Greetings Ten-Tec'ers,
As noted, this is "OT", but I thought I'd toss it out for comment since I am
sure that a good percentage of the readers of this reflector have dealt with
the effects of lightning on Ten-Tecs and other electronics.
Here's the situation: a friend of mine who works for a local automobile
dealership today told me that they had an '09 small import SUV that was
brought (towed) into their shop after suffering a lightning strike. While the
strike's exact path is needless to say an educated guess, according to my
friend it appeared to enter via the vehicle's nav system antenna, found its
way around inside, exited via the BC radio antenna across the body and/or
through the electrical system and to ground through the tire pressure
monitoring system and wheels. In the process, it took out the alternator and
instrument cluster and "powdered" (carboned?) the surface of the fusebox
(strangely, didn't blow any fuses.) It also burned a path across the rear
cargo area carpet (likely from wiring underneath.) Needless to say, there's a
strong suspicion that this isn't all that was damaged.
So, based on this description and any experience you may have had with
lightning vs. Ten-Tec rigs and/or other equipment, is there much (or
anything) left of the electronics in this vehicle? I told my friend that from
what I knew even if the vehicle were "fixed" it would probably be back
multiple times with aftereffects. His reply was that he suspected it might
wind up going to the salvage yard given the amount of parts and labor that
could be involved (e.g. it would probably be cheaper to replace the engine
with a used one than to check and replace all the sensors buried inside it.)
Any comments?
TNX/73, Al
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