Just imagine; on a day of snowy, winter morning, you turned the key on of your personal car, started the engine, but failed to fire it up. Gosh! You didn’t expect to face that kind of situation, eh? Hey, please stop scratching your head! I’m here to teach you how to jumpstart a car with another car, and that too with ease and quick!
Here, I’ll let you know how you can solve this bummer, including some jumpstart safety tips, the way of preventing your car battery from dying, and a few more things.
Trust me, it’s going to be fun because most of us aren’t familiar with the right techniques, which may result in battery drainage or damages.
So, without further ado, move forward to know the basic steps of how to jumpstart a car.
How To Jumpstart A Car With Another Car | 6 Step Process and Video
- Step-1: Getting Your Vehicle Prepared
- Step-2: Connecting the Jumper Cables
- Step-3: Starting Donor’s Vehicle
- Step-4: Experimenting the Dead Battery
- Step-5: Starting Up Dead Car
- Step-6: Unclipping the Cables
What You Need to Know About Batteries to Jumpstart a Car?
A car battery usually has two large nubs, known as terminals. And when it comes down to the terminal, it comes in a negative and positive version. And you can notice that they’re clearly marked.
It’s crucial to join the cables to the right terminal, giving energy to your car’s battery, and at the same time, completing the circuit properly.
- Negative Terminal: Users can find the negative terminal marking with “(-)” or “NEG” signs on their vehicle’s battery. You can also find it connected to the other clip that’s black in color.
- Positive Terminal: Compared to the negative terminal, the positive one will appear to be a bigger marking with “(+)” or “POS” signs. Users can find it attached to the positive clip that’s red in color.
How to Use Jumper Cables to Jump a Car with Another Vehicle: 6 Steps to Follow
Let’s face it! Most of us generally forget about keeping jump box in our car that’s loaded with adequate charge. But trust me, it’s highly recommended!
So when you bring a dead battery, jump-starting becomes the most important task. In this case, you may need to look for jumper cables along with another donor car.
Well, then “how do I jump start a car?” Is it easier or tougher?
Let me tell you – it isn’t that difficult, however, following some specific guidelines has no better choice! And this is what I’m going to show you right now:
Step#1: Getting Your Vehicle Prepared
Before performing anything, ensure that your vehicle’s battery is delivering a sufficient amount of voltage to the jump, plus, it has matched the type of voltage (6V and 12V).
If you find everything okay, place the donor car as closely as possible to yours. Afterward, perform the following things given below:
- Keeping both cars in a neutral mode
- Switching off the ignitions
- Putting the parking brakes on
- Uncovering car hoods as well as securing them
Step#2: Connecting the Jumper Cables
So once you’ve successfully positioned all the nooks and crannies, move forward to get the cables in a particular place. Getting your car running will be equally necessary.
Connecting the Clips:
- First off, join the red (positive) clip to the “POS” or “(+)” terminal on your dead car’s battery
- Now, you must join the red/positive clip to the “(+)” terminal on the battery of donor’s vehicle
- Attach the negative/black clip carefully to your donor car’s “(-)” terminal
- Finally, find out a part of unpainted metal part from your donor’s car so that you can attach the negative/black clip to that thing. But that shouldn’t be so closer to the battery.
Step#3: Starting Donor’s Vehicle
Once you’ve hooked up every single thing, your next duty is to begin the donor’s car, for which this can deliver as much power as possible to that useless battery. Let it run for a couple of minutes or so. And you also have to consider how long the car has to run to charge the battery.
Step#4: Experimenting with the Dead Battery
After checking a few minutes, you’ll notice any of the interior lights of your car is getting jumped. If it happens, it’s a sign that the battery is getting power.
Step#5: Starting Up Dead Car
Since that dead battery has got extra power to operate, you can now start your car with it, hopefully!
Step#6: Unclipping the Cables
So, what’s next? Since your dead car has become alive, let’s unclip the cables carefully following the reverse direction that you joined them:
- Negative clip (-) on unpainted metals
- Negative clip from “NEG” terminal
- Positive clip from your donor’s car
- Positive clip from the battery of dead car’s
What If the Car Doesn’t Start After the Jumpstart?
When you see your dead vehicle isn’t starting even after charging its battery for a couple of minutes, checking out the connections and trying it once again are what you need to do.
But if you still don’t notice any improvement, it’s a sign that the dead battery has become almost useless!
Important Jump Start Safety Tips
Follow the tips to maintain as much safety as possible during jump start:
- Don’t forget to read the user manual because a few cars out there aren’t friendly with jump-starting due to the circuit-sensitivity issues
- You should never try jump-starting a car of damaged, leaked, cracked, or corroded batteries
- Stay away from jumpstarting a piece of frozen and dry battery
- Don’t try to touch all the jumper clips together
The Causes of a Failed to Charge Car Battery
- Probably you’ve kept your vehicle’s lights or other accessories on for so long, especially when you aren’t running your car.
- Sometimes the battery of your vehicle mightn’t be taking charge while driving that basically is a mechanical issue.
- You probably aren’t driving your car for so long after jumpstarting it. Because keeping your car’s engine running for several minutes is recommended to make sure it has built adequate amounts of charge.
