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Bizarre Problem, Jumper Cables smoking and more weirdness...
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Vcize
New User
Apr 14, 2011, 3:54 AM
Post #1 of 6
(5418 views)
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Bizarre Problem, Jumper Cables smoking and more weirdness...
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My wife drives a 2002 Mitsubishi Eclipse with around 100k miles on it.
This morning, the car would not start. When she turned the key, nothing happened.
We got set to jump it. She hooked the jumper cables up on her end, and the headlights immediately turned on (before we hooked up the other end of the cables).
Then, I hooked the other end of the cables up to my car, and they sparked wildly and the whole jumper cable started smoking and melting.
The weird thing was that both cars were off, and we hadn't tried to turn either of them on yet. The even weirder thing is that after disconnecting the cables, her car started fine! Again, I never even started my car to give hers a jump, but magically it worked.
My first thought with the smoking/melting cables was that we mixed up +/- on one end, but we both swear we didn't and her car starting fine afterwards seems to hint that they weren't crossed.
Perhaps even more bizarre is that within 5 minutes of her car not starting the circuit breaker in our house cut the power to a couple of the rooms. Maybe we're caught in some kind of weird ionic electrical storm or something 
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Tom Greenleaf
Ultimate Carjunky
/ Moderator
Apr 14, 2011, 6:35 AM
Post #2 of 6
(5407 views)
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Re: Bizarre Problem, Jumper Cables smoking and more weirdness...
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IDK - batteries age like produce. Over 3-4years expect strange troubles - sometimes costly,
T
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Tom Greenleaf
Ultimate Carjunky
/ Moderator
Apr 14, 2011, 7:38 AM
Post #4 of 6
(5396 views)
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Re: Bizarre Problem, Jumper Cables smoking and more weirdness...
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Smile-frown: Age doesn't' matter, Performance does,
T
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techforfree
User
Apr 15, 2011, 5:22 AM
Post #5 of 6
(5379 views)
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Re: Bizarre Problem, Jumper Cables smoking and more weirdness...
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If i had to guess..you simply had a cheap set of cables that couldn't carry the load of a completely dead battery with the lights on..but its hard to say ...good luck
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c_elliott
User
Apr 15, 2011, 8:06 AM
Post #6 of 6
(5375 views)
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Re: Bizarre Problem, Jumper Cables smoking and more weirdness...
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Check the terminals and make sure theyre tight. Take them off and clean them. You can use a mixture of warm water and baking soda and a wire brush. If you dont have a battery brush. Try that. You may also need new terminals.
I have the same problem sometimes on my jeep and a car i just got rid off the batterys in them are walmart brands and i can only think that theyre junk. In both cars the terminals. Turn black and i can only think its the walmart junk. Because i never had these problems before. And i wouldnt think that both cars had the same problem. But hey who knows anythings possible
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