Magnetic Affects on Vehicle Electronics

exteranl magnetic forces

There were many different tests that were run, to simulate different theories. The first theory is that vibrations such as rain hitting a vehicle would reduce the magnetics. Also, being tested are vibrations from everyday driving, heat, and time. The results of these tests will now be discussed.

To get an accurate analysis of the data, the amount of magnetization during the time spent in the coil had to be determined. This would give a better understanding of how the demagnetizing tests worked. When looking at the magnetization of a vehicle the three axes reacted differently to the 8 Gauss field. The magnetization of the x-axis on the Ford Winstar decreased slowly as measurements approached the rear of the vehicle. The difference was about 100 to 150mG change. The y-axis increased dramatically in measurements from the front of the vehicle towards the rear of the vehicle. The increase was about 1 Gauss. The z-axis decreased dramatically from the front of the vehicle measurements as the measurements approached the rear. The total change in the z-axis was approximately 2 Gauss. The average magnitude of change over all three axes for the Winstar was 2.026 Gauss. The changes were slightly different for the Audi. The x-axis decreased slightly in measurements from the front towards the rear. This was approximately a 150mG change. The y-axis measurements increased by about 1 Gauss from the front towards the rear of the vehicle. The z-axis increased by approximately 1.5 Gauss. The average magnetization for all three axes for the Audi was approximately 1.580 Gauss. There are two tests that decreased the magnetization of a vehicle more than the rest. Those tests are the bumpy road test and the precipitation/heat test. The bumpy road test for both the Ford Winstar and the Audi reduced the magnetization by about 317mG. The precipitation test for the Ford Winstar reduced the magnetization by approximately 203mG. The heat test was run on the Audi; the average demagnetization for that test was 130mG. A bumpy road test was run on a Jeep as well. The average demagnetization was 266mG.

These results show some interesting things. These results show that the best way to decrease magnetization of a vehicle is to introduce vibrations to it. Although through testing this way of demagnetizing only reduces the overall magnetization of a vehicle a small amount. The other tests that did not include any sort of vibration did not have much of an affect on the overall demagnetization of a vehicle. The precipitation on a vehicle seems to be another decent way of reducing the magnetization, although probably due to the fact that vibrations were introduced through precipitation. The test was run with snow, and not rain. The next test to run is a controlled rain test.

Hard rain does quite well reducing the magnetization of a vehicle. When rain was dumped on a vehicle at a rate of 5.85 GPM for one hour, it reduced the magnetics of a vehicle to within an average of 60 - 70mG of the original magnetization. This should be close enough to the original strength of the vehicle not to worry about taking it down any further. Normal driving should reduce it back to the original values after a while.

It appears as though the best way to get way to get a the vehicle magnetics back to the original state would be to let the vehicle sit in a hard rain for an hour. This is the best action that could be taken so far based on the testing that has been performed.

7. effects

Figure 6 – Components of earths magnetic field [6]