dshotterSD Posted April 6, 2016 Share Posted April 6, 2016 I was trying to disconnect the battery and I accidentally dropped the wrench. It landed on the positive side and also touched the metal harness holding the battery in place that goes across the top. Two huge sparks and a loud noise I removed the tool, and then tested the car. It wouldn't start. Made no noise at all, nothing from the starter. At first the lock & unlock worked, but after trying to start it, that stopped working as well. Any ideas on how bad I messed up?? 2006 Legacy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shogun506 Posted April 6, 2016 Share Posted April 6, 2016 I've never done that but that's pretty bad luck. I'd start by trying to isolate your systems and see what shorted if anything. You said your lock and unlock worked but then stopped. What it sounds like to me is your battery might not be working anymore and what you had was a little bit of energy left in the system that then was depleted when you tried to start the car. Lemme guess, you got the "ding ding ding" from the seatbelt/door/etc" and then you cranked it and immediately everything shut off and wouldn't turn on again? Try hooking up a different battery and turning the car to accessory to see if anything turns on. If everything turns on then your battery was messed up by your wrench. If it doesn't, check all your fuses because you probably blew something independent of the battery. If all of your fuses are still intact and nothing turns on with accessory you've got real problems. If everything is good with accessory, try starting the car to make sure you didn't blow anything else but you're probably ok. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grovlet Posted April 6, 2016 Share Posted April 6, 2016 You had to have blown a fuse somewhere.... I would go through all the fuses - actually pull them out and inspect them - I've had fuses look good from the top but they are blown when pulled out and inspected. There should also be fusible links in the engine bay - you could have cooked one of those.... I doubt it's too serious you just need to go through and find the bad fuse or link and get it replaced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JmP6889928 Posted April 6, 2016 Share Posted April 6, 2016 Hey...don't do that. Makes a lot of sparks. Look in the box under the hood for a main fuse. Use a test light and check them all and replace the bad and pray. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluesuby Posted April 6, 2016 Share Posted April 6, 2016 Hey...don't do that. Makes a lot of sparks. Look in the box under the hood for a main fuse. Use a test light and check them all and replace the bad and pray. Good luck. My money is on the main fuse. You may have to visit a dealer for a replacement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaasaiWarrior Posted April 7, 2016 Share Posted April 7, 2016 Instead of removing every fuse, grab your multimeter. Set it on continuity and go across the open "pins" of every fuse, they are designed like that for easy diagnosis. Tech tip of the day #1 08 Spec B, insta: @08_spec_b, 10 SH Forester insta: @shfozzy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theflystyle Posted April 7, 2016 Share Posted April 7, 2016 ^ But only for blade-type fuses Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
762x39 Posted April 7, 2016 Share Posted April 7, 2016 ^^OP this does not apply to you because your car is already dead, but for those of you who may not know, a continuity test must always be performed with the power removed from the circuit, never energized. Tech tip of the day #2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dieselsquid Posted April 8, 2016 Share Posted April 8, 2016 Also if it went straight from the battery to ground it wouldn't have touched any of the fuses. You drained the battery of most of its voltage. You can take it to a car parts store that has the tester charger and get them to tell you if it's bad. Might have busted a cell inside of it. -Squid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solidxsnake Posted April 8, 2016 Share Posted April 8, 2016 Also if it went straight from the battery to ground it wouldn't have touched any of the fuses. You drained the battery of most of its voltage. You can take it to a car parts store that has the tester charger and get them to tell you if it's bad. Might have busted a cell inside of it. -Squid This. There's little chance you blew a fuse. Take it from an EE Your battery is probably just depleted (rapid discharge is never a good thing) at best, or permanently dead at worst. Swap batteries (or try charging yours) and I bet you'll be fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shogun506 Posted April 9, 2016 Share Posted April 9, 2016 This. There's little chance you blew a fuse. Take it from an EE Your battery is probably just depleted (rapid discharge is never a good thing) at best, or permanently dead at worst. Swap batteries (or try charging yours) and I bet you'll be fine. That's what I said from the start bad battery is my guess. I guess "battery got messed up" isn't proper terminology Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dieselsquid Posted April 9, 2016 Share Posted April 9, 2016 That's what I said from the start[emoji38]bad battery is my guess. I guess "battery got messed up" isn't proper terminology It works if you're peaking with someone slightly inclined to speaking in mechanic's slang ha-ha -Squid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dshotterSD Posted April 11, 2016 Author Share Posted April 11, 2016 Thank you everyone for the replies, its much appreciated! It ended up being just a dead battery I charged it for about one hour, and that gave it enough juice to start the engine. I couldnt take it for a drive at the time, so I let it run for 20 minutes and turned off. I think I got lucky with best case scenario. Today I will take it for a drive. Shogun506 - you were correct on battery being depleted. Its a second vehicle, and I do not drive it too often. I believe it already had a low charge from sitting for a while. Each time I turned the key over to start, the lights got more dim. After I gave up on trying to start it, the battery did not have enough energy to lock the doors. JmP6889928 - Lesson learned. It sounded like a stun gun dieselsquid - Would it still be able to start the car with a busted cell? I didnt drive anywhere, so theres a chance I could still have battery problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dieselsquid Posted April 11, 2016 Share Posted April 11, 2016 Thank you everyone for the replies, its much appreciated! It ended up being just a dead battery[emoji38] I charged it for about one hour, and that gave it enough juice to start the engine. I couldnt take it for a drive at the time, so I let it run for 20 minutes and turned off. I think I got lucky with best case scenario. Today I will take it for a drive. Shogun506 - you were correct on battery being depleted. Its a second vehicle, and I do not drive it too often. I believe it already had a low charge from sitting for a while. Each time I turned the key over to start, the lights got more dim. After I gave up on trying to start it, the battery did not have enough energy to lock the doors. JmP6889928 - Lesson learned. It sounded like a stun gun dieselsquid - Would it still be able to start the car with a busted cell? I didnt drive anywhere, so theres a chance I could still have battery problems. No. If it was a dead cell it would drop the voltage to low to start it. And wouldn't be able to take a full charge ever again. Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rzgibbs Posted April 12, 2016 Share Posted April 12, 2016 Just to a throw a wrench on things per se I did have a 5 working cell battery that would start the LGT. So technically it is still possible. It was nine years old, too! Interstate makes some tough stuff. I bought the same exact battery as a replacement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dieselsquid Posted April 12, 2016 Share Posted April 12, 2016 Just to a throw a wrench on things per se I did have a 5 working cell battery that would start the LGT. So technically it is still possible. It was nine years old, too! Interstate makes some tough stuff. I bought the same exact battery as a replacement. Impressive -Squid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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