sparker

The wife took my truck (05 F150) to he beach (never again) and left the key in the ignition and the battery went dead. She got some ya-hoo to jump start it and he put the cables on backwards. She finally got it started but now Im smelling some burnt wires under the dash and can't locate them. Fuse box looks fine. Any thought on where it fried the wires?

13Harleyfan

You are probably smelling the battery cable insulation. Check your cable for any spots they may have melted of or just replace them to give you peace of mind, after you give your wife a piece of your mind...

Pity7700

just be happy she didnt blow the battery up. check the battery cables.

NGM

Good lesson for all DO NOT jump off your vehicle with another vehicle. On average its about 1000.00 in damage for each vehicle brought in to the shop where something happend when jumping it off. One BMW was 9000.00 in damage a Chevy truck was 1400.00 in damage. Its cheaper to call a wrecker or go buy a jump box. /me stepping off my soap box now.

There is probably damage and you are smelling the after effects of it. I know we had a Mustang that it burned the ignition switch pigtail and we did not actually find it until months later when it finally lost contact with the ignition switch itself.

sparker

Checked the main cables and they are fine. The smell is coming from inside under the dash. Ill look closer... I told her she (or I) was lucky she made it home with out burning my truck up.

sparker

Thanks, Ive learned my lesson// If she wants to drive a truck she can go buy her own. As for the wires--If I can't locate the damage, Im sure It will show its ugly face eventually.

Pity7700

jumping a vehicle with another vehicle isn't the problem. its how you hook it up, that's the problem. people don't really know how to properly jump a vehicle.

NGM

Here is why its a problem. You have 1 vehicle with a dead battery another vehicle pumping 13.5 to 14 volts hooked up. Now you start the dead vehicle and its alternator comes on putting out 13.5-14 volts nominal. Now while cranking the dead one the alternator on the running one kicks into high gear. When you have both of them running for a short period of time you can have (not always) too much voltage for sensative systems causing them to fry. I saw 26 volts one time when jumping a vehicle off and I will never do it again after that.

Pity7700

yes, like I said. the problem is when you have someone jumping a car without the proper knowledge.

shut the running vehicle off before you try starting the dead vehicle after you let the dead battery charge or simply pull the negative cable off. sometimes you can jump the dead car without starting the car doing the jumping, mostly never though.

knowledge is a powerful thing.

Pity7700

another thing NOT to do when jumping a vehicle, don't smack the two loose ends of the cables together to "check for connection" or what have you. dumb.