#2546: Death Valley Dinesh

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Hello and welcome. This is Car Talk from National Public Radio with us, Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers, and we're broadcasting this week from the Department of Overseas Travel here at Car Talk Plaza. My brother, I'm sure, has something interesting. Yeah, well, I have here a little, I mean... It's offensive. This is great because you can get this up-to-date information. Tips for Americans traveling in France. The following advisory.

An advisory for American travelers heading for France was compiled from information provided by the U.S. State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control, and some very expensive spy satellites that the French don't know.

have. It is intended as a guide for American travelers only. General overview. France is a medium-sized foreign country situated in the continent of Europe. It is an important member of the world community. though not nearly as important as it thinks it is. It is bounded by Germany, Spain, Switzerland, and some smaller nations of no particular consequence and with not very good shopping. France is a very old country with many treasures such as the Louvre and Euro Disney.

Among its contributions to Western civilization are champagne, chamomile cheese, and the guillotine. Although France likes to think of itself as a modern nation, air conditioning is little used and it is next to impossible to get decent Mexican food. One continuing exasperation of American visitors is that the people...

Willfully persistent speaking French, though many will speak English if you shout at them. There are a couple other tips here. France has more holidays than any other nation in the world.

Among its 361 national holidays are 197 Saints Days, 37 National Liberation Days, 16 Declaration of Republic Days, 54 Return of Charles... de Gaulle in triumph as if he won the war single-handedly days, 18 Napoleon sent into exile days, and 17 Napoleon called back from exile days, and 112 France is great and the rest of the world. Stinks days. That's good. I mean, the CIA, the Department of State. Well, it is summer.

People are going to be traveling and they should know stuff like this. And it's our job. to help them to know. Well, I thank you for that public service announcement. Thank you. All of America. Quite all right. It's my pleasure. If you want to talk to us about France or anything else or the fact that none of my wife's relatives will be speaking to me anymore. They don't speak to you now. That's right. You can call us at 888-CAR-TALK. That's 888-227-8255. Hello, you're on Car Talk.

Bonjour, je m'appelle Aaron. Bonjour, bonjour, monsieur. Bonjour to you too. This is Aaron from San Francisco. Aaron, how you doing? What's up? Well, I think my car is haunted. Yeah. It's a 1988 Celica convertible. And whenever I hit the brakes, it does one of two things, and there's seemingly no logic for when it does one or the other. Either it makes your traditional squeal, squeak, or it makes this deep...

mysterious laughing sound. Something like this. Sounds like a Frenchman laughing. Sounds like Maurice Chevalier. It's just like that. Really, and of course you haven't had anyone look at it. You've been waiting to talk to us. I'm terrified to take it in. They're going to tell me it's like a whole new axle or a whole new who knows what. And does this happen when you're stopping from high speed or low speed or in between speed?

The laughing is a low-speed phenomenon. It does it both, but it's faster if you're stopping from a greater speed. Sure. So the laughing is... Right. Yeah. Have you noticed that when you are stopping or slowing from high speed that the laughter is in sync with a pulsation of your brake pedal? No, no. Why haven't you noticed that? You're obviously not very observant. No, no. In fact, there was new breaks were done on it about a year ago. A year. Well, I think that you have a warped disc.

And that would, I don't know, the squeaking, and brakes can squeak for no reason. And you think you should see a chiropractor for this? Yes, a few adjustments I think ought to do it. No, I think the laughter, the laughing noise is coming from the fact that when that warp is coming around. It's pushing against the caliper and making the thing move in a manner that it's not supposed to and making the noise. And it's nothing much to worry about except it would be nice to fix it.

can't cause an accident? Well, it might be. I mean, you could have a wheel bearing going or some such thing, or maybe your wheel is falling off, or maybe your wheel nuts are loose. Maybe your tire is ready to pass you on the highway. You might want to get it someplace and have them put a dial indicator on it, but that should tell them what's going on. Good luck, Aaron. Thank you. Thanks for your call. Bye-bye. Au revoir. Au revoir. 1-888-CAR-TALK. That's 888-227-8255. Hello, you're on Car Talk.

from Aspen, Colorado. That's a seldom heard name. Mabel. Seldom heard. Very Victorian. Victorian? Really? Yeah, it's kind of gone now. People don't use it. I don't equate that with Victorian. I equate Mabel with more like a diner. A diner? Thank you. Hey, Mabel, can I have some hash with them eggs or what? Well, but...

