My husband who doesn't have a mechanical bone in his body, God bless him, had to jump start our car the other day. He used our 1994 Ford Aerostar to do it. He accidentally mixed up the negative. And the pos. on the van battery but did it correctly on the car battery. Now the van's battery light is on, the voltage indicator is on the low side of normal and the headlights are very dim. The van still starts without hesitation (knock on wood), but I just know I'm going to go out there one day and the thing is going to be dead. So far I haven't noticed anything else wrong, but I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. Any ideas on what he "fried"?

My husband who doesn't have a mechanical bone in his body, God bless him, had to jump start our car the other day. He used our 1994 Ford Aerostar to do it. He accidently mixed up the neg. and the pos. on the van battery but did it correctly on the car battery. Now the van's battery light is on, the voltage indicator is on the low side of normal and the headlights are very dim. The van still starts without hesitation (knock on wood), but I just know I'm going to go out there one day and the thing is going to be dead. So far I haven't noticed anything else wrong, but I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. Any ideas on what he "fried"?
Maybe he messed up a cell in the battery, so the best bet is to get a new one or check the alternator, start the car and pull off the positive cable from the battery if it's still running it good... but if not you might need a new alternator... it could be one of two things, 1 the battery's not holding a full charge, to the alternator's not fully charging the battery

I'm afraid you've "fried" the built-in voltage regulator (built into the alternator) on the van. A DC volt meter across the battery would show the voltage going down slowly, because the engine is using voltage but the alt isn't putting it back into the battery.

Fix this quick or you may destroy the battery through excessive draining.

Good luck!

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