Say someone were to do something completely retarded

[Wh33lhop]

And hook up a different battery the only way it fit, which was reverse polarity, if only for a split second. Personally I definitely wouldn't be stupid enough to do so, let alone post on the internet about it, but hypothetically, what should they be looking to replace to get the car running?

Oh yeah, the car in question would hypothetically be making a noise sort of like a slow constant scratch when it's cranking, and the owner would hypothetically already have a fusible link on their list, and have the alternator rectifier circuit in mind. No fuses would be blown in this purely hypothetical situation.

Seriously, please keep the shit talking down, it's been a long day of ups and downs and it has had a very shitty ending.

[ZombiE30]

um......so does it crank now? does it start? or is this scratching sound instead of actual cranking?

trying to think about this is blowing my mind.....
Normally electrical diagrams have power at the top, and ground at the bottom, so basically if you took every e30 electrical diagram ever, and just flip it upside down, that's what we're looking at happening.

MOST IMPORTANTLY: How long was it hooked up this way? Did anyone try to start the car while it was hooked up backwards?

I'd start by pulling the starter and solenoid. Reversing polarity on the solenoid would make it try to shoot out of its housing, and it may be dislodged now. It would need to be disassembled/fixed or replaced. (edit: the above is only true for magnet solenoids. if it's just an iron bar, it would still work and then allow the starter to run backwards)

My next worry would be the ECU. If you, er, this unknown person, has a good one, swap it and see if everything works.
It wouldn't hurt to test all the pins on the ECU connector also (sensor inputs). Bentley has a good section on this and it only takes about 20 minutes.

Everything else should have been protected by closed switches, and therefore, not harmed. However, all that flies out the window if the car was started in this hypothetical state.....

good luck :(

[jeffw]

this makes me think of one of those shows where the dude claims his "friend" superglued his dick to his dog and not him........ just saying lol

[Todd Black 88]

And hook up a different battery the only way it fit, which was reverse polarity, if only for a split second. Personally I definitely wouldn't be stupid enough to do so, let alone post on the internet about it, but hypothetically, what should they be looking to replace to get the car running?.

The Driver.

[StereoInstaller1]

The Technician.

fux'd

[evil_twin]

Too many hypotheticals, just explain what the car is doing now.

[Wh33lhop]

this makes me think of one of those shows where the dude claims his "friend" superglued his dick to his dog and not him........ just saying lol

Great going, Sherlock.

The hypothetical car in question is now running, and the purely hypothetical situation looks like it was harmless. The hypothetical battery was hypothetically hooked up backwards for a hypothetical split second.

Hypothetical thanks go to Zombie30 for trying to help.

[george graves]

That was a close one. Whoooosh. (hypothetically speaking of course)

[jeffw]

lulz where do we find these guys lol