1RM

I recently had to charge my flat battery ( not using car very much at the moment) and when I attached the neg lead back to the battery (with pos obviously already connected) I accidently (and clumsily) touched the ratchet used to tighten the nut between the neg and pos terminals of the battery resulting in big spark and me jumping quite high.

The car has been used since then and everything seems normal, but my question is could there have been damage to the electrics and/or the battery?

Many thanks.

flanders

Not good for the battery but it's probably fine, I wouldn't worry about it

jkelley

I wouldn't worry about it. I've seen people jump start cars and smack the two leads together to 'see if there's a spark' before connecting the cars (which is pretty dumb, yes - I guess they just want to make sure there's juice there? i dunno)

1RM

Could it have done any damage that I wouldn't know about though?

2003AP1

Your fine. Do it long enough though you will probably fry the ECU among other things.

1RM

Can you fry the ECU if the ignition is off? I thought it had to be on.
Are there any other components that can be damaged besides the ECU??

MBHs2k

If all of your electronics are currently working then I wouldn't worry about it. Like someone already said, people touch the positive and negative together all the time to see if the battery has any "juice". No big deal

1RM

I understood that, more curious as to whether it's possible to damage the ECU by connecting both terminals?
Or is it not possible?
Does the ignition need to be on to do damage?

dwight

If you short the battery, you're depriving the rest of car voltage because a lot of current is going through to the short. That is, voltage will dip down, not spike up.

I imagine that it's incredibly unlikely that anything connected would be damaged.

MBHs2k

If your ECU was damaged you would notice while the car is driving. If everything is fine, then don't worry