When a jumpstart goes wrong? Safety Question

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?

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u/I_Hate_Ricers Dec 31 '23

Assuming they weren’t hooked up backwards, cheap jumper cables with wires that are too thin, OR your wife’s car’s battery was dead because there’s a short which was causing the battery to die

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u/shotouw Dec 31 '23

This might be the reason. Just bought jumper cables a few days ago, they had two Kinds, one had a bigger diameter for Diesel cars (probably higher load in Startup due to self ignition and no spark plugs?). Then buy the cheapest shit Brand and stuff might go Bad.