Show Rundown

Terry Spencer Centennial, Colorado -

A question about a noise. When she starts the car in the morning, it makes a clocking/rattling sound, like banging two pots together. Only happens when car is moving, going up or down hill, when it's cold, and goes away after about 10 minutes. She thinks it's coming from the rear. Recently got new tires and had brake work done. Ray thinks it's likely to be a bad axle, or axle nut, but the Tom and Ray spin the roulette wheel anyway. Take it in and make sure the mechanic hears the noise,, and also confirm that the car is safe to drive.

Jim Williamsburg, Virginia -

A question about driving and the throttle. When engine gets to 1800 rpm, car stops accelerating. Punches the pedal, eventually it comes back. He's had the throttle body cleaned and replaced the idle air motor. T&R think it's the coolant temp sensor--computer sending n erroneous signal that the engine is cold, and is adjusting the idles speed.

Lexie Freedberg Cambridge, Massachusetts -

A buying question. Her Camry was engulfed by Quincy Bay in the recent blizzard, so she needs to replace it. She wants to buy a used Honda Fit to replac it, and found one more than 100 miles away. How can she find a mechanic to check it before she buys? Tom and Ray tell her to check the Mechanics Files, find someone where the car is, and arrange for him to look it over.

Tanya Georgevitch Benicia, California -

A transmission question. Reverse hasn't worked in her car for 2 1/2 years. She's gotten good at avoiding having to use it, but now she's hearing a noise from the brakes and wondering if she's damaging other parts of the car. Guys say the noise is unrelated to the reverse problem, but she's chewing up her other gears. Fixing Revers requires replacing the tranny--she can try flushing the tranny to get the pieces of the reverse syncro out, which may save the other gears for a while.

Jason Casper, Wyoming -

A combination fuel/marital question. His wife thinks the car gets better gas mileage, and a tank 'lasts longer' if they fill it before it gets to the half-empty point. Ray thinks this is because it takes the gauge longer to get from full to half, than from half to empty--so when it reads half, you really have less than half a tank. So, wife is sort of right, but it's kind of an optical illusion.

Carrie Robaina Waconia, Minnesota -

An electrical question. his is her husband's car, she thinks it's possessed. When temperature is below 50, windows start going up and down, and rear-view mirror starts moving outward. Then the door locks start going up and down. Ray thinks it needs a new body control module computer. She needs to bring it to the dealer.

Sheena Pelford, Pennsylvania -

A question about driving and the engine. When she goes uphill, car chugs and seems to shake violently, like it's not getting gas. It feels like it's going to stall, but never does.When she gets to the top, it's fine. Could be either a dirty fuel filter, or a misfire from bad or worn out spark plugs. A tune-up should fix either problem.

Daniel Keferl Portland, Texas -

A question about bees. He's rebuilding the car and when he sanded it down to bare metal, he started to get swarmed by bees. They seem to love whatever he's stripping off the car and he has no idea why. Ray thinks the buzzing of the sander is calling the bees. Try turning sander on without working on the car, as an experiment. Or, move to another location, in case he's close to the hive.

Tiffany Las Vegas, Nevada -

A relationship question. She's concerned that she did damage to two of her boyfriend's trucks. Truck A got stuck in the snow and when tried to tow it with Truck B, she had the parking brake on. They got Truck A out, but later the brakes failed, which caused Truck A to crash into Truck B, damaging headlights. Now fuel injection out on Truck B. Boyfriend says she's innocent, but she feels guilty. Did she cause this? Tom and Ray says she's innocent...the brakes failed on Truck A because the lines were rusty, due to age. It had nothing to do with the parking brake being on.