# 2004 Dodge Dakota battery question

**URL:** <https://community.cartalk.com/t/2004-dodge-dakota-battery-question/161597>\
**Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\
**Tags:** dakota, dodge\
**Created:** [March 23, 2020, 4:11pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2004-dodge-dakota-battery-question/161597 "2020-03-23T16:11:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Justin281](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Justin281](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Justin281)\
**Post date:** [March 23, 2020, 4:11pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2004-dodge-dakota-battery-question/161597/1 "2020-03-23T16:11:31Z")

</div>

I’ve replaced the battery in my 2004 dodge dakota and when I hook the terminals up the horn wipers and lights go off. But before I bought a new battery I put a used battery in it to make sure it still ran and had absolutely no problems with it starting or anything. What could be the problem?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![davepsinbox\_157004](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@davepsinbox\_157004](https://community.cartalk.com/u/davepsinbox_157004)\
**Post date:** [March 23, 2020, 9:01pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2004-dodge-dakota-battery-question/161597/2 "2020-03-23T21:01:55Z")

</div>

Is it possible the new battery is bad?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![VDCdriver](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/vdcdriver/32/30_2.png) [@VDCdriver](https://community.cartalk.com/u/VDCdriver)\
**Post date:** [March 24, 2020, 8:37pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2004-dodge-dakota-battery-question/161597/3 "2020-03-24T20:37:41Z")

</div>

> [@Justin281](#):
>
> when I hook the terminals up the horn wipers and lights go off

Just for the sake of clarification, do you mean that they go “on”?  
If they go “off”, they are not working.  
If they go “on”, they are working.

Can you clear this up for us, so that you can get responses that will address the problem?  
🤔

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![NYBo](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/nybo/32/17281_2.png) [@NYBo](https://community.cartalk.com/u/NYBo)\
**Post date:** [March 24, 2020, 9:38pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2004-dodge-dakota-battery-question/161597/4 "2020-03-24T21:38:21Z")

</div>

Reversing the terminals can sometimes result is weird stuff like that, in addition to frying various things.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![davepsinbox\_157004](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@davepsinbox\_157004](https://community.cartalk.com/u/davepsinbox_157004)\
**Post date:** [March 24, 2020, 11:01pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/2004-dodge-dakota-battery-question/161597/5 "2020-03-24T23:01:27Z")

</div>

> [@NYBo](#):
>
> Reversing the terminals can sometimes result is weird stuff like that, in addition to frying various things.

I wondered about that myself. It’s possible the OP got hold of the wrong battery and the terminals are reversed.