From the Detroit news:
Tom Greenwood's 'NOWRRYS' mentality was fully tested this week after he installed a battery backward in his 2003 Ford Explorer. (David Coates / The Detroit News)
John Wayne once said, “Life is tough. It’s even tougher if you’re stupid.” Great line by the Duke!
Well, color me stupid.
After work on Tuesday, I went to my 2003 Ford Explorer and discovered I had a dead battery. I wasn’t too upset because the battery was at least 6 years old, plus I had a fully charged battery jumper stored in the back for emergencies.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to resurrect the battery.
A friend gave me a lift to a nearby Firestone store where I bought a new battery for $116, and back to my ride where I tried hooking up the new battery (I carry a limited number of tools, just in case).
Here’s where I became Forrest Gump: I wasn’t paying attention and I hooked up the battery incorrectly: positive to negative and negative to positive.
The first clue that I had made a major error is when the horn started honking, the lights flashed, the positive cable got really hot and the alternator began to smoke.
(I wasn’t worried about the alternator catching on fire because I figured the exploding battery would kill me first.)
After disconnecting the battery I angrily stomped around for awhile. I mean, come on, I had a 50-50 chance of hooking up the battery correctly and I got it wrong!
Now it was time to place a call for a tow truck.
Oh, did I mention I was marooned on the ninth floor of The Detroit News parking garage?
Tow truck operator Will Grace — who was piloting a flatbed car hauler — made a valiant effort to tow the SUV down eight floors but the garage roof was just too low.
The only other way to descend to street level was to “dead stick” the SUV down eight floors. We pushed it to the ramp, jumped in as it teetered there and then corkscrewed down eight levels like we were on Space Mountain at Disneyland.
“C’mon, you know that was fun,” grinned Grace as I hyperventilated into a paper bag.
We dropped off the dead SUV at a garage in Royal Oak Tuesday afternoon.
Due to a backup, it took the garage two days to get to my SUV so I ended up renting a car. On Thursday morning the mechanic called with the news: one fried alternator and a fricasseed battery.
So how much did all of this cost?
Well, let’s just see.
■ The original new battery: $116.
■ Space Mountain garage ride: $50.
■ Two-day car rental: $176.
■ New alternator and a second new battery: $596.
The not-so-grand total: $938.
Of course Seadoo don't have Alternators buy do have MPEMs, so deduct $480 but add anywhere up to $1200 for a new MPEM
And all because I didn’t hook up the red cable to the red post and the black cable to the black post. Doh!
Life isn’t just tough when you’re stoopid ... it’s also expensive.
tgreenwood@detroitnews.com
(313) 222-2023
From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130823/METRO05/308230042#ixzz2cnoP7kf2
Tom Greenwood's 'NOWRRYS' mentality was fully tested this week after he installed a battery backward in his 2003 Ford Explorer. (David Coates / The Detroit News)
John Wayne once said, “Life is tough. It’s even tougher if you’re stupid.” Great line by the Duke!
Well, color me stupid.
After work on Tuesday, I went to my 2003 Ford Explorer and discovered I had a dead battery. I wasn’t too upset because the battery was at least 6 years old, plus I had a fully charged battery jumper stored in the back for emergencies.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to resurrect the battery.
A friend gave me a lift to a nearby Firestone store where I bought a new battery for $116, and back to my ride where I tried hooking up the new battery (I carry a limited number of tools, just in case).
Here’s where I became Forrest Gump: I wasn’t paying attention and I hooked up the battery incorrectly: positive to negative and negative to positive.
The first clue that I had made a major error is when the horn started honking, the lights flashed, the positive cable got really hot and the alternator began to smoke.
(I wasn’t worried about the alternator catching on fire because I figured the exploding battery would kill me first.)
After disconnecting the battery I angrily stomped around for awhile. I mean, come on, I had a 50-50 chance of hooking up the battery correctly and I got it wrong!
Now it was time to place a call for a tow truck.
Oh, did I mention I was marooned on the ninth floor of The Detroit News parking garage?
Tow truck operator Will Grace — who was piloting a flatbed car hauler — made a valiant effort to tow the SUV down eight floors but the garage roof was just too low.
The only other way to descend to street level was to “dead stick” the SUV down eight floors. We pushed it to the ramp, jumped in as it teetered there and then corkscrewed down eight levels like we were on Space Mountain at Disneyland.
“C’mon, you know that was fun,” grinned Grace as I hyperventilated into a paper bag.
We dropped off the dead SUV at a garage in Royal Oak Tuesday afternoon.
Due to a backup, it took the garage two days to get to my SUV so I ended up renting a car. On Thursday morning the mechanic called with the news: one fried alternator and a fricasseed battery.
So how much did all of this cost?
Well, let’s just see.
■ The original new battery: $116.
■ Space Mountain garage ride: $50.
■ Two-day car rental: $176.
■ New alternator and a second new battery: $596.
The not-so-grand total: $938.
Of course Seadoo don't have Alternators buy do have MPEMs, so deduct $480 but add anywhere up to $1200 for a new MPEM
And all because I didn’t hook up the red cable to the red post and the black cable to the black post. Doh!
Life isn’t just tough when you’re stoopid ... it’s also expensive.
tgreenwood@detroitnews.com
(313) 222-2023
From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130823/METRO05/308230042#ixzz2cnoP7kf2
