I am a poor college girl... thanks in advance for reading this.

Today I left my keys in in my s70 and forgot about it, so the battery was drained. It was pretty late at night, so I called the campus police and asked if they could jump start it. A cop came by with a charged jump starter and attempted to jump start the car - saying that she does it all the time.

The car wouldn't jump start though, the lights would turn on but it wouldn't crank. I thought something must be wrong so I consulted the owner's manual and found out that I was supposed to connect the - cable to the engine.... The cop had connected it to the other side of the battery! I told her we'd done it wrong way but she was confident she was doing it right.

Well we couldn't start the car, so I got a ride home, and researched the issue online. And I found out that not only I have to connect the - side to the engine, but also jump starting from the battery can MESS UP my car's circuit!!!


I am so upset that the cop (who said she knew how to do this) did it the wrong way and possibly messed up the car!! It is even worse because she made me sign this waiver form saying that she won't be responsible for any damage!! I am gonna get a new battery and try running the car again, but I am so worried that my volvie will not run well or have future issues.

So I am really upset, and I have all kind of thoughts going through my head. I don't know if I should sue them or not if the car indeed will develop issues. My volvie 98 S70 is my #1 property and I don't want to abandon it...

My question is what can I do about this issue now, and what kind of potential problems will my volvie develop in the future, and what should I do about the pseudo cop if problems do arise.... Any opinions?

 

Bad idea to connect to the wrong side of the battery, not sure on all the issues it can cause but someone giving me a jump did this same thing to my car! as soon as i noticed i removed the cables.. but that is why you have a fuse box (i belive?? lol) so it will pop the fuse before it does any real damage.. when it happened to me it blew the radio fuse and i just had to replace it and have not seen any other issues since that happened..

if i am wrong on anything someone please correct me lol

and hope all is well with your volvo!!!!!

 

Lakedeep, This cop did not do anything wrong if she connected it to the battery at the CORRECT TERMINALS, if the lights and everything came on then it was correct.

It is better like you said to use the engine as the ground, but sometimes this is not possible.

You may have a problem with cable running to the fusebox, corrosion will be noticeable at fusebox positve terminal or her box was not charged fully or something else.



xxblindxx, now it sounds like the INCORRECT terminals were used on yours, there may be other problems, I have seen radios "fryed", but if all is working, lucky!

 

How would you forget your keys in the first place? I am sure there are some kind of warning chime in your car, and do you normally lock your car when you go somewhere ? You should be lucky your car wasn't stolen. Secondly, The guard wasn't a mechanic, she was just trying to help you out. I would have a good mechanic take a look at your car, hopefully it wouldn't be something serious, maybe just a fuse.

 

Dead batteries in Volvo's don't jump easy. It really scares me when people hook up both cables to the battery when the manual clearly states that the ground should be connected to a ground somewhere else. Damage can occur but I think it's always immediate. If you replace the battery and things work fine, I believe you have passed the danger of a bad jump.

The bad thing about this thread is that we may never see lakedeep again. I'm not sure why people post 1 thread and never return to let us know how things pan out. It drives me nuts!!!

 

Hey guys, so I got the volvie jump started and its up and running again. It's good thing because I have to commute for an hour on highway to where I just started to work.

This dude came from a towing/jump start company and he jump started from his pickup truck. The funny thing is, he said it is perfectly fine to hook the cables up to the battery... So I was like okay. No fuse or anything under the hood seemed to be damaged, so I just let him do his thing. We tried once, it didn't work (the car was dead as soon as the cables were detached). On our second try, the guy left the cables attached for a little longer, and the car stayed on. The car's been running fine since then. (It's been a day or so)

I am still not sure if this jump starting method have damaged the car or not... People have said to stay away from doing so, but some people seem to insist on doing it... Well I am not a mech, but I hope there is some consensus on it. After all I would like to jump start the car by myself if this happens again!

Thank you guys for helping me out and commenting on the issue.

 

@2004VolvoS60_Bilal
I got the used volvo and it's been only a year.. no it didn't come with any of those fancy features and it doesn't have any autolocks or anything either. This is the first time it happened, everyone was in such a hurry - I am still lucky no one stole it! And the cops on campus are also supposed to act as parking services - which every student pays for when purchasing a decal.

@rspi
Aw please don't say mean things like that! lol Yeah the volvo seems to work fine now.


