My husband accidentally crossed the jumper cables when trying to jump start our 1998 Dakota. Sparks flew off the battery post and a blackish smoke came up from somewhere....what damage could he have caused by having done this?

Thanks for any help!

 

.........that sux maybe you should of put the jumpers on black smoke i would say somthing defanitly got fried

 

probably fried the pcm....

that happened to our Jeep...

I put em on backwards, and the PCM got friiiiiiiiiiiiied...

smoke comes from the engine, right where the PCM was at...

oooooooops.

 

a little heads up, proper way of jumping a vehicle is the cables connected to the battery on the good vehicle, and the positive lead connected to the positive terminal on the dead battery, and the negative lead connected on the frame rail of the dead vehicle, this prevents explosions from sparks cause of the hydrogen fumes... yeah it's uncommon but why test it, ya know?

 

Never good to see smoke leak out. It's almost impossible to put it back in. If you are lucky, you blew the main fuse, if you aren't lucky, your husband better get busy with lots of wire and a soldering gun.

 

The only thing you can do is check each and every fuse in both the Power Distribution Center and the fuse box inside the truck. Check all the electrical components and parts for the proper operation. See that the truck will start and idle correctly and then go for a very careful test drive and see whether the truck runs and drives correctly. Check all the tail lights, brake and turn signal lights and headlights too.

This may or may not have caused damage. The sparks would be normal when the polarity was reversed. The black smoke you saw could just have been from the sparks from the battery heating the dirt and dust in and around the battery area, or it could be the result of serious damage to an electrical component. In most cases it should just blow fuses, at the worst. That is what fuses are for, to protect circuits. Unfortunately vehicles now are so heavily regulated with sensitive electronics even the slightest spike on a circuit can cause irreparable damage.

It happened to me once too. I connected a battery backwards in a Honda. All it did was throw sparks and blow the radio fuse. I wouldn't be too terribly worried until you check out your Durango and see what you find.

Jimmy

 

one time late at night when it was dark, me and my friend tried to jump start an old ford pickup off of my truck. So we hooked up the cables to my truck and had it running, then we hooked up the cables to the ford, after a second there was sparks and the piece of **** ford was on fire around the battery. so my friend quickly just yanked off the wires and I put out the fire with my shirt. Then i went in my truck and noticed that EVERY SINGLE LIGHT in the info center was illuminated but the truck was still running. I thought oh **** it probably fried the PCM and if i turn it off it'll probably never start again. Well I turned it off, fired it back up and everything was normal. I would say have your battery load tested and if it's good get it charged up and put it back in, then try starting the truck.

 

fail......NOT TO BE AN A$SHOLE...just slow down and use common scence....thats the most simplest way to aviod problems....

 

loudpedal, it could happen to anyone. in my case the posts on the ford pickup's battery were actually reversed and it was too dark to see.

 

im not saying that it just happens to dumb ppl.......all im saying is that to slow down and just think things through...