Does jump starting cause problems with the electrical system

VINNEY2

MEMBER
2001 CHRYSLER TOWN AND COUNTRY
120,000 MILES

I live up in the great white north of Canada. Two days ago I cleaned the snow off the van and started it up no problem, drove it to the front of the house and parked it for about an hour, went out to start it and all I got was a click click sound. I thought the battery packed it in so I tried to jump start it with our other vehicle (I have done this many times with other vehicles without a problem)all I got was the click click sound. I double checked the connections still no go. The wife needed to use the car so I just disconnected the cables from the car and set the cables still connected to the van on the ground they may have touched together for a instant. When she returned I tried jumping it again, this time I got nothing. I started to check the battery cables for corrosion when I noticed that a wire from the positive terminal of the battery was connected to a fuse holder, checked the fuse (20 amp) it was blown. Replaced the fuse and put in fully charged battery still nothing, it seems like everything is dead. Where do I go from here?

Sunday, November 20th, 2011 AT 11:18 PM

1 Reply

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
34,330 POSTS

Grab a test light, connect it between the two battery posts, then move the test light probe and clip down the line to the next places in the circuits. The clip will go from the battery negative post to the engine block, then a different direction to the body. If the light still lights up at both places, move the probe from the positive post to where the smaller red wire bolts to the under-hood fuse box. Probe on the cable terminal, then on the nut or the metal pad the terminal is bolted to. If the light doesn't light up on the pad, take that terminal off and clean it with sandpaper.

Based on the original symptoms, I'd suspect a bad battery or the alternator isn't recharging it; or the cables were corroded as you mentioned. I have a few simple tests to verify the charging issue. Since the current symptoms are different, I'd be looking for a fuse that blew for no other reason than the surge from jump-starting or connecting the new battery. That seems to be a common thing now with all the computers on the vehicles.

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Sunday, November 20th, 2011 AT 11:30 PM