I am a dumb *** and hooked up my battery incorrectly today. Positive to neg and vise versa. It was for like 5 secs and then a little smoke came from the underhood (in engine compartment) fuse box. Noticed it right away and corrected the problem. The car was never cranked with the battery connected the wrong way as well. So now the car starts and runs. When it's idling and I rev it the battery and ABS lights come on and all the gauges go crazy. This also happens while I drive. Gauges go nuts. I checked all the fuses and they are all good. I can't believe I did something so stupid. Any advice?

 

get a good mechanic [8D]

 

Thanks but not the advice I am looking for.

 

Well, unfortunately fuses are inline before a load (guage, radio, horn, etc), so when you hooked up the cables backwards, you sent unregulated power directly to the loads. If everything still works ok, more than likely you only damaged a relay or two.
But you said you saw smoke, so you may just have a wire or two grounding out which is causing your guages to act odd.

 

yeah everything works....lights, power windows, power locks, wiper, radio, heater, and the car runs fine. Just went for another drive and it runs perfect. Just the gauges go wacky. Will jump from one end to the other. Tends to happen during excelleration...not at idel. While on the gas....ABS light, Battery light, and the light on the traction control button comes on and off. Interior instrament lights also go dim at times. So you think I may have burned a wire lose at the fuse box (under hood box)? Does that thing come lose to get a look at the underside?

 

Could I have fried the Voltage Regulator on the Alternator? Tried to start the car today and the battery ws dead. Charged the battery for a few hours and now she starts again. Would a bad regulator make the gauges go crazy?

 

I checked all the fuses....all good. The power wire to the alt is good too, continuity wise. I checked continuity between the battery power wire and negative battery wire and my tester beeped...so there is continuity. Is that normal? Fully charged the battery last night and left it connected and today it was dead? Does that mean I shorted a power (positive) wire somewhere? Charging the battery now so that I can start it up and check if the voltage regulator is working. Any more advice guys? Thanks for all your help so far!

 

Did you charge the battery with the car or with a charger

 

Charged it with the Battery Charger. The first time I charged it with the charger I let the car idle for 3 mins (not enough time to drain the battery?) Left it connected to the car and today it was dead. that's why I was thinking I have a short. Charging it again and gonna run the car with the volt meter at the battery and see if I get 15-17 volts.....if I do the alt and regulator should be good.....right?

 

k....here is the latest. Charged the battery and put it back in the car. With the car running the voltage at the battery was between 18-19volts. Too high? Busted votage regulator? Also disconnected the negative battery cable and pluged the volt meter in between the neg battery post and the neg cable (disconnected from battery) and am getting 13 volt reading....so I am assuming a drain on the battery? Started pulling the fuses from the in engine fuse box and still at 13 volts so I guess its none of the components at that fuse box. Guess I'll start pulling the fuses in the car tomorrow to see if I can get the voltage to drop and find out if there is a short there. I disconnected the voltage reg plug from the alternator and the battery was still pulling 13 volts at the neg cable. Anymore input?