In a CME Event...

trying not to sound well.... i don't know.
your battery will be fine in a CME.
your electronics will not.
you do not need power going to an electrical device to fry it, the CME will do that on its own.

from what i have learned.

A CME is unlikely to cause any permanent damage to your car, most likely it would stall but restart again soon after. From what I can see, this flare is onl expected to cause G1 level disturbances, which are nearly unnoticeable. I would be more concerned of an impulse from a nuclear detonation....this could fry everything!

Thank you both.

I am not overly concerned but, my phone (and my nasa apps, 3D sun app and spaceweather texts) have been going off for hours now. I just wondered. I would rather ask and find out than wait and see lol

It will happen pretty early in the day but I'm going up north and setting up the lawn chair in hopes of some Northern Lights. Maybe a little roasted marshmallow action. That's the advice I'm giving everyone.
Really folks, these are small.

The main time that you really need to worry about a CME (with a southern polarity), is if they see a red Borealis in Mexico. Then you might have time to get out of Dodge, When you see the power lines sparking or hear that the satellites are falling then you know its time to hitch up the mule team, cause the new Dodge just died.

I have seen reports by numerous agencies and people so here it is in a nutshell;

some say - no effect maybe restart engine

some say - little effect to full grid electronics shutdown

So.. prep for the worst, hope for the best, Faraday Cages and if you can a metal lined garage?
microwaves are quick and easy faraday cages, although I would put metal tape around the edges of the door opening and in the back where the vents are.
or ammo boxes, metal tape the edges

Yup!

.

Thanks folks! Getting out of dodge is not really an option any more (for now) BUT if this did happen and I had to leave, I just didn't want it to be something small like a battery coming inside that would mean I couldn't leave.

Any car built after 1986 will be severely damaged (electronically) by sever emp effects.

Pre 86 vehicles, I believe having a safely sheltered replacement alternator and probably a battery for after the fact and you'd likely be good to go.

It's really hard to know for sure, until such an event tests the theories. I would have to believe that if the emp could take out radios, it'll certainly take out the solid state electronics in a vehicle built after 1986 when such electronics really become prevalent in cars. Here's to a lively discussion about it at any rate.

Runs With Scissors

Currently, we are experiencing a level 2 geomagnetic storm. The effects of this type of storm are :

HF radio transmissions fading at high latitudes (ie Canada / Alaska)
Spacecraft may require some course corrections from ground control
Power systems may experience voltage alarms, long term storms at this level could cause transformer damage.

On average, 600 such storms occur during an 11 year solar cycle. This would make them quite common, and therefor, not much to worry about. Power systems could be rerouted in order to bypass the occasional damaged transformer.

We have probably all heard about the great solar storm of March 1989, when geomagnetism in the earth's atmosphere caused the almost immediate shutdown of Hydro Quebec's power systems at James Bay. Try to keep in mind that this outage lasted a mere 9 hours. The utility has made upgrades to the system since then, so the effect of such a storm would be even less today.

The theory behind this is that magnetized ions pass by extremely long transmission lines, which induces current above what is already flowing through the wires. This causes monitoring systems to read a spike in power and shuts down the system. There may be some transformer damage before the system trips out, but not all will be lost. In smaller, computer circuits like those found in cars, the magnetism would cause the same type of power spike, although on a smaller scale due to the short lengths of wiring within the computer. Keep in mind, that these tiny circuits run on very low levels of power, making them more succeptable to these spikes.

I have not been able to find a report on the exact strength of the 1989 storm, but neither have I been able to find 1 report on a damaged vehicle.
Of course, the sun is a very volatile and unpredictable star. Who is to say that a storm many times as strong as the 1989 event would never occur?
Of perhaps more concern would be an emp from a nuclear event...WW3, or even terrorist related. The very strong emp produced has been proven to be very destructive to any and all electrical system including computer circuits and electronic devices. However, the lights going out may be of minimal concern after such an event.