Every time I get out of my car, and I do not mean only after I have been driving, I get one hell of an electric shock if I come in contact with the body of the car. It really hurts (whine whine).

Do those rubber static strips that hang from the back of the car work?

Does not seem to matter what I am wearing or how long I am sat in the car - Zap!

Any advice? And don't tell me not to get in the car ;)

Dragon

It's not the car, it's you. A common misconception of people who get 'zapped' a lot (including my wife) is that the electricity is jumping from the object into them. In fact, the static is generated by you, usually your clothes although your body does it naturally, and it is then passed to the earthed object. If the car was insulated from the ground it would not zap you!

What clothing do you wear? If you wear a lot of nylon then that is one source of buildup. On the other hand some people just seem to be more prone to it.

I can't remember where (probably Herbalife or something like that), but I once saw some little straps that attach to your ankle and under the heal of your shoe. The idea is that they 'earth' your body and prevent enough static building up to make the release painful. Apparently the human 'pain threshhold' for static is 1000v!

Originally posted by Dragon
Every time I get out of my car, and I do not mean only after I have been driving, I get one hell of an electric shock if I come in contact with the body of the car. It really hurts (whine whine).

Do those rubber static strips that hang from the back of the car work?

Does not seem to matter what I am wearing or how long I am sat in the car - Zap!

Any advice? And don't tell me not to get in the car ;)

Dragon

Get rid of that burberry shirt mate, it's obviously conducting electricity :D :lol:

Sorry, only messing..

So how come it only happens when I get out of my car? And not just me - other people have had the same experience.

I never had the problem with my friends car and he had the same type as me.

Dragon

Originally posted by Dragon
Every time I get out of my car, and I do not mean only after I have been driving, I get one hell of an electric shock if I come in contact with the body of the car. It really hurts (whine whine).

Do those rubber static strips that hang from the back of the car work?

Does not seem to matter what I am wearing or how long I am sat in the car - Zap!

Any advice? And don't tell me not to get in the car ;)

Dragon

Shurrup moaning about it! not everyone can say they have a jump every time they get into a car :D :D :D

It used to happen to me until I started driving an automatic so I guess the build up of static is to do with the constant rubbing of your left foot on a nylon carpet.

This would explain why it happens when you're the driver but not the passenger.

I used to have a Mazda which had a button on the door which you touched before getting out which discharged any static build up. Don't know of any other car which has this.

Thanks Rich and Owdlad LOL

It happens to the passenger of my car as well. You think maybe it has to do with the floor mats? Hmmmmm!

Maybe I will try driving without them in. Cheapo things.

Leave my shirt alone you.

Dragon

Check your trousers as well.... :)

Moving on seat covers will also accumulate a charge.

Years ago I was asked to investigate why handheld computers were repeatedly failing when they were bought in for downloading to a PC. We looked at the handhelds and found that in some cases the chips were actually fried by static electricity.

We eventually worked out that it only happened when one particular girl in the office downloaded the handhelds; a little delicate questioning revealed that she'd recently started wearing silk underwear and as she moved the underwear and the synthetic fibres of her skirt and blouse generated a static charge.

We installed a large anti-static mat and the problem was solved...just another wierd IT problem from the case book of Joe. :)

Joe

In a car you are insulated from the earth.

The car will always build up a charge when you are driving, and when you get out, that charge may earth itself through you.

If you touch the car with a key or other similar metal object, the arc will occur between the car and the key, and not your finger. The charge will still earth through you, but you are unlikely to feel it, as the current is so miniscule (even though the voltage may be in excess of 10,000V).

It happens to me too. I went through stage of it happening at the end of every journey, without fail. Now I push the door closed with my fingers on the window and use the central locking system to secure the car - problem solved.
I wear rubber soled shoes/sandals, carpets in car are nylon but I don't have mats.

I too have the same problem. When I get out of the car I have to nudge the door shut with my bag or similar. This occurs also in the supermarket with trolleys. You can fair hear the crack of electricity. People have had shocks from me too.

I was about to raise that point. It does not matter that I use the car keys which have a plastic grip - I still get a shock. The other day I gave my son a lift in the car and we got out. I locked the doors - Zap. I turned round and happened to brush close to him - ZAP!

double whammy.

You lot sure there is not something wrong with the electrics of my car?

