Hey guys. I had a pretty bad storm the other night and lightning basically struck the house and cut all power for about 4 hours. Regardless, the next day I noticed my CTEK trickle charger wasn’t on. I unplugged and check the fuse and everything was fine. Plugged it back in and put it on the setting I usually have it on. After a couple of days I noticed it won’t charge the battery on the car. I unplugged it, started the car, and a lot of dash lights are on. Below are the codes thrown. Is there any additional checks I can/should do? It starts fine and runs fine from what I can tell for now. But she is also a garage queen so I haven’t been able to diagnose anything else. Also, now the hatch door won’t stay in the up position unless I hold it there. Is this coincidental? Thanks for any input.

 

A few years back I had a lightening hit on my home. The damage was significant but not devastating. It was also very random. What I learned from this strike is that for an instant that tremendous electrical energy will literally go wherever it wants as it dissipates with no rhyme or reason. I've seen it fry Romex conductors and take out various appliances (TV's garage door openers, inductive and standard light switches) while leaving other components mere feet away completely untouched. I've seen it crack vinyl exterior siding where it had to make a 90 degree turn on its path from the strike site above my garage down to my main electrical panel (all breakers were tripped, panel wiring was intact). I had to use basic electrical diagnostic processes to determine exactly which items were damaged and then make repairs and / or replacements as necessary. In summary a lightening strike is a highly unusual situation that results in uncommon and unpredictable damage.

From what you've described, I believe your strike took out your trickle charger. I also believe that energy was distributed to your ABS system and to that right wheel sensor (and not necessarily in that order). Since you have the code information captured, I would reset the codes, buy a new trickle charger and test drive the car. If any codes reoccur, I would assume that you have a damaged component (or components) as indicated by the codes present. Also, if component diagnosis does become necessary, do not rule out component wiring damage as a possible cause.