f150 jump start and computer games

[Pis-ton broke]

Hi, advise is needed in regards jump starting and the possible effects on the computer?
Well the short story is; my neiughbour sends truck (89 F150) to machanic to fix it for a fuel pump problem. Gets truck back, it goes, but is using petrol like there,s no tomorrow. Sends truck to a different guy, he said the trucks been jump started wiith straight leads, that is with on surge protector, he said the computers stuffed. Theres $500+.

First question; Is this true. can a jump start stuff a computer?

Q 2. If its stuffed, why can,t it just be rebooted?

Thanks for any help.

Mick

[Nikked]

Yes, a spike in electricity can cause problems with your ECU

[Interceptor]

1: yes
2: no, because the damage is hardware not software

[cedric]

q1.i have heard it can harm computer, but have personally seen dozens of cars with computers jumped with normal leads and never heard of problems.
q2.no idea.
there is NO WAY of knowing what caused the computer to die. even if you could pull the computer apart and find the burnt out wireing or component (IF that is even the problem with computer) there is no way of telling what caused it ,it could be faulty battery,wireing or computer. heat,moisture,corrosion anything

[macca13]

give it a week and see if the computer relearns if the battery was dead flat the computer may have been reset.

[philfree]

Hi
yes jump starting can damage the computer but i can't see how it would cause this problem i would expect it to just not start at all afterwards. But take the battery terminal off for 10mins and put back on and try it for a week just to refresh the memory of the computer

[MO]

When jump starting modern cars you MUST connect the neg/earth lead to the motor,otherwise there is a chance of causing a spike.