After a long day of work, I stopped by Harbor Freight to grab some bits and pieces to get my sedan back up and running (which I did). While I was at it, I decided to put my Odyssey battery in my EF hatch in order to not have to swap my one standard battery back and forth between the two cars.

Well, I put the terminals on the wires and plug it up and tighten the nuts. Go to start it: Nothing.

Go to jump it off my wife's car: nothing.

Check the battery: AAAAAHHHH! The terminals are on backwards!!!! And there is a faint burning smell under the hood (maybe from the sparks of hooking up the jumper cables, but can't be sure).

I know something is blown/wrong, but what should I expect the extent of the damage to be? Did Honda have a safety trip to keep this idiotic error from frying the alternator, ecu, etc.?

I am pulling my hair out over here! Please help!

 

my friend did this on his hatch on accident once and all it did was blow the main fuse under the hood. All i remember is the fuse was yellow. The fuse was the type that screws in.

 

What year was your friend's hatch if you don't mind me asking?

 

there is a main fuse on the car. It should ALWAYS blow if you do this. The smell is probably from you hooking your girls car up to it and you are lucky you didn't mess up hers.

 

Naw. Hers is fine. I'm off to check the main fuse. I'll let everyone know what happens.

 

did that to late one night.. i was sleepy and ticked off before i did it and man i cant tell you how ticked i was when i found out what i did

if u have to drive it and dont have a fuse you can pop the clear top off of the fuse and push the ends together and it will get you to the part's store... but dont leave it that way for long

 

i did that once.burnt my main fuse and my gauge cluster.

 

I did it once, went to the auto parts for the new fuse, drove home and did it again.
Yea twice before I figured out beer and battery replacement are not your friends. The worst part was I had to drive back to the auto parts store again for another fuse. I paid better attention the third time around.

 

i tried to jump mine off with a large battery charger/jumper. when i did i didnt notice the charger was on the 225amp 12v setting and something in my chassis harness burnt. still havent got it started. there is 12v in the block when all engine grounds are in place and the key is on. lol

 

Third times a charm

Let us know what you discover.

 

All is well. I replaced the main fuse and the car started right up.

Actually started better with the Odyssey than with the full-size batt. Thanks for the help, guys.

Edit: I heard that some have had problems with burning out their cluster, audio, etc. when this happens. So far I have not seen any problems. I will post up if I do.

 

when i hit my left turn signal,the high beam light would flicker and my temp gauge would bounce.i was glad it was only the cluster and no chasis wiring.

 

Ya, I did that too, lucky me it just hit the main fuse. I felt so damn stupid! LOL

 

What I discovered was if you put the positive cable to the positive post and the negative to the negative, you won't blow the main fuse.

 

i was going to say main fuse but it looks like you got it

 

I fried my head unit when I made the same mistake.

 

So far no signs of any damage beyond the main fuse. I drove to work today with lights and all, and nothing appeared out of the ordinary. If I do discover something I'll keep you guys informed.

Looks like I dodged a bullet on this one. Fix was a total of $2.99.
**Wipes brow and thanks Jesus**

 

Thank Goodness for this post i heard a fan near the cars CPU/ or Electronics buzzing for about a minute which ive never heard before after installing the terminals backwards all while installing a minor cosmetic battery case (Pointless) which was not needed so when i attempted to start the car i thought for certain i fried something however upon checking main 100a fuse seeing it was blown after reading this post ran to auto zone grabbed one and now car starts no problem thank goodness i read this post i was in a panic lol. 2004 Honda Cr-v 4wd Ex UK Model