Yes, it's due to static charge building up on the car.
Yes, it's because the car "rubs" it's way through dry air, and the friction causes the charges to seperate, some building on the car, and the opposite ones building on the air.
Yes, it's far worse with dry air, charges easily leak away through damp air: stand under an electricity pylon on a damp, misty day, and listen to the humm, and fizz as the HT leaks into the air. The braver of you might like to stand under one, holding the end of a fluorescent tube, with the other end pointing at the cables! It lights up
Yes, the spinning wheels will also cause charges.
Yes, wearing man-made fibres on a man-made seat will cause even more static build up.
Yes, charges only build up on the outside of things, that's why the're on the outside of the car, and not shocking you during the journey.

Like charges repel, unlike charges attract, so the build up of charge on the car wants to go somewhere, (away from itself, really), and the earth (ground) is the place it wants to be.
So when you touch the car with your foot on the ground, the charges come off the car, through you, into the ground, hence the spark.
If you're wearing man-made etc, you have charges on you already, which may be the opposite of those on the car, so when you touch it, you're actually ATTRACTING those charges, hence the larger sparks some of you get.

Solution:
1. wear no man-made, and get leather seats.
2. fit a discharging strip to your car.
3. run the car through a carwash b4 getting out of it
4. let someone else get out first:

This is schoolboy physics. Hands up those of you who never paid attention during Physics lessons?:
Alcazar

 

The solution is simple

Whilst getting out, hold onto a metallic piece of the car. I haul myself out by grabbing the roof, and Bingo! no spark. You're earthing yourself and the car through your shoes, hence you can't feel any spark.

Try it, it works, or your money back

 

I had this problem too - thanks to Alcazar for his accurate description of why it happens.

I now have a simple procedure when getting out of the car:

- open door
- grasp the edge of the door such that I have one finger on the glass, one on the rubber and a couple on the metal of the door
- only then, put a foot on the floor

It's very simple and highly effective. Don't be tempted to slam the door by pushing on the glass alone - there's a risk of pushing the window out of alignment.

A.

 

VERY scarey day yesterday.

Imagine the above in a petrol station - opening the fuel flap

That happened to me.

 

Just tried the "touch the metal with the key first" suggestion this morning, then gladly went to close the door with the metal frame, thinking I would be OK - gave me my biggest static shock so far

So that solution doesnt work then

 

It's about time you lot binned those shell suits. Or have you spent all your money on your cars and can't afford new clothes!

 

Wax your car - less wind resistance = less charge
Park your car so its touching something that is grounded i.e lampost

 

DW,

You have to touch with the keys with one finger on the metal part of the key. If you're holding the placcy top only, it doesn't work.

Strangely....... it's never ever happened to me!!! dunno why!!

Phil

 

Touch the metalwork of your car BEFORE stepping out, this earths yourself to the car or something, it works.
Doc

 

Thanks for all the input everyone.

I mentioned several posts back that I popped out to move my car yesterday and got nuked through my shoe. I literally rolled the car back 10 feet and then forwards the same distance. How would such a charge brew itself up over 20 feet at 1 mph? Not a shellsuit in site btw.

Must say it is behaving itself today. Different weather the reason?

 

great reading these, nearly pi$$ed myself laughing, but know what you all mean. i get out and hold the rubber at the side of the glass. seems to work for me and no finger prints on the glass either. other solution put the earth strips under your car out of sight and hope nobody sees them. used to do it years ago on 205 gti but the ba$..d used to get me seconds later when i locked it through the key.

 

Sorry to keep on but something odd is in the air. I am getting them off everything. I had a viewing on a property earlier today and even got zoinked by the bloody estate agent as I shook his hand.

I can confirm I am getting them off the door glass aswell as the panels.

 

Worth a try Evil. Will have a go tomorrow afternoon.


I do however think you should apologise to the board for the standard of one liners in your post.


Cheers mate.

 

Hehe,

Sorry, was iresistable! shockingly awful i know!

Let me know how you get on!

[Edited by EvilKyote - 4/11/2003 10:31:21 AM]

[Edited by EvilKyote - 4/11/2003 10:32:19 AM]

 

Scoobs are bad, But my Dad's Rover's worse.

I swear everytime I shut the door on the damn thing. Much to the bewilderment of anyone around me at the time

Solution: Sell the peice of junk
Replacement: BMW 325 touring

 

Lol @ Dan4

Looks like a good excuse for a couple of doughnuts then every time you want to get out. Try that as an excuse next time you get caught for that in a carpark!

Les

 

This happens on my wife's Clio too and has got to the point where I am shouting expletives everytime I get out the damned thing. Its really starting to **** me right off. Its like ramming a knitting needle into the friggin mains socket!

 

Lol. Ive started getting these as well in the last month or so. Even more of an excuse to let the missus out first whilst I stay behind to cool the turbo

Simon.

 

Got new shoes last week,stopped the car next to the bank machine,got out leaving the door open as i was only going to be 1min,as i went to key in my number a spark shot off the end of my finger at least 3inches from the keypad! I work as an electrician and i know what a shock feels like but this was unreal,straight down my right side and out through my toes,much jumping about the street to the bewilderment of passers by!Find it best to hold on to the plastic bit of the key and touch it against the lock when i get out now.
Col.

 

EvilKyote: I'm afraid that what you're saying about earthing on the car is wrong. Improving the earthing might help if you have a problem with the car's electrics (eg. weak starter motor or poor sparks), but it won't make any difference at all to the static shock you get when you step out of the car. If you saw a difference then it was for other reasons, probably the weather.

