How to jump a car

 

Setup the cables

Here are some basic steps to setup a couple of car batteries for a jump start.

1) Both cars have the ignition to the off position
2) On the good battery, connect the Red and Black clamps from one side of the jumper cables and connect them to the Positive and Negative terminals. Make sure the Red and Black terminals at the other end ARE NOT TOUCHING.

2a) Attach the Red Positive from the jumper cables to the Positive side of the battery.

2b) Attach the Black Negative from the jumper cables to the Negative side of the battery.

3) Pick up the other ends of the Jumper cables (again, do not touch them together)

3a) Attach the Red Positive from the jumper cables to the Positive pole of the bad battery.

3b) Attach the Black Negative from the jumper cables to a ground of the engine. This can be a piece of metal or a solid bolt.

 

Jump the car

4) Start the Good car. Let it run for a couple of minutes.

5) Try starting the Bad car. If the battery is slightly drained, it should start up pretty easily. Once it starts up. Take off the cables from the bad car (Red and Black). Then take off the cables from the good car.

6) If the battery is drained more, it is possible to for the good car to give the bad car a little charge by running for a few minutes. Try starting the bad car again.

7) If the car still does not start, try a few different areas of the bad car for a different ground. Check if you can make a better connection.  Be patient.

8) If it is beyond that, then the battery is probably dead and/or there may be additional electrical problems.

 

Final thoughts:

Modern cars have much more complicated and complex computerized systems these days. There are risks to cars when jumping batteries if there are surges or poor electrical problems which are unknown.

If you have a $50,000 car, you probably do not want to try to jump a $3000 beat up old car.

Portable rechargeable batteries for jump starting are a safer method and have come down to more reasonable prices. These batteries are nice peace of mind items to have along side your emergency kit in the trunk of your car.  They also have flashlights and USB ports for charging phones and electrical devices.

Good Luck

Thanks for Reading,

Scottie

 

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