RAY: Hi, we're back. You're listening to Car Talk with us, Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers, and we're here to talk about cars, car repair, and, duh, the answer to last week's Puzzler.

TOM: Is this the one about the guy on the bicycle and Sherlock Holmes?

RAY: That was great, wasn't it?

TOM: Pshew! Man!

RAY: No, this is an automotive Puzzler. It was the return of an endangered species, I think.

TOM: I don't remember, to tell you the truth.

RAY: Well, anyway, it was submitted by Jeff Matthews, who's in the army somewhere. I don't know where he is.

TOM: Mmm-hmm.

RAY: And probably cast an absentee ballot.

TOM: Yeah.

RAY: Yeah.

TOM: He might have been from Florida.

RAY: Maybe.

TOM: He may have cast the deciding vote.

RAY: He may have.

TOM: Wow!

RAY: Whoopee! Anyway, he wrote, "Some years ago, my wife complained that her Honda Accord would occasionally start bucking, snorting, and choking when she came to a stop. It would keep that up for a couple of minutes; then the problem would go away and sometimes not return for weeks."

TOM: Hmm.

RAY: "I looked at the usual things, but since I was never there when it happened and it wasn't my car anyway, I didn't really care." Oh, did he say that?

TOM: I wouldn't quote him directly if he did...

RAY: No, I...

TOM: Because all you can do is get a guy into trouble with his wife.

RAY: I've taken some license here, Jeff, so...

TOM: Yeah. I mean, we're in enough trouble with our wives as it is.

RAY: Including Jeff. "Then one fall," he says, "I was getting the car ready for the state safety inspection, so I jacked it up, jiggled the wheels, and did all the things you usually do, and when I let it down off the jack stands, a nearly empty can of brake fluid rolled out from under the front seat. I said, 'Hmm. Hmm. That's interesting.' I went into the house and asked my wife one question."

TOM: Yeah.

RAY: It was not "What's the neighbor's brake fluid doing in your car?" "I asked her one question, and when she gave me the answer, I knew what was wrong with her car."

TOM: Yeah.

RAY: What was the question?

TOM: Mmmm.

RAY: And the question was: How often...

RAY: Do you add brake fluid?

TOM: Yeah.

RAY: And the reason he asked that question was this. Somewhere along the line, he surmises...

TOM: I've got it!

RAY: She went to the gas station and her brake light was on because the fluid level was down.

TOM: Mmm-hmm.

RAY: She buys a can of fluid from the attendant and watches him fill up the reservoir.

TOM: Mmm-hmm.

RAY: Figuring this is part of the regular maintenance of the car, whenever the light goes on she tops it up, never bothering to ask, "Where's the brake fluid going?" It's like, well, you add oil from time to time.

TOM: Sure.

RAY: It's not unusual to add brake fluid from time to time.

TOM: Yeah.

RAY: And as such, she had this can under the seat. It may have been one of many cans that she used.

TOM: Yeah.

RAY: And she was constantly adding brake fluid to a leaking master cylinder. And the master cylinder was leaking into...

TOM: The booster.

RAY: The power-brake booster. And every once in a while, when she came to a stop, especially an abrupt one, or if the level of fluid in there--where there's not supposed to be any--was high enough, that fluid would get sucked into the engine and make the thing try to combust the brake fluid, which would cause it to stumble and choke and maybe even stall. And then, once it worked its way through, accompanied by this belch of smoke out the tailpipe...

TOM: It ran like a dream.

RAY: Everything would be right. And the subsequent stops wouldn't be a problem, because she'd have to wait until enough fluid accumulated in the booster to cause the problem again.

TOM: Oh, man! That's very good!

RAY: So the question was: How often do you add brake fluid to the car?

TOM: Yeah!

RAY: So, who's our winner?

TOM: Nathaniel Meyers from Berkeley, California. Probably some aging hippie sitting there in the streets of Berkeley selling beads. And now...

RAY: Yeah. Don't you wish that were you?

TOM: And now he's going to win a $25 gift certificate for the store at the Car Talk section of cars.com. And with that $25 gift certificate, he can get a limited-edition "Two Zeros in '00"campaign T-shirt with the slogan "Don't Blame Me, I Voted for Click and Clack." That's a great T-shirt, isn't it? Notice how we had these ready the morning after the election, even though we didn't know who won yet.

RAY: Well, we knew that we weren't going to win.

TOM: We suspected we weren't going to.

RAY: Hey, by the way, if you're thinking, Why does Nathaniel get one of those and not me, you can always visit the store at the Car Talk section of cars.com.

TOM: Right. And use your own $25 gift certificate.

RAY: Exactly.

TOM: Known as a $25 bill.

[ Car Talk Puzzler ]