Battery Brace touched Positive Battery terminal, car won't start!!

[7m28]

Ok guy, I screwed up big time.

or maybe it's bad luck.

Long story short, I replaced my battery on my '13 FRS and took it to work, which has a ride time of approx. 55mins to and back. Somewhere along the way, the vibrations of the car loosened the battery brace and it made contact with the positive battery terminal. On the way home, the warning lights on my car all lit up and the car died. I opened the hood and saw the brace touching the terminal, leaving a black burned mark clearly on the edge of the terminal. Now the car won't start at all; it's literally dead silent when I turn the key but I do see my dashboard lights and headlights working. I can also push start the car into turning on, but the warning lights are all lit up and I have no power steering.

How badly fucked am i?

I haven't check the fuses yet on the car, nor have I replaced the battery bc I haven't had time to do since coming home from work yesterday. I plan to do some basic trouble shooting later when I get home, like checking the fuses, replacing the battery to see if it's dead, and possibly replacing the burned terminal.

Do you guys have any other suggestions I should do? Tips? I have a dealership appt. set up for Sunday Oct. 1, 2017 but I would love to fix this myself rather than get gouged by those damn overpriced sharks.

[new2subaru]

I'd be looking at this first considering it was grounded out for a while.

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=83698

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by 7m28

Ok guy, I screwed up big time.

or maybe it's bad luck.

Long story short, I replaced my battery on my '13 FRS and took it to work, which has a ride time of approx. 55mins to and back. Somewhere along the way, the vibrations of the car loosened the battery brace and it made contact with the positive battery terminal. On the way home, the warning lights on my car all lit up and the car died. I opened the hood and saw the brace touching the terminal, leaving a black burned mark clearly on the edge of the terminal. Now the car won't start at all; it's literally dead silent when I turn the key but I do see my dashboard lights and headlights working. I can also push start the car into turning on, but the warning lights are all lit up and I have no power steering.

How badly fucked am i?

I haven't check the fuses yet on the car, nor have I replaced the battery bc I haven't had time to do since coming home from work yesterday. I plan to do some basic trouble shooting later when I get home, like checking the fuses, replacing the battery to see if it's dead, and possibly replacing the burned terminal.

Do you guys have any other suggestions I should do? Tips? I have a dealership appt. set up for Sunday Oct. 1, 2017 but I would love to fix this myself rather than get gouged by those damn overpriced sharks.

........ that's for not securing the battery ....... don't not do that no more.......

The first thing I would do is take the battery out and take it to a shop and have it "load tested". If it passes the test, slow charge it all the way up.

If the battery was damaged, buy a new battery.

Now, you're ready to proceed with trouble shooting (if necessary).


humfrz

[nico_rsx]

Like it was said, check the 2 fuses on the battery terminal and the battery itself. Also, since you seem to indicate you can push start the car, check if the battery is charging, do you have close to 14V with the car running, because if not then your alternator/charging circuit could be damaged, even though fuse or battery is more likely.

[Ultramaroon]

I wrote a long dissertation about how it wasn't the fuses. Then I went back and read the OP more carefully to realize this happened over time while it was running. If the fuse didn't protect your alternator, it's toast.

[DJCarbine]

Originally Posted by Ultramaroon

I wrote a long dissertation about how it wasn't the fuses. Then I went back and read the OP more carefully to realize this happened over time while it was running. If the fuse didn't protect your alternator, it's toast.

Shorted diodes?

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by DJCarbine

Shorted diodes?

There are probably a dozen different things that could have blown out in this scenario. There are many safeguards but few of them are meant to deal with this sort of situation so they get bypassed and the weirdest crap can result. It can be tough to trouble shoot. Been there.

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by DJCarbine

Shorted diodes?

Usually the regulator goes first. That's been my experience, at least. ...but not on this system.

Easy to troubleshoot if one has the skills and some simple tools. Black magic for the untrained.

[chaoskaze]

i think your battery is just dead?


Ok i'm not expert at this. XD

[cjd]

Last shorted battery I had (it was internal) shut the car off and cost me the body computer. It may have been the dealer insisting that because it ran on a jump all was OK (gauges were flickering and jumping, ran like crap)

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by chaoskaze

i think your battery is just dead?


Ok i'm not expert at this. XD

Nah. He can bump start it but no power steering. It's running off of the battery but the charge circuit is dead. Power steering only kicks in when the alternator is working.

[Overdrive]

Originally Posted by Ultramaroon

Nah. He can bump start it but no power steering. It's running off of the battery but the charge circuit is dead. Power steering only kicks in when the alternator is working.

I'm with Ultramaroon here. This seems like the most likely case. Hopefully the alternator isn't trashed, but if it is, there are worse things that could've been fried by the battery getting shorted out like that. At least the car is still running.

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by Overdrive

I'm with Ultramaroon here. This seems like the most likely case. Hopefully the alternator isn't trashed, but if it is, there are worse things that could've been fried by the battery getting shorted out like that. At least the car is still running.

Manual has instructions to fix the alternator. #rebuiltnotbought

[Overdrive]

And what, of this assembly, would need replacing if it got harmed by the short? The rectifier? Seems like a bit much of an undertaking in any case, along with probably having to buy a few bearings, unless the OP feels confident in getting in there and doing the work. Maybe the dealer can rebuild it, but then it'll become a matter of which costs less -- a replacement part, or the labor and parts to do a rebuild.