I accidently connected battery backwards. No comments please...

All relay fuses are okay, and the car cranks but it woun't keep running! I have tried looking for the fuel pump relay with no luck.

Any idea of what I might have burned connecting the battery backwards?

Thanks a lot.

Henrik from Copenhagen.

 

Lights and motors dont care much. Electronics really have a hard time with reverse polarity. I would check the spark at the wires before worrying about the fuel, is the ignition still with you?? This is an easy check and saves time worrying about the fuel.. There is a fuel pressure test port on the passenger side of the engine at the top, look for about 50-60 psig.

You may have many separate failures, though several others have done this and recovered.

Dont do this again, Wdy

 

Check all your fuses.

 

Cranks but won't keep running? Is it running or just cranks? Big difference when troubleshooting. If it runs then dies you are right at looking into fuel area but if it cranks and won't start need to look at electrical. There should be an inline fuse/breaker to prevent damage. Maybe 180 will chime in. He is up on the repair manual. Without the wiring schematic I'm just guessing.

 

Electronics (that is, solid state stuff like ICs, Transistors and microprocessors) tend to die a horrible and instant death under reverse-polarity conditions.

The news that others have recovered from this makes me believe that you have hope, but remember, OFTEN each circuit board will have a reverse-polarity protection diode that is there SPECIFICALLY TO BLOW FUSES UNDER SUCH CONDITIONS.

As has been said before, check ALL FUSES. That is, pull them out and LOOK to see if they are still good. The more blown fuses, the more likely the car was protected well enough to survives this!


Pizzaguy-Mark
29 years as a component-level electronics repair technician.
3 years as a "car guy".

 

What he said, 100%! And, hope you never do this again. I have seen a few instances where total idiots tried to jumpstart a vehicle with reversed polarity hookups. Many were in the hospital for quite a long time. The currents in these batteries are just not very forgiving. Just think of arc welders, they use LESS current to melt the rods sometimes. Be careful folks!

 

And just a reminder to everyone, and some that might not have thought about it :

WHEN REMOVING A BATTERY, ALWAYS REMOVE THE NEGATIVE CABLE FIRST.
WHEN INSTALLING A BATTERY ALWAYS REPLACE THE NEGATIVE CABLE LAST.

( this is to avoid having a wrench on the positive terminal touch some body/frame part.
That can ruin a good wrench, not to mention the possibility of a battery explosion, which would surely ruin YOUR day. )

 

Agree 100% with this as well. Even if your only working under the hood and not on anything electrical, if you remove the neg cable and make sure it does not accidentally 'reconnect' by bumping up to it, you can safely work on any part of any area of the car without accidentally shorting any hot connection (because they would not be hot). An ounce of prevention can pay huge dividends if a tool slips to where it shouldn't be slipping to. Only takes one time, and the cost to fix it would hurt (and even HURT). Peace out!

 

Thanks a lot guys. I think that there is spark but the car dies immediately.

Happy new years.

Henrik

 

Great, now push in the fitting on the fuel line to see if you have pressure, should squirt out a bit as the pressure should be held after starting or trying to start. If you have no pressure then you have a good lead. Having spark means that the engine knows the crank position and probably is firing the injectors. Trying to keep the testing simple. You can check all the fuses, that will take at least 30 minutes as there are several fuse blocks.

search photos, here is fuel rail access point that I measure rail pressure at. Enjoy



WDY

END OF YEAR YIPPIE

 

Not sure if this applies, but years ago my dad reversed the jumper cables while trying to start our family station wagon and blew out the isolation diode in the new alternator that I had just installed. I was lucky because the diode was a replaceable part. Just throwing this out as a remote possibility.

 

THERE is the pic I was looking for... and that nipple is on the passenger side of the engine, at the FRONT. The Black pole-thingy at the bottom of the photo is the front bumper-thing the air filter/intake assembly sits on. You have to remove the intake to see the nipple.

 

Check your fuses in the RCM module.

 

Back on an old honda civic, did the same thing - attached the battery backwards, and then attempted to crank it up. Luckily, there was a mater fuse, put in there for idiots like me making that mistake. The cost was about $4 for the new fuse. Manufactures anticipate this mistake...