Shocking Car

Do you live in an arid region on Earth? Do you have fabric (cloth) seats? If you answered yes to both then it is most likely static electricity. Get some Bounce fabric softener sheets and wipe your seats down with them. That should solve any static electricity problem.

 

Those hybrid cars all do that. If you want safe and reliable transportation, get a horse.

 

Mine zaps the heck out of me every time...I'll try the bounce trick.

 

removed

 

As per the first reply, it's static. I have commercial anti-static spray that we use in the electronics industry that works well. You can also use Cling Free or fabric softener sheets to treat the seats.

Tom

 

My girlfriend's Rav4 does that all time. I think it is telling me it need oil. That thing chugs oil!

 

My Honda CR-V (with cloth seats) is notorious for shocks. As a matter of fact- my wife just mentioned shocks to me yesterday now that the CR-V is her daily driver. Her Expedition w/leather seats never shocked her.

Solution- keep your hand on the metal door frame (or any other steel part of the frame) as you slide off the seat and exit the vehicle. It takes a bit of training- but that solved the problem for me....

 

+1 Agree

 

I am numb to the shocks now, does't bother me anymore. Usually only happens in the winter for some reason...

 

It is attributable to the Lower relative humidities during the winter. Low relative humidity means less ions in the air to pick up or attract the charge generated from the transfer of electrons that results from two surfaces rubbing together. Synthetic fibers are good generators of static electricity because they have more electrons to exchange. When the humidity is low there aren't as many ions in the air to accept some of the charge that you have collected. Hence more zaps in the drier winter months.

Cool science trick: pick up a nice static charge and touch a grounded compact fluorescent bulb. You can get the bulb to briefly light up.

Yep, ima geek.

 

Yup.
I bought my prius in the winter (if you can call it that in the NE this year)
and was definitley more shocked than in my Saturn.

 

I think it can be affected by the type of tires the car has, too. My parents got new tires for their old Honda Accord many years ago, and the shocks got worse. According to Car Talk, LRR tires can be worse for this - the stuff they use to reduce the rolling resistance also has the side effect of increasing the electrical resistance.

Another thing you can do, if you forget to hold on to metal the whole time you're sliding off the seat, is to use your fingernail to discharge the static; I'm not sure if it has higher resistance than skin (hmm, DMM sitting next to me says yes), or maybe it's because there are fewer nerves there, or possibly because the nerves are further from where the electricity (and heat and spark) are concentrated - separated by a layer of dead nail. Moral of the story, though: it's not uncomfortable to discharge static through your fingernail.

 

:thumb: No problem, mrb1.