- If your car battery has died, you may be able to use jumper cables to jump-start it with the help of some good Samaritan’s vehicle.
- If you can safely use jumper cables on your vehicle, make sure that the battery on the good Samaritan’s vehicle has at least as much voltage as your own.
- As long as you hook up the cables properly, it doesn’t matter whether your vehicle has negative ground and the other vehicle has positive ground, or your vehicle has an alternator and the other vehicle has a generator.
How Do I Know My Car’s Battery Is Dead?
- Car batteries die due to a variety of reasons, preventing your engine from starting. But before you dig out and untangle those car jumper cables, you can do a test to see if the problem is simply a dead battery or if you have a more serious issue on your hands.
- To determine if your battery is in fact dead, turn the key and listen. Do you hear the engine attempting to turn over? If so, your battery isn’t the problem. Instead of whipping out your jumper cables, contact your trusted auto repair shop to take a look at your car.
- However, if you don’t hear anything when you turn the key, celebrate your situation’s silver lining! Your battery has died, and it’s likely that you can start your car using jumper cables.
To safely jump-start a car, follow these steps:
-
Take out your jumper cables.
It’s a good idea to buy a set of jumper cables and keep them in the trunk compartment. If you don’t have jumper cables, you have to find a kind stranger who not only is willing to assist you, but who has jumper cables as well.
-
Place both vehicles in Park or Neutral and shut off the ignition in both cars.
Engage both parking brakes as well.
-
Attach one of the red clips to the positive terminal of your battery.
It has “POS” or “+” on it, or it’s bigger than the negative terminal.
-
Attach the other red clip to the positive terminal of the other car.
-
Attach one of the black clips to the negative terminal on the other battery.
-
Attach the last black clip to an unpainted metal surface on your car that isn’t near the battery.
Use one of the metal struts that holds the hood open.
The cables should look like this.
-
Make sure to connect jumper cables in the proper order
-
Start the working vehicle and let the engine run for a few minutes.
-
Try to start your vehicle.
If it won’t start, make sure that the cables are properly connected and have the other person run their engine for five minutes. Then try to start your car again. If it still won’t start, your battery may be beyond help.
If the jump works and your car starts, don’t shut off your engine! Drive around for at least 15 minutes to recharge your battery. If the car won’t start the next time you use it, the battery isn’t holding a charge and needs to be replaced.How To Remove Jumper Cables?
- Remove the black ground cable from your newly started car.
- Remove the black cable from the negative terminal on the helper car’s battery.
- Remove the red cable from the helper car’s positive terminal.
- Finally, remove the red cable from the positive terminal on your car. Once removed, the cables should be safe to handle.
