# Smoke from battery?



## b13pnoysentra (Mar 30, 2005)

Aight, when I got off school today, some girl stopped my car and asked if me if she can use my car to help jump start hers. Being the good samaritan that I am, and noticing that she looked good, I agreed to do so. So I left my car running and popped the hood. I asked her if she knew how to do it because I've never jumped start a car before and she said "yes." So, while my car was running, she put the red (+) clamp on my battery's positive terminal and the positive on her battery. Then she told me to put the black clamp on my negative terminal, and she did the same to her negative terminal. Sparks slowly began to ignite, and smoke started coming from my positive terminal. so I pulled it off and told her that she probably did it wrong. 

So we tried again and this time she put the red clamp on my negative terminal. Then she put the black clamp on my positive (opposite as before). She did the same with hers. This time, she tried to start her car and it cranked for a bit, but it didn't start. I was just worried about my car at this point. That smoke really bothered me cuz I thought the battery was gonna blow up.

Can anyone tell me wth happened? And whats the safest way to jump start without blowing up the car? Note: Don't trust college girls with jumper cables.


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## davidmayernik (Sep 19, 2005)

proper procedure for jump-starting a car is to:
turn both cars off.
apply the red clamp to the negative post on the car that needs to be jumped.
apply other red clamp to the negative post on the jumper.
then, the black clamp on the "jumpee", and then the other black clamp on the jumper.

wait a few seconds...
start the jumper.


wait a few seconds...
start the jumpee. if the car does not start within 3 seconds of cranking, release the key, wait 3 seconds, then try again. if you dont have it by, say, 5 attempts, call a tow-truck.

keep in mind that while a battery is charging, or (i've heard) when the car is running. its releasing hydrogen into the atmosphere. wanna know what happens when hydrogen ignites? Click Here!

*do not attempt to attach the cables while either car is running*. make sure that all clamps have good contact with the terminals before starting any vehicle. make sure the clamps are not in contact with each other, or any other metal.

this is how i was taught, and i've never done wrong by it.

as for the sparks, they could be igniting some sort of build-up, or possibly out-gassing hydrogen. having seen what happens when a car battery explodes, let me congratulate you on being alive. hope that answers all your questions.


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## Baysideblues (Aug 27, 2005)

davidmayernik said:


> proper procedure for jump-starting a car is to:
> turn both cars off.
> apply the red clamp to the negative post on the car that needs to be jumped.
> apply other red clamp to the negative post on the jumper.
> ...


You may want to check your fluid in the battery after it was smoking there is a good chance that some of it evaporated while it was boiling. I know this cuz my battery boiled over one day and i didnt refill the acid and then my alternater kicked the dust

O yeah dont breath in the smoke very bad for you


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## blackmaxima88 (Mar 20, 2005)

yeah pop the caps off and look in the cells. if the fluid isn't covering the plates, slowly add DISTILLED water (ONLY) to the cells until it's about 1/2" from being full. even from just being used regularly, batteries lose water from evaporation. summer heat speeds it up too.

and yeah, batteries do give off hydrogen gas due to the sulfuric acid reaction. which is exactly why there are those big "DANGER - NO SMOKING OR SPARKS" labels. I've heard stories from people about batteries exploding and people being severely burned or blinded. kinda scary.


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## Slacky (May 31, 2004)

personally i dont shut my car off to jump someone or to een connect the cables. i just make 100 % sure that im putting each color cable to each corrosponding terminal doesnt matter which color goes where just put either both reds on positives or both blacks on positives then oposite the othercolor obviously. i have NEVER had aproblem doing this, o yea and i also let the cars sit for a few minutes when the car that needs a jump is REALLY dead that way the dead battery collects a charge so its a little extra kick when u go to crank it not to mention if u accidently stall out right after u pull away u might have enough juice to start on your own.


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## joseph valentino (Feb 3, 2015)

Actually...you are wrong.....red goes to pos and black to neg....college girl had it right


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