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:
Quick answer is NO. Portable starters don’t have enough capacity to crank your starter. They use you battery like a capacitor. Essentially you “charge” the battery for 5 or 10 minutes before cranking. Time depends on the battery.
As far as your car is co concerned what you did was no different than cranking on a low battery.
The things you’re seeing caused you battery problem in the first place.