Will welding on your car damage your battery?

[@tony8570]

88 camaro. Welded with the battery connected. Burnt up a ground wire for the cooling fan. Ran a ground for the wipers and blower motor because they quit too. Its a black and red stripe wire on the passenger firewall that needed clipped and ran to the battery, after hours of troubleshooting.

[@Bmanreptileland]

I like the catch phrase anybody can do almost anything especially if somone else did it

[@MithykalGaming]

IT ABSOLUTLEY CANNOT UNLESS MAYBE YOU PUT YOUR NEGATIVE/GROUND ON THE DAMN BATTERY TERMINAL use common sense people, you can weld on a piece of metal while holding the metal bare handed and not get electrocuted, the arc is where the energy is, its where your current is and 99% of the time you are NOT going to be the path of least resistance unless you have copper bones and you're sopping wet

[@damiengibson2630]

The alternator I ruined by welding a ford transit says different

[@MithykalGaming]

you mean the alternator that went out right around the time you finished welding on it, its a coincidence dummy

[@MithykalGaming]

NO SHOT UNLESS YOU GROUNDED ON YOUR BATTERY LMAO

[@damiengibson2630]

Do you understand the purpose of diodes 😂

[@damiengibson2630]

Stuck to playing games sweetheart leave engineering to engineers 😂

[@MithykalGaming]

@@damiengibson2630 lol this is why i make more than you welding pipeline, an engineer not worth his spit, boy id smack the fuck out of you right now because if you think you're an engineer you're going to get someone killed. Educate yourself, this is why college educated welders are about to boot every experience welder out of the field, YOU'RE ALL FUCKING STUPID! READ A BOOK! USE YOUR BRAIN!

[@shawndubay4050]

That's interesting. So I have to do some welding on a zero turn mower. The exhaust is cracked in a few different places and I need to weld them back. My question is would you pull the battery and pull the fuses from the electrical system?? Or would you remove the whole exhaust system as much as that would be a pain?

[@MrPGT]

On most cars, the body metalwork is also used as the negative "wire" to the battery for all of your electrics. So not disconnecting the battery means feeding the welding current to the battery and through to the cars electronics. Your led was not an equivalent test. Keep on disconnecting the battery in the future. Electric vehicles could have even worse problems, depending on the wiring scheme.

[@Asky_]

The current takes the path of least resistance. Why do you think it needs to travel trough the whole electrical system and/or battery so it can reach the welder's negative (or positive) clamp??

[@ifell3]

​@@Asky_ what he said

[@worshipwhilewewait]

TRUTH! As for EV's - don't even attempt!!! Just thinking of all the individual cells in the battery frame itself is mind-boggling. I'd rather be SAFE and disconnect. Fry a PCM, ECU, unreplaceable and 'they-don't-make-that-part-anymore', ANYTHING connected to voltage might fry. It's really not the voltage - it's the AMPERAGE. BIG difference. All it takes is one jolt.

[@BikersYFans]

a friends jeep will not charge the battery after welding the chassis, did not disconnect battery, it's newer jeep with a generator and electric assist battery, still can't figure out whats the problem with it!

[@adairjanney7109]

I would def disconnect the battery, just because its been fine so far, its about the voltage difference

[@yourlocalalexis4578]

i would rather be safe than sorry, especially working on a customer's car! It could be costly, lol!

[@SomeGuyOutside]

Yes it could be and I will admit I am still pulling the battery cable off, better safe than sorry 🤷🏼

[@InverJaze]

Good practise to disconnect the battery and alternator sense lead and charging + wires. I had welding done on my Mercedes SLK at a workshop, it killed the alternator and the Locks controller needed to be replaced and a new one reprogrammed. (£1200) I later welded the front wing with oxy-gas welding which has no electronic issues.

[@SomeGuyOutside]

I have heard alot of stories like that, I haven't put any more time into recently but I would like to make a video proving it (short of just welding directly to a CPU.

[@BearBudgetgarage]

Its best to be safe, but guilty of flux welding with battery connected. No damage ensued. Vehicles were trucks. 10 to 15 years old.

[@legion4842]

disconnected battery, wielded on the tail pipe. still screwed up the circuit..

[@SomeGuyOutside]

I still pull the battery cables off every time I am welding, old habbits. I have been working on another test to see if I can "determine" where the circuit is coming from but no different results so far!

[@johnb456]

I just burnt up a truck at work by not disconnecting the battery. It’s not a myth sadly

[@SomeGuyOutside]

I still disconnect the battery just from the amount of people who’ve had problems from it

[@tonydelgado-aguilar348]

Brotha where have you been it’s Tony

[@tonydelgado-aguilar348]

From airport haha

[@SomeGuyOutside]

I been around!

[@adairjanney7109]

sigh no its not the key you didnt even do a real test, your welder CREATES a voltage, your battery is 12v, if your welder is a different voltage it will cause a short, sure you might be far enough away that it doesnt do much, but everytime you dont disconnect the battery you take the risk of a short happening, best to just disconnect the battery

[@officialWWM]

I would have thought this was a simple yes or no question 🤔

[@SomeGuyOutside]

Most people on the internet have an opinion on it, one way or the other. I have read some posts and seen videos of people saying "Ive done it this way for years without problem" but I wanted to see if I could visualize any evidence. I was expecting the answer of "yes it does cause damage" as I have always been the disconnect the battery type of person.

[@officialWWM]

@@SomeGuyOutside Fair enough.