melted jumper cables - advice?

was just doing a quick, routine jump on another car that hadent been started in awhile, and the battery was apparently stone dead and/or damaged. ill start by saying nothing went boom and im pretty sure everything was hooked up correctly, but the low gague cables I used melted the sheath around them quite quickly, and the melted plastic fused itself onto a headlight and abit of my bumper before I caught it.

obviously I can replace the headlight, guessing I can get an oem one off ebay right? it was getting that old foggy plastic appearance anyhow. and I guess I can sand off the fused plastic and make the bumper semi smooth (its got a slight dent where the cable laid against it) and just repaint? its not a huge bit of damage, but it still makes me sad.

anyhow, im guessing the other battery had a short in it or something? I dunno, like I said, I don't think the cables were backwards, being all color coded and what not, BUT what I need to know is, did this cause any other damage I should be looking for on my truck? like is my own battery damaged now? was there feedback to damage the alternator? check a fuse or something? he starts fine, but I want a second or third opinion from you guys to be safe. help tw!

no curse words were said, but the cosmetic damage is making me very sad right now.

also, in before "op needs a new plate bumper"

 

I would check for codes thrown by your truck I mean it never hurts to check.

 

Umm...Wow.... can't say for sure what or if you caused other damage.

Were you ever able to get it started after all that?

Electricity is a powerful thing. When you start melting things..... that can't be good.

You gotta get it started & running first before you can diagnose anything else.

Good Luck!

 

the other car never started no. its kind of old and in semi storage, but I crank it from time to time.

im concerned about my own truck tho, not the old car, to be clear.

 

It sounds like the small gauge jumper cables got hot after cranking on the other car and melted the cables... your truck should be fine but get some heavy gauge cables for next time... you can probably can get some headlights on the forum here and maybe a matching bumper cover.

 

I'm pretty sure everyone was inquiring about your truck, not the other car. See if your truck still runs or does anything crazy.

 

How were the cables connected to each battery? Also small gauge cable sounds like the culprit. However most people do not connect their jumper cables correctly which can cause issues.

Edit: For people who do not know the proper way to jump a car. http://www.wikihow.com/Jump-Start-a-Car

 

they were on the terminals, black on black, red on red. not the first time ive used them. just guessing the battery on the other car has broken down internally or something.

but ya, the small gague wires got hot enough to melt things, well to melt the headlight and deform my bumper. lesson learned about gague and cables, but I wish it didn't come at the cost of damaging my much loved truck.

the headlight I can replace, but im not sure what to do about the bumper, other than some sanding a paint pen. its got a 2" long streak where the black rubber fused itself and dented it slightly and I wont replace the whole bumper just for that, but I want to make it look not as bad too.

 

And not only that....

You can't let any of the terminals touch anything!! If those positive terminals are connected and the negative terminals touch something metal.....you've made a connection and it'll melt or fry anything it came in contact with (metal or anything around it.

I remember.... 20 years ago working on my old car. I was loosening the battery terminal and the socket wrench slipped out of my hand. It was still connected to the battery and landed on the ignition coil (old tube coils) and burnt a hole right thru it.

 

also I mostly want to know if there are any secondary complications this could have caused to my truck that I should check out / get checked out?

 

Coming from an electrician's perspective, I would have your electrical system checked out. If something actually went boom then it sounds like something shorted on his end, meaning you put a MASSIVE draw on your system, potentially enough to damage components not meant for carrying that large of a load. (When electricity shorts to ground, the impedance is extrmely low. Impedance is what resists the flow of current. It's why a person takes 100x the shock when they're wet because their impedance has been more than cut in half.)

 

Did you get it started yet?

 

my truck starts fine, 3 times now. the engine and battery light stay on when key is in the on position, but go off when its started. should I prolly get a new battery?

 

A couple of points - and maybe a licensed electrician can confirm. (I am just a life long shady tree mechanic)

- Sounds like the other vehicle may have not been grounded properly? (i.e. the ground cable from the battery was not making ground). Or the jumper cable had a break in its ground. Years ago I had a similar experience with a battery charger...the cables would get super hot...after inspecting, the ground was missing more than half its connection due to frayed wire in the clamp. I re-grounded it..and it worked like a champ and never heated up again.

- A good rule of thumb on newer vehicles with lots of electronics, jumping should be a last resort or if you are the donor vehicle....it better be a good friend or family member. I have read there are so many computers/electronics on newer vehicles any type of surge can cause untold damage. Nowadays I will only loan my cables to a stranger, but will always jump a buddy.

- Along those lines I have always heard jumping a dead battery is very bad for your alternator (it puts too much strain on it)...you should always try to use a battery charger when possible.

- Invest in a good set of jumper cables, but you don't have to spend a fortune...I found Sears puts their Die jumper cables on 50% sale or more about 3 times a year (and always at Christmas time)...I got a great set for like $17 a few years back. I will say I got the 6g copper clad aluminum ones and they have worked fine over the years (actually prefer them because they are more flexible and easier to handle). You can also spend a little more and get the 100% copper. But rated at 225 AMPs I think that is more than enough to jump a car with a couple of minutes of charging. I also got the 16ft so you can jump 2 cars parked next to each other with their batteries on opposite sides (like in your garage).
http://www.sears.com/automotive-batteries-battery-accessories-jumper-cables/b-1289770913

I've had a battery charger like this one for years and it has served me well.
http://www.sears.com/plus-start-bat...2889023000P?prdNo=12&blockNo=12&blockType=G12

Anyway, good luck. None of us were born mechanics, and we all learned hard lessons along the way.

 

I'd have the truck battery load tested, and the alternator output checked, and if OK, carry on with life as you knew it before. There's a lot of 8-10ga jumper cables on the market that are totally useless, if you had those, its a big part of the issue. Your130A altertator puts out more amperage than they can handle, let alone your battery.

Has it been much below freezing since the cars battery went dead? If it has, its possible it froze and shorted the plates internally. Don't try boosting it again, charge it slowly with a charger and see if the voltage comes up to above 12V.

 

So you hooked up the cables wrong and have the wrong gauge cable to jump with. Never hook battery to battery up like that, it causes all sorts of problems.

Lesson learned the hard way.

 

What he is saying is it's better to hook the Black to a chunk of grounded metal instead of the battery post.

 

I will invest in better cables after I repair the damage these ones caused for sure. not a super great time for this to happen $ wise. I may never use them again unless its an emergency after this tho.

its been a particularly long/cold winter since the dead car battery was last operating.

are these things I can check out myself, or do I have to take my truck somewhere? id really love to not have to go to the dealer for anything, I don't trust them as far as I can throw one.

they weren't connected for more than like 3 minutes tho. sigh =(

edit:

yes I know, hard lesson that could have been worse, believe me ill be beating myself up plenty about it.

 

Autozone will check it out for free...it will test the battery & alternator. I believe they will read your computer codes for free too.

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/inourstores/services.jsp