shocking developments with my cx5

[stromdriver]

ok, the title is a bit of a pun, but there's some truth in it...


for quite some time now, whenever i get out of my cx5 i get a shock when i reach for the door or brush it, i got a harsh static shock, at first i thought it was a winter/dry air thing, but its still happening, even on short trips of just a few miles....anyone else having this?

my wifes doesn't seem to do it
and these aren't little rubbing feet on carpet earlobe zaps, these are strong, and loud, a very sharp 'crack' when it happens, wife has heard it on occasion too from other side of car...

i'm beginnin to wonder if maybe somethin is shorted out in the seat and leaking voltage into the seat and imparting a charge to me, that grounds out when i touch door frame while i'm getting out (or perhaps the entire car is, and its just going to ground thru me?

man, it sounds even crazier now that i've typed it out, but its whats happening...

 

[paris1]

Mine does exactly the same thing even in northern Calif. weather which is approaching summer temps. I suspect it's the seat fabric in the Touring models. I've developed a habit of touching my wrist to the door frame as I exit which isn't as irritating as grounding with my hand. Does your wife's car have leather? That could explain the difference.

 

[deepfriedsushi]

I've actually been experiencing the same thing. I have a 2014 Touring. When I first bought the car, I didn't notice it, but now I constantly have to ground myself. I put by leg against the bottom door sill/frame when getting out and let the shock pass through there. I have the husky weather mats, so it's not me rubbing my feet on the carpet to generate static.

My protege5 always did the same thing too, but I thought that was from my electrical modifications and them not being grounded well.

 

[nXt]

The 2004 Mazda3i I had did that all the time.

 

[HandA]

Honda had a great write-up on static shock: http://handa-accessories.com/staticshock.pdf

Basically to get a charge to the point where it will jump and zap like that takes a lot of voltage, way more than 12 volts.

My classic test (don't try this at home) is to touch your passenger after you get out of the car but before you touch any metal on the car and see if it zaps to them If it does then it is you charging up from moving on the seat.

Try wiping a dryer sheet on the seat surface. That always works for us on the vehicles with cloth interiors. I think some of it is the mix of fabrics affect it too. Some work better to get a larger charge and I've had some pretty good zaps in the past.

We had one car that would charge us up good regularly and I'd have to wipe the seats with a fabric softener sheet about once a week. Finally got leather put in it and no more problem.

 

[HandA]

I've actually been experiencing the same thing. I have a 2014 Touring. When I first bought the car, I didn't notice it, but now I constantly have to ground myself. I put by leg against the bottom door sill/frame when getting out and let the shock pass through there. I have the husky weather mats, so it's not me rubbing my feet on the carpet to generate static.

My protege5 always did the same thing too, but I thought that was from my electrical modifications and them not being grounded well.

I think plastic mats can do a pretty good job too, but mostly it is the sliding in and out of the seat the fabric of the seat rubbing on the fabric of your clothes.

We've got plastic chair mats under our chairs at work and if I slide me feet back and forth on them I can generate a heck of a zap to wake up co-workers.


The only electrical thing on a car that can generate the kind of voltage for it to jump like that would be the coils. 12 Volts just won't jump like that. And even if you wired a coil to the body of the car it won't generally do anything. I worked with a mechanic that tried to set his toolbox up with an ignition coil setup to pulse as a theft deterrent and even with the rubber wheels raised up on even more rubber the power from the coil just dissipated before it would transfer to someone touching the large toolbox.

 

[stromdriver]

she has a touring with cloth same as mine, and has the weathertechs in it also like i do

 

[dad of jon]

she has a touring with cloth same as mine, and has the weathertechs in it also like i do

you're building up a static charge most likely.

wear more natural fibers and less man-made. I find I get shocks at work when wearing rubber soled footwear. - nylon carpets can really build up a charge with the wrong footwear.

 

[stromdriver]

you're building up a static charge most likely.

wear more natural fibers and less man-made. I find I get shocks at work when wearing rubber soled footwear. - nylon carpets can really build up a charge with the wrong footwear.

it happens regardless of clothing, blend pants, denim(all cotton jeans), all cotton shorts, an doc martens, columbia sneakers, etc...

