[Need4speed]

OK, OK, I am the idiot of the year, I know!!!
Today, I cleaned the Alfa and took a nice 25min drive down to a buddy who was working on another friend's turbo Miata, mapping his new ECU. The car was running like a dream, as always, fast, responsive, smooth, torquey. Nice Italian growl at acceleration. Anyway, when I arrived, they needed a jumper cables (which I had) and a jump, and since I was parked right behind the car they were working on............
Well, when I was asked to jump the other car, my initial instinct was "no way, I just had my car in the shop for 6 weeks and was drilled over $900 on work, no way would I want to risk mucking with anything electrical". Of course I did not follow my mind, against my better instincts, I agreed.
We did a slow drain type jump, I did not start my car. They all the while were mapping and reprogramming an AEM ECU and test starting the other car several times. I did not feel comfortable and eventually said I had to go. And we disconnected the cables.
When I tried to start the Alfa, lights in the dash and a small tumble, nothing. I tried again a few times, nothing. Then WHITE SMOKE from the fuse box area, so I pulled out the ignition key but the car started, and stayed started, and smoking , WITH NO KEY IN THE IGNITION.. We scrambled about looking to disconnect the battery while I reinserted the ignition key and turned off the car, still smoking from the fuse box area..
Upon inspection, we apparently burned to a crisp a purple and black wire that connects to the ignition switch that goes to a black wire that goes to the starter solenoid.
So, that's where I am. My buddy said that the jump had nothing to do with the burn-out, the wiring was faulty from probably a too thin wire when the ignition switch was installed back in June.
I had it towed to the shop, again, and will get the bad news later this week.
I am a ROYAL moron, yes!!
Tell me I did not fry my ECU!! Maybe just the starter.......

 

[lgbalfa]

sorry to hear that - hopefully it is nothing $$

 

[bianchi2]

... i think your ecu is ok, you did not reverse the cables?no?just replace you wires that got rosted and start the car..

 

[Pat Braden]

What Have I Done!!??

FWIW, in the charging jump starting department: Pat and I always trickle charged a low battery and only started a car off of a jump without starting another car when using a portable, heavy duty, rollable battery charger with a quick start dial.

Whenever we jump started a car off of another car, we attached the cables first to the non-starting car, started the car that we were using as a jumper, placed the cables on the running car, and yes, you have to be careful that you have the correct one on the correct battery post; and then attempted to start the non-starting car. If the non-starter was struggling then we accelerated with the car being used to jump with it in neutral or park to give the non-running car an extra surge of battery to start. Once started, we turned off the jump car and removed the cables and then removed the cables from the car that needed to be jumped. After removing all of the cables, we then restarted the jump car and let it run for a few minutes charging.

I tried to word this very carefully so no one could possibly misunderstand how we did it without issue. If I failed, I'm sure some one will let me know.