i wouldnt doubt that there could be momentary spikes but the wuation is , are they harmful to our cars.

The spike is probably a result of and instaneous change in the cirucit whether it be a lag in the VR compensation or some sort os charging effect. But even if there were 100v spikes, they are of what duration??? milliseconds? microseconds? how many amps? microamps? certainly not amps.

So there affect would be small because the average power or current delivered to the system would be negliable when you look at it real time.

its like the shock you get when you toch a door knob after rubbing your feet on the carpet. its several thousand volts BUT the duration is short (milliseonds) and the amps a low. so you dont die. Up the amperage or lengthen the duration and youre a dead man. you build up 50v of static charge just scratching your head- but you dont feel it.

on older cars with healty stought resistors and cap and maybe some power transistors (in the ign box or radio) they dont see that much average power. plus the resistance in the wires and the bleed offs from vraious power users drop that stuff into the dirt.


just a different persective