Did I damage my car's electrical system?
I worry that I damaged my electrical system by helping my neighbor. (I have a 93 Ford E-150 with 4.9 engine). He has a Dodge Nitro, and on his way home the battery light came on, and the truck started acting funny. Once he got home, and turned off the truck, it would not restart. There was no power. When I came outside, he had the battery out of the truck. Apparently he had tested the battery and determined it was shot. But the electric windows were still down on his car so he needed power to get them to go up so he could secure his car. He did not want to jump his old battery because he thought it might hurt his electrical system. So he direct-connected from my old van to his Dodge. That is to say, he tried to power up his Dodge without having a battery in his Dodge by running jumper cables from my battery (with my engine running) to his Dodge. I'm not sure how he hooked up the cables. It looked like he was hooking the positive cable to the fuse box in the Dodge. I have never heard of doing this. The direct connection did give some power to the Dodge but it wasn't enough to power up the windows. It was only enough to make some interior lights go on. It caused a huge draw down on my poor old van. My van is a 1993. It runs good, but I treat it with kid gloves because it is so fragile. I'm very worried that this procedure by my supremely annoying neighbor might have damaged something in my own electrical system.
If he didn't create a short (which would have produced a shower of sparks) I don't see how this could have hurt your van.
I'm a little surprised that he couldn't get the window motors to run, especially if there was a strong draw on your van.
For this attempt, I rather like that he hooked up to the fuse box. That kept the starter motor out of the circuit. Safer for your van, and safer for the people, too.
Joe's a hoe. Its just a bad alternator.
Letting idiots connect up jumper cables is not a bright idea.
For what he wanted dropping yiur battery in would have been a better option
Without testing we have no idea wagt damage has been done if any.
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