A Victorian diner, though. A Victorian diner. There you are. Well-appointed diner. Anyway, so where are you from, Mabel? Aspen. From Aspen in Colorado. Oh, how charming. What's up? Very charming. What can we do for you? What do you want to talk about today? Well, it's my Subaru. Yeah. My 82 Subaru. 82? With 181,000 miles. And she went in for one of those short checks, and she came out with this.

My guy said that both valve cover gaskets are seeping. That's good. And the head gaskets are leaking. Sure. The CV boots are cracking but not ripped yet. Okay. And they suggested that by fall I get these repaired. My question is, should I just go for a whole new motor? No! No, no, no, no. No, Mabel, let's not... Let's not be alarmist here. Oh! No, relax, will you? This is something easy. Well, it isn't easy unless you've got about $700 with you. But...

It's not the end of the world either. Oh, okay. I might want to fix the valve covers. Those are relatively cheap. You're not going to fix the head gasket? No. Under no circumstances, touch the head gasket. Why? Well, because I think, first of all, that most of the leak is probably coming from one of two places. Either the valve cover gaskets or the camshaft seals, and he may have even overlooked that.

Ah. So he may be erroneously, he may have erroneously concluded that the leak is coming from the head gaskets when in fact it may be coming from the camshaft seals, which leak all the time on these things. Okay. Oh, he didn't actually determine that the head gasket is bad. He just said that there's an oil leak. Well, what I took it in for was this constant oil leak, which he's had for, God, five or ten years, drip, drip.

And then it got really bad. And they, let's see, the rear, they replaced the leaking rear differential pinion seal. Okay. And the R&R oil pump and reseal and replace. front main seal. Okay, so they may have done the cam seals at that same time. So now you have a leak that's considerably diminished. Yes, it's greatly diminished. But they said...

Can you live with it? You know, to see for running that I needed to do these gasket things. Well, like I said, I may want to do the gaskets. I agree with my brother completely. Do the valve cover gaskets. That's it. But not the head gasket. No. No. Okay. No, because you have two head gaskets. Because you have two cylinder heads on this thing. Yeah. And if you do one, you're going to do the other one. Uh-huh. So you're looking at $1,000. Right. I mean, they said $700. Out of the question.

So that's why I was thinking a new engine costs $2,000. Why not just go... No, you don't need anything. You need a $50 worth of valve cover gaskets. Oh. And you'll be all set. Do the valve cover gaskets first. And see how it goes? They're probably like 75 bucks. Yeah. See how much the leak is diminished. And the worst case scenario is it leaks a little bit, but it's got 180,000 miles on it.

What do we expect here? Right, what do I expect? Yeah, I mean, sure, and if it does leak a little bit, forget about it. What are you worried about, dirtying the snow in Aspen? Just put the cardboard underneath there, huh? Yeah, sure. Have the cat sleep under there. I don't know. And then hose down the cat. Yeah.

Good luck, Mabel. Thanks very much. See you. Talk to you. Bye. Bye-bye. Now, before we give the answer to last week's puzzle, we have to pause. Thank God. You're killing me with all this work. Question, answer, question, answer. Oh, I can't take it. Work, work, work. Public media is facing the most serious threat in its history.

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That pill spawned a global movement, helping millions of women have safe abortions, regardless of the law. Hear that story on The Network, from NPR's Embedded and Futuro Media, wherever you get your podcasts. These days, there is a lot of news. It can be hard to keep up with what it means for you, your family, and your community. Consider this from NPR as a podcast that helps you make sense of the news.

