For the past few weeks, I’ve had this problem. After driving and parking my car, I get out and when I try to shut the door my car shocks me. I can see an electric current at times between my finger and the car. I’ve resorted to kicking my door shut most of the time to avoid the problem. What to do?
Search for static electricity on this board, you will find several very large threads covering suggestions ranging from common sense to unnecessarily elaborate.
This question comes up numerous times, especially in the winter. Sliding your clothing across the upholstery generates static electricity, which is discharged when you touch the metal door. The problem is worse when the air is drier.
You can try antistatic fabric spray on the seat, wear clothing made of different fabric (I think cotton generates little or no static electricity), or firmly grasp your car key and discharge to spark through that instead of directly through your skin.
Open the car door and grab on to the roof or the metal door frame before your feet touch the ground. If you get out only touching plastic pieces and then push the metal door closed, you’ll get shocked. Touching the metal while you’re still in the car will prevent that.
There are sprays could could try putting on the upholstery, as well as numerous other suggestions found in previous posts. Try searching like Josh suggested.
Are you old enouth to remember the days when trucks (and some cars) drug chains to eleminate this? I guess it would still work, but don’t recomment this.
Some tires are better than others at conducting static electricity to the road (ground) but I don’t know if there is any comparison data out there. In the mean time, before you buy new tires, if you wear little or no synthetics and mostly cotton you may find the problem is solved.
Does your workday clothing differ from your comfy weekend duds? If so you can test the clothing hypothesis.