What are the chances that I've done some major damage here?

Factual Questions
1

This morning I left the lights on in my car. I don’t do this very often, so it came as an unpleasant surprise when I tried to leave for lunch. I did have a set of jumper cables, so I recruited a volunteer from the office to help me out. K pulled her car up next to mine, and I proceeded to hook the cables up, using the diagram that came along with them. Turning the key to my car resulted only in a series of clicks. When I got back out, smoke was rising from the connectors and pieces of the cable had begun to melt. I used my shoes as gloves and disconnected the clamps as quickly as I could.

Being the internet geek I am, I instantly returned to my office and pulled up two or three web pages detailing the procedure for jumping a battery. Right away it was obvious that I had hooked things up incorrectly. I retrieved the diagram from the melted cables and saw the problem right away. The diagram was in black and white. I had assumed that the black on the diagram corresponded with the black cables. Nope. Wrong.

:smack:

K was able to start her car right back up immediately after I removed the cables. Everything seemed to be working properly, so she drove off to pick up her lunch. My question is this…other than a) melting some cheap jumper cables; b) suffering a small burn to my right hand; and c) enduring the major humiliation of flunking one of the basic guyness competency tests…what are the chances that I’ve caused some major damage to either car?

2

Were your feet still in them? That would slow down your response time, methinks.

Generally speaking, no. Your car should be fine. If anyone’s car suffered ill effects (which would be noticed quickly) it would have been K’s car (not a K-car, K’s car ). AFAIK, anyway.

3

When you charge the battery use a very high amp charge for first twenty minutes to overcome the high resistance the battery will have.

4

Which means what? Please translate for the benefit of the automotively impaired.

5

It’s more electricity-related than automotive. In other words you will need to use a powerful battery to get your battery charged again. I would recommend just getting a new battery.

6

You want to jolt the lead sulfates off the plates

7

Thanks very much for the feedback, folks. I’ve just printed out one of the sets of jumping instructions I found, and will be keeping it permanently in my glove compartment.

The battery was replaced only two months ago, so here’s hoping it’s strong enough to withstand the abuse it got today. As far as getting a jump from a more powerful battery…well, I’ll just have to see what’s available.