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Hi, we're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us. Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers. And here's the answer to last week's question. Wait, wait, wait. You can't give the answer until you tell us the question. Well, I'm going to give you the... I always give the question. I give the question and... And then the answer. How long have you been here? Here it is. It was brief. It was really quick. I mean, it was beautiful because it was succinct to the point. It was interesting. And it was...

Just all the elements of a great puzzle, I thought. Just give me the first couple of words and I'll know it. A man goes to a hardware store to purchase something for his house. I'm very proud of myself. You peaked. I didn't. He asked the clerk. How much is one? The clerk says, 60 cents. The guy says, okay, how about 12? The clerk says, well, $1.20. The guy says, okay, in that case, I'll take 200. And the clerk says, that'll be $1.80. Wow.

What's he buying? So one costs $0.60, 12 costs $1.20, and he got $200 for $1.80. The quality must have gone down, though. Well, he's getting a quantity discount. You talk about quantity discounts. That's a quantity discount. Pretty good, huh? He could have gotten $900 for $1.80. Really? Or $999. But not $1,000. But not $1,000. No. That's right. And what he was buying was house numbers.

And who's our winner this week, Tommy? Wow, that's a good one. I mean, there are millions of high school and grammar school students at this moment saying, how come I didn't get that? Or they're saying, those guys are jerks. And the winner... And one of the people who said we were jerks is Diane Weaver.

From Houston, Texas. And for having her correct answer chosen at random from among the thousands of correct answers that we got this week. Diane is going to get one of our Car Talk World Tour t-shirts. This shirt lists all the stops of our... just completed 1998 World Tour. The Tasty, Café de los Sports, Café Paradiso, Nissenbaum's Junkyard, Cambridge Traffic Court. I mean, everything is...

Listed. Anyway, we'll have a brand new puzzler coming up in the third half of today's show, so don't touch that dial. In the meantime, we'll take your calls at 1-888-CAR-TALK. That's 888-227-8255. Hello, you're on Car Talk.

Hi, this is Naomi. Hi, Naomi. Naomi, how are you? I'm good, how are you? Yeah, I've been better. Oh, good. Yeah. What's up? Okay. Where are you from, though? Oh, Salt Lake. Salt Lake. Way over in, yeah, Utah. Yeah. So you're from England? Yes, good.

Okay, just a guess. Not a Utah accent, huh? But you've lived here for a while, haven't you? Yep, exactly. Oh, you're good. Most people guess Australia. I'm going to tell you how long you've lived here. Australia, what's that? Okay, let's hear. I'll give you money if you know. I'd say you've lived here. Yeah. At least 12 years. Oh, no, seven. Oh, seven. That's pretty close. Is it?

Actually, 12 might be close, too. Let's see. It's about 12, 7, yeah. No, 7 to 12, yeah. My brother got a prison sentence that long once. 7 to 12. 7 to 12. Yeah, so what's up, Naomi? Okay, I drive a Jetta 85, I think. I've had it since November. It's been a pretty good car. It's got a little red light on the dashboard for oil, I think, is what it's for. But my oil's fine. It's clean. It's topped up. But this light...

It goes off all the time and it makes this noise. Exactly. I'm glad I didn't have to do it. And it's so loud. And it started doing it a while ago, and I thought I could deal with it, you know. But now it's almost nonstop, and it's, you know, kind of road rage is creeping up on me. I want to hit the car in front, and it won't stop unless I put it in neutral and rev.

And I'm trying to make this trip up to Missoula soon. I don't want eight hours of meh. You know, so I want to know. Here's my question. Don't worry, you will not have eight hours of that noise. Okay. I can just about guarantee you that. Okay, okay. Well, you might. You're going to wish you had eight hours of that noise. You've got a lot of miles in this car, don't you? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. The odometer doesn't move anymore. Oh.

