Jumpstart with wrong terminals

[totegoat]

When I jump someone, I do the cables on both cars.

 

[Opelman]

Had a coworker make that mistake on a bus. Let the magic smoke out of the alternator. If yours is behaving normally, carry on and don't worry about it.

 

[tblt44]

If your helping someone make sure it's done right or it will cost you $$$

 

[PimTac]

When I jump someone, I do the cables on both cars.

Yep. I do the same. I control the whole process.

 

[Puhdantic]

You guys are scaring me now and making me nervous!! I don't want a good deed to go punished.

Good. This is your lesson to never let the person needing a jump handle the cables.

I had to learn this too. People needing jumps are usually stressed, impatient, careless or any combination of the three so they do all sorts of silly stuff during car jumps.

These days I only offer to use my jump box.

 

[Delta]

The way these new cars are, I would NEVER jump anyone, or recieve a jump from anyone. I carry a Gooloo Jump Starter. I KNOW they have built in protection for incorrect connections.

I'm not going to gamble with my vehicle's electrical system to find out if they do or don't.

This! A while back someone asked for a jump that had some pretty janky cables. I politely declined, but knew karma would eventually bite me in the butt, so I bought to little jump packs and put them in both vehicles. I've jumped a couple peoples cars at work since then. Guess being the maintenance guy they always ask us first on a jump, lol.