Car hit by lightening!!

This happened about a mile from my house. Ecchh.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/sfl-lightning-strikes-car-b072409,0,5353392.story

It was a GM car....maybe it's a sign we shouldn't have bought the company against our will.

Back in oh about 2000, I was working at a Dodge dealership, and in on a flatbed comes a shiny new Ram 2500 diesel. Guy was driving south on the way home from Chicago, when a typical summer thunderstorm rolled through the area, and the lightning really liked the $10k worth of ham radio equipment and its associated antennae. The truck had a rather interesting weld spot on the corner of the bed, about the size of a dime, from where the bolt exited to ground. I gave the guy a ride to the nearest car rental place that was open, an hour and a half away in Indy so he could get home that night. I heard back from him a few weeks later. His insurance company had finally decided to total the truck rather than replace the entire electrical system.

I replaced the radio in a lightning-struck truck once.. after they'd replaced every wiring harness in the car. It was a brand new-ish Super Duty.

How would taking weight out of a car fry the wiring?

It's a good thing this didn't happen:

Had a lightning struck Buick once, it hit the radio antenna. The radio worked perfect but the antenna cable ran right past the PCM, PCM said bye bye. Helluva tough radio!

Then there was the woman sitting in traffic in her Libery when it got hit by lightning. Now she can't work and anything that goes wrong with the car is due to lightning. Crappy tire wear? Lightning, of course.

weve seen some truly amazing lighting in the past few days down here, ball lighting, staccato lightening, ect... awesome to watch, not so good to be near an impact point though...

As the electricity flows on the outside of a conductor [the car], you are supposed to be safe inside of it. It may fry sensitive electronics that have parts sticking out through the body[ depending on where the wires were run].

We saw a golf cart get hit once, suprisingly the two guys in it were fine once they changed their underwear.

dennisg wrote: As the electricity flows on the outside of a conductor [the car], you are supposed to be safe inside of it. It may fry sensitive electronics that have parts sticking out through the body[ depending on where the wires were run].

it's called a faraday cage. Yes, as long as you are not touching any metal, you are very safe inside the cage. It's all the things that are attached to it that fry.

Friend of my father's back in the early 70s had a dodge van that got hit. Van was constantly in the shop for one thing or another electrically. From what I remember, before it was finally totalled, it had the neat party trick of flooring the throttle from a standstill if you reengaged the cruise control.

Wowak wrote: I replaced the radio in a lightning-struck truck once.. after they'd replaced every wiring harness in the car. It was a brand new-ish Super Duty.

Are you sure it wasn't a Lightning?

mad_machine wrote:

dennisg wrote: As the electricity flows on the outside of a conductor [the car], you are supposed to be safe inside of it. It may fry sensitive electronics that have parts sticking out through the body[ depending on where the wires were run].

it's called a faraday cage. Yes, as long as you are not touching any metal, you are very safe inside the cage. It's all the things that are attached to it that fry. Friend of my father's back in the early 70s had a dodge van that got hit. Van was constantly in the shop for one thing or another electrically. From what I remember, before it was finally totalled, it had the neat party trick of flooring the throttle from a standstill if you reengaged the cruise control.

If it had the 360, I'd consider that a "feature", rather than a "problem".

There a vid clip out there of a guy working on his bike when the bike gets partially hit by a lightning bolt (edit~ found the clip)...

Not safe for work Audio! http://www.yourdailymedia.com/media/1170170475/A_Close_Encounter_With_Lightning

Yet he still works on his bike in the storm???? I'd have been inside, locked in the bathroom, until there wasn't another cloud in the sky! lol

mad_machine wrote: From what I remember, before it was finally totalled, it had the neat party trick of flooring the throttle from a standstill if you reengaged the cruise control.

We've had two dodge vans do the same thing. No lightning required.

petegossett wrote: Yet he still works on his bike in the storm???? I'd have been inside, locked in the bathroom, until there wasn't another cloud in the sky! lol

I've had something similar happen to me working on a car, and yeah that was the answer....when the jelly legs went away, my butt was in the house and as far away from windows as I could get.... remember kids leaky shed working on a car in the rain, no matter how bored you are is a bad IDEA......I'm truly amazed I made it passed age 20, somehow, someway I made it, but wow I was dumb.

andrave wrote:

Wowak wrote: I replaced the radio in a lightning-struck truck once.. after they'd replaced every wiring harness in the car. It was a brand new-ish Super Duty.

Are you sure it wasn't a Lightning?

Ay-oh!

petegossett wrote: Yet he still works on his bike in the storm???? I'd have been inside, locked in the bathroom, until there wasn't another cloud in the sky! lol

Friend of my mom's almost died in a bathroom during a Thunderstorm. lightening hit the house he was in and the energy went through the pipes to the ground. When it passed through, it filled the bathroom with ozone.

Thankfully they were able to break the door down to get him to fresh air

mad_machine wrote:

petegossett wrote: Yet he still works on his bike in the storm???? I'd have been inside, locked in the bathroom, until there wasn't another cloud in the sky! lol

Friend of my mom's almost died in a bathroom during a Thunderstorm. lightening hit the house he was in and the energy went through the pipes to the ground. When it passed through, it filled the bathroom with ozone. Thankfully they were able to break the door down to get him to fresh air

They would have had to move me to fresh air from the MONSTER load I would have shat from that.

mad_machine wrote: Friend of my mom's almost died in a bathroom during a Thunderstorm. lightening hit the house he was in and the energy went through the pipes to the ground. When it passed through, it filled the bathroom with ozone. Thankfully they were able to break the door down to get him to fresh air

Who hasn't been in a bathroom with such a bad smell that others had to break the door down and pull you to safety?

Update on the story. They were lucky, but the car is toast.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/sfl-lightning-survivor-b072609,0,1890458.story

porksboy wrote: They would have had to move me to fresh air from the MONSTER load I would have shat from that.

this made me laugh so hard I'm going to go drop a shat myself.