We were on a road trip with our 2009 ZR1 this past week end. Before we left I threw a charger for my I phone in the car from my truck because it had a coiled cord. On the way out I started getting my air bag light on. I stopped at a light and shut the car off and restarted. This cleared the light for a bit but it came back on. After breakfast I moved the seat and started making sure all of the air bag wires for the seats were solid and connectors fully seated. I did the same for all of the connectors under the passenger side floorboard. All was good for about 100 miles. Then I started losing my Info display and the radio. WTF???? We had a long way to go and all I needed was the car to start acting up. I started turning off stuff and was trying to regain control of the cars computers. I unplugged the phone charger and bam everything came back up. This is not the first instance I have heard of that a phone charger has interfered with electronics . Happened to my 2006 Trail Blazer with radio reception and another 2012 GS that kept having TPMS issues. We had the charger that I had been using in the glove box and used that for the rest of the trip. The charger was an ATT I Phone accessory not some cheap-o junk. So next time your car is going Bezerk, unplug your phone charger and see if that is not causing you headaches.

 

wow...

 

Similarly, I've had instances where I get into the car, try to start up & the DIC tells me "No Fob Detected". But wait, I've got the fob in my pocket....right next to my cell phone. Take the cell phone out of my pocket, lay it in the cup holder (fob still in my pocket)....voila....starts right up. Apparently the cell phone signal overrides the fob signal when too close together.

 

These chargers are not designed to emphasize a lack of interference. Also, a "better" charger, like a Motorola or ATT may have a more substantial case and a higher quality cord, but the internal electrics don't vary much from cheap to expensive. Interference is caused by essentially random harmonics produced by a power supply and are received in different ways by different cars. So one charger may bother one car but may not bother another, and the converse is also true...one car may be bothered by a charger, but not be bothered by another example of the same charger. It really is random between both cars and chargers, so it always makes sense to suspect the charger even if there is no phone plugged into it. Glad everything is back to normal!