It's that old. Where did it stop? Like 150? I don't, yeah, around there. You don't pay attention much to this stuff, do you? No, not the numbers, evidently. 7, 12. 7, 12, the light. I think it's oil, but I'm not sure. Well, the light's kind of distracting and the noise, you know. Of course, you haven't had anyone look at this. No, not yet. This car has...

That little buzzer, which is under the dash, which is very difficult to find. Okay. But if you get it to make the noise, obviously you can home in on it, so to speak. Okay. But it also has two oil pressure switches. One to detect excessively high oil pressure, and one for low oil pressure. Now, if your pressure is either too low or too high, that's bad.

If it's too low, it means you have either worn bearings or a bad oil pump. And if it's too high, it means the oil pressure relief valve is bad, and you're in danger of blowing off the oil filter. Which could be pretty exciting. And if the pressure is too low because of the other reasons, you're in danger of blowing the engine.

Oh, kidding. Because it's not getting lubricated where it's supposed to get lubricated. So what you need to do is take the thing to a shop and have them test the oil pressure. Well, she knows already. Okay, yeah. The sound stops when she revs it up. That's why, is it? Okay, I was hoping it was like a wire, a short wire. And you are dreaming. Well, alternatively, it could be that the switch is bad.

Okay. Have the oil pressure tested. When they verify the pressure is okay, they can replace those two switches. Okay. And you can get them at the Volkswagen dealer. They're probably less than 10 bucks a piece. And you should pray for this result. Yeah, no kidding. Otherwise it's going to be... Otherwise it's going to be no trip to Missoula. Here's the order in which you pray for things. Okay. First you pray that it's one of these switches that's no good. Okay.

Second, you pray that if it's not the switch, that the oil pressure is too high. Too high? Maybe. Because what would I do then? Well, then you'd have to have them replace the oil pressure relief valve. Okay. And number three, which you don't pray for, but which will happen if the other two are not true, is the oil pressure is too low, in which case either you've got to replace the oil pump or worse than that, the engine is fried.

But I'm going to be optimistic and say that I think it's the switch. Okay. But it would be nice to verify it because it could be a couple of things which would definitely preclude. Driving to Missouri. Right. And send us a postcard from Bear Lake. Because that's about as far as you're going to make it. Okay. I'll send you one from Banff, Canada. All right. See you, Naomi. Okay. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

1-888-CAR-TALK, that's 888-227-8255. Hello, you're on Car Talk. Hi, this is Dinesh from Los Altos, California. What's your name? Dinesh. D-I-N-E-S? D-I-N-E-S-H. Dinesh. Correct. From where? Los Altos, California. Los Altos. Where is Los Altos? It's right in the heart of Silicon Valley, just south of San Francisco. So you're a computer nerd, huh?

No, actually, I'm a trader. I used to be a trader. I trade commodity futures, those heating oil and stuff like that. Oh, you're the guy that fleeced me out of about five grand last year. No kidding. Soybeans. You do soybeans, too? No, I don't freeze people for $5,000. I go for the big money. $5,000, $1 million, $5 million. That's chicken feed, and he trades that too. Oh, excellent. So what's going on, Dinesh? Okay, what's going on?

is after doing this crazy trading, my wife and I and a friend of us, we're going to be going to Death Valley next month and try to walk the whole park. That sounds like a great idea. That's why they call it Death Valley. Yeah, so the four of you are going over to Death Valley. That's good. We're going to walk 180 miles.

Really? We're only going to walk during daytime. Oh, that's smart, too. That sounds good. Okay, go ahead. We're listening. And we're going to have three cars. We're going to park one car at the beginning of the day's walking. The second car will be parked at the end of the day's walking. Third car is going to be parked right in the middle of the two cars. Sure. And that's where we're going to have our water. Yeah. So we're going to start from car number one, walk seven and a half miles.

get some more water from the car, and continue walking another seven and a half miles till we reach the third car. And then you all jump in car number three, you drive back, you drop one guy off at car number one, he drives it. ahead of car number three. Then you pick up car number two and you drive it seven and a half miles in the middle. Here's what you do. And you keep doing this all day. Here's what you do. You buy four treadmills.

