Tony Mawad said:
I once heard (don't know how accurate or where I heard it from) that if you get an electrical shock when you exit the car it is because there is a short somewhere.
No. electrostatic electricity is built up in all cars when they are driven. the tires used to dissipate that electricity fast enough so you rarely got shocked but the "newer" tires are using much less carbon black in the mix (in order to reduce rolling resistance) so they dissipate electricity much slower, alowing you to get shocked when you exit the vehicle.
most esd fires at gas stations are from the person getting back into the car during fueling and sliding across a seat to get back out, building up an electrostatic charge. then the first metal object they touch is the pump and spark, fire, panic, etc...
leaving your engine running has nothing to do with electrostatic discharge. the reason you are supposed to shut off your engine is because they are affraid a spark in the engine bay will ignite some fumes or something. i dont know if i buy that one but apparently it has happened before, so...
the cell phone thing is pure urban myth. it was busted in mythbusters.
cigarettes is an interesting one. forget every movie you have ever seen. a cigarette cannot ignite gasoline. its simply not hot enough. so why cant you smoke at the pump? because a cigarette doesnt light itself. while a cigarette may not cause trouble, a match or lighter sure as hell will.
now i find it funny that people are using the racing car annalogy to justify their lazyness of not turning their car off. pit crews are always covered head to toe in nomex. i have also seen several pit fires involving refueling. i really dont see where the justification comes in.
and airplanes? hmm. i dont recall ever seeing an airplane beeing refueled with its engine running. not only that but they always clamp on a grounding wire to the plane before they even touch the pump.
do what you will, cause you will anyway, but if you cause a fire at the pump next to mine and my car getts toasted, well... lets just say, the fire is not what you should be worried about.:2ar15:
