Killing The Battery
Puzzler time. This one is automotive. Here we go.
Years ago, a customer came into the shop complaining that when he went away on business trips, his car would be dead when he returned a week or so later. But if he was in town and drove the car every day or every other day, it worked just fine.
So, he brings the car in to us. We do all the testing we can around the issue. We couldn't find any current draining or anything like that. We could not find anything wrong with it that might be causing this issue.
We replace his battery anyway.
He goes away on another trip, and he comes back and he's incensed that the battery has been killed again.
He brings the car back and insists there is something wrong with it. He leaves it with us. And we again find nothing wrong. At that point, we try to return the car to him. But he says he is going away on another trip, so we can't return it to him.
So we agree to keep the car while he is away and see if it will die on us, while we have it, while he is away. We insisted there was nothing wrong with the car, and he wanted to prove to us that there was something wrong.
So, he leaves the car with us, we park it and we do not touch it for the entire week, so we can see if it will die again.
A whole week goes by. We don't touch the car at all.
He gets back from his trip and comes in to see us. He goes to the car. He turns the key, and it starts right up.
And he says, "What could I be doing wrong? What could be different for me when I have the car at home?" He accuses us, of course, of driving the car every day, charging the battery up... all that stuff.
Of course, we had done nothing to the car the whole week.
So, I asked him one question. I asked him where he parks the car.
He tells me that he parks in his driveway.
At which point I said, "I know what's wrong. I know what's killing your battery."
So, that is the puzzler. What was killing his battery?
Good luck.