And four sun lamps. You can do this whole trip in your backyard. And the garden hose there. So is there a question embedded in this insanity? Yeah. What? All right, these cars are sitting there in the middle of nowhere. We are in the north end of Death Valley where hardly anybody ever goes in winter, let alone in summer. Nobody's crazy enough to go there in the summer. Another question is, if one of these cars for some reason break down, we are in big doo-doo. Not big, deep.

What I want to know is, what's likely to happen to these cars that are going to be sitting in 125 degrees for 8 hours a day for 15 days? Nothing. Nothing? No, because you're only going to drive a few miles at a time with them. No problem? No. If you were driving all around Death Valley all day long at 130 degree temperatures, you might experience some kind of difficulty. But if it's just mostly sitting there...

I mean, think about what if you left it sitting there forever? What would happen to it? The paint would fade. And the buzzards would eventually... The buzzards would come. Eat the car. The biggest danger... that you encounter is having the car overheat. As far as it's sitting there, the tires aren't going to get, I mean, what's the average, I mean, how hot could it be? 130 degrees in the sun? Yeah, it is. 125 in shade. In the shade. In the shade, so maybe 150 in the sun.

Yeah. What are you, nuts? Well, you know, I want to be first at something. Yeah, that's great. So you want to be the first Indian American whose skeletal remains are found in Death Valley. Is that what it is? That would be a first. That's a first. You're going to be the first to walk across Death Valley. In summer. In the summer. In the summer. In the heat of the summer. We definitely, you know what we need? We need a series of pictures. We need day one.

When you're at zero miles. Yeah. We need a picture of you and the rest of the group. Okay, maybe you can get a lizard to take your picture. And Guido the guide. So, if you would like us to chronicle it for you, for the world to see. so that when you reach the end, we can have a big celebration saying that you were the first to do this. Send us a whole series of pictures. And the log. We want to know everything that's gone on. All your misfortunes, good fortunes. Exactly.

Well, we better send it every day in case we don't make it. Of course. Of course, yes. Email us. Okay, I have one serious question. Yeah. Somebody told me I should crack the windows of the car while they are parked there. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. What's the reason for that? Because it's going to get mighty, mighty hot in that car.

As a matter of fact, there are little fans you can buy that are solar-powered that you can stick in the window. So you roll the window down a few inches and you put this fan in there. And it'll keep the car cool. Because it'll get hotter inside the car than it is outside. And you run the risk of blowing out a window if it gets that hot in the air. Exactly. You may come back and find one of the windows shattered.

So we should crack one or two windows? No. Or all the windows? Well, I... I mean, you can leave all the windows wide open. No one's going to steal anything. Well, with my luck, somebody will be just passing by and taking everything. Oh, yeah. Good luck. Dinesh, it's been a pleasure talking to you. Well, thank you very much, guys. As they say, nice knowing you. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. I think it's, see, he wants to be first at something.

And he made enough money from suckers like you buying pork bellies that he can go do this. He didn't mention that those three cars that he's got... They're all Porsches. Oh, yeah, we knew that. All right, it's time to take another short break. Oh, thank God. I mean, I thought you'd never give me a rest. You make me sweat here all day. I'm under a hot microphone, ready to pass out.

We'll be back in a minute. A minute? All I get is a minute? Shop Stewart! I want to see the Shop Stewart! All right, all right. Hi, it's Terry Gross, host of Fresh Air. Hey, take a break from the 24-hour news cycle with us and listen to long-form interviews with your favorite authors, actors, filmmakers, comedians, and musicians, the people making the art that nourishes us. and speaks to our times. So listen to the Fresh Air podcast from NPR and WHYY.

