bob the bungling bungle boy B. Our social producers. Louis Cronen, the Barbarian and David, things are suspiciously good. What are you guys plan to green? Our engineer is Tad Masaman Curry, Our senior web blackie is Doug, the old grreay Mare, AKA Zoo boy Wh suck. We don't know where he is. We don't know God only knows. God only knows and our technical sp at least God knows or Pakistani air. And menu advisors just in from the Bomf Iice Chai World Finals is John Bugsy Pal. Our public opinion poller is Paul Murkey of Murky Research. assisted by statistician Margin Overa. Our customer care representative is Haywood Jubuzzoff. Our new truck reviewer is Zub bigig New Rig Our staff bodyguard is Liam Malone The force attorney is Car mine not yours. Our director of genealogical research is many cousins. Our sexual harassment investigator is Hank Panky. The Cart Talk used car salesperson is Sasha Dil. Our Russian chauffeur is Pko off and drop off the banker at Kart Talk Plaza poker Games is Nikolai Putin and our seat cushion tester is Mike Easter Our chief counsel from the law firm of Dewey Chamman Howe is E Lewis Dewy, known to the unemployed Constitutional schcholars. in Harvard Square is Ewy, Louis Dewy. Thanks so much listening. We're clicking clack the Tapper Brothers. Don't drive like my brother. Don't drive like my brother. We'll be back next week. Bye bye ar talk is a production of Dey Chetaman Howe in WBUR in Boston. And even though My Ramirez thinks if I'd known they were from Boston, I'd have held out for more money whenever we say it. This is NPR National Public Radio