- Maybe your car’s battery is way older and not able to hold a charge. In case it happens, there is no better choice than replacing it with the new one.
Although there are a few more reasons behind a failed battery charge, I’ve incorporated here the most common causes possible.
How to Prevent Your Car Battery from Dying?
It’s definitely necessary to keep your car’s battery from dying, however, it eventually happens with almost each and every battery after a certain period. It also depends on how you treat your vehicle’s battery.
Don’t worry, there’s always a silver lining, you know! I’ll teach you how to prolong the battery life of your car right now:
- Ensure to test your battery parts on a regular basis. Also try to take advice from experts about checking the overall lifespan of your batteries and when replacing becomes a must job!
- Keep the battery as much safe as possible from harsh weather conditions. Garage is obviously the right place to store during both summer and winter. Insulated blanker may come in handy when it comes to keeping your battery safe and preventing it from dying.
- One of the main reasons behind quick battery drainage is that you keep your vehicle’s lights on even when you’re driving or running. That’s why I’d suggest double-checking your personal car to make sure lights and other small appliances are turned off while not in use.
You should always try to pay attention to the overall condition of your car’s battery, especially if you want to prolong the overall lifespan. That’s not a big deal!
How to Protect the Donor Battery
Feel free to take the following precautions in order to make sure your donor’s vehicle battery is protected:
- Matching the voltage system of both dead battery and donor battery is what you’ll do first. Let’s see a 12V doesn’t make a perfect match with the 6V. In this case, they should be equal and the same in terms of voltage.
- Alligator clips should be joined in the right order. Thus, you can minimize the possibility of shorting the battery that’s already good.
- Since your dead battery requires a sufficient amount of energy to operate, you have to confirm that your donor’s battery isn’t holding a low charge.
Jump Start Not Working Then How Will Fix?
There might be so many reasons why your jumpstart fails. But thankfully, there are some other ways as well when it comes down to fixing those issues. Take a look at the point to get some ideas about it:
Getting Another Donor Battery:
If you notice your car isn’t running even after jumpstarting successfully, it might be the reason behind your donor’s weak battery. In this case, switching to a new one is what you need to do.
Changing the Jumper Cables:
Cheaply made cables can’t get your job done when it comes to jumpstarting a car. That’s why if you fail to jumpstart, ensure to change them straight away and find out something effective for your car.
Fuel Issues:
If you still fail to fix the bummers even after collecting a powerful battery as well as effective jumper cables, then probably your car is out of fuel or gas. And there’s no rocket science; you just need to collect fuel immediately and restart the whole task of jumpstarting a car!
Check out this video on how to jumpstart your car properly if the car battery is dead
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q1. How Long To Jump A Car?
A) In general, it’s best to wait for around 2-3 minutes with running your car, enabling the power to flow thoroughly. Once the waiting period is done, feel free to start up your car in order to see if it’s working or not.
Q2. Can You Jump Start A Car with A New Car?
A) Of course, you can. But both jump starting a new car and jump starting a vehicle with a brand-new car may cause significant damages, especially if you’ve done it in an incorrect way. Ask me why?
Well, it’s because the latest cars’ electronic systems are way more complex than the old-model cars.
Q3. When Jumping a Car Which Cable Goes on First?
A) In the fewest possible words, the red jumper (positive) cable goes on first while jump starting a car.
Q4. Why Don’t You Connect The Negative Terminal When Jumping a Car?
A) Attaching the negative terminal while jumping a car may cause serious explosions of batteries by igniting hydrogen gas straightly over batteries. This may result in major injuries.
Q5. How to Jump Start A Car With a Spare Battery?
A) Have you got any spare batteries (12V) from portable drills? If so, make sure to perform the following basic tasks:
- Take 2 large-sized screws as carefully as possible to the terminal of batteries.
- Make a straight connection of the drill's battery and jumper cables, and then your car to get the job done!
Q6. How Long Does it Take to Charge a Dead Car Battery?
A) In depends! A quick-charging device can make your dead battery fully charged up within just around 10 hours or so, while others may take a whole day!
But if you only need to start up your car instead of running it, around 1-3 hours of charge will be just enough.
Q7. Do You Remove the Jumper Cables While the Car is Running?
A) Yes, you can easily take off the jumper cables while your car is already running. But since the cables are already connected to your personal vehicle, you shouldn’t allow the clamps to contact each other. That’s it!
Q8. Can Jumping Your Car Hurt Your Car?
A) Nope! But if you apply the incorrect technique, then jump starting may cause minor-to-major damages. So don’t make the mistake of straightly moving on to the jumpstarting if you aren’t familiar with the proper rules and techniques.
Final Words on How to Jumpstart a Car with another Car
Jumpstarting won’t appear to be a difficult task anymore as I’ve shown you all the nooks and crannies on how to jumpstart a car with another car. Make sure you’re following each and every step I’ve mentioned above while performing the task.
Also ensure you&
#x2019;re familiar with the jumper cables knows-hows. But it’d be best to prevent your car batteries from dying so that you can use them for a longer period. After all, prevention is better than cure, what do you think?
