Ok so my battery had been dieing on me. So at lunch break i went to auto zone to grab a new battery. The guy grabbed the battery after telling him the truck info 1998 dodge ram 1500 5.2 so we go outside he puts it in and sparks everywhere i just thought he arked the wrench didnt think much of it...... go to start truck and wouldnt start....... go to look and realise the 140 amp fuse is blown replace that and it blows again...... so then i start looking and notice the battery is reverse from what it should be........ they bring me out the right battery and another fuse, install it and the truck starts but the dash lights and gauges were all going completely haywire........ they had it towed to a shop and are supposed to cover the bill. I was just wondering if anyone here has ever dealth with something similar and would know what got fried or blown to make it do that? Just in case they back out or the shop doesnt figure it out......

 

Could have fried your pcm, among many other things….

they better cover every penny that’s on them, hopefully you don’t have to bring them to court

 

Well thus far they are being real cool about it so i hope it all works out ok.......... the funny thing is..... i never let anyone else touch my vehicles unless necessary especially for small stuff like that....... i was just in a hurry being on lunch break and it is a heat heat index of 110 degrees where i live right now ao i thought "hell just let the kid throw it in there"....... now look where im at...........

 

My advise is not to go to any auto parts chain and trust they know what they are doing.

 

Yes! Agreed! and anyone else is more than welcome to use my experience as an example!!!!!! Totally not worth it put things like that in yourself and double check everything.

 

I've seen older stuff with the battery hooked up backwards. I looked at a '55 Plymouth that ran for months with the battery hooked up negative ground on a positive ground system. On that, there weren't really any electronics. On yours, you have computers. The fuse blowing was a tip off.

I've had the parts sellers at Autozone tell me I'm wrong on something I learned 50 years ago. Disconnect the ground first and reattach it last. The managers usually will go with what I tell them but some of the kids, well, they think old people don't know what they are talking about.

The store should have an insurance policy just for that type of incident. A friend has an oil change shop and if the service guy messes up, it pays for repairs. I don't care for people who learn a little and think they are experts.

 

I sent one of my granddaughters to AutoZone to get a new DuraLast Gold battery after finding out the battery in her car was on death's doorstep. The one she went to installed a new battery and found out that the new battery was dead. They installed a second new battery and it too, was dead. She called me sounding rather disappointed and told me the story. I told her to try another AutoZone in a better neighborhood and she ended up getting a good battery at that store.

Getting auto parts or assistance at an AutoZone can be a lot like getting help at a WalMart. You just never know what you're going to get...

 

Yeah I didn't want to say it but I was also wondering if it could have damaged PCM

I'm curious: is it charging now?

 

Im not sure they had the truck towed to a shop right after it happend....... after the correct battery and the 140amp alternator fuse was replaced the truck did start and seem to idle ok but the dash and the lights were literally all going crazy like warning lights beeping uncontrollably.... guages going back and forth irradically......... i did pull the truck around the parking lot for the tow truck guy and is wasnt doing anything strange running wise that i could tell in those few moments before it was towed away..... but the dash never stopped freaking out

 

You/they can try checking the instrument cluster with this procedure to ensure it's OK -