I have by accident connected my car battery incorrectly (pos on neg and vice versa). I must have fried a few things. Where do I start to check? The car starts, but the battery light goes on and battery drains rapidly.
I'd start by pulling all the fuses you don't absolutely need to start the vehicle and then try to verify there is no excess current draw. I'd then start replacing the fuses one by one to see which circuit(s) are at fault and then trace what is on them if you find the culprit(s).
Good luck.
Bob
It is likely that you fried the diodes in the alternator. If I am correct, you can pull the large red wire off of the alternator and tape it up to prevent shorting out, and your battery will not go dead. Keep a charger on it each night you should be able to use your car until you get a replacement.
HTH Larntz
The battery light being on indicates no charging. Most likely the battery reversal not only blew fuses bat also a fusible link. Worst case, it fried the diodes in the Alternator.
Actually, there's an even worse case..... in most newer vehicles, the field on the alternator is controlled by the PCM (ECM, Computer, etc.) This means that there's the distinct possibilty that you'll need to change that to fix the problem. Find out what the field pin is on the alternator, and see if it's at 12 volts (or so). Then look at the the output lug of the alternator. If the field pin is high, and the output is not at least (at the very least - it should be closer to 14) 13 volts, then the alternator is sick. If there's little to no (less than 6 volts) on the field pin, then the computer is sick.
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