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reversed polarity on car battery

Printed From: the12volt.com
Forum Name: Lights, Neon, LEDs, HIDs
Forum Discription: Under Car Lighting, Strobe Lights, Fog Lights, Headlights, HIDs, DRL, Tail Lights, Brake Lights, Dashboard Lights, WigWag, etc.
URL: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=91334
Printed Date: May 13, 2025 at 1:43 PM


Topic: reversed polarity on car battery

Posted By: italia490
Subject: reversed polarity on car battery
Date Posted: March 06, 2007 at 3:43 PM

This is kind of a silly question, but I wanted to find out the full ramifications of what I did. I wasn't paying and put the car battery in wrong and hooked up the ground cable to the positive terminal on the battery and the positive cable to the ground terminal on the battery. Some smoke came from behind the dash and I wanted to find out if I fried anything. The car is a 2000 Ford Mustang. Any help or suggestions is appreciated.

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DIY'er



Replies:

Posted By: Phreak480
Date Posted: March 06, 2007 at 4:40 PM
Damn good chance you could have done major damage to the electronics of your vehicle. Sensitive electronics don't take kindly to reverse polarity, it tends to let the magic smoke come out.



Posted By: theredstealth
Date Posted: March 10, 2007 at 6:42 AM
about all you can do is hook it up and see if it works



Posted By: KarTuneMan
Date Posted: March 23, 2007 at 1:00 PM
Any luck gettin the smoke back in behind the dash?  On a serious note. Hook it up and see what "doesn't" work. Typically where there is smoke, there is damage.posted_image

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Posted By: snowman78
Date Posted: March 30, 2007 at 7:19 PM

The last time i saw something like this, it happened in an 01 eclipse. the only thing is, it wasn't the battery that was hooked up wrong, it was the dimmer switch on the head unit. the car was turned on...and...SMOKE! The entire wiring harness from the fuse box under the dash all the way to the stereo and further was burnt. The shop had to pay and replace the harness...$780 (at the time). Just pray this didn't happen.



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Basic installer looking to learn more.


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