[TenTec] OT: automotive lightning hit

[Al Gulseth]

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