electrical shock with a nasty burn ?????

[RayBan GST]

hi all,

Well I am here now with a big problem in my hand not in my car

Here is what happened below is a picture of the area (I want to know what is exactly this tube is for? Its between the alternator and the oil dip stick and its going all the way down next to the oil filter (it was leaking oil so I decided to fix it)

I am wearing in my right hand a bracelet made of gold and while i was trying to reach that tube my hand got stuck between the alternator and the dip stick and there was a nasty electrical shot as my bracelet hit the alternator (The bracelets literally MELT and made a nasty burn on my right hand till now I am in pain is the alternator has that much power to do so ???????? its like an electirc SHOCK very very strong one. it melted the gold !!!!!

I just want to know what this tube is for and wanted also to share my story so it won’t happen to you

please note that this picture is not for my engine bay its just to show you the location.

 

[rare1]

It looks like the antifreeze line that runs to the oil filter housing.I just pulled my engine apart and that is the only other tube that I know of.

 

[RayBan GST]

is this for sure because i think it had oil in it ? and what about this elctical shock that burnt my hand is it really that strong or there is something really strange in my alternator ?


i thought that the maximum voltage would be 12 v if iam not mistaken ???

thanks

 

[whiteAWD]

first of all i would strongly recomend NOT wearing jewelry when working on cars(ever). second, disconnect the battery when working in or around anything with supplied voltage

 

[viperlp01]

Well you car is around 12.5v and you alter is directly connected to the battery which should say around 500-700 CCA which is cold cranking amps. I know i sound like an ass but if you short that system out you have alot of amps running through that gold and grounding through your body.... 500A x 12v=6000watts .... sucks. Hope it gets better soon and if you have problems with you car you might have tripped the alternator fuse. Its a 100A fuse.. If it tripped then you had that many amps running through you ...

OO ya i think it takes .5 AC amps to arc across your heart and kill you... I don't know if DC is that lethal...

 

[RayBan GST]

Thanks for the advise i was not intending to work on the car i just saw that tube and decided to fix it quicky but for sure you are right i should not have worn the bracelet while working on the car

as for my other questions do you have any comments ?

thanks

 

[whiteAWD]

that hose you have circled is the hose that runs to the oil filter housing. it has engine coolant in it to cool the oil- oem oil cooler

 

[RayBan GST]

thanks viper but really it was extremely strong shock, the gold melted and made a burn all over my hand , i am putting a tooth paste on my hand now to cool it down

the shock also kicked me real hard but i was not able to release my hand from there until that bracelet was in peaces and broke of my hand.

i am happy now that this thing did not kill me as it would be really very IRONIC

 

[viperlp01]

OO ya i just did some more research(I am a Electrical Major ) and DC can kill you but at 12v on dry skin it is hard for it to push enough current through you fast enough. Lightning is DC and it kills alot. But the resistance of your body is around 1000 ohms and your car has alot more resisance so the voltage drop through your body should be small which in turn will make the current be low because voltage and current are related proportionally. The bigger the load the more voltage needed... You were a small load so you had less voltage...

 

[MidShipCivic]

Well you car is around 12.5v and you alter is directly connected to the battery which should say around 500-700 CCA which is cold cranking amps. I know i sound like an ass but if you short that system out you have alot of amps running through that gold and grounding through your body.... 500A x 12v=6000watts .... sucks. Hope it gets better soon and if you have problems with you car you might have tripped the alternator fuse. Its a 100A fuse.. If it tripped then you had that many amps running through you ...

OO ya i think it takes .5 AC amps to arc across your heart and kill you... I don't know if DC is that lethal...

Incorrect the CCA are for the starter and it's LARGE wire that connects to the starter.

The alternator wire is connected to the fuse box and is fused with 80amps.

 

[Redshark]

I once melted the chains from my watch together when i toutched the + connector on my battery...

Naste burn wounds and a welded watch was the result...

 

[viperlp01]

1gs are 80A and 2gs are 100A... you are right about it running to the fuse box but you are still gonna get alot of current... Esspecially if that fuse blew he had a straight 100A going through him,... The battery can produce 500+ cold cranking amps if the starter needs it... Even if the battery can only supply that amount of current for that small amount of time.... IF you short out a curcuit the source voltage and current total would be going through him....

Incorrect the CCA are for the starter and it's LARGE wire that connects to the starter.

The alternator wire is connected to the fuse box and is fused with 80amps.

Well small wire can carry alot of voltage and current too. It just burns up or gets really hot because the friction of the electrons being forced through such a small space... Your fuses are just really smal;l jumpers that are designed to melt when the current gets to high

 

[Redfwdsm]

isnt that part of the ac system? i think it is i have a pipe sticking up right behind my rad and it leads to the cooler in front of the rad behind the intercooler

 

[crimsondragon]

I believe it's common sense to not wear jewelry and to disconnect battery when working on it. You're lucky to be alive. Better mechanics have been sent to the hospital.

