Battery Terminals

[coastline taxis]

had car in today that had been jump started and let of a big bang and stopped. turns out that the car battery was dead this morning so he got his mate to give him a jump start. they connected the leads up and instantly saw sparks and smelt burning of both cars. turns out the leads had been put on the wrong way. during talking to the owner he sort of made a valid point

 

6.30 am its cold and dark outside and battery flat

removed battery cover to reveal a green and a black terminal. and to most of the world black is negative. but on a c5 black is live so the negative lead went to the live terminal and as they say the rest is history.

 

how to fix

paint a red cross on the terminal or mark it anyway you can or right it on the battery cover so everyone can see it.

 

the car has went on to make a full recovery after replacing a couple of main fuses

[paul.h]

I fell for this once when trying to jump start the C5 from the C3 which also has a black +ve terminal clip. Got the cables the wrong way round and fortunately the cheap jump leads melted in seconds at a crocodile clip and no damage was done to the cars. So now on the old C5, our latest C5 and the C3 now have the + and - signs on the batteries painted over with white tippex which stands out in poor light.

[coastline taxis]

well all ours pulled in today and marked up. Cant understand citroens thinking behind this. Understand the green as that means earth but why o why have a black cover on a live terminal. mind been doing citroens both here and in holland for over 20 years now and have never given it a thought until yeasterday

[DaveHerns]

Is jump starting safe with modern cars full of electronics ? Would you do it with the engine of the "donor" car running or switched off ?

[paul.h]

I jump started the C5 (mark 1 2004 2.2 hdi) several times from the C3 (2003) with no problems. It was only being used about once a month. Always done with the C3 running before connecting up to stop its battery going flat since being a 1.4 petrol it was quite small and may not have turned over the diesel. I also bought a 900 amp booster from Machine Mart but this has never had enough power to start the C5.

[Johndouglas]

Don't know whether my car was altered in the six months before I got it, but I've just been out to check and my battery terminals are marked red for positive and green for neg.

[paul.h]

Just checked an old photo of the mark 1 C5 (2004) and the quick release connectors to the battery are red and green, my error must have just been on the 2003 C3 which has the black positive quick release connector and no colour on the negative bolted connector, just a black cable. Will check the mark 2 C5 later. So maybe Citroen changed the colours in 2004.

[GooglyBear]

I fell for this once when trying to jump start the C5 from the C3 which also has a black +ve terminal clip. Got the cables the wrong way round and fortunately the cheap jump leads melted in seconds at a crocodile clip and no damage was done to the cars. So now on the old C5, our latest C5 and the C3 now have the + and - signs on the batteries painted over with white tippex which stands out in poor light.

Got my battery out now for a charge, i'm gonna take the tippex method while it's out, just to avoid any future problems...