how to blow out a DC-DC converter

[galaxee]

in case anyone's curious what would happen if you ran out of gas, then ran as far as you could on battery power, then got a JUMP START on the 12V and did it BACKWARDS....

that's how to blow out a DC-DC converter, and a fusable link block. (estimated cost exceeds $3000)

fyi.

ps: i do not recommend trying the above prodcedure.

[marjam]

galaxee,

I hope this is a tale of woe that was described to you and not a personal experience!!!!!!

[galaxee]

oh no, just a job that was in the shop recently.

[mrbigh]

How stu.id would them be to reverse the jumper polarity? and manage to blow the car........?
I hope that this was NOT cover by Toyo warranty..

[Frank Hudon]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(mrbigh @ Jul 26 2006, 06:50 PM) [snapback]292921[/snapback]</div>

How stu.id would them be to reverse the jumper polarity? and manage to blow the car........?
I hope that this was NOT cover by Toyo warranty..
[/b]

you have any idea of how many alternators I've replaced in the last 35 years because of reversed polarity. Hundreds. There are a lot of people with booster cables in their trunk who in all reallity should just throw them in the garbage and cause no problems to their vehicle or that of others. Here's another.

[jbarnhart]

Wow. I'm surprised that a common mistake can cause $3000 damage to the Prius. Sure, it's bad to connect cables backwards, but its also bad to design systems which don't protect themselves from common errors. If you took the car to a shop and they replaced the 12V battery, but briefly connected it backwards by mistake, I guess it would cause the same damage. Then they would claim, "it was more serious than we thought, your DC-DC converter is fried."

[galaxee]

well there are lots of variables here. who knows what they were using to jump start the car... that had to be connected to some power-pac-like charger/jumper.

installing the battery backwards, while this hasn't been tested by us, really should not do that kind of damage. remember the 12v system is made to be very minor.

[Bill Merchant]

DON'T RUN OUT OF GAS!!![/b]</span>

[Lil Mo]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jbarnhart @ Jul 28 2006, 02:57 PM) [snapback]293987[/snapback]</div>

Wow. I'm surprised that a common mistake can cause $3000 damage to the Prius. Sure, it's bad to connect cables backwards, but its also bad to design systems which don't protect themselves from common errors. If you took the car to a shop and they replaced the 12V battery, but briefly connected it backwards by mistake, I guess it would cause the same damage. Then they would claim, "it was more serious than we thought, your DC-DC converter is fried."
[/b]

It is very very very difficult to engineer anything that a human is not creative enough to bypass.

[DaveG]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(galaxee @ Jul 28 2006, 07:41 PM) [snapback]294144[/snapback]</div>

well there are lots of variables here. who knows what they were using to jump start the car... that had to be connected to some power-pac-like charger/jumper.
[/b]

I've got a Xantrex powerpak that I use for powering stuff at the beach and such, but can also jumpstart a car with. I've never had to use it on my Prius, but used it on regular cars lots of times.

Fortunately it has a reverse polarity sensor in it, and it won't connect the 12v battery to the jump leads until it senses the correct polarity. It's a good design.

(When I was a dumb kid, I accidentally connected my mom's car battery in series once when jumping it years ago - it actually worked and didn't fry anything. Wow)