radar & cars
radar & cars
(OP)
A strange one......my SO goes to Stansted airport to collect the offspring, when they get back to the car it’s a non starter.
It turns over fine (as far as I can tell listening to it via mobile phone) but refuses to start. Call the recovery lorry, driver says “we get lots of these, it’s the radar, I’ll tow you down the road and it will be fine”
He does and it is!!!! Nothing was touched, he just moved it maybe 2 miles yards and it started.
Car is an 1999 Alfa 145 twin spark which is a paragon of reliability (apart from tonight)
Anyone else ever heard of this?
It turns over fine (as far as I can tell listening to it via mobile phone) but refuses to start. Call the recovery lorry, driver says “we get lots of these, it’s the radar, I’ll tow you down the road and it will be fine”
He does and it is!!!! Nothing was touched, he just moved it maybe 2 miles yards and it started.
Car is an 1999 Alfa 145 twin spark which is a paragon of reliability (apart from tonight)
Anyone else ever heard of this?





RE: radar & cars
However, I suspect that the particular location where your car is located has extremely high RF fields, since the tow truck diver had seen it before. The fields may be higher than what the auto manufacturers test for. Industrial vehicles are generally tested for higher RF immunity.
I have heard stories about vehicles driven up the base of some very high power VOA shortwave towers being affected. The people who maintain these transmitters generally have older type diesel engine vehicles which are not affected, and which they use to tow away visiting vehicles. But even with a no-electronics diesel, all the warning lights and buzzers are going off when they reach the base of the tower.
There is also a 'urban legend' about semi truckers, illegal high power CB radios, and sun bugs in the 70's. The last generation VW bug had early fuel injection. Truckers would wait for one to pass, then kick on the transmitter and watch the bug fade back. When the VW would try to pass again, they would repeat the process. They called it "bug mashing". Basically, the fuel injection was susceptible to a strong RF signal.
RE: radar & cars
... at least not twice.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: radar & cars
RE: radar & cars
RE: radar & cars
A number of the earlier generation of electronic controlled cars suffered from EMC issues from mobile phones, 2-way radios and radar.
RE: radar & cars
This system has a bus to the processor and the program block containing the vehichle ident info.
If the path is not complete the engine will not be premited to start.
I to had an ocassion the have an alarm for about 30 seconds then it cleared, while driving my truck.
I passed a truck with the driver on his ham radio. I know him and figure that was the cause of the alarm but no real proof.
Never happened again.