Word of warning
 

Never let your battery cables get loose, it fried my alternator >.<

Yep. This is why the old mechanics trick of pulling off a battery cable while the engine is running to "see if the alternator is good" is a no-no for modern cars. You're lucky the voltage spike didn't kill your ECU. You can not take the battery out of the electrical system of a car while it is running....but you can on an airplane. For safety reasons their engines run completely independant of the battery and alternator (once started of course).




Dave

I once had a loose cable and I noticed because I started popping headlights. Also the running voltage was getting higher (almost 16V!)

Very interesting I did'nt know that about the battery thing :p . I'm going to check mine ASAP :D

Fixed your quote. No 'good' mechanic would have ever done this on any alternator equipped system. :p ;) :D

However on a side note If you pull the Jumper cables off and it dies immediatly then you know you have problems. :eek: did that once little econo box after looking around I still wasn't going to pay the 500 he wanted for it

Amen! The resulting arc is what makes flashbulbs flash bad juju!