Discovering your car won’t start is a dreadful experience. While there are many reasons a vehicle could fail to start, a weak or dead battery is one of the more common causes. If you suspect the battery, a jump start may get you going again to make it to an auto garage or home. Before you hook up the jumper cables, learn the steps for doing it properly. Doing it correctly is a safety measure for both you and your vehicle.
Properly jump starting a vehicle battery
The secret to correctly jump start a vehicle is to hook up the clamps in a specific sequential order. The order you use to fasten the clamps is important for safety reasons. Using the wrong sequence in hooking up cables can lead to sparks, fire and in extreme cases even explosions. Improper jump starting can result in damage to a vehicle’s electrical system or injury to bystanders.
Sequential steps for jump starting a car
- Turn off the ignition of the car with the good battery once it’s parked in close proximity to the vehicle needing a jump.
- Start by attaching a clamp with a red handle to the positive terminal (marked with a + sign) to the dead battery.
- Secondly, attach the other red handled clamp to the positive terminal on the good battery.
- Thirdly, attach the black handled clamp to the negative terminal (marked with a minus (-) sign) to the good battery.
- Finally, attach the other black handled clamp on a bolt or bracket near the battery but not directly on the negative terminal itself. Many new models have a dedicated grounding bolt installed for jumping a battery.
- Start up the vehicle with the live battery.
- Give the vehicle with the bad battery a try by starting the ignition.
- Remove the cables in the reverse sequential order.
- If the car with the bad battery started, drive it for at least half an hour to recharge the battery.
What to do if jumping a car battery doesn’t work?
When the vehicle doesn’t start, it could be due to several reasons. First of all, the battery may be too far gone to hold any charge. Another possibility is that the alternator is going bad. If you recently had lights with fluctuating brightness or a radio that was fading in and out, the alternator could be a prime suspect. Another electrical component that can lead to failure is the starter. If the reason your vehicle won’t start is due to any of these components other than the battery, or something non-electrical in nature, a jump start won’t be effective in getting you going again.
Battery jump starting techniques are good to know
Being prepared for roadside emergencies is always the best approach. With regard to a dead battery, having a set of jumper cables available and knowing how to use them correctly are important steps in being prepared when you travel.
