What would make jumper cables smoke and melt by getting really hot when they are hooked up right?

Question

I hooked up my car to jump start it and I had red on red and black on black and at both ends of the cables it started smoking and getting really hot and melting !! IM not forsure what caused it and now my car wont even turn over.

Answer 1

You hooked them up the wrong way and could have completely fried your car's electronic/computer systems. Try a new battery, check the fuses and relays, and if that isn't it, then take it to a shop to get repaired. Good luck though...it is going to cost you. Hopefully, it was something as simple as a blown battery or fuse. And melting will occur if you used a crappy set of jumper cables...if you bought them at WalMart or Target, then they were probably crappy, go to a local auto parts store, but wait for sales.

Answer 2

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RE:
What would make jumper cables smoke and melt by getting really hot when they are hooked up right?
I hooked up my car to jump start it and I had red on red and black on black and at both ends of the cables it started smoking and getting really hot and melting !! IM not forsure what caused it and now my car wont even turn over.

Answer 3

You may have hooked up red to red and black to black but they still were hooked up wrong. I've seen my father use a red cable to hook up a battery to the ground because it was handy. Always look at the battery for those little + and - signs. You hook up a battery wrong you risk something blowing up.

You car may not turn over because you may have blown a main fuse and/or the battery is down or a bad connection.

There's a main wire from the battery that goes into the ignition switch, if it smoked too much, you may have melted the wiring enough to compromise the harness. I hope not. I think it's a main fuse block.

Answer 4

There will likely be a better answer here but off the bat i would have to say something went wrong with the hookup. Look again, some car batteries, (especially if they're old) are not real clear on which is the positive and which is the negative terminal. You gotta find the ground and regardless of what the battery terminal says treat the grounded terminal as "black." Go back and recheck that and regardless of what happened you are gonna likely need a new battery in each car. Good luck.

Answer 5

Just happened to me and I know for a fact that they were hooked up right. I have had these cables for a long long time so they might have been part of the problem. After I disconnected everything, my wife tried to start the car being jumped and you could here the starter clicking and it would not stop until it drained what little juice was in the battery. Hope I didn t fry the starter.

Answer 6

You made a mistake, the ground and the postive got switched around somehow, you most likely fried the battery, and the cables are worthles now, toss them, take you battery into a NAPA and have it tested, might have fried a cell or something, you are lucky the battery did not crack and spue acid all over everything, check to make sure you hook it up right next time.

Answer 7

no guys if he said he hooked them up right i'm sure he checked twice... It is probably a short on your positive battery terminol causing it to ground out, which virtually gives you two negetives, i would recomend pulling off your positive cable all the way from the starter and the fuse box make sure there is no cracks splits or melted/bare spots replace if needed and hopefully there is not too much damage from the short.

Answer 8

what you described, is what happens, when the jumper cables are incorrectly connected. Now that has happened, chances are, the starter went bad, if you are shure the jumps are correct. Unless the car is + ground, wich is rare, the negative cable [ black ] and the+ cablle [ red ].

Negative cable [-] always bolts to a metal frame or bracket some ware on the vehicle.

Answer 9

Sounds like got the cables on in reverse. You are Lucky it did not explode in your face. Jumping batteries can be vary dangerous. You must go positive to positive and negative to negative no matter what. Jump starting newer cars can cause computer or alternator damage as well. I suggest using "Booster Packs" next time you have a dead battery.

Answer 10

Colors do not necessarily mean they are right. The positive post on the battery is a little larger than the negative and has a + mark on it. Another reason is cheap, smaller guage cables. These are inadequate and will get hot fast.