Thanks ya'll for replying to the post!

 

I have owned a 1995 Volvo 850 N/A and currently own a 1999 Volvo S70 AWD. Whenever I have needed to have the car jumped both cables go on the battery of my car and the other side of the cables go on the battery of the other car. Turn the other car on, let it sit for a little bit then try to turn my car on.

I have never had a problem doing this.

I think in my mother's 2000 Volvo S80 N/A and my dad's 2003 Volvo XC70 the battery is located in the back unaccessable for jumping. But has one lead up to the engine bay to attach a jumper cable to and the other cable is grounded to the car wherever you can find it.

 

Had to laugh at this one. My oldest son worked at the U of Arizona police his senior year - giving students rides and jumping cars. He had never jumped a car in his life before the job. Everything he knew about jumping he learned from an owners manual! I hate to think what havoc he may have caused.......

Now the reason he(or his brother) had never jumped a car or changed a flat is because I pay for AAA every year for them. It's cheap Lakedeep and if you don't know what you are doing it's also the SAFEST way to go. After about 20 calls over the years we have only had one tow driver try to scam us.

PS. They also will unlock your car for you.

 

Jeeeezzz; been trying to avoid this thread but it's like a moth to the flame....

If you don't know how to jump start your car, then read your owners manual! See attached (sorry for lousy resolution but had to make it < 19KB!).

The method illustrated there has been scrutinized by techs, engineers, and lawyers alike; i.e. it's well tested.

The reason the last connection made is always at engine ground away from the battery is for safety's sake. When you make (and break) that jump start circuit, you're connecting some serious current; this invariably causes arcing, which if you're at the battery, things could easily go boooom, as batteries off gas hydrogen! Google "exploding car batteries" if you're interested; not only can you blow up your battery, but could blind or injure someone too; not to be taken lightly!

As far as damaging the electronics in your car, yes it's possible, even when you do it correctly; that's why you had to sign the waiver lakedeep. That's because jump starting can cause massive voltage spikes that can damage electronic modules throughout the vehicle. But most modern cars are pretty tolerant of that; this was more of an issue back in the '80s when a lot of manufactures just switched over to using more and more electronics; they were not as robust as they are today. Still it can happen.

Finally a comment for lakedeep; it seems to me some here took offense to the title of your post; sounded like you were slamming the cop who's only fault was trying to help you. Yes, the way she did it possibly exposed herself to a battery explosion; glad both of you dodged that bullit. But assuming she damaged your car's electronics only exposed your ignorance on this procedure; best to know what you're talking about before you go slamming people, IMO.

BTW: I also share rspi's frustration; all too common occurrence around here. So glad you came back lakedeep!

 

Hey!!!!!!!!! Welcome back lakedeep!!! Thanks for everyone's input. Here is the link from Volvo's site: https://www.customers.volvocars.com/...0_411.htm#4:13

For some reason Volvo's don't jump quick. If you are getting a jump, let it charge for about 5 minutes before you try to start it.

 

@gdog
I am just a college girl with no money, no parents since 15 to talk to when something like this happens, and a negative bank balance... so you would understand why that volvo is the only thing I have... lol I mean, different people said different things about jumping from the battery, and the manual indicated that I shouldnt do it, so I was mad about the police for doing so, but I guess you would be right... Although in my position I never had any idea. Good thing is that the cop will just do whatever she's doing for everyone, except me.




Well again thanks everyone for the advice! hopefully next time I can jump it myself.

 

Curious why it is more important to ground a jump start to the motor instead of the ground on the battery itself?

Isn't ground, ground?
What actually happens if one method is used over the other?

TIA, Terry

 

Well, the battery has a small amount of a gas that surrounds the battery sometimes. Your battery is basically a bomb waiting to get set off. Once you apply spark to it, boom.

That's why most volvo's have a part on the engine that will act as a ground.

 

Tia, you can also read post 10 of this thread.

 

Thanks for the info. I've been damn lucky over the years, because I've been arcing booster cables my whole life. I'll be way more careful in the future. Thanks.

I recall years ago, I was 9 or 10 years old and a guy that lived in our building had a battery blow up in his face. He was pretty messed up for a long time as I recall, did not blind him, but I remember his face was in bandages. I think he was using a lighter to check the water levels, that was before sealed units.

Terry