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My Jeep is literally toast

19K views 113 replies 74 participants last post by  bigegriff 
#1 ·
Y'all are never going to believe what happened to my 2012 JKU.

A couple nights ago we had some bad storms roll through Raleigh. We'd finally gotten the kids to sleep and we're settling in to catch up on some TV watching when all of the sudden a flash of light occurring simultaneously with a huge boom. Lighting had struck VERY close to our house. Needless to say it startled our 5 and 2 year olds who both woke up crying.

Meanwhile my Jeep was parked on the street in front of our house and it's horn was sounding so I was trying to find the keys to turn it off. They would not work but after about 30 seconds the horn quit. "That's odd," I thought. I wanted to go out and look around, but we were in the middle of a terrible storm, and lightning had just struck very close. I saw my neighbor head outside to check things out and so I decided to go out and meet him.

As we got close to my Jeep, I began to see smoke start rolling out from under the hood so we quickly ran over to it. The lights were on and the windshield wipers were going and I immediately though the lightning had hit my Jeep. We popped the hood and it looked to me like most of the smoke was coming from the battery and the fuse box. I ran in and told my wife to get our fire extinguisher. As I ran back to the Jeep the thing began trying to start itself and because it was in gear was lurching forward as the engine turned. My neighbor hurriedly moved his car from in front of my Jeep as I ran around and grabbed a couple landscaping stone to try and prevent it from lurching any further forward.

My wife quickly produced our fire extinguisher and I raced back to my possessed Jeep. I emptied the fire extinguisher onto the battery and fuse box area, but that didn't seem to help much, maybe slightly. My wife had long since called 911 and they warned us to stay 150' from the vehicle. We complied and relented to waiting for the professionals to arrive, which they did in less than five minutes. The immediately assessed the situation and went to work. The jeep was still "running" at this point so they cut the negative cable and everything went dead. The doused the fuse box with water until they were confident the fire was out. I thanked then profusely and we looked over the Jeep trying to figure out where it had been struck. I was assuming there would be a whole in the soft top or something but we couldn't find anything. Eventually one of the firemen noticed the antenna. It was melted and curled under with a Dairy Queen swirl on top.

Apparently lightning entered the Jeep through the antenna and destroyed the fuse box, which is now a puddle of melted plastic and metal. Hopefully the insurance adjuster will show up early next week and I can figure out what to do.

I'm so bummed. I've had that Jeep since it had 2 miles on it. I ordered it from Jeep thanks in large part to the info I gathered here with everything I wanted, and nothing I didn't. Now it's probably totaled. A large part of me hopes it is because there is no way that the electrical will every be right again. But she's still my baby and I hate to think of her sitting in some salvage yard being used for parts.

Thanks for letting me pour my heart out. I know y'all understand. Now I just have to find another one and I'll be whole again.
 
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#5 ·
Yep. Stock antenna. Now it's a stubby.
 
#8 ·
That's nuts! I've had lighting hit close but never a vehicle. Wrong place, wrong time. Hope it gets fixed right!
 
#9 ·
Oh, and my son insisted on taking the cut piece of the battery cable to daycare on Friday for show and share. All the kids were fascinated.

Today he had a birthday party to go to and one of the parents said to my wife that my wife would never believe the story her daughter came home with from school. My wife had to assure the mom that our Jeep did in fact get struck by lighting and catch fire. Then all the other parents were like, "what?! We've been here 45 minutes and this is the first we are hearing about this?!?" It will no doubt be something we talk about forever.

I'll try to post picks soon.
 
#11 ·
Sorry to hear about your Jeep. Bad luck, but it does happen.
My wife's Jeep Cherokee got hit by lightning back in 2001. Blew a hole through a tire big enough to pass my finger through, and created a weld spot where it hit at the roof corner.
 
#17 ·
Holy Hell....It's like the Jeep refused to die and was trying to save itself, that is awesome yet sad. What a crazy story! I would have to assume that this would wreak havoc on all of the computer systems. The damage is likely far more severe than what you can see. Good luck with everything!
 
#19 ·
I hope it is totaled, last year one of my coworkers had to deal with his new Chevy truck getting struck by lightening. The insurance company tried to have it repaired and it was never quite right, after 6 months and several trips to the dealer for repairs they finally gave up and bought it back from him.
 
#26 ·
Insurance company will likely total it. All the electronics are fried. Lightning hit a tree in my neighbors yard a few years ago roughly 30' from where their cars were parked. No visible damage to either vehicle, but neither would do anything the next morning. Both were totaled by their insurance company.
 
#27 ·
That is shocking! Hopefully you can turn a negative into a positive and get a current model Jeep out of the deal. Sounds like you are well grounded though in your expectations.

Sorry about this post, I couldn't resist.
 
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