Hey guys Stupid Battery charging question

[jesteratc]

So i did something really stupid this morning.

Last night i accidentally left the light on in my 88 Festiva.
Its carbed and very stock

So i came out to a dead car.



Anywho, i just tried to jump start it, and the last person who had the car had the covers on in the wrong place. As per A black boot was covering the positive terminal, and a red boot was covering the negative terminal.

Being this, i didnt look at the call outs on the batter, and put the jumper cables on backwards.

So basically, after this long ramble, i had the positive cable on the negative terminal, and the negative cable, on the positive terminal.

No it wont start duh.

How much damage did i do?

Thanks for the help,

Andrew.

[batstiva]

Um, probably not as much as you might think. I've seen jumper cables hooked up backwards long enough to start melting. Pulled them off, used another set correctly placed, and zoom-zoom. Chances are if you only had them hooked up backwards long enough to figure out they were backwards, you should be okay. If your battery was stone cold dead, you may either have to put it on a charger, or connect to the jumper vehicle and let it run a few minutes to put enough juice in your battery to jump. Just my .02, tho.

[jesteratc]

So it would probably be bad if i tried to start it while they were hooked up backwards, then i checked the cables and they were really hot.

Nuts.

[GenevaDirt]

So it would probably be bad if i tried to start it while they were hooked up backwards, then i checked the cables and they were really hot.

Nuts.

no....the cables probably took the abuse and not the car. but that will only be able to told when you try to do it the right way and go from there.

[25Horseplay]

You might have taken out the fusable links, might want to check them if it still doesn't turnover when you connect them up right.

[jesteratc]

Ok, so everything is figured out now due to an unfortunate series of events.

Heres how it all broke down

1. Yesterday, car had a dead battery
2. Today, try and jump start car with backwards cables
3. (fry main engine fuse) = this was the original problem
4. After noticing the cables were backwards switched them around properly, and tried to start it again
5. Wasnt starting, so i kept moving the cables around (Unententionally making the negative batter cable loose, like it wasnt making any contact to the battery at all.
6. Pull out engine fuse, and realize its not making a connection.
7. Go to autozone, and buy new fuses
8. Put new fuse in wouldnt fire....wtffffff....
9. Noticed battery cable was a little loose, tightened it town, and crancked on it. And it FIRED!!

So the original problem was a dead battery, then i blew up the engine fuse, then i accidentally disconnected the battery cable lol, the replaced the fues, then reconnected the cable, and all is good.

Thanks for the help guys,

Andrew

[GenevaDirt]

glad you got it running again....simple fix is good.

I want the Festy ringtones....

[jesteratc]

Just text me a 908-763-7467 and ill send them to you Simple as that

[batstiva]

So it would probably be bad if i tried to start it while they were hooked up backwards, then i checked the cables and they were really hot.

Nuts.

Glad you got it running. What I was saying is I've seen jumper cables hooked up backwards melting and smoking, and the car was still able to be started once the cables were hooked up properly.

[FestYboy]

another PA guy that shoulda convoied w/ me to madness this year... AAHHHH!
this makes at least 5 ppl that didn't show from PA (makes me sad that i was the only one )