Jump start cautionary tale
 

Thought this would never happen to me.

BRZ battery was dead as a door nail this morning. Dash lights came on but no engine turnover and some clicks. Apparently I left the trunk lid ajar Friday night. I didn’t drive all weekend and we had temps in the 20’s F

Get out my heavy duty, Minnesota winter style jumpers and hook them up per protocol. I thought. In double checking before firing up the Mrs g_e Lexus, I spied that the cables were reversed in my car. I immediately disconnected them.

The cables were pretty warm but nowhere close to melting. Insulation on them is really thick yet flexible. You guys in Canada get it.

Anyway, after letting things set for 10 minutes while kicking self in @$$, I start the Mrs. car and don’t see any warning lights and it’s running smoothly.

I cut it off, jump it again, triple checking my connections, fire up her car and my car starts right off.

Whew!

No warning lights either. Everything works! I drive it to the battery place and have it tested. Low charge but all cells OK.

So I drove it for half an hour to get it charged. Took the Mrs car out for 15 minute drive all OK.

I got really lucky. Catching it after being connected for a few seconds likely saved me. Too bad my luck doesn’t work with the Lottery.

I was thinking about having both cars checked out, but if they aren’t throwing codes, no warning lights/messages, and running fine, I’m not sure there is anything to discover. And the doner car was never switched on with the crossed wires

The moral of the story: no matter how many times you have done this in the past, triple check your work and check it again to be sure.

One of our shop trucks had a dead battery. The warehouse guys were trying to hook up the cables for the charger and couldn't get the negative lead to stay clamped. So I told them it can just go to the chassis, it doesn't need to go to the post. Walked out of the office later and I hear the charger buzzing pretty angrily. They had the positive on the alternator and the negative lead on the positive post. I don't know how they extrapolated what I said to mean that :iono:

instructions unclear, head stuck up ass.

Ohhhhh ....... my, I'm ah feared you are in the first stages of decline - best YOU get checked (tested) before you hurt yourself - :sigh:

;)

Do you mean i have to reform?

Sort of. Before you perform a task involving an item, find the instruction manual and read all of the "cautions" that you never read before.

A decline story. When my father was in his 90s, he pulled his car away from a gas station and had forgotten to remove the fuel nozzle from his car. I'm in my late 70s and just the other day, while gassing up, I double checked and almost had forgotten to replace the gas tank cap and close the fuel door.

:iono:

not that far gone... yet.

No doubt there is something on this in the owner's manual.

;-)

Update on my sorry tale....

The following day all was still running well, no warning lights, codes, or weirdness noted. But I had this sense of doom that my luck wouldn't hold.

So I went over to my dealer service to have them check it out.

This forum generally takes a dim view of dealers' service departments and I have had my share of crappy ones, mainly when I had Volkswagens. And my first Subaru dealer service department took a nasty turn for the worse so I dropped them.

But my current dealer is Golden.

I told them what I'd done. They looked somber. They drove it into the bay and I went in and ate their chips and snack bars.

About an hour later I was summoned. All done, you are good to go. No problems found! And we vacuumed out your car. NO CHARGE!

Wow! I did not expect that. This is the same dealer that went to bat for me with SoA and got a decent rebate against the out of warranty defective throw-out bearing work a few years ago.

Yesterday I went out of town. 4-1/2 hours wheel time. The car ran fantastically well and was a blast like it's been since Day 1.

So... there you have it.

Having left interior lights on in cars over the years, I learned swapping the interior and trunk lights with LEDs are a pretty cheap insurance policy that this will not drain your battery overnight.

Care to share the name of the dealership?

lol. not with my led's...

There are good dealers out there still, we just always hear about the bad ones! You know; like everything else in the world ;)

Subaru of Gwinnett, NE suburb of Atlanta. Ask for Issa A-1 guy.