It’s a horrible feeling when you jump in the car, turn the key, and the starter motor makes groaning noises and fails to start the engine. This can indicate a dead battery. However, if your battery is merely flat, you may need to jump-start it again. You can get driving lessons for proper instructions. Read more about the cost to learn driving. In this article, we’ll read aout how to jump start a car in 10 steps.
All car owners must know how to jump-start a vehicle in case the battery dies at any point. Depending on the number of attempts your car needs to jump-start, this process may take around 20 to 40 minutes.
Here are 10 easy steps to jump-start your car:
Have Proper Equipment
Before jump-starting your car, you must have the following equipment:
- Rubber gloves to protect yourself from electrical shock
- Jumper Cables
- Dead Battery
- Live Battery
- Towel or Old Rag
- Safety Glasses
Verify The Issue
First, verify that the issue in your car is a dead battery and not something else. You can test this out by turning on the lights and checking whether they are dead or not.
Dim lights indicate a dead or low battery. Moreover, if plugged-in car accessories are not working, it can also imply a dead battery.
Before attempting to jump-start your vehicle, read your owner’s manual. Some cars may not jump-start and may need you to replace the battery.
Set Your Car in Position
After ensuring that your car’s battery is dead, park the dead hood to hood to a live car with a gap of 2-3 feet between them. Next, turn off the engine of both cars and open up the hoods of both vehicles.
Check Batteries
After opening both hoods, locate and check the battery terminals of both cars for corrosion. If dirt or corrosion is present on the terminals it may get difficult to jump-start the car. If the battery terminals are corroded or dirty, clean them off with a towel or an old rag.
After checking the terminals, you may proceed to hook up the jumper cables.
However, be sure to put on your gloves to protect yourself from electrical shock or any other hazards while checking the battery. Make sure that both vehicles are off while you are cleaning the battery terminals.
Hook Up Jumper Cables
Now you can start hooking up the cables. However, make sure to use the correct sequence while hooking up the cables as stated in the following steps:
- First, hook up the positive jumper cable to the positive terminal present on the dead battery
- Then, hook up the positive jumper cable to the positive terminal present on the live battery
The positive terminal is generally indicated by some kind of red symbol on the battery. If there is no red indication, you will find a + sign next to the positive terminal.
Hook Up Negative Jumper Cables
Next, hook up the negative jumper cable of your car to the negative terminal present on the live battery. The negative jumper cable is usually the one in black colour. You may find it difficult to locate the negative terminal as it is smaller than its positive counterpart. The negative jumper cable is usually denoted by the – sign on the battery.
Then, hook up the negative jumper cable to a grounded metal piece on your dead car. Make sure to not hook up the negative jumper cable to a painted or dirty metal piece as the connections won’t be good enough to jump-start your car. You may locate a good metal piece towards the front of your car’s hood to hook up the negative jumper cable.
Set Up Vehicle with Live Battery
After attaching your cables properly, start up the working vehicle. Let the functional vehicle sit and run for around 5 minutes.
You can rev the engine in the live/functional car every 30 seconds. This will assist in generating a few extra volts, but it is not mandatory to start up the car with a dead battery. You will still get enough volts from the live/functional car to start the car with a dead battery. However, if you wish to rev the engine don’t keep your foot on the pedal the entire time.
Start-Up the Car
After 5 minutes, try to start the car with a dead battery. If the dead car fails to start up, it can be a case of a bad connection. In such a case, shut off both cars and try to follow the above-mentioned steps again. While removing the cables follow a reverse sequence of how you connected them.
Remove Cables
Once the car with a dead battery turns on, you can remove the jumper cables. Make sure to remove the jumper cables by following a reverse sequence of how you connected them.
- Remove the jumper cable from the ground metal piece on the dead car
- Remove the jumper cable from the negative terminal of the live car’s battery
- Remove the jumper cable from the positive terminal of the live car’s battery
- Remove the jumper cable from the negative terminal of the dead car’s battery
Make sure to not touch the metal claws of the cables while they are still connected to a car’s battery. This can result in an electrical shock.
Let the Dead Battery Recharge
After removing the cables, drive the car around for around 20 to 30 minutes. This will provide the alternator with time to recharge your car’s battery. If the car with a dead battery is turned off instantly after a successful start, it won’t start up again and you will be required to repeat the entire process.
How to jump start a car in 10 steps: Summing Up
When jumpstarting your car, the hardest part is to establish a strong connection between the two cars. If you fail to start up your car the first time, you have to go through the entire process again. Also, ensure that the terminals are clean to establish a proper connection. Overall, the process of starting up a dead car is fairly easy and you can do it on your own by following some safety measures.
