I was late to Boston Media Makers (full report in an upcoming post) yesterday because my car battery died and I had to wait for AAA to jump it. Weather had been cold and I’d been in England for a week, so the car hadn’t been driven, but that’s not 100% of the story of the drained battery.
It goes way back to when I asked Rabbi Low to install fog lights in my car while I was out of the country on business. It was sort of a treat for him, since I knew he wouldn’t take care of my car without performing some sort of maintenance or upgrade. One time, he detailed the engine compartment. I got my fog lights, but I also ended up with a bazooka subwoofer. These things happen, I’m sure you can relate.
I didn’t know it at the time, but the woofer was wired directly to the battery, not through the ignition system, so it draws current even when the car is off. After several bouts of maintenance and investigation, a Scion engineer finally asked the ah-ha question, “where’s your shutoff remote for the woofer?” The answer is, I didn’t have one. So I started unplugging the woofer whenever I knew I wouldn’t be driving for more than a couple of days.
Another triumph of style over substance.