UK radar station causing car engine and electrical troubles

If you happen to live in the small village of Trimingham (population 370) on the northeast coast of Norfolk, England and while driving past the Royal Air Force Trimingham radar station your car's engine and lights seem to be cutting out, or your speedometer is spinning out of control like something straight out of the X-Files, you're not hallucinating. According to the BBC, the Ministry of Defence has "admitted that a fault at a radar dome was responsible for causing electrical problems with dozens of cars" and that it "will consider claims for compensation after and inquiry found the radar was 'out of alignment.'" Apparently this isn't a new problem, given that the dome was previously out of alignment from November 2005 until February 2006, but now the MoD is denying that the problem has resurfaced. However, the local mechanic, Neil Crayford, told the BBC that he's "dealt with 30 calls over a couple of months." We wonder if for a few extra hundred quid Mr. Crayford would hack your in-dash display so that you could use that radar signal to monitor maritime activities in the North Sea.

[Via Fark]

[jason @ Nov 8th 2006 4:43AM]

Radar my ass, more like car immobilizing super weapon :)

[mwknox @ Nov 8th 2006 5:56AM]

So everything on the X-Files was true afterall.... whoooaaa.. spooky.

[telepheedian @ Nov 8th 2006 8:55AM]

Imagine if the cars were controlled by wire instead of physical connection.

[YaddaYadda @ Nov 8th 2006 11:17AM]

Imagine the radiation that thing emits if it causing car trouble. I have a feeling the population of that town will be about 0 in 10 years when everyone is dead of leukemia.

[Josh @ Nov 8th 2006 6:06PM]

Norfolk isn't on the north-east coast; it's the top half (well, third, but hey) of the big round bulge on the east of England - so the village is just on the east coast (the north of East Anglia, if you really want!).

[Rocketboy @ Nov 10th 2006 10:16AM]

Hi,
I live right near there and one day my Grandad who has a pacemaker exploded violently causing an awful mess. The police made us clear it up.

RB

[Paul @ Nov 12th 2006 8:33PM]

This is nothing new. Down here in Portsmouth(UK) we got a MOD rader station.
And it can cause many many problems for cars. Lucky there is not many report but not long ago cars in a local shoping centre or near the station (which is on a hill) would loose information such as key coding.

[jonathan siberry @ Nov 16th 2006 5:47AM]

wow i never heard of radar station causing car problems. thats rather cool. is it just car engines or do any other car parts react?

Jonathan (vehicle salvage manager)