when lightning strikes a car does it short out your electrical system?

Answer 1

Think of it like this: the clouds and upper area where the lightning occurs is like one side of a big battery. Your car, and everything surrounding it, is like the other side. Electricity wants to flow from one side to the other. Instead of it "leaking" out like normal, it can jump or arc when the intensity of the electric field between the clouds and the Earth get too great.
I am fairly certain that the rubber wheels would insulate the car from grounding out to the Earth. As the link below, as well as the pictures contained within shows, a strike can happen to a car.
Many additional factors may play a role in whether the car sustains electrical damage. The NLSI suggests that the immediate environment will change how the lightning affects the car. For instance, a rained-on car will have a coating of impure water which will aid in the conduction of electricity!
Faraday's Cage was also an excellent suggestion. A cage or shell of any sort made of a conductive metal will shield the inside of that shell from any charge.

http://www.lightningsafety.com/nlsi_pls/vehicle_strike.html

Answer 2

Lightning will only strike a car if the car is grounded somehow, which is almost never true. But if somehow this happens, well then yes it could burn up the coil and fry any integrated electronics like the radio.

I know the other guy said something about the car being grounded to the ground but this isn't true. It's grounded to itself only. Lightning travels from the ground to the sky, or rarely the other way. Anything inbetween like trees, towers, flagpoles, would have to be attatched to the ground.

Cars have rubber tires which insulate it from the electrical charge, so lightning will no strike a car unless something that is conductive and attatched to the ground is touching the metal of the car.

Answer 3

All this talk about rubber tires preventing lightning from striking a car...UTTER NONSENSE!

The potential differences that develop as a stepped leader approaches the ground make the insulating properties of tires insignificant. The current may pass from the car to the ground directly through the air, it may pass across the tire's surface or directly through the tire. (a tire has no hope of halting a discharge that punches through miles of air)

As for your question, lightning could indeed incapacitate your car's electrical system. Suppose it struck your radio antenna. Certainly most of the current would still pass across the car's body, but I suspect it would still impose sufficent voltage drops throughout the car's electrical system to render it pretty much useless.

Lightning also produces a significant electromagnetic pulse. This can induce very large voltages in nearby conductors....like the electronics in your car.

So, to answer your question, Yes.

As a side note..........I had a mathematics professor who showed up for one lecture in a state of wide-eyed bewilderment. He explained that lightning had struck his vehicle while he was driving and that it simply ceased to function, leaving him coasting to the roadside. He also claimed that he had to have the car towed to a shop to replace whatever electrical hardware had been damaged. True? Only one person knows for sure. He seemed genuinely shaken.

Answer 4

Well, I did look at the other answers (especially the one above mine) and had a few ideas . . . but what I was taught was that the lightning would be attracted to the rubber tires, which would then charge the lightning to the ground. As a result, the lighning would not shorten out the electrical system in the car.

Answer 5

Probably not.
Let me clarify something- according to my friend (who's getting his Ph. D in Mechanical Engineering), a car is a good place to be in NOT because of the rubber tires; it's because the metal frame essentially carries the current around you! It's called a "Farady's Cage" (sp?).
I think the only way it would short out the electrical system is if it is in contact with the metal frame, which is usually not the case.

Answer 6

the rubber tires insulate the car from the ground therefore lightning can not possibly strike your car

Answer 7

Ok, this just happened to my car. Lightning struck the ground not far from my doublewide home and knocked out my electricity. I had to reset the breaker and luckily it is back on but I went out to start my car which has not had any problems and it is dead. The car was parked right next to the house. We jumped the car and it started by it making some disturbing noises. We will have it towed but I think something is wrong with the electrical system. Any thoughts???

Answer 8

No,because your car acts like a perfect grounded conductor,letting the flow of electrons pass/flow through your car,from ground to air...tom science

Answer 9

Hmm . . .I wouldn't think so. I'm not really sure but I think that everything grounds to the frame and the fram is grounded to the ground, so ideally the power would go strasight to the ground and not through any of your valuable stereo equipment.

Answer 10

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