Jump start leads wrong way.

[Ed|Rush]

Gave a jump start to a random motorist tonight, to cut short the leads ended up the wrong way round..

It went home in 'limp mode'? (spanner light), and the auto-transmission wasn't shifting - seemed to be stuck in one gear.

I'll try to start it tomorrow to see the extent of the damage done..

Any idea's what may have broken on my 2002 2.2 dti?

[mark1319]

Connecting the leads the wrong way round should have just produced some rather spectacular sparks which would have made you remove them instantly. If you remove the neg from the battery for 10mins and see if that clears the fault.

[Ed|Rush]

Brilliant! The car started this morning, and has been running fine all day. Just about to go out in it again!

I don't know what happened.. I guess its some kind of safety mode, anyway the fault is cleared. Thanks mark1319!

There was sparking when the wires where put on, but only a little (which seemed normal) - the only way I realised is because the wires where hot, it was dark out! I'll update if anything broken becomes apparent (as people have told me I'll probably need to replace the alternator and the engine management system)

Is anyone else brave enough to admit a stupid mistake like this and had similar results?

[mucklestone]

Did the same thing, I had two black leads! Gave all sorts of errors then fixed itself. Generally if yours is the good battery then its the other car that gets the trouble!