Announcement from Car Talk Plaza

We're going back to the beginning of Car Talk—we hope you'll join us! Starting today, Car Talk will release two episodes a week. Double the laughs, double the lousy car advice, and double the puzzlers! Subscribe to our podcast and never miss an episode.

What's That Smell?

It's time for the new puzzler. And as I promised this wasn't going to be as lousy as the last one.

Here it is. There is a smell that comes from modern cars that people associate with the catalytic converter. And I'm going to ask about another smell that comes from modern cars, cars with catalytic converters. So you often get this smell from cars that are equipped with catalytic converters.

But this smell is not coming from inside the converter. It has nothing to do with what's going on inside the converter.

I will give a hint. If cars of fifty years ago had catalytic converters, they would not have made the smell. The smell would not come from these cars. And it has nothing to do with the gasoline. What is the smell and what causes it?

Answer the Puzzler »

Remember last week's puzzler?

What's Making That Noise?

It's time for the new puzzler!

Now here's a puzzler that we have used before. And, as is often the case, we've given the incorrect answer before. So we're counting this as new because it'll be the first time people have an opportunity to hear the right answer. Here's the puzzler.

You go off to start your cars a cold wintery morning. You turn the key and the thing roars to life. It starts. The first sound you hear is YiYiYiYiYiYiYiYi! Now you know, from listening to our show that that is the unmistakable sound of a loose, noisy belt.

Now we have asked the question before which belt is it and why is it making the noise?

And when we used this puzzler the last three or four times we gave an answer, but it was an incomplete answer.

Okay, we admit used a puzzler to which we didn't know the entirety of the answer. Now we know the rest of the story! Paul Harvey himself wrote to us.

So here it is. Which belt is it? Why is it making the noise? And why does it stop? That's the tricky part.

Even within a few minutes of turning on the car, the noise disappears. Why?