Battery Sparks

[bigfish]

I just went to put in a new battery (like this a pain in the a-s as is) because the old one, although relatively new is dead. I suspect that stereo wiring that the last guy did has some serious issues and I will remove that shortly.

Here is the deal. I connected the positive and then slid the battery into place. I went to connect the negative and got a small spark or two.

I can not remember if that is normal.

Is something wrong with this?

Thanks,

Arthur

(Just trying to save my pretty face from a battery explosion)

 

[brusso]

It just means that there is a load on the battery. In other words, some accessory is directly connected to a battery source as opposed to an accessory/engine run source. You mentioned aftermarket stereo work had been done. Possibly an amplifier wired to a battery source?

 

[bigfish]

There is the main positive cable and a smaller side cable that I reattached but I am unsure (other than I know that it was there before) what it goes to. It is not a small cable but not the size of a battery cable.

Is this necessary?

Thanks in advance.

Arthur

 

[brusso]

Not 100% if this is what it is but an amplifier intsallation kit uses the kind of wire that you described. The pos(red) wire is about the diameter of a pencil and connected directly to the battery terminal and the ground(black) is connected to ground in proximity to the amp.

 

[buckethead]

BigFish
Most likely the fact that you have the door open to install the battery is causing the dome light switch to be activated and drawing on the battery when you connect the terminal causing the small spark.

 

[MaineShark]

There are a number of parasitic loads. Dome lights, as buckethead mentioned. Your clock. Your radio, probably, if it has electronic memory for station presets or such.

If you want to avoid sparks, do what I did: get one of those switches that attaches between the battery and the cable. Install it. Turn the switch off, then connect the cable, then turn the switch on. No sparks

It makes working on the car much easier, since disconnecting the power from a side-terminal battery is a pain, and many repairs or such require you disconnect the battery for safety. The switch makes it much easier.

Joe

 

[bigfish]

Thanks, It was the radio that the last owner did a crappy job of wiring.

Arthur