 

[viperlp01]

^^ the truth...

 

[whiteAWD]

+1 Crimsondragon

 

[snowborder714]

Both of the rubber lines that run to the oil cooler contain coolant. You can see both lines in the picture below. If it had oil in it, you have a problem. It most likely just had oil on/around it, but when you get back out there, I would double check and see if anything is dripping on it.

 

[ilco187]

to me in that pic, it looks as if you need to change the coolant hose from the radiator to the thermostat housing it looks collapsed in the middle.

oops i just remembered you said it aint you engine bay but it still looks like it

 

[99gst_racer]

is this for sure because i think it had oil in it ? and what about this elctical shock that burnt my hand is it really that strong or there is something really strange in my alternator ?


i thought that the maximum voltage would be 12 v if iam not mistaken ???

thanks

Voltage is the speed of an amp. 10,000 volts pushing .5 amps DC won't even hurt you, but it'll stand your hair up.

That wire that you touched runs to the battery. You basically just grounded the positive terminal of the battery to your engine block.

My buddy Dale was working around my engine bay years ago, while wearing his Fossil watch. He got his wrist lodged between the battery's positive terminal and my strut bar. I'd never seen him move so quick. It burned alot of his skin off in the shape of watch band links. Many of the links were fused together too, so it was difficult to remove.

 

[DougR]

Dc voltage is what's used in the electric chair.
Old school Mr tesla used DC to kill elephants back in the day, to scare ppl into using
AC to power the citys over (umm, can't beleive I forgot the other guys name ATM)
soandso's DC power.

But as stated its the load on a dc batt that is harmfull, humans just are not enough
for a 12volt battery.

 

[knochgoon24]

W
OO ya i think it takes .5 AC amps to arc across your heart and kill you... I don't know if DC is that lethal...

You're off by a bit. Try 60mA. Off by a factor of 8.

Jewelry and working a on a car don't mix. It can get scratched, snagged, or cause a short. I have enough trouble getting my hand into tight spots without the added hassle of jewelry.

Grease under the fingers nails.... that's what attracts the ladies.

 

[Zenja]

You shorted the 12V to ground through your bracelet, not your body. The bracelet took the current and what you felt was the heat of it. There's no reason for much of the current to go through your high resistance body instead of an extremely low resistance metal bracelet. Putting your fingers on the battery terminals doesn't do much because of your skin's high resistance and this is no different.

But yeah, I'm always paranoid when working with metal tools around the battery, making sure I don't connect + to ground somehow. Bad things can happen.

Voltage is the speed of an amp. 10,000 volts pushing .5 amps DC won't even hurt you, but it'll stand your hair up.

I wouldn't try that or you might end up dead 0.5A is certainly enough to kill you. Also note that just because something has the capacity to supply 0.5A means only that it shouldn't be able to supply more than that. The resistance of what the voltage is going across is entirely what determines the current. If you grab onto 10000V with dry skin it shouldn't cause enough current to kill you (about 10-20mA) but it's best not to take chances. If you touch with any of your wet bits or it penetrates your skin or something, you could be in trouble. Granted, it takes more current with DC, but let's not give people ideas

 

[knochgoon24]

You shorted the 12V to ground through your bracelet, not your body. The bracelet took the current and what you felt was the heat of it. There's no reason for much of the current to go through your high resistance body instead of an extremely low resistance metal bracelet. Putting your fingers on the battery terminals doesn't do much because of your skin's high resistance and this is no different.

But yeah, I'm always paranoid when working with metal tools around the battery, making sure I don't connect + to ground somehow. Bad things can happen.

If you got a bit sweaty while working, some of the shock may have traveled across your skin. Give it a little bit, the shock might have just tweaked a nerve.

 

[mobythevan]

Dc voltage is what's used in the electric chair.
Old school Mr tesla used DC to kill elephants back in the day, to scare ppl into using
AC to power the citys over (umm, can't beleive I forgot the other guys name ATM)
soandso's DC power.

I think you got that backwards, but it doesn't really matter. I thought Edison used AC currect to fry animals to show how unsafe Tesla's AC power was. DC, he thought, was nice and safe for everyday use. I have been shocked by a DC welder, its possible. I agree with the other guy that the bracelet shorted between the alt and block and the instantaneous heat made him think he was shocked. I had it happen to me on a 3 volt power supply with 100amps and my watch band. Your immediate thought is that you've been shocked because the pain is very sharp from the quick heat and your whole body tenses up from the reaction. Either way a painful experience. Yowwwww.

 

[steve]

Old school Mr tesla used DC to kill elephants back in the day, to scare ppl into using
AC to power the citys over (umm, can't beleive I forgot the other guys name ATM)

George Westinghouse and Tesla vs Thomas Edison. War of Currents - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It was Edison using AC to kill animals to show it was unsafe.