Stupider Question
 

If you hook up your battery cables backward (because for some reason both are black) and then spend a while trying to start the car, will all of the backward cranking do the engine any damage???

Thanks,
Gen

might not damage the engine but your electrical system ill get fried!!! you could short out most of your vital electrica components as well

Didnt you get a huge spark and a lot of smoke off the battery when you put the wires on backwards. You put the POS directly to ground. The battery should have not even had enough power to crank the motor. You cables also should have welded them selves to the terminals. If you still had enough juice to crank the motor you have some severe electrical issues. Or you got very lucky and didnt hurt anything. :eek:

Actually I'm not sure that this is what happened, just wanted to know in advance since I think the shop might have done it. They had the battery out and later when I came by were trying to get it started with no luck, I told them it always started fine for me (it has), and tried it myself with no starting, only cranking. Later (over the weekend) it occurred to me that since it for some reason has two black battery cables maybe they mixed them up. I once did that on an old Sentra (which had a red negative cable and a black positive cable???) and the odd thing was that it cranked like a sun of a gun but wouldn't start. Took me a while to figure out why.

So I was thinking maybe this was the same thing happening. The Sentra didn't seem to have any problems from the episode, but then there wasn't much to break on that car...

Any specific advice on what to check to ensure no damage if this is what happened? (Will know in the morning, when I drive over to the shop!).

Thanks,
Gen

Macco did that to my car!

My fusable links got fried, and one of my engine relays was messed up causing very strange problems after the fusable link was fixed. Maybe your FI relay is bad so you're not getting any fuel. The box o fuses is on the right side, just in front of the strut tower. Open the top and swap the fuses around. They're all the same part but opperate different systems. They are expensive. ($50 each) I got some extras at the junk yard for $5 each. My car started but headlights didn't work or the alternator would charge at only 9 volts... funny stuff.

Well, for what it's worth I picked up the car today and it seems fine; they told me that "the positive battery cable was not tight enough to engage the fuel pump." Hmmm.... does that sound like hooey? Or is it plausible? Anyway thanks for the input....

Thanks,
Gen

Fusable links was where I was going to go with that.....

Just re-check the connections and make sure all is well. After that, I'd keep a log of what fails...and of course, fix it.

I just made my own links out of fuse wire and connectors it cost me like 2 bucks.

When I bought fusible links from a dealer it was only about $6-$8 apiece. Just get the real thing and be done with it...

Maybe I didnt make myself clear the wire is a fuseable link wire with the same exact rating as Nissan. They werw just cheaper and easier for me to make. You can get the wire from a electrical outlet store.

Actually that is plausible if the battery cables aren't tight enough it could cause the engine to not start.