How to jump start a car –
- Park the car
- Open the hood and locate the battery. It should be easy to spot, on most cars it’s near the front or can be on the firewall between the engine and passenger compartment. When looking at the battery you might see a red side (Positive) and black side (Negative), this is going to help later when you need to link up jumper cables
- Park the working car near the other car but not touching the messed up car. It needs to be close enough so the jumper cables can reach both batteries
- After parking, get the jumper cables and connect them to their corresponding colors. Some may not be colored, like some batteries may not be colored, but they will most likely be labeled. You must make sure that the red and black cord ends never touch once connected to the batteries
- Connect the cables in this order described:
- Connect one red clamp (positive) to the positive (+) terminal of the dead battery
- Connect the other red clamp (positive) to the positive (+) terminal of the good battery
- Connect one black clamp (negative) to the negative (-) terminal of the good battery
- Connect the other black clamp onto a piece of ground metal on the dead car, look for a shiny piece of metal (that isn’t oily or painted), usually a nut or bolt will work
- Make sure none of the cables are dangling into the engine compartment, so they are’t dangling
- Once you finish connecting the cords, turn on the working car for a few minutes. Just rev the engine a little for 30 to 60 seconds, this will allow the battery to charge in the dead car. If 30 seconds doesn’t work at first switch to 60 seconds.
- Try to start the dead vehicle. If it doesn’t start try shutting off the engine and disconnect the last connection temporarily, while you slightly twist or wiggle the four clamps on the batteries to ensure there is a good electrical connection. After, restart the working car again and allow another five minutes of charging before you try turning on the dead car.
- Remove the jumper cables once the car starts. When removing, make sure you do it in reverse order of how they were attached and don’t let any of the cables touch each other.
- Disconnect the black clamp from the grounded metal on the dead car
- Disconnect the black clamp from the negative (-) terminal on the good battery
- Disconnect the red clamp from the positive (+) terminal of the good battery
- Disconnect the red clamp from the positive (+) terminal of the dead battery
- Make sure to have the engine running on the messed-up car. Rev it up a few times and keep the car running for 5 minutes and then 20 minutes. This should give the battery enough time to charge. If this doesn’t work, you have a really dead battery or another problem and probably need to call a tow truck.
- One thing to know is that if you go to an auto store, such as AutoZone, you can ask to have your battery checked and tested. This is for FREE, yes for free, so if you’re unsure about your battery take advantage of this.