Why is my car suddenly so shocking?

December 17, 2004 7:03 PM

Recently, when my wife gets out of the passenger side of our car, she gets a little shock when she goes to close the door. Why is this happening, and what can we do to make it stop?
posted by Quartermass to Technology (22 answers total)

That's static electricity using her as a ground when she gets out of the car. Not much you can do, unless you want to attach a grounding strip to your frame.
posted by SpecialK at 7:06 PM on December 17, 2004

Happens to me all the time - it's just static electricity that has collected from my shoes and clothing. I don't think there's a whole lot you can do about it, except maybe get one of those anti-static wrist thingies that computer tech guys wear.
posted by Dr. Wu at 7:07 PM on December 17, 2004

Yup, static electricity. I went through a week where this happened so badly I had little burn marks on the tips of all the fingers on my right hand. I stopped wearing my fleece jacket and it went away.
posted by Nothing at 7:08 PM on December 17, 2004

Be careful with static electricity when pumping gas.

"The Petroleum Equipment Institute (PEI) has documented 129... [static gas pump fires]...since the early 1990s."
posted by ericb at 7:13 PM on December 17, 2004

I get this all the time in my car. It got even worse after I had the seats scotchguarded. As for a solution, you could tell her to close the door with her hand on the glass or stop dragging her butt across the seat as she gets out ;-)
posted by Tenuki at 7:30 PM on December 17, 2004

I get this on my best friend's Ford Focus when I'm wearing a certain pair of summer shoes. Have her touch the frame of the car with her shoulder before she puts her hand to the door to close it. The shoulder touch will dissipate the charge and she probably won't even feel it. After a while it gets so that you make the motion unconsciously no matter what car you are riding in.
posted by matildaben at 7:33 PM on December 17, 2004

Happens all the time to me, too.

She needs to: ground herself (matildaben's suggestion is good and I'm going to try it) before touching the door handle, or not touch the door handle, or stop wearing clothes that produce static electricity, or learn to deal with it.

If you don't care what your door handle looks like, you could slap some electrical tape on it and that would make it non-conductive.
posted by Sidhedevil at 8:50 PM on December 17, 2004

cloth seats and the friction created as you slide in and out can cause fairly large sparks. it's a very bad idea to get in and out of the vehicle while the pump is running.

and what ericb said.
posted by quonsar at 9:14 PM on December 17, 2004

here's what airplanes do to keep static discharges like this from causing major explosions - they mount a little pointy thing on rear edge of the wing of the plane. you can see it if you are sitting over the wing - it is about eight inches long, shaped like a needle.

how it works: because the charges repel each other, they go to the end of the needle and get discharged into the air, apparently. then new charges come down and take their place.

you could rig up something like this on the exterior of your car door.
posted by mai at 10:05 PM on December 17, 2004

here is a picture:
static discharger on plane wing
posted by mai at 10:08 PM on December 17, 2004

crap. that failed
posted by mai at 10:08 PM on December 17, 2004

here it is properly
posted by mai at 10:09 PM on December 17, 2004

I used to always get static electricity build up because of a particular fleece and i would always get shocked by my car. The shock hurts cause the charge is arcing and hitting your skin or something; i dunno im not a physicist nor physician. But you can do this:

Hold a metal object(a key) when getting out of the car, after your feet touch the ground, touch the car with the metal object . The static charge will transfer at the tip of the key not at the tip of your finger.

Atleast this way the shock won't hurt.

Hope this helps.
posted by Merik at 10:49 PM on December 17, 2004

Hold the metal part of the door frame or door as you get up. The static electricity will gradually discharge rather than do it in one shock. It's the act of leaving the cloth seat that builds up a charge.
posted by knave at 10:52 PM on December 17, 2004

Ambulances, fire trucks, and other large vehicles sometimes get rid of static charge buildup just by hanging chains from the bottom of the vehicle so they just barely scrape along the ground. So, there's an option... Pointy static dischargers would look way cooler, though.
posted by zsazsa at 12:38 AM on December 18, 2004

Actually, you can connect a grounding strip -- they sell them at auto parts stores. It's a thin plastic piece that hangs down from your car's frame and has a metal strip or wire running through it.
posted by SpecialK at 1:39 AM on December 18, 2004

Yeah just fit a Anti Static Strap (which is what they call them where I live) as SpecialK said.
posted by lucien at 3:10 AM on December 18, 2004

Tell her to hold the door first, THEN put her foot on the ground.
posted by krisjohn at 6:28 AM on December 18, 2004

Best answer: eh. as far as i can see, the problematic charge is on the woman. the car is acting as ground, not as the source of the shock. so a grounding strip on the car won't change anything. either touch a metal part of the car as you slide out of the seat (that's the critical point, not when you put your foot on the ground), or hold a metal object and touch the car with that (as has been suggested above - effectively a grounding strip on the person). either way you avoid arcing as you discharge the static generated by sliding.
posted by andrew cooke at 7:10 AM on December 18, 2004

Happens to me all the time. If you get in the habit of touching the door with the palm of your hand first, then close the door, you'll get a much smaller shock. It's a pretty simple change, and once I started doing that, it hasn't bothered me at all.
posted by Sibrax at 10:18 AM on December 18, 2004

If she places her hand on the metal frame of the window or door before she shifts in her seat and holds it while getting out, there'll be no shock.
posted by five fresh fish at 11:11 AM on December 18, 2004

This used to happen to me every single time I got out of my car. Only me. Others who drove my car never got shocked. It never happens any more, so I don't know if it was my clothes or my shoes or the way I sat. It just went away.
posted by SAC at 12:50 PM on December 18, 2004