My girlfriend has been driving my 01 bonn for a few days since her Interpid has a failing tranny. While she was at class, someone said their battery was dead and they needed a jump. My gf, knowing that I have jumper cables in the trunk decided to be a good samaritan. Unfortunately, after she had tried, and failed to get the other car to start, she realized that the cable was on backward. She said after she switched em that the other car started fine. Everything on the car works, and I assume the other car was working too. My question is this.... what do you think was damaged in the process of getting the cable switched, if anything. I know some cars have some kind of protection for reverse polarity. My car has literally a brand new (like a month) old battery. None of the wires under the hood at the jump post look melted either. The post has a small scorch mark. I was just wondering if I should be on the lookout for future problems. Thanks!

its very likely the battery in the other car was completly dead, if this is the case, then no problems.

I've sparked them a few times when I did the same thing on my last car, sparked like crazy and melted the terminal but no long term damage.

I would think that the most likely damage would be to the diodes in the alternator. If they didn't blow at the time, you're likely ok at least for now. It could have shortened their life a bit.

FWIW, I love the thread title.

You seem to have already done the best thing, looked it all over and verified nothing looks fried.

Please put your year and model into the signature area of your profile.

Being that we are unsure what model you drive, you may want to bring it to an Autozone, or like and have the charging system tested. That would be your next step. If anything is out of spec, they will be able to see it.