I had been ahving battery troubles for sometime now and had been putting off getting a new battery, rather being more willing to simply get the car jumped every few weeks. Most times the battery died, the reason was quite obvious. I left a light on or something. Well I came down with a very nasty case of the flu at the beginning of this week so I bundled up and headed on outside.

Climbing in my car quickly, I stuck the key in the ignition and twisted. Nothing. Today my father attempted to jump my car and about 10 minutes after he stepped out he told me that when he attempted to jump the bonne the power cable began to smoke and that the jumper cables became very hot and he tossed them in the snow.

Is this a bad starter or alternator? Being I live about 45 minutes from the nearest mechanic I was wondering if this problem had happened to anyone else and if so is it easily to repair yourself. A tow from my home to town would be devastating on my wallet.

maybe they weren't connected right. i saw my friend melt a set right in front of me when he didn't hook the negative cable on the dead side to the frame of the car. NOT the negative battery post. other than that, possibly a bad battery?
edit: please add your year and trim to your signature.

Disconnect your battery cables and remove the boots. Tell us what you find.

I'd wonder also if he didn't have the cables connected backwards (positive to negative, and negative to positive). That would cause the cables to smoke, and could do serious damage to your alternator and electrical systems.

Running on a bad battery is a good way to kill your alternator, also.

aahhh yes i remember that one

http://www.bonnevilleclub.com/forum/...ic.php?t=63158

i've been reading on here alot about battery cable corrosion...but i've never seen it...my family and i have owned serveral gm vehicles...including 2 bonniville'* and a buick park ave and i'v worked on hundreds of gm vehicles where i work and i've never seen corrosion on side terminal batteries or cables...maybe im just lucky...or does iit depend on where you live

It'* strange for sure...... I've rarely if ever seen this happen to a GM vehicle either (knocking on wood since I own two at the moment).

But it is by far the most common electrical issue on these forums, with at least two or three different cases per week on average.

At least it'* an easy fix for the most part.

How many of those vehicles did you actually remove the battery cable insulator boots from for a REAL inspection?

Let'* get back on topic.