I've got an '03 MCS with the space clothe seats. There's a small(?) problem that arises almost every time I exit the car. If I touch the metal part of the door to close it, I receive a small electrical shock. It doesn't do it just touching the car, only after driving in it. I don't think my electric personality is the culprit . Could this a problem of a static build-up from the seat material? Has anyone else experienced this? And lastly, does anyone have a cure, short of changing the seat material?

 

I get a shock, but usually when its cold and dry out. Now that it's warming up and the humidity is rising I haven't been zapped once.

 

I have the space cloth in the MCS too, but I have not suffered from your problem. I think it might be the floor mats or floor carpet. Your shoes rubbing against the carpet is perhaps building up the static electricity. Be careful when refueling the MINI okay

 

Try a bit of fabric anti-static spray on the seat or rub a fresh laundry dryer sheet on the edge of the door.

 

>>Be careful when refueling the MINI okay<<

That would be an embarrassing way to check out!

 

That used to happen to my in my Nissan p/u all the time. Hated it! (The shock, not the truck.) My trick was to rap my knuckle on the door hard enough so that I didn't feel the shock. Wierd, but it worked.

 

If you're driving around, you may encounter the odd vehicle out there with a rubber strip coming off the vehicles chassis, dragging on the pavement. Those are electric static grounders. Help take away static currents, to prevent the little shocks. Kinda unsitely things. That's one solution. Maybe there's a nice spot where it's not that noticeable. Probably could pick them up at any autp parts store.
Outside of that, I have the space cloth seats as well. But I have the circular pattern rubber mats that I use all year round. Maybe that's what has been working for me thus far.
Cheers,

 

I wouldn't suggest the grounding strip. In an electrical storm it would negate the insulating properties of the tires. Taht could be truely shocking

 

hmmm. Good point.
OK now, forget I said anything.

 

Moorlockx,

The problem actually has nothing to do with the space cloth seats.....it's the tires. Sounds crazy, but as you are driving down the road, the continous flexing of the tires generates a static charge. This charge builds up in the car because the car is insulated from the road by the tires. When you step out onto the ground and touch the door to close it, you create a grounding path for the charge to disipate through. It wouldn't matter weather you had space cloth, leather, or leatherette.

Some tires do this more than others; I would guess due to tread compound and/or construction. My present daily driver has had four sets of tires on it in 150k miles. The originals did not exhibit this, the second set would give me a shock so bad I'd yelp like a wounded puppy, the third set a mild shock, and the latest set no shock at all. Sometimes the effect would lessen as the tires wore.

The worst part is that no tire manufacturer or retailer can tell you which tires do this and which don't; in fact I've asked and they look at you like you're some kind of lunatic. So changing tires is both expensive and not necessarily effective. The grounding strap would do the trick, but looks kind of cheezy and, as someone pointed out above, there are very rare occasions when insulation from the ground is a good thing. How about a gentle hip-check to close the door? Over time the static charge will naturally dissipate, so you might experiment with waiting five or ten seconds before hopping out of the car. Or if you have a passenger, let them get out and close their door first!

Out of curiousity, what tires are on your MINI (make, model, size)? How about others out there with this problem; what tires do you have? Maybe this can be correlated to a specific tire type?

Best of luck,

James

 

I used to have a Toyota Corolla that did this to me a lot. Here's the cure...once you get out of the car, gently smack the door handle/body of the car with a closed fist before closing the door normally. The "hit" will cause the static charge to dissapate quickly and is painless, just make sure you don't have your keys in your hit hand as this will cause scratches to your car door. Try it and let us know!

 

>>I've got an '03 MCS with the space clothe seats. There's a small(?) problem that arises almost every time I exit the car. If I touch the metal part of the door to close it, I receive a small electrical shock. It doesn't do it just touching the car, only after driving in it. I don't think my electric personality is the culprit :smile:

 

I get shocked occasionally....depending on what I am wearing. I have certain clothes that create static when I sit in the car.

Always remember though as someone already said....when pumping gas if you need to get back in the car for anything make sure that you touch something else other than the gas pump before removing it from the car so you don't blow yourself up.
That WOULD be a lame way to go.

 

One more idea........ The shock actually happens not when you touch the metal door, but just before you touch it. At some close distance the electrical resistance of the air gap between your skin and the door gets low enough to allow the static potential to jump across the gap, just like a spark jumps across the gap of a spark plug. The hurt comes from the spark jumping from the car to bare, sensitive skin, not from the static charge dissipating through your body.

Try firmly holding on to a metal part of the car (door or door frame) before and as you set your feet out onto the ground. This way the spark should jump from the soles of your shoes to the ground, where you'll neither feel nor notice it.

Cheers,

James

 

Thanks to all of you who responded! :smile: I tried the static guard sprayed on the seats last night and it actually seems to have worked. I'll give it a couple more days before I declare it a success.

In answer to the tire post, I'm running the Pirelli runflats (205 45 17)

But ain't it just like life...solve a minor annoyance and then find out my poor car has been included in the recall for the rear strut bolt (this doesn't seem to effect all the cars. If you're the original owner you should have gotten a letter, but as I wasn't the buyer, I had to call my dealer to find out if I was included...I was BTW, my production date was 10-02)

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03 B/W S model; Madness intake; Cibie 45 lamps; Magnaflow and X-pel kit on the way