Hooked up the battery backwards. What problems will that cause?
Asked by Dchisum Jun 17, 2014 at 10:41 PM about the 1988 Pontiac Firebird Formula
Question type: Maintenance & Repair
My son has an 88 Firebird and he hooked the battery up backwards. It turned the engine
over but wouldn't start. When I noticed what he did we reversed the connection. The
engine still turned over but would not start. What damage could we have caused.
4 Answers
If car is not runnning,blowed fuses.Or possible damage to ecm.
if large fuse or fuselinks blown that's good, to protect the circuits although the alternator diodes are fed direct and will take a reverse voltage hit and maybe breakdown .,
Main Engine fuse SHOULD blow, but if you cranked the engine with the battery in backwards you backfed the entire harness thru the alternator. More than likely the alternator, main fuse, main power relay, fusible links, and radio will be toast. Worst case, the ECM also took a hit.
Thanks for the help. It will be the weekend before I get back to it.
