anyone ever hear the guys answer a 911 que on "car talk?"

vash · vash's Garage

i like the show. well, i listen to show "wait wait dont tell me" more often. public radio has it moments. i am new to the brothers. have they ever had to deal with a 911 problem? it would crack me up to hear them answer some of our "common" pelican probs. dropped dipsticks, overfill oil,.. stuff like that.

URY914 · 03-14-2008, 09:01 AM

A guy called in once that he got WD40 on his 911's paint....

OK, just kidding. I did hear a call about a 914 once.

Dantilla · 03-14-2008, 09:14 AM

I heard an interview with them once, where they said they rarely get a call from Porsche owners. Porsche guys are serious about cars, and are far more knowledgeable than thier typical caller.

They said most of their advice leans towards cheap fixes, whereas P-car owners wouldn't think of taking the easy way out just to squeeze a few for miles out of the car before it ends up in a junkyard.

Of course, they did a good job of making Porsche owners sound like snobs. It was quite a humorous response.

I like listening to those guys.

Porsche-O-Phile · Porsche-O-Phile's Garage

The funniest one I ever heard was (no lie) they told a 911 owner who was having heater problems to "check the heater core". If you search for it, you'll probably find it on this forum or possibly on R-list. It was hysterical.

MRM · 03-14-2008, 09:24 AM

They had a Boxster owner complaining that his clutch was too stiff. It was his first Porsche and wasn't used to a stick. They told him something was wrong with his transmission or clutch and to have it checked. I kept waiting for them to tell him to get his foot adjusted.

on2wheels52 · on2wheels52's Garage

My wife likes them also, they seem to enjoy their time on the air.
Jim

gassy · 03-14-2008, 11:05 AM

they laugh too much for me.

Tobra · Tobra's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by gassy

they laugh too much for me.

they are wrong too frequently for me

URY914 · 03-14-2008, 12:11 PM

More than 1/2 the stuff they talk about is not car related but they can be pretty funny.

bt1211 · 03-14-2008, 12:22 PM

+100 Gassy and they are laughing at stuff thats doesn't call for a laugh. ex. Haaaaaaaa you said "call", ha ha "my brother" said "stuff" ha ha ha ha ha ha.

I'm like WTF are they laughing at????

If you some background in repair, its too easy to spot their mistakes.

Porsche-O-Phile · Porsche-O-Phile's Garage

Believe it or not they actually do run a garage in Cambridge Mass. called the "Good News Garage" - or at least they used to. My brother had his car fixed there once.

berettafan · 03-14-2008, 05:27 PM

Listen to them every Saturday. The puzzlers can be fun and i enjoy trying to guess the car problems.

Dueller · 03-14-2008, 05:35 PM

I have a question about horizontally opposed, or "boxer," engines. To the best of my knowledge, only Porsche and Subaru use this type of engine design now. Subaru goes so far as to point out the advantages of this design in its literature. Assuming that these advantages are real, why don't the other car makers use this design? Since this design is not new, I can't believe that Porsche and Subaru have found something that the others haven't caught on to yet. What's the real story? -- Jim

Tom: Great question, Jim. The boxer engine, also called a "flat engine" or "pancake engine," is an engine whose cylinders are laid down on their sides. So instead of pumping up and down, as on an "in line" engine, or diagonally, as on a "V" engine, the pistons are "horizontally opposed," or on opposite sides of the crankshaft, pumping toward one another.

Ray: The major advantage of a flat engine is that it's flatter, which means it can be installed closer to the ground. And with the mass of the engine lower, the car's center of gravity is lower. And the lower a car's center of gravity, the better the car's handling.

Tom: The engine is the single largest mass in the car (unless my brother is behind the wheel). And in fact, sources tell us that one of the problems with the previous generation of Ford Explorers (which, you might remember, had some handling issues) is that Ford made a series of engineering compromises that resulted in the engine being a few inches higher than it should ideally be.

Ray: So in addition to making the new Explorer longer and wider, the center of gravity was also lowered. And lowering the center of gravity by even a fraction of an inch can result in handling improvements that a driver will notice.

Tom: So why doesn't everybody use a flat engine? Well, I think there are two reasons. One is packaging. A flat engine is a wide engine, for obvious reasons. And a lot of designers don't want to design wide engine compartments. A "V" engine, on the other hand, is the closest to a square in shape, and it tends to fit engine compartments more easily.

Ray: The other reason why you don't see more flat engines is because of tradition. Manufacturers tend to do things the way they've always done them. Plus, they have a lot of money and engineering time invested in their current engines and are reluctant to start over.

Tom: Interestingly, however, GM now owns part of Subaru and is planning some new GM vehicles that use Subaru platforms. So it'll be interesting to see whether flat engines start to make a comeback. If you see the introduction of the new Pontiac Pancake, Jim, you'll know what's happening.

Paul K · Paul K's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

The funniest one I ever heard was (no lie) they told a 911 owner who was having heater problems to "check the heater core". If you search for it, you'll probably find it on this forum or possibly on R-list. It was hysterical.

I heard that one (it's been a while) but I thought it was a 912? The inside windows were fogging up, is that the one? Lady had bought the car on Ebay?

Paul.