Back and To The Right
Years ago, we had a customer call up the shop.
He tells us, "So I've got a problem with my car. I don't know what's going on, but I pulled out of my driveway this morning and parked in the street, and my car is leaning to the rear and to the right. Something's wrong in the right rear. I must have a broken strut or something. A couple of months ago, I was in and you guys told me I needed new struts, and they were worn out, and I think that's the problem."
And I said, "No, no, no, no, no. Worn out struts would never cause this to happen. You must have a warn or broken spring."
And he said, "I crawled under there and I looked, and I don't see anything broken. The spring doesn't look broken. The part of the strut that holds the spring doesn't look broken, and I'm afraid to drive it, so I'm going to tow it in to the shop."
So, he does. He calls the tow truck and has the car brought into the shop. And sure enough, it arrives at the shop, comes off the tow truck, and it's leaning back and to the right, just like he said.
So, I drive it into the shop, and I take a peek underneath, and I don't see anything broken either. But I am thinking to myself, it must be a broken spring. I'll have to look at this later.
So, I get busy, a bunch of things pop up at the shop and I forget about the car for a few hours.
Hours later, when I come back to his car, it's level. The car is suddenly level.
I realized right then that he was right, and he did need new struts.
And the puzzler is, what was happening here?