On the Planet Money podcast, you've seen them, those labels that say made in China or made in France. But what do they really mean? The reaction was, it can't possibly work like that. That can't possibly be right. We dig into the delightfully convoluted rules behind... What makes, say, a Chinese product Chinese? And how companies facing tariffs are getting creative. From Planet Money on NPR, wherever you get your podcasts.

Keeping up with the news can feel like a 24-hour job. Luckily, it is our job. Every hour on the NPR News Now podcast, we take the latest, most important stories happening and we package them into five minute episodes so you can easily squeeze them in between meetings and on your way to that thing. Listen to the NPR News Now podcast. Now.

On the Planet Money podcast, the economic world we've been living in for decades was built on some basic assumptions. But the people who built that world are long gone. And right now, those assumptions are kind of up in the air, like the dollar as the reserve currency. Is that era over? If so, what could replace it? And what does that mean for the rest of us? Listen to the Planet Money podcast from NPR wherever you get your podcasts.

We're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Clack, the Tapper Brothers. And we're here to discuss cars, car repair, and the new puzzler. Yeah. Now, I should mention that this is the last. puzzler of the season. Is it really? Yes. Yes, the puzzler will be rather extended. Extended vacanza. Yes, a rather extended, not deserved vacation, but... It's in his contract, so he's getting off. Well, actually, I have to say that the past 11 months of puzzlers have been better than usual.

I think if we look at all the puzzlers that you've used over the past 48 weeks, I'd say that... Captain's shaking your head saying... Well, don't forget what we're up against. It doesn't matter that they were lousy. They've just been better. They've been better. Right. Than the previous 11 months worth. Right. They could be absolutely lousy, but still be better. Oh, they are. But they're better. Well, here it is. Yeah. Here it is.

A struggling young art history major waitress is working in New York City. It's around Christmas time and she finds herself in difficult straits. After all, she's traveled home for Christmas and spent a lot of money and bought Christmas presents alike. And she returns to her little... apartment with her little room in the rooming house and realizes that she cannot pay the rent. So she approaches the landlord with the following little, what would you call it, offer.

She says, look, I don't have the money to pay the month of January's rent. Yeah. She said, but I can give you a link of my gold necklace every day. I'll give you one link. to pay for the rent. And his luck would have it. There are 31 days in January. And her gold necklace has 31 links. Yeah. You got it? Sure. Now, obviously, he says, let me look at the thing.

So he looks at it and verifies that it's authentic 18-carat gold. And he says, you got a deal. At the end of the month, I give you the necklace back. You give me the dough. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Now, obviously, she could cut. the thing into 31 pieces and every day give him a piece. But then she'd have to have it repaired by a jeweler which would cost an inordinate amount of money. So she wants to make as few cuts as possible.

Got it. So what she's going to do is, for example, day one, she's going to cut one link. Right. Okay. She's going to hand him one link. Right. Okay. Now she could cut another link off and hand him two for the next day. Or she could just cut off two. Give him the two and take one back. There you go. And then for the third day, she gives him the previous one that she cut off. She wouldn't have to cut anything. So the question is, how many pieces does she have to cut the chain into?

to be able to pay for all 31 days. How many pieces? So the chain is going to be... Now, obviously, when she makes a cut, she's going to close it back up again. In other words, when she cuts that first link off, she's actually cut link number two to extract that first piece so that she doesn't lose it. She closes that back up again. You get the scenario? I got it, yeah.

And this is going to cut a two-link piece off, and that's going to pay for day one. Right now, I've got to figure it out for you. Days one, two, and three, all figured out. She did it with only two cuts instead of with three cuts, which would be the obvious straightforward way to do it. Right. Just cut a link at a time. At a time. Right. So there's an economical way to do this. And the question is, what are the lengths of the pieces that she has to...

The fewest number of pieces. Obviously. Obviously. The fewest number of pieces. And what are those various lengths? And the hint is... Yeah. The hint is that... 20 years ago, people would have had a much harder time solving this puzzle than they would today, I think. Excellent hint. Isn't that a good hint? Yeah. Even though you don't know the answer. Even...