The reason is that the static charge is caused by friction and builds up on the outside surface of the car. The car's own electrical system has nothing to do with it - in fact the whole car may charge up to a few thousand volts relative to earth. The electrical system only connects to the battery, though, not earth - so it only 'sees' 12V.

The car will always charge when it's moving, and will always discharge by some mechanism when it's left stationary. Usually it's a sudden discharge through your body to earth.

Next time you're watching F1, observe as the cars make pit stops - there are spring contacts embedded into the pit lane that make contact with the cars as they arrive. This discharges them, ensuring that there will be no spark when the fuel hose goes on. (I can't believe that F1 cars are poorly earthed )

Andy.

 

I get this too but only when I wear a certain pair of shoes.

I get around it by making sure I'm touching a metal part as I get out, then the spark occurs at the shoe rather than my hand.

 

Andy, Don't think it was the weather! Thou it may have been something i inadvertently did while re-earthing my bodywork! And i was 7 years ago when I was at school when i last did electronics, so I have an excuse for being inaccurate!

But if that is the case, then explain this:

Gas discharge lights, when switched on the gas capsule ignites at something like 24,000 volts or something stupid like that, then drops to about 7,000 volts after a few secs (if i remember correctly), This power comes from the battery right? and has to go somewhere! Now most people would assume that is goes back to the battery as it is connected to it! so if the battery only see's 12v, where the hell did the other 23,988 volts go? on vacation? I think not!

Would like to know that one!

[Edited by EvilKyote - 4/11/2003 11:36:55 PM]

[Edited by EvilKyote - 4/11/2003 11:37:47 PM]

 

You guys might all want to check your wheel bearings.

Mine only does it when a wheel bearing is getting tired. Get it changed, it goes away. It's usually the first sign, people.

 

i get it as well off my bloody truck as well as my scooby,i have been told if i shave every hair off my body and my head it wont happen anymore,but that would take me ages to do as i am a human munkey so i think i will just have to put up with it

 

I was driving home last week having been on the road sometime and thought I'd stop for something to eat. A Maccy D's drive through 'that will do' I thought so in I drove and ordered the food from the usual brain dead spotty swot. Then I went to the next window to collect my food. She successfully delivered my drink from which I took a quenching sip of and put down ready to recieve my Big Mac Meal. Well as I turned back I saw her JOLT voilently and chuck half my dinner in my car. 'Ouch errm Sorry' she said 'I just got I shock off your car'. I tried to vocally respond but was still choking on my mouthfull of Fanta so just drove off laughing.

Thats only the second time its happened and never to me.

I think I might have seen you the other day driving your truck Stubee Doo either that or Gaz from Supergrass is now a trucker.

 

The question is not so much about where the 23,988 volts go, but where they come from in the first place. They're generated by a device called a switch-mode power supply, which converts a low voltage (12v) and high current into a high voltage (24,000v) at low current. The lamp is connected across the high voltage output.

The high ignition voltage is required to cause the air between the electrodes in the lamp to ionise. This ionised air is actually conductive; the current passing through the air gap is the source of the light. Once the air has ionised, a lower voltage is all that's needed to keep it that way, hence the drop to 7000v or so.

I don't follow your question about where the 'other 23988 volts go' - that high voltage circuit is completely isolated from the battery thanks to the design of the switch-mode supply.

Andy.

 

drawing pin in yer shoe.or blakys if you old fasioned

 

those rubber plastic strips have a metal core

and they do work as i had no choice but to fit one on my old 306 pug.
I am now getting this from my UK wagon as well, and I put it down to the new shoes i have got
A pair of charcoal odour eaters seem to have cured it but i havent got a clue why????

[Edited by mattstant - 4/8/2003 3:10:53 PM]

 

Thats a rather shocking problem you have there!!!

Well, At least you can look back and know that when you drive your scoob it will always be an electrifying experience!!! Cor what a shocker!!!!!

From what I understand this problem can often be cause by bad earthing points of the car! cause the electric built up within the body has no where to go so when you get out you get zapped! thou technically, if your body work is properly earthed to the battery, this would give the electric buildup somewhere to go other than through your body when you get out!

Check all your earthing points as over time they will degrade and resistance will build up! I had this problem so I went round my car, located all the earthing points on the car, removed at earthing cables, lightly filed the contact surface of both body work and cable connector, reattached the cable and made sure the contact was nice and snug, and added a light smear of oil (not very much) but just enough to stop air getting to the bare metal and corroding it.

This sorted the problem out perfectly, you may need to add a few extra earthing point to the body work which is easy to do! All your need is say some 15amp connecters, (The ones that look like a hoop) not the spade connectors! some electrical cable, some smallish washers, and some nuts and bolts (small ones) and alls you do is locate a hole in the bodywork (Not on the outside of the car obviously), the ones that about about the size of a pea or smalled, gently file away any paintwork (Only a few mm worth from the edge of the hole, place a CLEAN washer on either side or the hole (The hoop connector on the end of the cable there was well, Put the bolt through all the holes, do the nut up and make it a nice snug tight fit, add a light smear of clean oil over the exposed bits of metal, and then run the cable back to the battery and connect it to the negative (Think this is the right one) terminal on the battery! and walla! you have a new earthing point! Of couse on some places you don't need a nut and bolt, you can use an existing one, just make sure to clean up all the contact points!!!!!!!


Hope this is of some help with your 'shocking' problem!

Evil

[Edited by EvilKyote - 4/11/2003 10:12:19 AM]