After a Battery Jump.

Went on a over nighter camping trip to test out the new RTT and it could have been longer do to a dead battery I think. Any ideas what might be happening with these lights appearing after a jump? The Brake Light, ABS Light, and what I am going to call the "traction control" Light. I had no problems with my battery this morning then no power what so ever in the afternoon. I hope its just the battery and not the alternator or something else.

Thank you.

 

could you jumped it backwards?

 

how old is your battery

 

Check your ABS Fuses.

 

Maybe alternator? Not charging the battery like it should. Or maybe check the connections first

 

Well as a matter of fact the guy jumping me had them on backwards. But I fixed that problem. I hope it didnt mess with the computer system somehow.

Its old. At 5 years. But it gave me no problems at all in the morning. Now I cant even lock my doors. Isnt there some juice left?

Would connecting the cables backwards on the vehicle jumping me cause the fuses to go?

I checked them. What causes a alternator to go?

 

Needed a jump on my Bronco and the guy switched the cables. I was young and stupid and should have checked it myself.

Anyways, from that day on nothing but electrical gremlins. Best one was cruising down the highway and engine dying with no warning at 60 mph. That was a fun repetitive one that became the straw.

Check each fuse individually and not just by looking at them. Then have somebody load test your battery and alternator.

 

Start checking fuses, under the dash and under the hood.
Verify that your brake lights are working.

 

Unplug the battery and plug it back in. Everything should go away

 

Blacktaco2042, is absolutely correct:

I have seen a multitude of problems from jumping batteries. Some minor some very serious.

1. I guy just brought an ATV to my shop, and said it won't run. I noticed a new battery, and of course asked him about it. He said, "oh, yea, we must have had it in backwards", "because smoke billowed out of the wiring". He cooked his main wiring harness; melted most of the wires together.

2. Most people just blow a fuse or fusible link.


The electronics in our trucks, don't really like to get powered up in reverse.

Hope your problems aren't too severe.

oldracer

 

Those are also the same warning lights that come on in 4x4s when the sensor that tells the computer whether or not the rear differential is locked starts to fail. I'll assume from your handle your truck is a 2x4 so it could be something as simple as a failed ABS sensor. Without all 4 responding properly, the computer would disable ABS and traction control like it does with the 4x4s when you lock the rear diff. On the 4x4s, it's an intentional action, for 2x4, it appears to be a logical safety issue. An improperly responding ABS sensor would lead to loss of control. Did you drive through any water or mud lately? The battery jump may be related or not ... it could have been on the edge of failure already.

 

Unhook it for a bit...I would get a new batt. 5 years is usually the lifespan on MOST batteries...

 

Here is a update. Got a new battery and replaced the ABS fuse. So far all is working well from what I can tell. Hopefully thats all it was. Thanks for the help.

 

Be sure and have your charging system tested. AC Ripple over one half a volt is a sure indication of an open diode or two. Open diodes in your alternator will not allow the charging system to produce it's full current potential and undercharge your battery. High AC ripple can cause other electrical problems.

 

Yes, test everything.


What happened when you reversed the cables was that you effectively wired the two batteries in series and dead shorted. This allowed the good battery to push all the current it can ( hundreds and hundreds of amps) through the dead one. This has been known to melt jumper cables and cause batteries to burst. You got lucky nothing that bad happened,now the question is what parts of the vehicle electrical system where damaged....

.

 

Unless you remove one cable from the battery you are either going to have a short (lots of sparks) or it will work. you can not series batteries with out removing a battery cable. High current 12 volts yes 24 volts no.

 

The batteries were in series and shorted.

All voltages are relative. True no component in either car saw a 24 volt load because they are only connected across the terminals of one battery. However if you put a meter from the negaive post of either battery to the positive post of the opposite battery at the time of the reversed hookup it would have shown 24 v (or actually a lot less as the huge current being pushed was probably drawing the voltage down quite low).

I was giong to try and sketch out an axplanation of how this works but some googling found that somebody already drew it out quite well on another car forum. Note that I think he is oversetimating the amount of resistance in te batteries and cables and thus underestimating the amount of current that was flowing. (Doing this can flow enough current to boil the electrolyte in the batteries causing a burst if you leave it long enough).


http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showpost.php?p=8144267&postcount=44

 

Jeremy, good diagram. A shorted cell with batteries in parallel can be ruin your whole day.

 

Go back and look at that again prier to connecting the reversed cables the voltage is 24 volts at the jumper cable that is correct however the instant the connections are completed it becomes a short circuit driving the voltage of both batteries down it is a very good way to blow up batteries but not a good way to supply 24 volts. If you remove one battery cable and place the jumpers one on the cable and the other on the post then you can supply 24 volts to the vehicle.