If you think you know that answer or you're just lonely and you have nothing else to do and you want to communicate with anybody, send your answer to Puzzler Tower, Car Talk Plaza, Box 3500, Harvard Square, Cambridge. Our Fair City. or you can email us your answer from cartalk.com. If you'd like to call us, the number is 1-888-CAR-TALK. That's 888-227-8255. Hello, you're on Car Talk.

This is Leonard Temple calling from beautiful downtown Olive Branch, Mississippi. Olive Branch, Mississippi. What an idyllic sounding place. It does sound peaceful, doesn't it? It does. Well, it is peaceful with the exception of my car. Ah. I have a 1987 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme that my lovely wife and I purchased brand new. And we love this car. But it has one problem. As it rolled over 100,000 miles...

Coming home from church a few weeks ago, the car just died. There was no fuel in the carburetor. If I sprayed starter fluid in the car, it would fire up and then shut right down. Sure. somewhat shade-free mechanic that I am, I took the fuel line loose from the carburetor and turned the starter. Cranked it. Good, good. See, fuel come out. Were you smoking a cigar at the time?

Not at that point. Not at that point. Did not have a smoking gun just yet. Excellent. So I thought, okay, it must be the fuel filter's clogged. So I took the fuel filter out. I hooked the line back up. Still nothing. Car wouldn't start. After fidgeting with this and that and the other. I gave up and replaced the carburetor. Fired the car right up, ran just fine for two weeks.

Then the same thing happened again. It just shut off. No fuel getting to the carburetor. There's fuel getting to the carburetor, but the carburetor is not, as we say, processing it. Yes, sir. Not passing it along to the proper authorities. That's correct. I replaced it.

fuel pump, thinking it must not be getting enough fuel pressure. Sounds good. Car starts up, runs just fine for two weeks. Yeah. And it shuts off again. Yeah. Yeah. I have a couple of ideas. Okay. Here's one. You could bypass that... Pesky little carburetor. Just take the fuel line and dump it right into the intake. Okay, that's enough of that. But I need the cigar. I need to have my cigar. No, you might not need it. No, you don't need the cigar.

Don't forget, this is how carburetion worked in 1900. And it probably, if you just have it dripping in there, it'll be fine. Ah. Well, it ran fine with the new carburetor. Yes, sir. Okay. Then it ran fine with a new fuel pump. Ran fine with a new fuel pump. I know what it is. Go ahead. What is it? It's the charcoal canister. The charcoal canister. The tank isn't venting. Ah.

Do the following experiment. Drive it till it conks out. Take the gas cap off and start it up and drive it away. It may take you a minute or two to start it. What's happening is you're not allowing air to replace via the canister. the gasoline that's being consumed by the engine. And what happens after a while is you're creating a negative pressure in the tank, and the tank and the pump are competing for the same gas.

So the tank with the suction in it is trying to suck that gasoline back away. That's why when you shut it off, if you had just waited long enough, it would eventually have started. Well, that's how I got it home the last time. Aha. And it fired up. And that's it. That's it. That's it, man.

Then I just go out to my local GM dealer. Just go to your local GM junkyard. Well, it may be that the line, the vent line that's coming off the tank is plugged, so I can't necessarily say that it's the canister. But it's in the fuel tank ventilation system someplace. Okay. Good luck, Leonard. Thank you. See you later. Appreciate it, guys. Bye-bye. Bye. Good luck.

Well, it's happened again. You've squandered another perfectly good hour listening to Car Talk. Our esteemed producer is Doug, not a slave to fashion Berman. Our associate producer and dean of the College of Auto Musicology is Ken Ed Grimley Rogers. Our assistant producer is Catherine M. Mel. the Ray Marcos. And our engineer is Jonathan Superhighwayside Burns Marston and our menu advisor. And newly appointed Car Talk cheerleader is Mr. John Bugsy Lawler. Head cheerleader.

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