Battery Polarity Problems

[s_edwards]

I did something monumentally stupid today. I know it was stupid, so I'm not even going to pretend that "a friend of mine" did it!

I replaced all the discs and pads on my car today, and was listening to the stereo for about an hour during the process. After just one hour, my 2004 986 wouldn't start, so I bump started it, took it for a twenty minute drive, then hooked it up to a battery charger. The engine would hardly crank after another hour on the charger, so I decided that I needed a new battery.

£132 later and I'm about to fit the new one. Only thing is that the new battery has the vent on the different side as the original one. So, without thinking, just popped it in so that the vent would connect up, and proceeded to connect the terminals. This is where it's riduculous as I'm pretty good with electronics! I put the negative on the positive, then connected the positive to the negative in that order.

The alarm sounded (with such an awful tone that it actually made me lose my balance, which was probably the intention), and there was some smoke and an acrid smell in the cabin. I realised about 10 seconds later what had happened and rectified the problem. However, I now have some serious problems, and they're probably not going to be cheap!

I've looked around on the forums and nobody else seems to have been this stupid, so hopefully documenting this will help any others who want to join the idiot club.

The first problem is that the battery light comes on a few seconds after starting the car. To me this suggests that I've fried the alternator. However, there are quite a few posts saying that it could be the voltage regulator? Anyone got any ideas?

I've also fried the car radio. It's a Becker CDR-23, and it blew the fuse in the fuse box. Replacing it hasn't resolved the problem, so I might think about looking for some sort of anti-surge fuse inside the unit. Anyone know of anywhere else to look?

So I've checked every single fuse in the car - both the normal fuse box, and the current distributor behind the passenger dashboard (I pulled out each fuse and tested independantly, and they're all fine).

Any ideas chaps?

Cheers,

Stuart.