This car was smooshing my brain

I'm not sure where to post this, but hopefully someone can help me, and I do think its scientific. I drive a typical regular shaped car, aerodynamic and all. Today however, my boss allowed me to take the work car home, and I did some driving in it. I literally felt worse in this car than I do flying. It felt like my brain was being smooshed inwards on itself. What's with the pressure? Is it the shape of the car? It's a Honda Element, squared shaped and what-not. I'd assume it has to do with its shape; if anyone could elaborate I'd be grateful.

Driving this thing is almost unbearable, anything I can do? Thanks in advance!

The car makes you feel like your brain has been smooshed in on itself? What? I mean, is it the pressure changing or something? Because I don't know what you mean.

a common cause of that effect is due to the a/c , well to be exact, its the factory filter within the a/c unit that has been known to cause some unexplained effects. So my question would obviously be, did you have the a/c on ?

reply to post by Hiasyouwant


. What's with the pressure? ahaha its from a perfect balance between air pressure escaping and being captured within the car. Effectively making your body try and get used to a changing pressure within the care. Because its always in between pressurized an non pressurized your brain has a hard time adjusting. Role all the windows down game over

reply to post by Hiasyouwant

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/b42ac4a629e3.jpg[/atsimg]

Is this the culprit? My brain get's smooshed just by looking at it...

Seriously, I have no idea. Like the other poster said the AC sounds like a likely cause. Was it on?

Peace

reply to post by Hiasyouwant

Roll down a window a little bit. That should make the pressure the inside the car the same as outside while you're stationary. When you're driving however, if you have the windows rolled down the fluid dynamics can become uncomfortable.

The solution for me is to roll down the passenger side windows about an inch each. If I roll down the drivers side windows too, I get interference from the wind rushing in both sides and it's uncomfortable. So I keep the drivers side windows up unless I'm at a stoplight or something.

You can play with the window controls and see what works in the element. I've driven a lot of different rental cars, but never an element.

Yep, roll down the windows (and make sure it is more than one, as one will make your eardrums go crazy from the unequalized sucking pressure). I had to find this out the hard way. ha.

Well , Im not a driver, but I do take fairly long trips in cars on a regular basis. I would agree that winding down the windows might be a start, but I think I would like to know more about the precise physiological impact which traveling in this vehicle has had upon your good self OP.

For one thing, the sensation must be utterly unique to be as psychologicaly arresting as you describe. I have been buffeted by uncomfortable outworkings of pressure in a vehicle before, but even in the worst possible scenario of that nature, that I have ever encountered, these things were nothing more than a mild irritant, and never felt like they were "smooshing my brain" which sounds like a pretty serious impediment to being able to drive the car, let alone actualy enjoy the trip. I have had the thunder in the ears as the eddies and flow dynamics of the air in the car, and outside have interacted and resonated before, and that can be distracting, but as I say... what you describe seems more serious.

That said, if it IS that effect that is smashing your attention away from the road, and toward your own comfort, I would suggest one of two things. The first I say with no intent to offend, but a healthy dose of pragmatism. Tough it out , and remember that in order to have a driving liscence, one must be of a certain age, and to achieve that age, most folks have to have toughened up just a tad .

The second, is request a different vehicle. It may be that this symptom is evidence that your inner ear, ear drums, and presure sensing apperatus are sensitive to certain atmospheric circumstances, being created by the unique shape of the vehicle, and the way air moves around and through it when in motion. This may be evidence of a deeper issue inside your brain or ears, so it might be an idea to check it out with your doctor. If there IS a complaint which makes this vehicle unsuitable from a health and saftey point of veiw, then your doctor may be able to provide you with a note proof of that, which your bosses will have to respond to.

reply to post by Hiasyouwant
Could it be the odor(new car smell)in the car?
sometimes the smell of a new car gives me a headache.

I just read one of the other posters and I stand corrected,when I roll down just one back window in my car it sounds like helicopters,(really annoying)so the air pressure is quite possible,does this happen to anyone else and why does this happen?

Originally posted by TWILITE22
I just read one of the other posters and I stand corrected,when I roll down just one back window in my car it sounds like helicopters,(really annoying)so the air pressure is quite possible,does this happen to anyone else and why does this happen?

Yes that's exactly what I referred to in my earlier post though I didn't mention helicopters, that's not a bad description of the effect. I'm sure it's got something to do with fluid dynamics, standing waves, and interference patterns, though I never tried to model it precisely. But what I suspect is happening is when air comes in the windows from both sides, there's some turbulence and maybe a wave-like pattern to the turbulence and where the two different wave sources meet, you get an interference pattern, sort of like in the double slit experiment with light:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/b16b84da6f7f.jpg[/atsimg]
In that diagram the equivalent would be air coming in each side of the car causing turbulent waveforms that collide and interfere something like that, except the interference isn't stable, so you hear the exaggerated peaks and valleys of the interference wave pattern as it moves around, giving the effect of the helicopter blades.

I don't hear it as badly with just one side window open, but I can see how it could still happen, perhaps when it hits the back window there may be some kind of reflection of air bouncing off the back window and you might get an interference pattern that way.

I'm doing a fair amount of educated speculation here but I've determined this pattern is quite repeatable and I haven't been able to think of a better explanation which fits the data. There's a lot more speculation at this link:

townhall.edmunds.com...

What they say there is NOT consistent with my experiments, since I can make the vibrations go away by only opening the windows on one side. The "helicopter" effect is most pronounced for me with windows open on both sides which makes me think interference.

I have been to 150' underwater. About 75 lbs per square inch. Never had a "smooshed" brain sensation. I dare say that the pressure differential was greater than the AC in a Honda is capable of developing. The body equalizes itself to pressure. Im betting on a low freq vibration -- crack a window

reply to post by Arbitrageur
I'm not sure if it's all makes and models but most of the one I have driven in the past few years this helicopter sound occurs,I drive a 2006 Ford Focus.I think the air(coming in the back windows)bounces off the back(hatch-back) window to the windshield and into my ears.It bothers me so much if left open it will give me a head-ache.
The thing is I don't remember this happening in the older cars (80's and older)

Originally posted by Hiasyouwant

I drive a typical regular shaped car, aerodynamic and all. Today however, my boss allowed me to take the work car home, and I did some driving in it.

Driving this thing is almost unbearable, anything I can do?

You go to the doctor and say, 'Doc, it hurts when I do this.'

Doctor says, 'Don't do that!'


Though the above is an old joke, it seems quite applicable to your situation. You state your boss 'allowed' you to drive a company car, apparently as a courtesy or favor, seemingly on a one-time basis from your wording. Doesn't appear mandatory nor even common to your actual job.

Don't drive it anymore.

If you look strait ahead and then to the right and down 2/3 and there is a little button you need to push to turn off the brain smooshing doer thingy that comes slandered with your car.

This is the on button and this is the off button this is I just crashed the car button