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  • O.S.O.K. 1961

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    The 6 month power outage thread made me think of something that I've seen regarding EMP's and our vehicles.

    What I read is that most modern auto engine designs are partially shielded. And in the event of an EMP which shuts them down, the proper thing to do is to disconnect the positive battery lead, wait a few minutes and then reconnect it. This will reset the vehicle's electrical system and allow you to start the vehicle.

    So, just be sure and have the tool to do that in your vehicle.
     

    Shotgun Jeremy

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    As i understand it- EMPs, by design, will short out your circuit boards. If that's the case, any modern vehicle will be toast.

    Sent from my VS996 using Tapatalk
     
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    Brains

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    I'd be curious to find any definitive testing that has been done on modern automotive controllers to see if they actually would fail. My hunch is that while some would probably be killed, most would survive. They're pretty well shielded, and the harnesses are reasonably well shielded by the vehicle structure itself. Inside the controllers, there's shunt diodes on everything. If there is a failure, that is likely what would fail and could be easily replaced or removed in a pinch. Barring that, some of us would probably make a fair living building new rudimentary ECUs to get cars back on the road again (I have a couple universal ECUs in the garage ready to roll).
     

    ScS

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    From what I've read vehicles up through the late 90s have a 50/50 chance, anything later model is a dead duck. I have a 80 El Camino that I turned into a street rod. Not a single factory wire left in it, and a couple of points distributor's if needed. My concern is if the alternator will fry. After a while I wouldn't dive it even if it did run. The roads would be packed with dead cars and anybody with transportation will be like meat to the lions
     

    Brains

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    Are they shielded, or would they need to be powered to be damaged?
    They would need to be shielded by a Faraday cage I believe, the electrical pulse would supply the power to fry them.
    To be 100% sure? I'd have to test it, and I don't have a spare nuke handy (darn). ;) So, while I "think" they would likely survive (no harness attached means a significantly lower induced voltage from the pulse), I really don't know. But it hedges a better bet than having nothing at all.
     

    ScS

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    My understanding of an EMP is that it attacks and fries circuit boards and the circuit boards will in turn fry electrical systems attached to it, which means most if not all sensors like crank position sensor or flow sensor will also be cooked. But if the ECU isn't hooked up in the car all wiring and sensors should survive. The pulse doesn't fry wires, the circuit boards do, and the longer the wire the worse it will be. That is why it is assumed that the power grid could literally go up in flames
     

    vmax

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    I have a published article somewhere on my desktop written by a scientist about the probable effects of an EMP blast on vehicles.
    It really cuts through the “what if” BS and lets you know the facts.
    How the vehicle is oriented and the direction of the blast are important. A concrete or metal lined garage can completely shield it from damage.

    I’ll try and find it and post upload it or at least find a working link to it.
    It was written several years ago...
     

    Ruark

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    I always thought an EMP worked by corrupting the data stored in memory circuits, which are them selves little magnetic fields. For example, that's why you can corrupt a credit card by putting it near a magnet on a checkout counter: it corrupts the data stored in the magnetic strip. So in that way it would destroy the data saved in the car's computer.
     

    O.S.O.K. 1961

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    Well, the Carrington event that happened in 1859 literally caused the telegraph wires and equipment to melt and catch fire. But those were long wires which apparently capture and concentrate the effects of the magnetic pulses. The same thing would happen to our electric lines today... not sure if surge protectors would stop the damage to our doo-dads.
     

    TxStetson

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    It’s not an electrical charge attacking, it’s an electro magnetic pulse. On straight flat wires, it won’t have any effect. Little sensors like the crank position sensor have a coil in them and if this magnetic pulse is large enough, it can generate a voltage large enough to fry your ECU. But that depends on size of the burst, and height above the surface, distance from your vehicle, direction relative to your vehicle, and amount of ferrous material between said sensor and the aforementioned pulse. The problem with saying all the things this EMP will destroy or not, is there are far too many variables to accurately determine anything with any certainty.


    TL;DR EMP damage is a lot like Y2K. Some things will be greatly affected, others not so much.
     
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