Eupho made an Ooopsie.

[euphoricism]

I let my girlfriend borrow my car yesterday. Today, the battery is dead. I think she left the lights on, but since its dead I'm not entirely positive.

Anyway, she brought her car over today so we could jump it. So I hooked the batteries together, and she started her car. The jumper cables made a cracking noise, and then they burst into flames. This is, I am told, not supposed to happen. The plastic (rubber?) casing the cables are wrapped in began to melt to the bodies of our car, and the flames followed suit. I know this is bad.

But, the fucking car was on fire, so I couldn't get to the terminals to yank them off. And truth be told, I thought I'd probably die anyway.

She ran upstairs for a fire extinguisher (which I'm pretty sure you shouldn't spray on electrical fires anyway...) while I grabbed my balls, reached into the hood and yanked away one of the terminals breaking the circuit.

The actual damage is minimal, and I hope purely cosmetic. I hope I didnt fry her battery or alternator... or mine..

Anyway, has anyone heard of this happening? Anyone got reasons as to why it WOULD happen? I've never heard of it...

[koolmoe]

Did you hook them up in series or parallel?
Did you hook the negative clamp for the car with the dead battery to the battery post or to a suitable ground?

[euphoricism]

Heres what I did.

First, put negative on the good car to negative post
Then negative on bad car to negative post (or so I think)
Put positive on bad car
Put positive on good car, got a spark.

Turned good car on. Revved it a little and held it at about 1500 rpm. Tried bad car, nothin whatsoever, not even a chugchugchug. Gave it a few more seconds, heard a crackle. Checked it out, smoke. Then fire.

[euphoricism]

Then I undid the negatives, and put the flames out, then the positives -- because they were hot to the touch.

[LeFou]

I'm no expert, but I think almost all yr steps are funky.
1) Good car should be running as you hook up. Dead car will yank power out of the good car upon hookup, and if good car isn't running you might suddenly have 2 nearly-dead cars.
2) Positives first, from everything I've read.
3) Negative to a ground, *not the negative terminal. This is to prefect a spark from occurring to close to the batter, where it could ignite chemicals/residue/fumes more easily.

So ... maybe one or all of those things blew it up.

[LeFou]

Oh, and is your girlfriend European? The voltage might be different...

[euphoricism]

hers is a ford somethinorother suv thing and mine is a toyota camery

[jyms]

lol. a swing and a miss LeFou

[Galapogos]

Don't worry LeFou, we still thought it was funny.

[Phantaroth]

There was a joke?

[boost]

LOL JUMPSTARTAMENTS

[koolmoe]

As far as clamping order, the preferred order is:

1) Positive terminal of dead battery
2) Positive terminal of live battery
3) Negative terminal of live battery
4) A shiny, oil-free, dirt-free piece of metal on the car with the dead battery

The biggest thing I see is that you hooked directly to the negative terminal of the dead battery. That can send too much current through the dead battery, although it doesn't cause problems the vast majority of the time.

If the dead battery was of a different voltage, or if it was cracked or leaking, that could also cause an explosion/fire.

[midas06]

LOL JUMPSTARTAMENTS

can we keep unfunny bbv jokes in bbv?

[BobbySalami]

WTF? You dont connect negative to negative to jump start a battery....Thats how I was tought and how Ive always done it...geuss I live on the edge.

[Warpe]

http://www.nsc.org/library/facts/batjump.htm

[BobbySalami]

http://www.nsc.org/library/facts/batjump.htm

And to think I've been doing it all this time without safety glasses and gloves as well....I am a dangerous man.