Really Dumb Mistake....

bluespeed03

Member
:
2003 Mazdaspeed Protege
Hey Guys,

I was in a rush yesterday, and being pressured by my girlfriend (we all know the feeling), and I hooked my new battery to the wrong polarity. I placed the positive terminal to the ground and the negative to the hot side. I feel like a complete moron over the situation but I guess you can only beat yourself up so much and then you gotta laugh a little.

So, I saw the 15 amp in line fuse on the positive main lead is toast and I also noticed the 100 amp fuse in the fuse box which corresponds to "Main harness fuse" is also blown.

What damage may have I caused?? ECU issues? Anyone ever made this dumb mistake???

Also, real quick, I can't get the 100 amp fuse out of the car.....it may be held in place by some other method, does not want to seem to budge!

THANKS IN ADVANCE,

xavier
 
that sucks dude!.. you may have likely welded the fuse in place!

grab a flat head and try and pry it up, and also some channel locks.

i HIGHLY doubt there's many issues if any. BUT, the only way to be sure is to check after you replace the fuses.. and prolly the battery. I blew the s*** out of a brand new battery this way.
 
I have seen this done before. In theory it should have only blown your 100A fuse. There shouldn't be any damage to the ecu. Thats what the 100A fuse is there for.. to protect your electrical system. Just replace the blown fuses and try it out.

That 100A fuse is BOLTED to the fuse box with 2 bolts. You will have to unbolt the fuse box to get access to them. The bolts that hold the fuse in place are located underneath the fuse box. Once you have unbolted the box you should be able to get a small 1/4" ratchet in there to undo the bolts holding the fuse in place. Once the bolts are taken out the fuse will just slide out. A new fuse is only about $4 btw (in Canada anyway)

Hope this all makes sense.

Good luck
 
Have I mentioned how much this forum rocks. I have saved myself so much future aggravation from all the combined knowledge and tips on the forum!!!!!

Now if we could only figure out how to get around these damn pesky women that make us do crazy things like hook up a damn battery backwords!!!

Once again, thanks for the info. I will have it up and running in no time!!!
 
Did you think it was an old school Ford for a second? lol

We all make mistakes. the fuse blew your ECU is good.
 
The same thing just happened to me, connected the wrong leads and blew the 100A fuse. I think it's the only one that blew.

I was wondering where I could buy that fuse. Do they only sell it at the dealership? Or can I grab one at canadian tire?
 
One night at work I had to jumpstart a customer car that was dropped off for service the next morning and when I hooked up the jump pack to the battery, sparks shot out. LOL apparently I had connected both cords to the opposite terminals. They were getting a new battery put in (obviously) so I wasn't really worried about the car, but I destroyed the jump pack hahah.
 

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