Under the red hood on the forward left side of the under hood fuse box should be 2 positive cables a 13 mm nut holds them in place , one comes from the battery, the other goes to the starter.

This ^^^ red hood

 

I put the positive cable that goes in from the front(the one coming from the back side of the positive terminal is coming from the battery) on the negative side because it looked black until I peeled the cover back. Doing that caused something to fail because it stalls out after 1-2 minutes. it was starting even with that cable on the negative side. What damage do you think that caused? I have no error codes so I don't know what part failed as a result of my mistake. Does anyone have any idea of what is failing because of my boneheaded mistake?

 

There is no "negative side", where did you connect the cables? Pics would help.

 

I put the positive cable that is coming off the front(the other one is facing away from the front of the car) of the fuse box to the other side where that smaller wire with the red by the loop

 

That other red wire , that’s the electric power steering terminal. The correct ground location is the strut tower, one of the nuts for the strut mount. Recheck the #1 fuse

 

I checked all the fuses with my test light, but I'll do it again. I was assuming that it was a relay or something
I really don't have a clue. I will check the #1 fuse

 

If the power steering works, then fuse #1 is fine. Good or bad, it's not the cause of the engine shutting off. But having that cable on the power steering lug may have fried something in the fuse block.

If it was the cable to the starter that was connected to the power steering lug, I would think the only damage might be to fuse #1.

If it was the cable from the battery... no telling what damage may have been done, backfeeding power to everything through the power steering circuit.

 

Sigh; what about King Kong tightening the 4 bolts.

 

Post #26 Donbrew, he confirmed he tightened the bolts.

 

How many times have we gone through that?