Ok, so i'm an idiot and my battery slid into the sidewall of my 92 rs 3.1. The positive post unfortunately. I got new battery, put it in and the car started right up, all electrical seemed to be working fine and i didn't see any wires that seemed to be damaged....BUT, when i'm driving the car seems to be doing alright at first, but then kind of bogs then gets a surge of power. When I come to a stop or decelerate it either dies, or tries to. The idle is rough when it's in drive, but it seems to idle ok in park or nuetral. My spark plugs and cap and rotor are about three weeks old, and i replaced IAC sensor, coolant temp sensor, egr, and throttle positioning sensor about a year ago because before this incident the car kind of ran like this. After all of this it was FINALLY starting to run great again like when i bought it...NOW i'm wondering if i just fouled some spark plugs or wires, or something that i had already replaced or if maybe i damaged the computer...i'm hoping maybe someone can tell me if there's a fuse somewhere to prevent that or not...ANY help is appreciated. Thanks.

 

if it arced hard enough to put a good nick in the batt
bolt or body or ruin the battery,you need to check the
body grounds and the engine ground strap as that's
where the current would be conducted. Is the CEL
working?-if not,constant power to ECM may have been
lost.

 

Well it completely melted the lead out of the battery and started the post on fire, so i replaced that under warranty thank god. I did look at the grounds and they seem to be alright. However, on the negative cable there was a secondary ground wire on the terminal end by the battery that was completely melted, and i have no idea what that secondary ground is for? Maybe i should replace the entire ground cable...I haven't seen the CEL come on after it happened, is there a way to check it? Also, i replaced the ignition coil, which seemed to fix the car enough to not die, still idles a little rough...and it still has a delayed acceleration. (Almost like a a jolt, then bogs down unless i open up the throttle then it's ok for a second.) Another thing too: I had a problem similiar to this before, and i replaced coil, spark plugs, cap and rotor, egr wires and it finally started running better, but before i did all of this i had mechanics run a diagnostics, but it wouldn't kick back any codes.

 

the small wire on the negative cable is one of the body
grounds,so that will need repaired. If the CEL does not
light when the ignition is turned to on,there is probably
no constant power to the ECM-on earlier thirds such as
my '82,a fusible link protects that circuit,later models
have a fuse-it's in an inline fuseholder by the batt as i
recall

 

Ok, so i checked the CEL and it came on as usual when in the on position which i'm hoping means it hasn't damaged that. I couldn't find an inline fuse holder anywhere though. Strangely enough it didn't even burn the fuse up for my novelty horn or my power cable for my sub woofer amplifier. Both were untouched and still work fine, although the power cable melted a little on the end. So maybe i'll try replacing the ground wire and terminal to see if that helps any, and see if i can't locate the fuse holder. Do you think it could have damaged my cap and rotor or spark plugs?

 

cap,rotor or plugs would not be damaged by that battery
incident.Did you smell any odor of burning wire coming
from inside the car after the incident?-if not that is a
good sign the ECM or harness was not damaged

 

Oh awesome! I don't remember smelling anything but the smell of burning rubber from the wire casing that had melted and it doesn't seem like it was coming from inside...I really had no idea that a bad battery ground could cause this much of a problem...and i hope that's what it is. Any other ideas as far as what to maybe check or replace?

 

Thanks a ton for the help. I replaced the cable and it seems to be running ALOT better. However, after one day it started stuttering sometimes when accelerating from a stopped position. I replaced the coil with a stock one after this whole ordeal happened but now i'm thinkin maybe it wasn't damaged after what you told me about the cable. I'm going to throw the other coil back on as it's a performance one and see if that helps too. Is it possible that the cable being too long can cause this? (they didn't have the same length) So i opted for one that was five or six inches longer.