How To Reboot Your Car ~ Battery VooDoo

You car has tons of computers and sometimes they need to be reset. Performing a hard reboot on all your car's computers is one way to get them happy. Mechanic's perform a capacitive discharge, cap discharge, or battery voodoo to fix some weird car issues.

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[kennikuhlmann-clark]

Negative is always disconnected first in a negative-ground system. For one thing, a wrench may touch grounded metal while disconnecting the positive terminal first, causing a direct There is no need to worry about a wrench touching ground while disconnecting the negative terminal... Once the negative is disconnected, the battery is no longer connected to ground, so the positive terminal cannot short through a wrench while it's being disconnected (second).

[williambrown]

Thank you!! So much Charles I rebooted my daughter's 2008 HHR first of all it wouldn't come out of first gear and she had no power staring at all cluster panel was all scrambled up! After watching your video I did exactly what you said to"do" and it worked!! Everything is working just fine now thanks to you my friend.. you saved us money during these hard times!! God bless 🙏

[SteveRossiterdeltaed]

I have a 2010 Ford Mustang that had a check engine light come on just before registration and inspect was due. Took to the Ford Dealership twice and they couldn't determine what was wrong after charging over $600 in repairs. Took it to an independent auto shop and they diagnosed a bad computer and told me to go back to the dealership. Reset the computer using this youtube video, and it fixed the light, passed inspection, and got me back on the road!

[bradhanks]

I am COMPLETELY CLUELESS when it comes to this. Clearing the pcm and other computers is a great idea. I watched another video where just the negative was disconnected from the battery and a jumper was run from the connected positive to the disconnected negative. This video seemed to end successfully also. I also read comments to see if anyone blew their vehicle up! LOL I was wondering what the difference in these two applications might be. You certainly seem to be very well seasoned and know what you are doing.

[marcvalme]

if you are an audiophile with a large sub woofer and large capacitor for said subwoofer, make sure to disconnect that also (or discharge with resistor) or you will learn a quick lesson or arc welding as I did.

[ArthurSmallidge]

Cadillac tech here in sunny south Florida. We always called this logic lock reset. I don't know about VW but GM service information ALWAYS says to disconnect the negative cable first and reconnect it last. If you don't need their warnings on say a 09 to 11ish Escalade Hybrid, AND you have the ignition switch in RUN position, you WILL be towing that in to the dealer to have the HPCM reset. I've also used this proceedure many times to bring DeVille and DTS radios back from the dead so to speak. This almost always happened because the owner tried to replace the battery or someone with little experience replaced the battery and connected the positive cable end last. So there is very good reason to always disconnect the negative end first and reconnect it last.

[seanbruce]

GM calls it global reset, but I'm now switching to battery voodoo. Keep up the awesome videos Charles.

[rustypugh]

Seriously man, this was an amazingly simple fix. I guess time will tell if it's a real fix or just temporary, but I have to hand it to you, it worked like a charm. My son's 2009 Impala kept giving code for Reduced Power, so I changed out throttle body. Check engine light STILL kept coming on, this time code for bad ECM. So I watched your video, did it, and bam, problem solved. Like I said, maybe it'll come back, but so far so good.

[Nidaylokn]

Hey man, this trick really helped me with my car when fuel gauge got stuck on "zero" despite of the actual amount of fuel in the tank. And before this trick, I tried like everything I can. So yeah, it really works.

[quitteable]

How is there a debate about the order of battery connecting/disconnecting? Always do it such that if you were to touch your wrench to the chassis there will be no current flow. Disconnect negative first, connect last.

[danhealy]

Hello Charles. Thank you very much for the great video. I changed both of the O2 sensors on my 2003 2.4L Tacoma (one had a bad hot wire so I changed them both). Afterwards the idle was all over the place. I was just about to order an idle control valve when I came accross your video. It took only 15 minutes and now the truck is running great! You saved me a lot of time and money. I just subscribed. You will be my go to You Tube mechanic from now on.

[ArthurBrinkman-cz]

I followed the information you gave. I found out that even though the battery tested as good, it was not. The 1st thing I did was charge the battery to 12 volts. I disconnected both hot and ground wires. Checked the voltage was still at 12 v. It was, I went to bed. In the morning I tested the battery voltage again. Overnight the voltage had dropped to 6 volts. During this time I also used a jumper wire and did the Hard Reset on the car. Just wanted to make sure that was done just in case it wasn't the battery and possibly something else that needed to be reset.
I have a Jaguar XF and it has MANY electronic devices.
Thanks again for your EXCELLENT video

[ibmgrunt]

I have a 1994 Dodge Ram 1500 SLT w/auto trans... My transmission would shuttle quickly to&fro between 2nd & 3rd .. YOU FIXED IT!! Thanks for posting !!!

[camilopombo]

I love the way you explain everything! So far, you are the best I've see. Thank you!

[fholm]

Used this trick on my Cadillac ATS 2.0T 2014 after the center stack/infotainment was not turning on when the car started, works wonders.

[bojacque]

I kinda can’t believe this worked so well, but my ‘02 Saab 9-3 is driving like new! I was getting wonky boost pressure and even replaced the boost pressure control valve. This ten minute fix has it driving like it did when I bought it 18 years ago. Thanks!

[THEGAME-tzyu]

If you turn on the headlights after disconnecting both terminals it will work fast to drain energy from computer ect..

[ConcreteJungleGames]

Use a 1 Ohm 10 Watt Wire Wound Resistor between the positive and negative to control the drain of electricity. Especially in new cars with so many small connections on the boards.

[fmjkevlar]

7:00 "I always do the negative terminal first" whilst you did the positive terminal first. I prefer the negative first also.

[MirroCosmoKenisis]

U don't know how much I love you brother Charles and I appreciate your time and you