- Aug 22, 2001
- 236
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Hello there,
Yesterday at work, I had a woman request a jump start for her car. (the lights were left on, but isn't it true that newer cars automatically shut the lights off if the car is off??) I called on the maintenance / security pickup to come around with the jumper cables, and we hooked it up and got nothing.
A 2nd try (with the +/- cables switched!) made the wipers and horn go off, but still no start. (I saw the guy put the + cable on the - battery terminal and asked "are you sure thats right?", he said "yea, yea")
a 3rd try resulted in the car starting, and she pumped the revvs between 3-5k for a minute or so, but the moment we took the cables off the battery, it sputtered and stalled out.
a 4th try (started up) I noticed that the battery icon on her dash was lit, and mentioned that it may be the alternator not charging the battery, but she said that the car was too new, and that couldn't be the problem. AAA was called, and indeed it was the alternator (returning 0v) at fault.
so the question is, was there something in the jump-start (perhaps switching the cables!?) that could blow the alternator, or was the poor thing on its way out to begin with?
-John
Yesterday at work, I had a woman request a jump start for her car. (the lights were left on, but isn't it true that newer cars automatically shut the lights off if the car is off??) I called on the maintenance / security pickup to come around with the jumper cables, and we hooked it up and got nothing.
A 2nd try (with the +/- cables switched!) made the wipers and horn go off, but still no start. (I saw the guy put the + cable on the - battery terminal and asked "are you sure thats right?", he said "yea, yea")
a 3rd try resulted in the car starting, and she pumped the revvs between 3-5k for a minute or so, but the moment we took the cables off the battery, it sputtered and stalled out.
a 4th try (started up) I noticed that the battery icon on her dash was lit, and mentioned that it may be the alternator not charging the battery, but she said that the car was too new, and that couldn't be the problem. AAA was called, and indeed it was the alternator (returning 0v) at fault.
so the question is, was there something in the jump-start (perhaps switching the cables!?) that could blow the alternator, or was the poor thing on its way out to begin with?
-John