What would cause jumper cables to melt when jumping a car?
 

What would cause jumper cables to melt when jumping a car? I was jumping my Taurus with a Suzuki sedan and I went to turn my engine on and nothing happened, then smoke started coming off the black terminal and the whole thing started melting up before my eyes! turned off the suzuki (the good car) and took the cables off, they eventually cooled down but they are ruined, and it was a frightening experience!

And yes they were hooked up to the right terminals (pos and neg) because I checked and double checked that. Any ideas? Is there any damage that could have been done to my car? its still dead as of now, Im scared to try again. The suzuki is fine, it fired up and sped off down the road.

Dead short. Reversed cables will do this too, but you are sure the tags on the cables didn't get switched--run it down from one end to the other to be sure with a new or unfamiliar set.

Back to dead short. How did your battery fail? Just quit and then nothing when you hit the starter? If so, it's probably all melted and welded together inside and not fixable. As such, it is shorted out inside and applying power will just result in heat, smoke, fire, explosion.

Be careful--I'd pull that battery and have it tested and charged (if it's any good) out of the vehicle.

I'd put my money on Reversed Cables. My friend did this the other day when i tried to jump the 'ol project with the Ranger. I melted the lead terminals on the battery cables like solder!