 

[deepfriedsushi]

I may try out the dryer sheets to see if that makes any difference. The shocks I get from the CX5 are stronger than the ones I got from my protege5 with cloth seats. I find that getting in and out of the cx5 requires a bit of sliding on the fabric to get into position, where I'd just kind of plop down on the p5 seats.

And interestingly...my leather seated miata doesn't shock me....So it could be the seats and how much I slide over them.

 

[Reggae]

Now you see why they say never sit in your car while fueling static charge could ignite the fumes.

 

[xtrailman]

The last car I got a shock from had velour seats, also nylon cloths don't help.

My last two have been full leather with no shocks.

maybe worth trying those discharge straps that drag on the road, but I haven't seen any for years.

 

[atitus]

I used to get this with my Subaru WRX. Cloth seats, but you'd get the shocks getting IN to the car just as often as getting out. One interesting point with that car, was that I would only occasionally get the shock but my wife would get shocked ALL the time. It really drove her nuts!

 

[HandA]

So it could be the seats and how much I slide over them.

Great point. The CX-5 is up higher so for most people it is more of a sliding in and out rather than a standing up from and sitting down into the seat like with lower cars.

I used to use the static guard spray on the seats until I heard about just wiping them down with a dryer fabric softener sheet. It is cheaper, works just as good and smells better than the static guard spray. On the Honda PDF What Causes Static Shock they mention making your own spray using 1 part liquid fabric softener and 10 parts water. I haven't tried that.

 

[deepfriedsushi]

Thanks for the PDF and tips HandA!

So I rubbed the driver's seat down with a dryer sheet last night. This morning when I arrived at work, I didn't get shocked when I got out of the car!

Based on this sample size of one...it works. lol. We'll see how long it'll last before I start getting shocked again. I've kept that dryer sheet in the car just in case I need to apply it again.

 

[IHeartGroceries]

I used to get this with my Subaru WRX. Cloth seats, but you'd get the shocks getting IN to the car just as often as getting out. One interesting point with that car, was that I would only occasionally get the shock but my wife would get shocked ALL the time. It really drove her nuts!

That's funny - my brother bought a new bugeyed 2002 WRX back in 02, and it would literally shock the crap out of you. Everytime. I have never been in another vehicle where it happened so much. And it isn't a problem in my CX-5, interestically.

 

[aperture_shot]

This happened a lot in my mazda3 cloth seats. I have learned to hold the door frame as I open the door never got shocked again. By force of habit that's how I open my cx5's door even though I have leather. Exactly why you don't go back and sit in your car while fueling. I also touch the metal body of the car before i fuel just to be safe. For a long time I thought I was just prone to getting shocked.

 

[paris1]

I just tried the laundy sheet and it seems to work. Don't much care for the mix of smells however!

 

[jabba]

This happened a lot in my mazda3 cloth seats. I have learned to hold the door frame as I open the door never got shocked again. By force of habit that's how I open my cx5's door even though I have leather. Exactly why you don't go back and sit in your car while fueling. I also touch the metal body of the car before i fuel just to be safe. For a long time I thought I was just prone to getting shocked.

I think Mythbusters did the whole static thing with cell phones and getting in/out of cars at gas stations, and could not get fuel to light up. I think the fuel/air mixture is not really ignitable at the pump, or something like that.

As for me, when I get out of my Speed 3, I just lean my shoulder on the frame of the car--the shock isn't as noticeable on my shoulder.

 

[HandA]

I think Mythbusters did the whole static thing with cell phones and getting in/out of cars at gas stations, and could not get fuel to light up. I think the fuel/air mixture is not really ignitable at the pump, or something like that.

I think this person, among others, would offer a differing opinion. Skip forward to just before the 1 minute mark:

One of the biggest things mythbusters proves with all their tests is there are a million variables for every event and you can't make them the same for any test.

I remember seeing part of where they were trying to get the cellphone to create a spark and laughed because the early reasons I heard for why they said not to use them while at the pump was if you slip and drop the phone and the battery popped loose while in the middle of a call it would create a quick spark. A long shot but still more likely than some mysterious static spark jumping from it in normal use like they were looking for.

I was also bummed when they did the metal in the microwave one. Years ago at work a guy put a big wad of burritos wrapped in aluminum foil in our microwave and cranked up the timer. It ended up blowing a hole in the door but they couldn't get theirs to do anything exciting.