How to Jump Start Your Car
You had a long day at work and you cannot wait to go home. You sit in your car and turn on the engine.
Nothing happens.
You try again, this time a bit more forcefully.
Nothing happens again.
Are you going to spend the whole night at the office? Fortunately, you can avoid this situation if you know what exactly caused your car to refuse to start. One of the common reasons your car won’t start is a dead battery. Over a long period of time, your battery will eventually die. This means that your car will not have enough power to start.
But you are on the premise of your office and there aren’t mechanic shops nearby. How are you supposed to replace a new battery at the eleventh hour? The good news is that there are other ways to start a car. The first option is to call a towing company and avail its jumpstart service.
However, if you are one of those people who keep a jumper cable in their car trunk, you can restart the battery on your own without any help. Before you put your skills to the test, make sure that the reason the car is not starting is a dead battery. You can check this by observing the sound of the engine. When you turn the key and the engine cranks, it indicates that the problem doesn’t lie in the battery. But if you turn the key and the car does nothing, the culprit is the battery.
Now, let’s find out how you can jumpstart the car using a jumper cable. Also, we are assuming that after watching you stranded, your colleague from the second floor has already offered their help. So, taking advantage of their car, let’s see how you can start your car.
How to Jump Start Your Car
- Place both vehicles – yours and the colleague’s who have offered help – on either neutral or park. Shut off the engine in both cars.
- Take one of the red clips and attach it on the positive terminal of your battery – the sign to look for is a ‘+’ or ‘POS.’ Also, the positive terminal is bigger in size than the negative terminal. Take the other side of the red clip and attach it to the positive terminal of the other car battery.
- Now, take one of the black clips and attach it to the negative terminal of the other battery.
- Attach the remaining black clip on any unpainted metal surface on your car. You can use the metal struts that keep the hood of the car open.
- Start the other car – the working one – and let the engine run for a few minutes.
- Now, try your engine. If it doesn’t start, ask your friend to keep their engine running for a couple more minutes. If that doesn’t help, you should consider taking a cab to home or get your car towedas the battery cannot be recovered.
Summary
In some cases, it is quite easy to give a boost to your car battery through a jumpstart cable. However, in severe cases, the best bet is to get the car towed and taken to the nearest mechanic.