Alright let me start out by sayin i know im an idiot, huge mistake etc.. so please dont bash me haha i need help!

I put a new battery in my 89 GXE and wasnt payin attention and i hooked the terminals up backwards.... what fuses should i be looking for that are blown and worse case scenario where should i look to get a new computer ??

What can i do to fix this ??

 

I doubt you'll find the list. Why don't you hook it up correctly and report what you observe?

Was the spark big? How long did this last? Any smoke, melting plastic?

If I understand this correctly alternator rectifiers might not survive this ordeal- they would be conducting current if the fuseable link held the current. They might even save the rest of the equipment if this lasted only fraction of a second.

 

there's a safety relay in the trunk that's SUPPOSED to prevent any major damage from hooking up the battery backwards

 

haha, oh sh*t. I'd just check all the fuses and hook it up properly and see what you got.

 

How one would learn about its existence ?

 

most likely you blew the ign fuse.. its the big fuses in the engine bay.. or the fuse thats built into the power cable on the battery/.

 

looking at the FSM and knowing how to read the wiring diagrams. there might be a little paragraph mentioning it too, but i don't have the FSM handy so i'm not sure what page it's on.

 

I got it. Page EF&EC-15. It mentions that it protects the ECM and injectors but as far as anything else maybe not.



Interesting that it's on the VG engine section. Is there a safety relay for the VE models?

 

VE might not.. my VG SE did, and my gxe did.. never had a VE.

 

I see ... I have VE which doesn't have it. For what it's worth all that relay can do is to blow fuel pump fuse hopefully saving ECU as intended if it is main power drawn from the same wire and if it can survive few ms of reverse voltage and if the rest of its numerous input/outputs will be able to tolerate reverse voltages. Too many ifs to me. I still think the OP has nothing to loose at this point by connecting battery correctly and watching what happens next.

 

nah the relay has a diode in it, so if the current isn't flowing the right direction it will won't connect the circuit

 

my friend did this on his 4th gen it blew the 100 amp fuse in the engine bay and toasted some wires in the cabin, i think it was the harness for the radio and associated items. I helped him cut out the melted wires and splice in new ones, everything seemed to work fine for the next few years he owned it.

I don't think his 4th gen had a safety relay or at least it didn't blow.

I would put the battery in correctly and start trouble shooting from there. hopefully your fuses did their job and prevented major damage!

 

Of course- under normal circumstances but I was talking about OP case. My point was that the rest of the car electrics won't be protected by that relay after fuse blows and I'm not even sure ECU would survive. OTOH if my assumption about internals of the alternator are correct it will shorten the reversed battery with 3 pairs of powerful rectifiers connected in series within each pair. This would limit the reverse voltage to couple volts until fuseable link to the alternator blows. After that all bets are off. I'd just connect the damn thing as it is impossible to predict what he ended up with IMO.

 

yea.. but i don't think hooking the battery back up and just going for it will cause any more damage if there is any to begin with. so minus whale hook it up and go for it.

 

Thanks for all the input guys ima gonna check that 100 amp fuse tom. and plug the old batt back up and see what i get...

 

You can plug the new one too - as long as polarity is correct. You'd need a multimeter if car won't work to make troubleshoouting easier.

 

Wow I've always wondered what would happen if you did that. Just never had a disposable car or battery to try on. Thanks for answering that for me.

 

I plugged the battery back up and i got absolutely nuthin... no lights nuthin works soo I looked for the fuse and maybe im blind but i didnt see it... does anyone have any pictures ??

 

well on my 5th gen and my friend's 4th it was in the main fuse box that is in the engine compartment (should be pretty close to the battery) Take the cover off and it should be in there, there might also be a few other big fuses and relays in there.

If i remember correctly there were some 40 amp fuses in there that were for the ac or abs or something like that. on all of the main fuses there should be a clear plastic or glass top that you can look through to see if it is blown.

I also remember it took us a while to remove his 100 amp fuse because we didnt realize it has screws holding it in so keep an eye out for those.

Good luck! maybe someone else can help with pics since i dont have a 3rd gen

 

Did you check fusible links on the power battery cable? Any fuse or relay you THINK it might be, take one from something you don't need (headlights or something matching the one you're testing) plug in, test, retry, repeat process until you find the dead one. I believe it would probably be in the fuse box in front of the battery.

 

Results? Is everything still working as it should?

 

> j00

 

Well everything seemed to be okay at first when i hooked the new battery up... but i started to lose voltage very quickly even when driving and this morning it was completely dead soo i beleive i have bad altenator... it was already weak soo a good time to replace it anyways lol

 

check http://www.autopartswarehouse.com for the alternator.

 

Your charging circuit is not charging battery. This doesn't mean 'bad alternator' yet. Did you check the fusible link which goes from the alternator to the + battery and another one - in the fusible link box? If either is blown new alternator won't help.
I also wonder how did you determine that alt is 'weak'? I'd assume that it didn't provide 14.4 V at around 1k rpm - the only reliable test I know of.
All of the above doesn't mean you have good alt either all I'm saying is you don't have enough reasons to replace it yet.

 

Ill check the those fusible links but i know the alt is weak because my volt meter shows it runnin at 11 to 12 volts at idle and if the car sits runnin a long time it slowly drains... so ima at least get the alt checked out and see what can be done...

 

I assume this was going on before the reverse polarity incident. Does it mean you had to always maintain high rpm at idle to charge the battery? Anyway, it's your car do whatever you think is right.

 

Yah its been doin this for awhile now and the the whole polarity thing didnt really help haha soo ill check the links you mentioned and pull the alt... btw how hard is that cuz i havent done it before ?? Ive got the tools and everything to do it just curious and how long it will take to pull it ??

 

It's been a while - all I can recall is it is accessible from the bottom, you have to release tensioner first, then belt, then few bolts and it'll fall down on you . Please check the rest of the site for exact instructions. Don't forget to disconnect battery (at least "-") before going there.

 

Thanks bro... ill make sure to disconnect the battery too hahah