When a jumpstart goes wrong?

[u/jhwalk09]

Neighbor tried jumping my wife’s ‘06 Nissan Altima, we left it for 10 minutes and came back and the cables had melted through the headlight of both cars and some of the bumper. I wasn’t there but thankfully they stopped their car and were able to disconnect the cables without incident. We noticed after there had been mice living in around her engine from the mouse poop, minimum the last two weeks. What causes jumper cables to do this? Something a rodent may have chewed? Definitely an issue with my wife’s car. Our poor neighbors have a newish midsized suv. My wife has also had constant issues starting her car, even with a new battery I got a year or two ago. Anyone seen this before?

[u/420_bigbus]

10 mins is 9 mins and 30 second too long looks like it was just shitty cables that got too hot

[u/golgonto → u/420_bigbus]

Yeah I've had a mate at work try and jump start my car with some cables that would look at home in a speaker system. They got instantly real hot. I treated myself to some big thick jump leads after that.