Lightning Strike, Mitsubishi Triton.

[JDNSW]

Just had a visit from a niece. She was telling me about an issue they have with their three year old Triton. About six months ago, they came home from town to find that unlike in town, there had been heavy rain.

The dam near the house, which had been dry, was now overflowing, and as they found, the transformer on the power pole (next to which the ute was parked) had been fried and there was no power in the house.

The ute had the parking and interior lights on, and they could not be switched off, except by disconnecting the battery. Next morning, the lights came on again when the battery was reconnected, the lights came on as before, and still could not be switched off. ANd it refused to start.

So, off to the dealer on a tow truck, to decide whether it is a lightning strike or a warranty claim. The dealer was unable to determine what was wrong, so called in an auto electrician from outside. "dead computer!" So they replaced it. Now they have two dead computers. So replaced a separate computer. Now they have three. At this stage, they decided it must really have been hit by lightning, and passed this information on to the insurer. Now an insurance claim. Insurer now wants to write the vehicle off. About to start arguing about the value.

[Slunnie]

It seems Lightnin will frighten a Triton. :lol2:

[Tins]

EMP. Had one here moons ago. Took out most of the 'tronics in the house. Insurer said they could track strikes, saw there had been hundreds near us, and paid up.

[BradC]

Lightning is a funny beast. Being a newer vehicle it'll be riddled with electronic modules *all* of which will be suspect and need replacing, so I can understand it being written off. Probably a great resto job for someone with a trashed one to swap the electronics over.

I've seen it char a board, and I've seen it damage one resistor in the middle of a board that was about 2 foot square leaving everything else untouched. It is entirely unpredictable.

[101RRS]

My 2007 2.7 RRS was hit by lightning in 2011. At the time the car went crazy, would drive but nothing else worked. I had a scangauge plugged in through the OBDII port at the time, and when I unplugged it the car returned to normal. The car electronics survived the full jolt with no ongoing issues but the poor scangauge did not.

For some silly reason I plug the scangauge back in from time to time and it sends the the car electronics berserk.