Seats electric shock when closing the door

[nakedlau]

Not sure if anyone's mentioned this before but I've had my Civic for over a month now and have been electricuted nearly every time I've closed the door! I say electricuted cos I don't think electric shock quite does it justice. I've had this with other cars before but this one seems a bit severe. Does this happen to anyone else? Is there anything that I can do to stop it?!? I have floor mats inside and normally have the air-con on which probably doesn't help but there must be something simple I can do?? Otherwise I love my car though and its treated me very well indeed!

[thiswilldo]

I get static shocks as well. I was wondering if one of those straps that you fix to the back would get rid of static, the thing that just touches the road surface when stationary. Do they work ? Or are they a bit chav nowadays ?

[Fedorov]

Actually now you mention this, I used to get this all the time on my Mondeo quite bad but I've not had it at all with my Civic, in fact I forgot all about it till you mentioned it

Mine's an EX with fabric seats and metal pedals if that helps!

[elfa7]

Never noticed static with the Golf, but I do with the Civic.

[basegreen]

It varies with time. I've started getting them over the last week for the first time.

[richierich]

I also get them, but they seem to affect Mrs RichieRich more than me, which is great to watch. One solution I was told is to make sure you are touching the body work before you put a foot on the groud. I was also thinking if getting a lightning conductor finished, but I think they look awful , do you think you could fit one from the chassis, right under the car somewhere?

[Fedorov]

It also has a lot to do with your footwear, trousers and jacket you wear as some build up more static than others while driving - I still can't believe I've had NO shocks from my Civic yet, trying to think if it's my new jacket that's different!

[Nick7]

As richierich said, when exiting car be sure to touch a metal (door for example) while exiting, and stepping on ground.

[richierich]

Don't do like I used to try and do, get out of the car without touching anything and then kick the door closed, normally end up brushing the car with your elbow, and thats an awful place for a shock, although on one particularly painful episode, I got out and was trying to brush passed the door and got a zap on my nose, you could smell it.

[pengin]

My understanding is that it's you giving the car an electric shock more than the other way around, so earthing plastic things on the back wouldn't help. Something about the interior causes people to "charge up" better in some cars than others.

Saw Myth busters the other day about fires at petrol stations. Since the US fuel pumps "lock" and you dont have to hold them, people go and have a little sit in the car and fiddle around to charge themselves up. Then get out of the car without touching anything and cause a spark when they reach for the pump. Muchos flamos!

[Big-Chris]

I saw that too, they couldn't blow up the petrol with a mobile phone though. Interesting, I thought.

[richierich]

I think its the seats, I hoovered the car the other day and was giving the fabric a real seeing to with the hoover end, you could almost feel the static, like when you have rubbed a balloon on the front to your shirt.

[jayt43]

Petrol pumps in most European countries also lock. Very handy if you're filling up completely. UK forecourts also have the little clips on the nozzles, but nowhere for them to latch onto. Of course, it's done purely to wind the French up and Germans up. No safety reason behind it at all!

Also, I don't know of too many people going up in flames on the continent, although I'll bear in mind the static problem when I get my new Civic.

Maybe they'll be lots of spontaneously combusting Civic drivers when more deliveries arrive in mainland Europe in October!

[Copycat]

No locking pumps in Finland either. They've all been disabled as far as I know.

Never had any static electricity shocks from any car. Sounds strange. Maybe it is indeed more related to what material your clothes are. I don't know.
Does anyone with leather seats have this 'problem'?

[Pottsy]

It is the rubbing of your trousers against the seat material, so holding onto a metal part of the door as you exit does the trick. Those lightning conductor things always make me giggle - they're made out of the same material as tyres...

[richierich]

But don't they have a little strip running through them to act as an earth, we all know that a car makes a faraday cage when struck by lightning, so how does adding an insulating strip help. Or is that your point.

[Bigian]

If you wear nylon Y-Fronts use a fabric softener this will not stop the static shocks but is a bit more comfortable on long journeys - sorry!!!!

[Pottsy]

I didn't really make my point very well

Tyres conduct electricity really quite well. The rubber has additives that make this happen (used to be carbon black, but is now something different), and this is a good property - stops all sorts of horrible static related things happening. The lightning strips are just the same, and the "conductor" bit is just paint. So by adding one, you are in effect adding a fifth "tyre". There are benefits to having one, but they are all psychological.

[MC Hammer]

I used to get them a lot on other cars , but nothing on this Civic Maybe it's something to do with the clothing worn and rubbing it on the seats creating a charge which discharges causing the shock. (Oh how I love leather...oops wrong forum)
Lots of solutions like discharge keyrings etc; but an easy fix I found was to close the door by pushing the glass in the door as it's non-conductive when dry.

[nakedlau]

Have sprayed my interior fabric all over with Scotch Guard, it repels water so maybe that's causing the static? Don't wanna get my grubby handprints all over my window so I guess the only thing is touching the door frame before stepping out - may take a bit of practice :S