should i be worried?

[p3akin]

hey guys,

driving home before and turned a corner and as my "battery holding bracket" broke off, it was a little loose... as a result, when i turned a corner, my car completely shut off all power.

a lot of smoke came from the engine and as i rolled my car to the side, i popped the bonnet to see that the negative battery terminal had burnt off.

also, the grounding wire that grounds to the firewall burnt out as well...

car lost all power and cannot even be turned to accessories.

when i wake up i will be buying a new negative battery terminal to replace and see if anything else is wrong.

could this of burnt out my wiring loom?

and is there a code for the size of battery terminal i need to get for my car.

Cheers Peter

 

[EVO-00X]

Looks like when the battery toppled over the positive terminal grounded itself somewhere.
There is a strong possibility its burnt out a lot of grounding wires so replace the main ones obviously. IT would have also maybe blown some fuses on the positive side but thats what they are there for... fail-safes. Look for any signs of melted plastic shroud on the wires as well. Only real way to do it is via visual inspection of all the wiring, fuses etc, replacement, and then turn the car on and check all the electrics are still working. There's no real code for the size of battery terminal you need as a lot of batteries have different size terminals. You can always go to a wreckers and buy a normal C Lancer negative battery cable if you want a quick fix or make up your own, but ensure you still ground out on the chassis rail and the gearbox bellhousing.

 

[(2much)]

Pete, what is likely to have happened is the positive terminal grounded onto the chassis, and it completed the circuit via the negative cable,
The smoke was probably the sheith on the cable melting,
I would doubt that you have done any wiring loom damage, as the circuit would have been about 50cm max, +ve terminal -> chassis -> ground strap -> -ve terminal, Do you have more then one earth strap? Some people run those ground wire kits with multiple straps, it's weird that the terminal has disintergrated.

Do you have the protective plastic that covers the positive terminal?

 

[mannynz]

You will need to replace your main ground wire too, not just the terminal.

 

[p3akin]

yeah ive got the rubber piece over the positive terminal.

where can i get a main ground wire from?

my mates going to have a looksie tonight and see if anything is wrong with it.

hopefully once we put the new parts in, its fine again.

 

[DOUGMO]

ust get one from repco/autobarn, they will sell ones already made up.
just match the length

 

[p3akin]

all fixed.

i changed the terminals for both positive and negative. used some forged brass ones that only cost like $11 bucks each.

bought a ground cable for $25 bucks but didnt even use it.

 

[(2much)]

weird about the terminal going first... what sort of material was it made out of?
do you have a pic of the damage?