What did I fry? Computer? stretch your brains on this one!

[zatrony]

last night i was hooking up a battery to my '93 SL2 in the dark. idiot that I am i hooked up the negative first and then as i was hooking up the positive the wrench touched something and sparks flew. you know the feeling. it was confirmed when i tried to start it. the starter clicked and the dash lights start blinking crazily. at one point i think even the fan spontaneously started. a host of crazy things happened. mostly, when i would try to start it, as soon as the starter clicked everything went dead. so then i unplugged the battery for about 20 minutes to go in the house to pout. I came back out and plugged the battery back in. This time stuff acted pretty normal. I could turn on the headlights and other functions. The motor turned and would even start if I pumped the gas like crazy. If I didn't hold the gas down it would kills. WTF? any ideas? i musta smoked something. thanks for the help

[Leafy]

should be fine, surprised you didnt weld the wrench to the car like the rest of us who've done it. try and start the car again, whenever my battery's been disconnected it stalls instantly on the first try. at worse you might have fried the battery and need a new one.

[2NDSOUT]

Whenever you take a battery out of a car:
Remove the NEGATIVE Battery Cable; FIRST...then the POSITIVE Cable 2nd.


Whenever you install a battery into a car:
Install the POSITIVE Cable 1st; then the NEGATIVE Cable 2nd.

ALWAYS follow this rule. That way you will avoid frying the battery or anything else. ALWAYS make sure that the 8MM (5/16) bolts are tight and DO NOT GO BACK to Check that they are tightened, otherwise you will have sparks flying.

You probably fried your battery. Take it and replace it.

[bagel]

Originally Posted by zatrony

last night i was hooking up a battery to my '93 SL2 in the dark. idiot that I am i hooked up the negative first and then as i was hooking up the positive the wrench touched something and sparks flew. you know the feeling. it was confirmed when i tried to start it. the starter clicked and the dash lights start blinking crazily. at one point i think even the fan spontaneously started. a host of crazy things happened. mostly, when i would try to start it, as soon as the starter clicked everything went dead. so then i unplugged the battery for about 20 minutes to go in the house to pout. I came back out and plugged the battery back in. This time stuff acted pretty normal. I could turn on the headlights and other functions. The motor turned and would even start if I pumped the gas like crazy. If I didn't hold the gas down it would kills. WTF? any ideas? i musta smoked something. thanks for the help

My 94 sl2 has had all kinds of possession problems like that. I'm probably noobishly putting in the battery too. But it is intermittent and only occasional.

[fdryer]

Aside from the excitement of suddenly finding yourself enrolled in Welding 101 and shortening the life of the battery, the electronics probably suffered little damage. What you may not know from this distraction is a well known malady inherited by all the S-series cars, up to 2001; the infamous engine coolant temperature sensor (ECTS) failures. If yours is the original plastic one, replace it immediately. Its the two-wire one, below the single wire one that drives the temperature gauge. Both are on the egr valve side of the engine, under the air cleaner tube. Brass is the good one.

[ialonso]

Good thing you did not have a ring that made it into the path of the short. It happened to me...the ring burned my finger pretty good, I did not know I was capablle of taking off a ring that quickly !