Random engine stops and Cosmic Rays

Fords will be Fords.

You are describing a really dirty or loose battery or ground connection.

A EM surge might stop the computer, but it won't disconnect the main power.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

Rick Colombo wrote:

Absolutely...

You should also line your hat and your shorts with aluminum foil...

Approximately 10/30/03 22:07, Daniel J. Stern uttered for posterity:

Except in scandanavia, where Fjords will be Fjords.

Yuck, can't imagine a solar flare strong enough to stop a car engine and leave the driver intact. Although used to have a Porsche that the illegal linear amps on CB's could make stutter when near a semi with one.

Approximately 10/31/03 08:39, asdf uttered for posterity:

Tsk. Aluminum is for the head, for the shorts you need to use lead foil.

And just in case anyone thought you were joking:

Yeah, tell it to the Canadians that lost electricity when their power grid went down the last time we had solar flares. -PapaRick

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mmm, Fords that randomly and repeatedly stall. Suddenly it's 1975!

DS

Clang *ding!*

Good ol' Bosch D-Jetronic EFI, inadequately shielded from RFI and EMI in Porsche and VW applications. Pull up next to an EFI VW, key the mike, stall the VW.

DS

And so it panned out that the following script was sculpted by none other than Lon Stowell:

That's why the Norwegians don't make cars - they can't affjord it.

Something like car alarms made by TRW. Used on many Ford products we found that we could trigger the alarm just by being within 100' of the car and running 5W on the 2m band.

Most people don't realize that many things are inadequately shielded against EMI and RFI. And that installing say, a 1000W amateur rig and antenna could seriously mess with the functioning of the car.

And so it panned out that the following script was sculpted by none other than COTTP:

But many of us, even the dumb common joe non-engineers among us, do realize that. :}

The power grid can be affected because geomagnetic activity affects the lines. This is only because the power network is so large, however. A car is far too small for there to be any significant effect.

"Robert Hancock" wrote

Actually, single-event hits on a computer's memory could cause a program crash in the ECU... Wonder if the guy on alt.autos.bmw that recently complained about his airbags blowing when he started his car had one? ;->

Floyd

It turns out that my battery is the culprit. I did a "Load Test" today and it Fails right away. I put in an old/spare battery for now, but I'll be buying a new one tomorrow. Thanks for all the replies, I think this topic, if nothing else, has entertained a few people :-) -PapaRick

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

fbloogyudsr wrote:

Yeah, but are you absolutely *sure* it wasn't the recent solar flares that drained your battery? >:-)

Approximately 11/1/03 19:45, Rick Colombo uttered for posterity: