I've got a 1993 Ford Taurus. While friends and I were working on one issue, we may have created another, worse, one.
The first problem was that, with no prior symptoms, the car would not start. It looked like an electrical drain or bad battery. With the key at accessory the interior lights were slightly dimmed, the power windows rolled up and down slowly, but definitely not enough juice to crank (though the starter solenoid could be heard clicking). A friend/mechanic suggested checking the battery and the ignition switch. Battery was under warranty, so swapped it out (free and easy option). Still the same symptoms.
I pulled the ignition switch, cleaned it, replaced it (all very, very carefully). And got the dead battery look again.
On the outside chance that the replacement battery was drained in messing with the ignition switch (or that it was just a junker) a buddy tried to give the car a jump start. But, in connecting the jumper cables he connected them very briefly to the wrong terminals of his battery (big sparks, loud swearing, etc.). Now we are getting no interior lights, indicator lights or solenoid clicks whatsoever, even with the cables attached properly.
We checked and re-checked all the fuses- all of them are still intact (wall the proper rating fuses were in place).
Any thoughts on what we should be checking next? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
The first problem was that, with no prior symptoms, the car would not start. It looked like an electrical drain or bad battery. With the key at accessory the interior lights were slightly dimmed, the power windows rolled up and down slowly, but definitely not enough juice to crank (though the starter solenoid could be heard clicking). A friend/mechanic suggested checking the battery and the ignition switch. Battery was under warranty, so swapped it out (free and easy option). Still the same symptoms.
I pulled the ignition switch, cleaned it, replaced it (all very, very carefully). And got the dead battery look again.
On the outside chance that the replacement battery was drained in messing with the ignition switch (or that it was just a junker) a buddy tried to give the car a jump start. But, in connecting the jumper cables he connected them very briefly to the wrong terminals of his battery (big sparks, loud swearing, etc.). Now we are getting no interior lights, indicator lights or solenoid clicks whatsoever, even with the cables attached properly.
We checked and re-checked all the fuses- all of them are still intact (wall the proper rating fuses were in place).
Any thoughts on what we should be checking next? Any help would be greatly appreciated.