08 Prius struck by Lightning!

[Sheepdog]

would a strike like that affect a non Prius vehicle as much? Would it be possibly totaled also?

scary stuff. I live in the lightning capital here in FL as does the car owner in this thread.

[Bear68]

Originally Posted by galaxee

what were the can signal line voltages on the high and low side?

0 VDC. Lights are on, nobody home.....

[galaxee]

ooof! well, gateway it is then!

[icarus]

As I posted in the other parallel thread,,, electronics can be fried even with a (not so) near miss. The Electo-magnetic pulse can fry stuff hundreds of feet away. I would consider talking to my insurance agent.

Icarus

[hobbit]

Steve from Autobeyours had one of those last year. I think he
wound up replacing several ECUs but the rest of the car was okay.
That's no guarantee, though, because the current path could
go just about any way and physically toast parts of the wiring
harnesses as well as sending big spikes through sensitive parts
that can't take it.
.
The ECU inputs and communications are pretty well protected against
typical randomness, but a lightning strike is likely to be a
bit, uh, too much for some parts of it. That would be true for
any modern car, not just a Prius...
.
_H*

[David Beale]

A few years ago we had on the TV news a Chrysler mini-van (then new) struck on the highway. It coasted to a stop. ECU was fried, one tire punctured (exit of lightning through tire). Radio was dead. No word on what else. People were ok, just a little scared.

The Prius (and all other cars) are not designed to resist lightning damage. Still, they do pretty well, considering the current from a direct strike is a minimum of about 5000 Amps and can be up at 50,000 Amps with a positive strike. The voltage doesn't matter, as after about 20,000 the energy goes wherever it can regardless (and it's much higher than 20,000 V). BTW, lightning is a nano-second DC pulse, often repeated at least once, can be +ve or -ve (most common), and the waveform goes across 0 at least once.

[Ichabod]

Important point there that people often don't get: Your steel-belted radial tires do NOT insulate your car from lightning! Lightning pushes through tires more easily than you push your finger through tissue paper.

[ravenmaniac]

Does a "magnetic" gray prius attract lightning more than other colors....LOL!

[hill]

They DO make gas filled antenna disconects specifically designed for lightning. You'd have to get a non-OEM antenna designed for the AM-FM frequencies, but you'd then be good to go. Of course you know the old saying, "you're more likely to be hit by ligntning than ....". So what are the odds, much less the odds of being hit some other occasion.

[David Beale]

Those devices wouldn't protect from a direct hit, other than directing most of the energy to ground so you may not get a fire or burned PC board. Usually, however, if they are struck directly they are destroyed, along with whatever they are "protecting". You'd still loose the electronics. The second problem with them is you need a very heavy "ground cable" to connect them to. The minimum for fire resistance is about a #6 cable, direct to ground (no fancy strain relief loops).

As you implied, if you get a direct strike from lightning it's probable something in the car will be blown (besides the minds of the occupants ). Good thing it's rare. Even better that the body of the car protects the occupants.