Hello! I drive a 2000 Camry. The battery recently died and I jumped it using a portable battery jumper (DJS50 made by DB Power). Like a dum-dum, I failed to read the instruction manual thoroughly and missed the part where you have to wait for a light on the device to turn green before attempting a jump. Nothing happened and the engine never cranked. No dash lights or anything turned on. I ended up calling AAA to replace the battery (during the process they successfully jumped it too with a different device). But ever since, there is a parasitic draw somewhere in the system – there are dashboard lights that don’t turn off even when the keys are completely out of the ignition and the fans can be turned on.
My question is: could the short have happened when I attempted the ignition, even though the device wasn’t “ready”? Is it likely that that’s what happened?
Here’s the manual:
Nothing aftermarket except for a replacement side mirror that i installed like 5 years ago. The dash lights and fan thing I described have never happened before the battery replacement and starting was always super reliable.
What caused the car to be dead? My guess is it was the issues you described as being new. What dash lights? These could be caused by low voltage. I’m guessing that something broke on your ignition or there’s a bad relay causing power to go to the heater controls. This is what caused the battery to die initially.
ETA: Not waiting for the booster to be ready usually results in low or no voltage being available for the jump. It probably wouldn’t wreck anything.