Cross jumped the battery

test the 12v health

 

I assume it was the 12v you crossed? Have you checked all the fuses?

It probably needs some diagnosis by an expert. I hope you haven't fried something expensive - which is a possibility.

 

Usually people have blown other fuses in addition to the fusible link.

 

There's been a spate of those incidents lately.

They're not all identical; different stuff might survive or get smoked. Sometimes expensive stuff, but sometimes not. Mostly takes patient poking around with a meter and the wiring diagrams until all the casualties are accounted for.

Here's a recent thread you might want to follow along in to see how another real-life example worked out. Turned out to be nothing expensive in that one.

 

We are just up the road NW of New Braunfels.

 

Had 2 of them:
1977 - AUTO with A/C!!! Had a few more wires by then.


And a '74 Manual before that.

 

Just wondering: could a simple design change prevent this cascade of toasted fuses, links and (possibly) expensive components, in the event of crossed jumper cables? Or it's not practical/possible?

 

Probably achievable for the right price, and the engineers had to decide if the cost is justified for preventing something that's kind of a user-inflicted problem.

The only jumper cables I've had around for the last quarter-century or so were these:



The LED in each half doesn't light unless the polarity's correct. You don't join the plugs until the LEDs glow. You're joining the plugs far away from both batteries, so you're not even fussing about finding a ground point away from the battery or making a spark when you connect it. Easy-peasy.

I still have those down in the basement. It's a lithium-ion jump pack that lives in the car these days. Its cables also come with polarity detection, and won't let me jump anything backwards.

 

You buy one of the smart lithium jump boxes that won't energize in the wrong polarity or if there is absolutely no existing voltage. They measure existing to verify polarity before enabling the jump battery cells. A power diode reverse biased across the main feed might help in some cases (which is likely already in most existing circuits causing the blown fuses), however when someone puts a heavy duty battery on a prius it could overwhelm protection schemes and still blow ecms and parts.

 

Yeah I guess smart chargers and cables are the simplest route. I'm not sure my Clore JNC660 falls into that category.

 

I think your unit is lead acid/agm based which is ok if left on its ac charger (assuming it is a good charger), but not so good for long term storage. A lithium jump model should maintain charge for a year or more making them better for in car storage. The lithium models have to have protection against shorts and polarity as they are much more volatile in the first place.

There are some interesting 12v batteries available for primary lead acid replacements such as the Antigravity Restart models. They are lithium with an extra lithium jump start battery built in. All in the same form factor as the oem battery. Pricey but becoming popular in supercar applications where the car is left garaged for weeks on end. No battery tender needed.

 

Yeah Clore recommends to plug in for charging every 3 mos, and/or after use.

 

The fuses and fusible links ARE the "inexpensive" protection against cascading failures (and burning the car down).
Too many electronic devices have capacitors, diodes, and other things that won't tolerate reversed polarity. Adding "smart" protection to each device (or the whole car) would add a lot of cost and complexity.
For any given reverse polarity event, it's a question of whether the fuses go open before the high current damages anything permanently.

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