Dragon

same happens to me wether im driving or a passenger i get out of the car and zap,its a killer(lol),no car seat covers on my seats just a standard car,you can hear it as well,,,,,,,

Hear it - you can see the damned sparks flying. I reckon if they get much worse I will burn out the computer in my car - then I will be up the river - so to speak.

Anyone need their car jump starting?

Dragon

Best way to avoid it is to grab hold of the doorframe as you open it and then while still holding it, put your foot out of the car onto the floor. The static still passes from you to the car, but you don't get the zappy spark.

I remember when my son was about 6 months old, we took him in his pram to Meadowhall. After pushing him around for about half and hour, he got bored and started to cry. I leaned over him to try and rectify things, but a spark jumped from the end of my nose onto the end of his! Not a happy chicken I can tell you.......mind you, I wasn't very chuffed either.

Apparantly it can be down to your car mats, so my Dad was told years ago.

You're right Dragon - it Bl***y hurts!

I'm not so bad in summertime ( atmospheric pressure? cotton clothing? ) I don't know.

Both my children have had the unfortunate experience of being zapped by their mother whilst kissing them off to school. Hubby quite likes it tho' :heyhey:

Oh and God help me if I go to Debenhams - it's like 5th of November if I touch those handrails.:wow:

I have the same problem with the trolleys in morrisons but I put that down to the clothing I wear. I am obviously moving around a lot so build up a static charge.

This is not the case with my car where I sit unmoving in the drivers seat - effectively unmoving unless I have an itch. Just seems weird that I can get such a shock from my car, and it only happens when I get out of the car. I can rest my arm on the metal - with the window open, and no problems.

Surely this has to be something to do with the electronics???

Certainly a shocking experience.

Dragon

I get the static thing too, never from the car, but I always get it from shopping trolleys and shelving in shops. The weirdest thing is that one of my cats suffers with static, sometimes he can be walking along and you can hear his fur crackling!

As has already been said the car is building up a charge while you are driving. Simply rubbing a balloon causes static charge to build up on the balloon similarly when you are driving your car is effectively being 'rubbed' by the air rushing past it. So charging it up. When you get out and touch the car it then earths itself through you.

That is why helicopters have static lines because as they fly through the air they get charged up too. If they were to hover and allow someone to descend but without the static line then that person would earth the helicopter when they reached the ground - very bad - hence the need for a static line.

I have one of those strips which are supposed to stop you getting shocks and to be honest it doesn't work! I get round the problem by closing the door by touching the glass and then have remote locking.

I used to get this loads, especially from cars. As RoyalRegular says, the best way to avoid it is to make sure you're holding onto a metal part of the car as you put your foot on the floor. A painted part is OK. The same amount of charge still passes through you, but because you're touching with a large area (your hand, for example), you won't feel it and you won't get a spark.

The whole electric shock thing made me really jumpy (heh, no pun indended...) for years. I started to think that I'd get a static shock off any bare metal surface. It got to the point where I'd cringe every time I opened a window, picked up a screwdriver, or whatever. I'd almost always *think* I got a shock, even when I probably didn't - I used to instinctively recoil away as soon as I touched metal.

I also got it when touching other people. I couldn't bear to run around Meadowhall touching the shoppers, which used to be my hobby ;). But seriously, it got to the point where I'd cringe as I was about to kiss my ex-girlfriend. Mind you, 2 years later I can see loads and loads of good reasons why I'd cringe kissing that old bike ;)

I had to really force myself to shake this off cos it was threatening to turn into some daft compulsion / phobia. I still get shocks from time to time but it doesn't bother me like it used to

I have the exact same problem, but I just assumed it was something you can’t get away from. Or an unforeseen side affect from my years as an apprentice at Vauxhall motors where I was the "See who could take the most electricity" champion!

I decided to use my powers for good, but that was boring so now I use them for evil!

I think also you should check the engine earth strap, the battery connections and any other earth straps earthing your cars electrics to the body. You may have a bad connection somewhere causing a short circuit.
I get zapped too, at the moment. I need to be getting down to some DIY.

Thanks - I will check the car's Earth leads. Maybe I am just a shocking person with a shocking personality.

Dragon

I get similar in supermarkets off the trolleys and at meadowhall off the hand rails....

I find these copper health bands seem to work....well they do for me...