The battery in my Toyota Sienna minivan died. I had a friend come over to jump it for me. The jumper cables connected to my van were correct (red on red black on black). Somehow the jumper cables connected to her battery were reversed (red on black black on red). The cables sparked and melted and smoked. We removed them, bought some new jumper cables, connected them correctly, and started my van. The problem is now my radio doesn’t work. Do you think I need to replace the whole radio, or it is just a bad wire, could other electrical aspects of my van be affected that I don’t know about? How do I find out the extent of the dammage?
Check the fuse first, the extent of the damage will become apparent on it’s own, if it runs and all youl lost is the radio, that is not so bad.
There is a good chance you may have melted more than the jumper cables.
Just check everything. All FUSES and RELAYS first.
Not knowing what happened to the battery I’d change it. How old is the battery?
Do a complete (in vehicle) load test on the charging system.
A lot of car radios have a theft deterrent feature so they will not work if power is disconnected (or the battery dies). Check your owner’s manual for information on this.