Hey guys,

I accidentally jumped my '07 backwards (yeah, I'm a dumbass in a hurry). After leaving them connected for ~30sec backwards, I realized my mistake and disconnected. At first, nothign worked. I replaced the 80A fusable link on the battery terminal, and was able to jump the car (correctly this time), but there is now the most godawful screaming sound coming from the engine bay. I am assuming that the alternator is seized. Before I go buy a new one, does anyone else have any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

 

If it's just belt squeal or screech, it may be due to (the belt) being not quite tight enough along with having an unusually high load on it trying to charge up a dead battery.

The belt is adjusted manually by moving the alternator, there is no automatic tensioner.

And, you really should put a charger on the battery, the alternator isn't really designed to charge up a dead one and it could suffer.

An alternator that is trying to deliver maximum power can also make a whine noise but it's not nearly as loud as a belt screech.

The fuse blew immediately upon contacting with reverse polarity, so 29.78 seconds of that didn't matter LOL

You may find other smaller fuses blown after jumping backwards, pay attention to anything else that doesn't work.


See that it is not seized, the pulley is actually spinning while the engine is running.
If you really need more confirmation, remove the belt and spin it by hand.

HTH

 

Thanks for the reply. The screech is waaay worse than just a loose belt. I will confirm, but I beloved that the alternator is seized and the belt is being forced over it, or its not seized, and there is some other metal on metal rubbing going on.

Anyway, I'll test and maybe take a video.

 

Someone else I know had her car jumped by someone who hooked up the cables incorrectly. What I don't understand is how that happens. Do the red terminals not both mean positive? Is "+" all of the sudden negative? I don't get it.

 

The OP admitted the cause in the first post.



Show some compassion.

 

My brother bought a pair of cables from Auto Zone some years ago and for kicks I traced them and realized a red plastic grip cover was swapped with black on one side. We went back to Auto Zone and discovered that one grip cover on every set was swapped. I don't know what made me think to check, but since then whenever I jump a car I check the cables two or three times before clamping them to anything.