OilcanHairy
Active member
My wife & I were in Myrtle Beach over the weekend at a beachfront hotel. I had the car parked right next to a 150kv transformer. We got chased off the beach Friday evening by a real Hollywood-movie-style electrical storm, & while sitting on the balcony a lightning strike hit just outside around front- not sure how close, but the flash & bang were simultaneous. Half an hour later, with the rain stopped & the lightning out over the water, we went down to the car to go to dinner. My first attempt to start the car resulted in the motor shutting down after lighting up- which I recognised as the anti-theft mode. Then I took a good look at the dash- glow light flashing, ditto check-engine, all other lites on, and most unusual of all- the clock was RACING. After a period of mild panic, I remembered a mechanic telling me his secret way of resetting a computer- by simply disconnecting the negative battery terminal, & letting the computer chill anywheres from 5 or 10 minutes to half an hour, depending on how sick it was. In this case, ten minutes did the trick- after reconnecting the battery, it fired right up, gave a little "hiccup", & settled into its idle like nothing ever happened. The clock, however, was still racing, & did so into most of Saturday- but when it stopped, it was on the CORRECT TIME- I never touched the adjustment stem!
My best guess is that my little Jetta got temporarily fried by what's known as an "electro-magnetic pulse", either from close proximity to the lightning, or the transformer I was parked next to. I don't think the car was actually struck, mostly because I saw no physical evidence of it- and if it had been, I don't think I would have been able to "reboot" it.
All's well that ends well- I logged my first highway mileage numbers elsewhere in this forum, and just wanted to hear any feedback from y'all as to my theory of what happened to my lil' wigglebug Friday night. Anyone?
PS. 04 PD, 5speed, no nav or trip computer.
My best guess is that my little Jetta got temporarily fried by what's known as an "electro-magnetic pulse", either from close proximity to the lightning, or the transformer I was parked next to. I don't think the car was actually struck, mostly because I saw no physical evidence of it- and if it had been, I don't think I would have been able to "reboot" it.
All's well that ends well- I logged my first highway mileage numbers elsewhere in this forum, and just wanted to hear any feedback from y'all as to my theory of what happened to my lil' wigglebug Friday night. Anyone?
PS. 04 PD, 5speed, no nav or trip computer.
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