Does oil conduct electricity?

[Osaka]

Hey there guys,

I am asking this to ease my mind during oil changes. With the design on a 1995 SHO, the starter is right underneath the oil filter. When I had changed the starter, I made an error in which the battery lines touched the starter solenoid, causing the car to try to start with no key in the ignition. My biggest worry now is that when I change the oil again, that the oil will run over the starter and catch the current then shock me. Is this something I am justified in worried about or is it not an issue?

Thank you!

 

[zoomlater]

If this was an issue, you would have heard about this by now. You are more likely to damage your starter by letting oil drain onto it. I use an old 2 liter pop bottle and cut part of it out to cover the starter so any oil that drips will not contact the starter. The bottom end of the bottle slips over the end of the starter and you can cut away the bottom half that sit below the starter.

 

[rubydist]

Yes, oil conducts electricity. No, you will not get a shock from the 12-14V that is in your automobile electrical system.

The above description of how to avoid oil damage to the starter is a good idea, imho.

 

[luigisho]

Third to agree. cover your starter. You won't get shocked but you can shorten the life of the starter. I should not say 100% won't get shocked--cuz you never know but I have never heard of this happening in any car ever. But, I'm just a sample size of 1 + watching most things said on this forum over a couple decades. That would have stuck out in my mind if I heard it.

 

[SHOCH]

I also use the 2 liter bottle trick, someone usually comes on and says just let it coat the starter, it protects it lol.
So you didn’t unhook the battery to change a starter?

 

[Osaka]

thank you all for the replies, just something to ease my mind.

 

[Osaka]

I also use the 2 liter bottle trick, someone usually comes on and says just let it coat the starter, it protects it lol.
So you didn’t unhook the battery to change a starter?

we did unhook the battery but when we plugged the battery back in it tried to start.

 

[Irish Pride]

I use a plastic grocery bag to cover the starter. Once the old filter is off, I remove the plastic bag and stuff it and the old filter in the box that the new filter came in.

-Chad

 

[SHOrod]

As mentioned already, you will not get a shock from the oil. Yeah, it's conductive, but it's also resistive, so it won't pass much current anyway. Even if you directly touch both terminals of the car's direct current (DC) battery, you will not get a shock, so a stream of oil between the positive cable at the starter and your hand/arm is definitely not going to cause a shock concern. It's not like in the movies where some villain uses a car battery and jumper cables to torture the spy. Worse torture would be to clamp the cables on to the spy's ear lobes, it wouldn't be any worse if the other end of the cables are connected to a car battery or not.

The same does NOT apply though if you're talking about alternating current (AC) that's not rectified and filtered.

-Rod

 

[PaulTAutoX]

Oil isn't particularly conductive. Although if it is full of metal dust from bad bearings, that brings the resistance down quite a bit.

My old autoshop teacher tried to impress the noobies by putting a small copper strip across a 12V battery (holding it with two pairs of pliers) and showing us how it turned orange and went up in smoke. Then he put down the pliers and grabbed the two terminals with his hands and acted like he was having problems holding on.... If you have dry skin and no open wounds, 12V whether AC or DC won't bother you much at all. In fact you probably won't feel it.

If you put a 9V battery on your tongue, which is wet and salty (dissolved salt is a good conductor) it will light you up pretty well. If you apply a 12V battery to a wound, like the movie bad guys punched through your skin with the prods or jumper cables, then that can have an effect! But the average human from dry hand to other dry hand is something over 200,000 ohms, so 12V will not deliver enough current to notice.

I don't know why the starter actuated, but your worst problem is if it does and the car's in gear, and you don't have the drive wheels off the ground.

 

[NoSlo]

Here's a starter rebuild thread I wrote: https://shoforum.com/index.php?threads/howto-starter-motor-rebuild-and-replace-brushes.134666/

It's a good idea within the life of the starter to disassemble and clean the insides as described there. Without doing anything special to divert the oil filter cascade (1/2 gal milk jug with bottom cut out to fit all the way up to oil cooler, or even removing the starter before an oil change), expect the insides to be packed with oily gunked carbon brush dust.

 

[Devin]

As mentioned already, you will not get a shock from the oil. Yeah, it's conductive, but it's also resistive, so it won't pass much current anyway. Even if you directly touch both terminals of the car's direct current (DC) battery, you will not get a shock, so a stream of oil between the positive cable at the starter and your hand/arm is definitely not going to cause a shock concern. It's not like in the movies where some villain uses a car battery and jumper cables to torture the spy. Worse torture would be to clamp the cables on to the spy's ear lobes, it wouldn't be any worse if the other end of the cables are connected to a car battery or not.

The same does NOT apply though if you're talking about alternating current (AC) that's not rectified and filtered.

-Rod

If the car is cranking you are introducing a huge amount of amperage so I don't know if that would overcome any resistance caused by skin. Normally yes you can touch the terminals and the resistance of your skin is enough to resist current flow.