Why jumper cables smoke

The jumpers start to smoke and melt just after you and tried to start the vehicle with the flat battery, if they started to smoke even before you had tried to start the vehicle with that flat battery you most probably connected them wrong.

There are a lots of possibilities that the car you want to jump has a short somewhere else. If they only started to smoke once and you tried to start the vehicle they are most probably too thin and of bad quality and cannot handle the amps or the vehicle has a short in its starter motor.

The smoke comes from overheating. Check if the cables are appropriated for the electrical current intensity or they are connected too long or a short circuit in the battery. In this case, this is the dangerous situation.

So in that situation a car owner have to concern about usages and be aware about jumper cable smokes. Jhony Thomas is a freelance writer and editor who specializes in technology reporting and reviewing. He works out of the suburban New York City area. He has drivers Education and safe driving enthusiast.

Active 3 years, 11 months ago. Viewed k times. Improve this question. Mike Cole Mike Cole 1 1 gold badge 2 2 silver badges 9 9 bronze badges. Are you sure you had them connected correctly? Batteries are made with the positive on the left, negative on the right and the other way around.

I'll check the other vehicle shortly to make sure. Mike Cole - never assume that a coloured cap depicts the polarity of the terminal underneath. If you can't see them, you can probably infer by following the leads - nearly all vehicles these days are negative earth so the negative terminal will have a thick cable going to the car body and the positive terminal a thick cable going to the starter motor.

Ensure the dead car is OFF. Show 1 more comment. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. OK, I'm going to check the good vehicle to see if that's the problem. I recently got my battery replaced so it's possible it's reversed now. Very odd. It happens to the best of us. It usually happens when we assume something to be true, which, by your comment, seem like it might be the case. Believe me, I've made simple mistakes which cost dearly. I hope nothing was damaged in the process. OMG, that was it.

They swear they had it hooked up right. Well the cables got so hot, smoke started pouring from cables and melted them beyond any future use. Has anyone ever had this happen or know why? Thanks in advance. Cheap jumper cables are 10ga wire which is not adequate to jump start a car. Cables that light are only useful to connect a dead batter to the battery on a running vehicle and allowing the dead battery to charge for whatever time is necessary to charge it.

If the starter is operated before the battery is fully charged the cheap wires will get very hot. Real jumper cables are 0 gauge. Shops use 00 gauge. Cheap jumper cables would be my first guess. A good jumper cable should use a large-gauge cable. Mine are 0 gauge. I usually recommend a minimum of 6-gauge wire for very light duty stuff. You can get a good set of 2-gauge cables for 35 bucks.