How to Jump Start Your Car Battery

Regardless of the age of your car, their will almost certainly come a time when you need to jump start the battery or that of someone else. You can jump start your car, or another’s using some simple care car techniques.  Additionally, local car repair shops can send a tow truck to your location and jump start your car for a low fee.

First, turn both cars off and park them ne in front of the other, hood to hood.  Then, locate the positive and negative cables and terminals. Positive is typically indicated by a red cable and negative y a black cable, or may be marked (+) for positive and (-) for negative. Using jumper cables connect the red colored clamp from the jumper cables to the positive post on the car with the dead battery first then the positive clamp to the positive post on the active battery. Connect the black (negative) clamp to the negative post on the active battery. (Important note: connect the second negative clamp on the jumper cables somewhere on the engine block, on someplace that is ‘grounded’; not on any moving parts. And do not connect the negative clamp to the dead battery.

Now, try to start the car with the dead battery. If it still won’t start then start the car with the active battery. Allow the car to idle for several minutes, as it charges the dead battery. Try to start the other car again. Once the car starts, you can remove the jumper cables, allowing the car whose battery was dead to idle for a few minutes(15-30 minutes should be adequate) to build up a good charge. To remove the jumper cables, do so exactly in a reverse order as you put them on the batteries.

Car care and maintenance of your cars battery can prevent the need to ever need to jump your car battery. But, inevitably, it happens to all of us. Checking and replacing the battery when necessary can prevent any need for a jump start of your car battery. Calling a car repair shop for a jump start is generally cheap. But making use of your car care routine can help to prevent a dead battery in the future.