Nov 09, 2013
RAY: This was sent in by Kent Hartfield from Texas. He says, "I was driving my Ford Aerostar down the road in Arlington, Texas, last June, when all of a sudden I heard a muffled BANG that was immediately followed by the motor dying." You get this? He's driving along...Ford Aerostar...all these things are important.
TOM: You don't have to tell me that, man. I know that every word you speak is a pearl.
RAY: Driving along...BOOM! Muffled boom. The motor dies. "I pulled off to the side of the road and popped the hood. This has a little hood because the engine is kind of buried. And looked to see what had happened. Once I saw what had happened, I thought, Gee, this is gonna cost a lot to have fixed. I closed the hood, got back in the van, started the engine and drove off."
TOM: Wow.
RAY: What happened?
TOM: He didn't say where the boom-bang came from. But since he opened the hood, we can assume that it came from the front of the vehicle?
RAY: Well, I'll give you that. The muffled bang came from under the hood. From the engine compartment. And the motor stopped running.
TOM: Stopped running? And he said, "This is gonna be expensive to fix." Yet it started right up again. This is puzzling.
TOM: It's hot. The question is, what happened to the car, and the hint is that it's June. It's June. It's hot. It's Texas.
RAY: It's June. It's hot, and he has the air conditioner on.
TOM: Of course.
RAY: And when he's driving along the high pressure hose from the air conditioner compressor blows; filling the engine compartment with what? Refrigerant. Because it comes out in such a huge volume and such high pressure, it displaces all the oxygen necessary for combustion.
TOM: And the engine stalls.
RAY: As soon as he opens the hood, the stuff has a chance to dissipate. He sees the broken hose and says this is going to cost some serious money and of course he closes the hood and drives off.
TOM: I like it.
RAY: Who's our winner?
TOM: The winner is Donald Miller from New York, New York. Congratulations, Donald!
