I have a good fully charged battery, with the pos and neg clearly marked. But when I try to use it, it sparks big time. And the multi meter says the positive and negative are reversed. I may have charged it up this way on accident. Is that possible?
2007-09-16 08:19:49 · 13 answers · asked by phil8656 7 in Cars & Transportation ➔ Maintenance & Repairs
Well I have been in the car field for over 35 years and the answer is YES
the battery must be dead, and I mean dead, no voltage reading at all.
Then if you hook it up to a charger backwords it will charge that way
To fix this just get a head light and hook it up to the battery and leave it on untill it is completely discharged then charge it the right way.
2007-09-16 08:25:26 · answer #1 · answered by goldwing127959 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
I had an experience many years ago when a truck I was servicing that had no polarity sensitive electronics and used a DC generator instead of an alternator and was boosted to start the vehicle with another battery after the lights were left on.. The boost was probably reversed but started the truck and obviously flashed the field in the generator the opposite way, and the whole truck electrical system assumed the reverse polarity. It worked fine that way for several months until a 2-way radio had to be installed and polarity mattered. It was confirmed at the time, the wide battery post was negative and the narrow one was positive. Probably not good for the life and capacity of the battery, but it continued to start and run the truck that way.
2016-02-24 04:37:05 · answer #2 · answered by Norm 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Auto batteries are DC (direct current). The electricity only flows one direction and cannot be reversed.
I believe there is a mistake somewhere but probably not in how the battery is labeled. But just to be sure, the Positive post on the battery will be larger than the negative.
2007-09-16 08:28:28 · answer #3 · answered by bigrick45 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Usually it burns out the diode pack on the alternator. The most serious thing is warping of the plates in the battery, ruining it. It won't charge any more if that happened. You can visually check the fuses to see if what they said was true about them frying, but that's not likely. If the PCM is fried you can order one on eBay used for just a few bucks and can even swap them out yourself, it's easy, they just unplug and the other plugs in and bolts into place. You may have a fuseable link fried and they'll be visible as a burned wire.
2016-05-21 02:05:17 · answer #4 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
if the battery is new then i would take it back and get a replacement. If you charged it from completely dead then yes otherwise you have a plate that came loose on the inside. Completely discharge the battery and try recharging it if that doesn't work then the plates came loose and have shorted out
2007-09-16 08:31:42 · answer #5 · answered by tiretech 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes you coud have. If the battery was completely dead and the charger was hooked up backwards, then the battery will charge reverse polarity>
2007-09-16 08:25:48 · answer #6 · answered by Ron B 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you're sure you have the correct cables going to the correct posts on the batttery, the "clearly marked" posts on the battery might be mis-marked, but it's hard to imagine a manufacturer would make this kind of gaff.
Good luck.
2007-09-16 08:23:30 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
Yes,it ruins the battery. I have seen the out come the battery is detroyed
2007-09-16 08:43:03 · answer #8 · answered by the1autoguru 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes. If a battery is fully discharged it can be recharged backwards.
2007-09-16 08:54:11 · answer #9 · answered by burn 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. You can not charge a battery in reverse polarity.
Your cables are backwards.
ADDED:
Allow me to reiterate.
IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO CHARGE A BATTERY BACKWARDS!!!!
It's a simple electrolitic chemical reaction inside the battery plates cathodes and anodes that creates voltage.
2007-09-16 08:24:42 · answer #10 · answered by Mr. KnowItAll 7 · 1⤊ 4⤋