RX-8 might have bad ECU
 

I will try to keep this short as possible.

So I went to go change the old battery for a new one and as I was trying to install the new battery I caused a spark reaction! Its because I was holding a Ratchet in my hand as I was trying to put the leads on the positive and negative posts, ( I seriously feel stupid)

I was having a hard time because the leads were short, I obviously made contact and caused a spark some how cause when I did get the leads connected the cars parklights/ Lamps, come on instantly, I go into the car to try to start it up but there's no dash lights or anything, even when the key is in the on postion, the only thing that comes on other then the lamps is the windshield wipers, I can't even turn them off, the motor won't even crank or try to turn over. The ECU must be fried and I don't know how to check the bigger block fuses cause you cant see inside them, any ideas?

And yes I looked and looked for this problem all over the net but I couldn't find anything.

It was matter of time before I would register on here anyway :)

Relax, your ECU is almost certainly fine. You just short circuited something, and it blew a fuse. Individually pull and inspect every single fuse in both fuse blocks (the one behind the driver's side headlight, and the one by the driver's left foot). The fuses are there to protect stuff in cases like these.


If you had accidentally swapped the negative and positive cables, it would be a different story, as the fuses can't protect your electronics then. But you just had a short circuit and a fuse blew to protect you.

Awesome thanks, I'm gonna take a further look in both fuse banks and get back with an answer, how will be able to check the squared fuses, I also remember that I had to take out the horn fuse as it kept going off every time I connected the leads, I never put it back in.

Thanks.

The big blocks in there are relays, not fuses. While it is possible that one failed from this, it is not very likely. If you have a failed relay, it was probably failing previously.

Don't forget to check the main fuse that is half under the fuse block...

new battery, more problems
 

Sorry for the late response, main fuse? Half under? I'll take a look but the battery was the wrong one, the positive and negative were on the opisite side, this might have caused more damage, (more stupidity) so when I put the right battery in, and try to start, nothing happens, and all the electronics work expect for the radio, windows and the button to the trunk, the dash comes on and has a steering wheel symbol and sometimes the engine light blinks... I'm not sure what to do, just probably the relays, I wonder if there is a way to test them, I have a volt meter if that works? Might have to just replace all the black boxed relays and the four blue ones, there is one dark blue relay too.

Oh and did change 3 cabin fuses that were blown, the rest are fine.

Correct me if I'm wrong but there should be two main fuses right where the power wire comes into the fuse box under the hood. One of those is blown that's why you don't have radio, windows, ect.

You have to do a power stearing reset after you get it running. It really doesn't have to start to reset it. There are many post on how to do this.

It's hard to blow a relay with nothing driving it. It would have had to been in use when you shorted.

Oh, so you DID swap positive and negative cables.

There is a very good possibility that you fried one or more pieces of electronics as power surged through and blowing one fuse just meant it still had to run through every other possible path blowing each fuse in return till things were halted. Electronics aren't designed for that.

It's going to be a long process to even diagnose what failed, and entirely likely it's going to be expensive to fix.