Electronics > Beginners
[Extreme] ESD or EMP?
(1/1)
CZroe:
One month ago we took a direct lightning strike to the house. My brother’s car was parked only a few yards away from the obvious point where the lightning found it’s way to ground but it didn’t have a mark on it so we thought it was fine...

...It wasn’t. :( Insurance totaled it.

He did have two tires in the grass beside the paved driveway. I doubt that mattered much but, well, my car was parked next to his and it was fine. He didn’t have anywhere to go with his car for a couple days, so we were kinda surprised to discover that it wouldn’t start. Everything lights and bings like it should with the key in there except the indicator for selecting PRND12 doesn’t show and nothing happens when you turn the key. It uses an indicator light behind the transmission selection instead of a physically moving needle. If the system doesn’t know it’s in Park or Neutral then the neutral safety switch will not allow it to start, so I was hoping that’s all it was.

Fuses and relays all checked fine. Shop said the computer and starter were bad and that those needed to be replaced before they could even start looking for other issues. It seems that the insurance company has dealt with lightning strikes enough to know that other electrical issues are inevitable and they just decided to total out the car at that point.

I don’t know much about vehicle electronics but since I see no evidence of a direct hit, wouldn’t the EMP damage likely be less severe than a typical lightning strike? Think they are just treating it as a lightning strike instead of an EMP? What do you think was more likely wrong with it? Looking for info on EMP and cars mostly leads you to speculative doomsday prepper stuff (nothing useful).





More: https://imgur.com/a/w44Mxoz
Navigation
Message Index
There was an error while thanking
Thanking...

Go to full version
Powered by SMFPacks Advanced Attachments Uploader Mod