How To Jump-Start a Car

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Written By Brandi Marcene

Below, we’ll discuss exactly how to jump-start a car and bring your battery to life with the help of a jumper cable and another vehicle. 

If you stay on top of your car batteries, you may never have to face a cranking issue in your car. This is when your car battery dies and cannot jolt to start your vehicle. When this happens, you need an external power source to help give your battery the extra voltage push. More often than not, this external power source is another car.

What you’ll need

  • A set of jumper cables
  • Another car with a live battery nearby

Quick Guide

Once you’ve acquired the help of another person to assist in jump-starting your vehicle, park the live car opposite your dead vehicle, so the bonnets are facing each other. Once done, hook the jumper cable to the batteries, attaching it to both positive terminals on each battery. Next, do the same with another jumper cable and hook up the negative terminals on each battery.

How to Jump-Start a Car – Step by Step

1. Starting Precautions

Before starting the process, you must always remove the key from the dead vehicle’s ignition and set it in a safe place. Then, you have to ensure that the cables are set apart. 

After that, park the vehicle that has come for aid, face towards the dead car so that both the bonnets face each other.

2. Hook the Cables in the Terminal

You want to start by hooking the positive cable onto the positive lead of the dead vehicle. Once you have done that, go to the live car and attach the positive cable up first to the terminal.

The positive side of the cable and terminal is designated with the help of either the plus sign or the red colour.

After connecting the positive cable, you can connect the negative cable to the negative terminal on the live vehicle.

Then, you will be left with the negative cable of the dead vehicle. When connecting this last bit of cable end, stay far away from the battery to prevent any spark.

It’s important to note that you have to hook the negative cable to the strut bar and not the battery.

3. Run the Live Car

Once the cables are hooked up, let the live car run before starting the dead vehicle.

You’ve given a reasonable charge back into the dead battery after letting the live car run for a couple of minutes. This is when you can move forward and start the dead car.

4. Put the Dead Car into Ignition

Once you start the dead car, avoid turning the ignition off and make sure that it stays started.

5. Disconnect the Cables

Once the car starts, you must disconnect the cables in reverse order. You have to start by disconnecting the negative cable from the strut tower and then follow it with the negative and positive cable on the live. Finally, finish the process by removing the positive cable on the dead car.

Summary

Learning to jump-start your car is one of the many essential pieces of knowledge when you’re a car owner. It can help you with many situations that are almost inevitable to any person when frequently driving around in a car.

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