How much damage have I done

Chunkylover

Havin a real crappy week, scumbags broke into my car and havnt got a chance to run it till today, up until now that battery has been on its last legs so I went and got a new 1

Was in a hurry so instead off hooking up tthe new bat I just popped the jump leads on it except I didnt spot that I put the pos and neg on the wrong sides, big spark and melting cables were the result, the electrics work, but the car wont start, not even turn over (tried to redo it with new jump leads)

I had the key in the ignition at the time but not turned on

So what damage have I done, will the key or ecu be messed up or is it just the matter of a blown fuse

cheers

testicle

Make/Model?

Chunkylover

would help, wouldnt it, sorry

01 nissan almera, manual

Seth Brundle

Can you tell us where the 4 cable ends went exactly?
were you trying to do it this way or just + to + and - to -?
Which cables melted? The jump leads or the main cables coming from the battery feeding the car?
It could be possible that you haven't wrecked anything and there simply isn't enough charge to start the car?

Chunkylover

the jump cables melted,
I put the pos cable on the pos on the bat of my car, then pos on neg pole on batt, neg on pos pole of bat and neg on car frame

hope that makes sense

Midnight_EG

Alternater

Seth Brundle

Have you tried it with the new battery at all?
http://www.castrol.com/castrol/genericarticle.do?categoryId=9013136&contentId=6007427

Chunkylover

havnt got the tools on me to swap the batt, the guys who broke in took them but I connected up the new batt with new jump cables and nothing happened, the lights on the dash are very dim and not a blip when I try to start it, could it be that the 1st fuse it hit blew and that was the furthest it went

Seth Brundle

Chunkylover wrote: »

havnt got the tools on me to swap the batt, the guys who broke in took them but I connected up the new batt with new jump cables and nothing happened, the lights on the dash are very dim and not a blip when I try to start it, could it be that the 1st fuse it hit blew and that was the furthest it went

What do you mean the 1st fuse, etc.? The fuses work on different circuits unless you are referring to a fusible link which, given that you have power at your instrument cluster, does not appear to be present in your Nissan.
Do not try and connect the old and new battery on the same circuit as the old one sounds fecked and you could in the end up with two flat batteries.

Chunkylover

cheers, roadside assist is on the way so hopefully Ill have an answer soon

Mycroft H

Midnight_EG wrote: »

Alternater

How would that stop the car from starting?? Alternator has nothing to do it.

My guess OP that you have blown some fuses/relays when you tried to turn the ignition

Chunkylover

starting to feel stupid(er) now but could be very lucky

went down to the car again and gave it a quick go, wont start but its trying to turn over

Im hoping and praying to jebus that its just a knackered battery and I havnt fried anything

Seth Brundle

Given the lights on the dash, thats what I'm inclined to think. Anyhow, lesson learnt (hopefully). I'n future, read how to correctly jump start a car and then follow the instructions before actually doing it.

Chunkylover

new batt in and she started fine, didnt even lose the radio code

road side repair guy said im the luckiest guy ever, that it could have been a lot worse

sad to say but I was in bolton st for 3 years studying transport engineering

anyway, cheers for the help

hi_sir

i have recently seen a very costly episode of jumping a car the ECU ended geting melted and it cost a few quid to put her right,and it was all down to this person not having a clue what they were at.so BEWARE when you havent a clue what your at,it could be cheaper to get someone that does know

Dartz

Chunkylover wrote: »

new batt in and she started fine, didnt even lose the radio code

road side repair guy said im the luckiest guy ever, that it could have been a lot worse

sad to say but I was in bolton st for 3 years studying transport engineering

anyway, cheers for the help

Not really a surprise

The circuit was only made between both batteries, not the rest of the car.

You put 24 volts on a fraction of an ohm of resistance... you're going to get a lot of current... but none of it will touch the cars electronics.

You might've munged the old battery, and were lucky you didn't break the new one too... but otherwise the car would've been fine.

Worst case scenario being that the spark ignites the hydrogen the battery's giving off, blowing the battery to pieces and spraying your engine, upper body and face with sulphuric acid. That would've been bad.

Chunkylover

Dartz wrote: »

Not really a surprise

The circuit was only made between both batteries, not the rest of the car.

You put 24 volts on a fraction of an ohm of resistance... you're going to get a lot of current... but none of it will touch the cars electronics.

You might've munged the old battery, and were lucky you didn't break the new one too... but otherwise the car would've been fine.

Worst case scenario being that the spark ignites the hydrogen the battery's giving off, blowing the battery to pieces and spraying your engine, upper body and face with sulphuric acid. That would've been bad.

yeah, kinda like my face the way it is thanks