Urgent; please help, terribly frustrated

[vrex]

please advise, im pretty irritated with myself, and kicking my own a** pretty thoroughly. i apologize in advance for the long winded, though mundane story.

i put my car up on stands friday night. i intended to do the following;

polish the headlights and replace a washer nozzle (chrome cap flew off), disconnect PSE electricals and check actuators (so it would make be louder), cap off intake muffler, replace left front side marker bulb, check for coolant expandsion tank leaks, replace any failing wire spring clams with worm (t-bolt) clamps.

nothing unreasonable or beyond my ability. heck most of that didnt even need the car to be up on stands, but i thought it would make getting at the actuators for the PSE cans easier (it didnt, oh well, car looks cool on stands and lets me just give everything a nice once over).

i removed the intake air box, disconnected the MAF, removed the air pump completely. started in on the radiator expansion tank, didnt find any leaks (they are coming from a yet to be identified hose). moved to the headlights. popped them out, as well as the side marker. that wraps up saturday's work.

Overnight im guessing that an interior, engine bay, or trunk light was on (idiot!)

I didnt disconnect the battery during any disconnections of sensors or lights. is that a problem? i never thought it would be, i mean, if a bulb goes out, whats the difference? im beating myself up over this and second guessing myself, im curious, is the DME that hypersensitive?

reinstalled the headlights so i could have someone help me remove the washer nozzle. I turn the headlight switch over with the keys out of the ignition and get no headlights. ok... put the keys in, turn to position 2 (just before start), turn headlight switch... nothing. i figured i installed the headlights incorrectly, no biggy, pull them out, reinstall, it all seems to be correct. i quickly move to drop the car off the stands and figure out why i have no headlights, as that would seem to me to be an indicator of bigger issues.

reinstall air pump, disconnect the gray and orange PSE electrical connectors (wrap them with rubber gloves to prevent damage), install air box, connect MAF, drop the car, go to start - DEAD.

no biggy ill jump it from the engine. heres where things plummet; i think i reversed polarities on the other car, i honestly dont know. the other car didnt die, but my car blanked. round 1, pos to pos, ground on my car, neg on the other car. round two; pos on my car, ground on my car, in my haste, i may have switched terminals on donor battery. my car shows fewer signs of life after round two than round 1. i freak out. i consult renntech for disaster scenarious.

ive already checked the fuse panel, everything is in order. AAA came by, and he tried to give me a jump. he got enough juice in it for electronics to light up, and there is a clicking noise, maybe speakers popping? i dont know. but not enough juice to get the starter to even click. oddly, my spoiler has deployed. it has enough juice to deploy the spoiler, but not pop the trunk, or start the car. WTF...

of course i cant get my hood open now, to pull the battery, and my car is parked across both bays in such a way that i cant get another car in the garage to jump the hood from the fuse panel (idiot).

my next move is call AAA, get the hood open (which i should have done when he was here the first time), pull the battery and have it tested. i pray i killed the battery.

im sorry for the venting, but to boil all my rambling down; what are the chances i fried the computer? i had an ECU go on my previous car, and i just can afford a new DME (im assuming they are unreasonably expensive) and all the hassles of getting it fixed up right now... im kicking my own a*s into depression over the thought of having fried the ECU. i was meticulous in everything i did over the weekend, except the simple 30 second job of disconnecting the battery. really annoyed with myself right now.

any advise or opinion would be greatly appreciated.

:thankyou:

[wross996TT]

Battery may have been on its way out and if it died, it may not be brought back to life. I would get a new one....Check codes...next thing to check would be ignition switch.

[juniinc]

starter solinoid is prolly making a clicking noise.

sounds like a drained battery,,,

[vrex]

Thanks for the kind words guys. picking up a battery this afternoon and pulling the old one. thanks for listening, i imagine a good number of people have been in my situation and just needed to vent/ get a second opinion. after a mediocre nights sleep from being up late researching, I've stopped worrying because frankly its not worth thinking about. either a battery will fix this or i am deep in the sh*t.

thanks again! ill let you know what happens.

[Dharn55]

Usually a bad battery, or just a drained battery. For some reason I have never had good luck trying to jump mine from another car. But when I have had this problem either charging the battery or putting in a new one has done the trick.

Edited February 1, 2010 by Dharn55

[minny]

Dead batteries in 996s do all sort of funny things to the electrics. Unless you use really high amperage jump leads, you'll get enough juice to work some electrics and maybe the starter soleniod (thie clicking noise you heard) but it wouldn't turn over the engine. Hopefully that is all it is. ALso check the ground around the battery to make sure it is sound.

Edited February 1, 2010 by minny