A towing company try to charge my dead battery and when they did, they burn the wires, starter and alternator.
They said that they have nothing to do with that because my battery didn't have any marks at all.
Question: What happens? Does the battery has to have marks if the cables were placed wrong or sometimes it doesn't leave marks? Is it possible that they used too much charge from the towing truck to my battery car?
Thanks for your help. I really appreciate it.
Peugeot
They're idiots.
You can over-current a battery but i doubt they did without a constant current source which would have to ramp up the voltage to mega levels. So no, they most likely just connected the terminals incorrectly, though Id have thought the fuse system would have taken care of the problem (setup dependant). Either way if they have connected it up wrong because there were no marks they are a bunch of cowboys - all it takes is a $2 digital meter to tell which way round the cables go even if its got no indicator of polarity. They should replace the damaged parts. J
Answer: If the wires, starter, and alternator are burned up, then you need new wires, starter, and alternator.
I have never seen a battery without some kind of marking for polarity. Take a look at the battery, one of the posts should be marked with a + mark and one should be marked with a - mark. Also, the positive (+) battery cable is usually red and may have a red plastic cover over the battery post, and the negative (-) battery cable is usually black. Even without any markings on the battery or battery cable, all you have to do to determine which cable is negative is to see which one is grounded to the chassis.
Yes, it is possible to over-charge a battery, but if the tow truck was giving a jump-start, the likelihood of over-charging is very low. A more common problem when giving a jump start is connecting the jumper cables to the wrong battery terminal or letting the jumper cables touch each other or ground, causing sparks and short circuits.
No, but it's entirely possible (I'd say likely) that they hooked up the jumper cables backwards to the car battery terminals - that could quickly toast the battery, the alternator, and the output cable from the alternator to the battery.
And with standard tow-truck jumper cables, they can clip them to your car battery posts first and then plug them into the socket on the tow truck bumper last - the tell-tale arcing would happen inside the disconnect connector, not on the battery posts where you could see the damage. They can say "there's no signs of arcing on the battery posts" and be technically correct - yet lying when they say "We didn't do it!"
You may need to find an experienced and impartial mechanic to go over the car before anyone else touches it - ESPRCIALLY the clowns you suspect of doing the damage. If they continue to deny everything and you walk into their shop with a report stating that they did it, you can prove they did it, and this mechanic is willing to testify in court as an "Expert Witness" that they did it, their attitude might change fast to "Okay, we screwed up. We'll pay for the damages."
A Reversed Polarity jump start will also blow several of the large 'Fusible Link' cable protectors hooked to the battery positive post adapter, and can blow up other electrical devices in the car that went before the fusible links and fuses blew.
How (or if) they killed the big cable from the battery to the starter is questionable - unless there was a short circuit underneath the car to the starter solenoid power terminal. Someone being deliberately clumsy hooking the car up to tow it could short that cable out with one of the tie-down hooks or safety chains.
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To burn wires one needs resistance, higher voltage will not do that. They F#cked up, WBMG.
mike
another indicator for the positive terminal of the battery (top post terminals) is the size of the terminal. The positive terminal is a little larger (wider diameter) than the negative terminal.
Correction: To burn wires one needs A SHORT and some components may became a short when the reverse polarity is applied.
But I find it hard to believe that the starter burned because the polarity was reversed.
I am more inclined to believe that a higher then 12 Volts was applied (24 V) for a long time and burned the starter . It will certainly destroy the battery, a burned starter becomes a short and due to a very high current (more than 100 A) burned the wiring.
John
They may be correct. It sounds more likely to be a electrical short at the starter.
Dan
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