Help with car battery

August 11, 2006 6:37 PM

Help with my car battery.

My car battery died. I went out and bought a new one. Hooking it up now causes sparks at the terminal and a set of wires behind the battery spark and start to smoke. The wires are by the fusable links.

I'm hooking it up exactly the same way the old one was installed. Positive to positive and negative to negative.

What they hey is going on?

posted by DieHipsterDie to Travel & Transportation (5 answers total)

Did you buy the same model battery? In some cases the batteries look the same but the poles are reversed. This sounds to me like a reversal. Double and triple check.
posted by snsranch at 6:45 PM on August 11, 2006

I'm just guessing here, but I think you may be frying your ignition wires. So, first of all, don't try to hook it up again until you find out what you're doing incorrectly.

Secondly, what type of car is this? What size battery did you buy and what size did you replace (they should be the same)? Do you have your owner's manual, or even better, can you get your hands on a Chilton's manual for your car?
posted by Medieval Maven at 6:46 PM on August 11, 2006

you have a short somewhere in your electrical system. I had the same problem. I returned a couple of batteries before a guy outside the auto parts store told me that if you see a spark when you connect your battery that means you have a frayed wire somewhere in you electrical system. See if you can find the short yourself and replace the wire or take it to a mechanic and see if he can find it.
posted by any major dude at 7:11 PM on August 11, 2006

Response by poster: Ok, I'm an idiot. I made the mistake of assuming that the terminal layout on the new battery was the same as the old one. Plus the old battery was so dirty I had trouble reading the +- symbols. All is fine now.

Thanks.
posted by DieHipsterDie at 7:15 PM on August 11, 2006

Now you need to check your fuses to make sure you haven't burned something out. Do all your lights, wipers, etc., work?
posted by Mr. Gunn at 6:12 AM on August 14, 2006