Electric shock at toll gates
 

Hello everyone,

I have an issue with my 2017 BRZ.

Sometimes, when I stop at toll booths, I get an electric shock when reaching for the ticket or pressing the buttons.
I mean, a pretty unpleasant shock — my arm actually stays a bit numb for a couple of hours afterwards!

I’ve tried different clothing and shoes (even barefoot), but the issue remains the same.

I’m leaning towards excluding static electricity, since it happens repeatedly even if I touch the booth twice in a row within a few seconds — there wouldn’t be enough time for static to build up again.

Today I measured around 50 V AC between earth ground and the car’s chassis ground, both with the engine on and off. After a few minutes the voltage somehow dropped to 0 V.
No DC voltage between earth and chassis.

I don’t have any high-voltage devices in the car (inverters, amplifiers, etc.), so I really don’t know what to think.
Also, 50 V AC shouldn’t be anywhere near enough to give the kind of shock I’ve been experiencing.

This has been happening for about a year now, and it’s become more frequent in the past few months.

Has anyone experienced anything like this?
Any ideas on where to start troubleshooting?

Thanks! :bow:

Static buildup on the shell of the car from passing air particles.

I get a smalllll zap sometimes.

Shouldn't the body be grounded to the battery and not be an issue?
Maybe you need to get one of those grounding ribbon/chain that longhaulers attach to their trucks.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

There might be problems with the toll booths and their AC connections.
I remember a few years ago, there were some city light poles that weren't grounded sufficiently,
and they would shock people and pets that got near them.
Took ages for anyone in charge to admit that, "Yes this is our problem."

Take your meter to the toll booth next time?

I would get shocked every time I exited my twin when I touched the outside of the door to close it. So years ago, I got one of these. First thing I do when I get out is touch it to the key lock in the door handle, every time.

I was thinking that too, but this happened to me at 5 different booths in 3 distinct countries (Italy, Austria, Germany). Nothing is impossible but this seems unlikely.

Anyways, my multimeter will live in the car starting today ahahah

Regarding the static electricity hypotesis:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I know, static takes some time to build up, so the fact that i can get shocked two times in just a couple seconds means that:
1- the static builds up reeeeally fast (from what? Idk honestly)
2- it is not static