Re: Static shocks

["Linus D. Toy" <linust@interramp.com>]

At 12:41 AM 4/5/96 -0500, Burl Vibert wrote:

>>First, check the tires. Honda has official notes regarding some tires 
>>that lack in something or other that would retard the conductiveness of 
>>electricity of tires. I also found those cheap tires (especially OEMs) 
>>have tendency to make a car statically charged. Solution here is get a 
>>better set of tires (preferably something at least HR).
>
>The tires Honda is referring to have a silica based tread compound rather
>than Carbon, I believe they are Michelins. Because carbon is a much better
>conductor of electricity  than silica, it discharges the static charge
>faster. Apparently toll operators and drivers were getting zapped all the time.

the tire referred to here were the Michelin LX1 installed as OE on early
90's Accords.  these were one of the first "energy" tires (low rolling
resistance) that went out en masse (when the Accord was the #1 selling car
in the US).  Most of these tires should be gone by now--Michelin changed the
compound already.  there was an article about this in one of the car rags
(either RT or EC)

>[deletia]
>OEM tires aren't cheap, they are probably the best tire for your car as they
>were tuned for your car. If you want a "better" tire, that choice would
>depend how you define better. Although I agree there are some dogs out there. 

tuned for your car, yes.  better for your car? prob'ly not.  cheap?
yes--when you have a few hundred thousand cars selling each year (x4
tires/car) there's some serious effect on the bottom line.  remember, these
aren't S4/S6s on Goodyear GS-Cs we're talking about.

--linus
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* linus toy           email:  linust@interramp.com                   *
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