Battery Problem
Thread Starter
Drifting
Joined: Feb 2000
Posts: 1,413
Likes: 10
From: Skillman NJ
Battery Problem
When I left work lastnight the Vette would not start. I
had left the parking lights on all day. I got a jump start from
a coworker. However, we crisscrossed the cables. That is,
negative cable on positive terminal. Don't ask how I did this
but we did. Anyways after about 1 minute I figured out what we
had done. We had tried to start the car but of course it did not
start. We then put the cables on correctly. At this time
everything looked ok. The cables however did get hot. After a
few minutes the car started but ran rough. I then started to
drive home. After about 2 miles the car died. I pulled over and
took a look. The positive teminal had gotten hot and the plastic
around the terminal melted. As a result the cable came off the
battery this is why the car died. BTW I have a gel optima
battery. I was then able to half butt put the cable back in the
battery and get the car started again and drive home. The car
seemed to run ok except that it ran rough at idle. I am
wondering if this is because of a slightly loose cable
connection. In any event I need to replace the battery. Do you
think I screwed anything else up.
Thanks,
Dave
had left the parking lights on all day. I got a jump start from
a coworker. However, we crisscrossed the cables. That is,
negative cable on positive terminal. Don't ask how I did this
but we did. Anyways after about 1 minute I figured out what we
had done. We had tried to start the car but of course it did not
start. We then put the cables on correctly. At this time
everything looked ok. The cables however did get hot. After a
few minutes the car started but ran rough. I then started to
drive home. After about 2 miles the car died. I pulled over and
took a look. The positive teminal had gotten hot and the plastic
around the terminal melted. As a result the cable came off the
battery this is why the car died. BTW I have a gel optima
battery. I was then able to half butt put the cable back in the
battery and get the car started again and drive home. The car
seemed to run ok except that it ran rough at idle. I am
wondering if this is because of a slightly loose cable
connection. In any event I need to replace the battery. Do you
think I screwed anything else up.
Thanks,
Dave
Team Owner
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 54,124
Likes: 30
From: Cincinnati, Oh USA
Re: Battery Problem (Dave-T)
For a short time you applied reverse polarity 12v to your electrical system. This has the potential to damage a lot of things as some of the electronics can not tolerate reverse polarity. If everything electrical is working, then you are one lucky person. The diodes in your alternator were forward biased and should have passed high current which could have damaged them. I would look at the output waveform from the alternator with an oscilloscope or ignition analyzer to see if all of the diodes are working and the alternator output is normal.
Drifting
Joined: Feb 2000
Posts: 1,994
Likes: 0
From: Charleston, WV
Re: Battery Problem (jfb)
I have seen this happen before. I think as long as it ran ok for at least a while the alt might be OK (you're lucky) and I'd say the rough idle is probably like you said .......the loose connection OR possibly the fact that the ECM has been cleared of it's memory and has to relearn some stuff..... kepp a close eye on it for a while.......... By the way ...... doesn't your headlight alarm work?........ saved me a bunch of time because I HATE my headlights to be open ........... :seeya
