Here is how to jump start a car battery with jumper cables and do it safely. Cars aren’t the most loyal things sometimes. Batteries will go dead, sometimes because you left a light on and other times because an electrical short happened or the alternator is dying. No matter the cause, here is the safe way to get back on the road.
How to Jump Start a Car Battery
Always carry jumper cables in your car. You will find there will be many times you’ll need to help a motorist and show them how to jump start a car battery.
- Check the voltage of your car battery and the other car’s battery that you’ll use to get yours going. They must be the same voltage and the same negative ground. Check both cars’ manuals.
- Put the cars facing each other, engine to engine, without touching. If the cars touch it could cause a short. You will work between the cars.
- Shut off everything in both cars before you start.
- A frozen battery will explode, so don’t even try.
- Clean the battery posts with baking soda so that you can see which is positive (+) and which is negative (-).
- Put the red (or yellow) cable in one hand and don’t let it touch anything. Use the other hand to put the other red (or yellow) clamp on the dead battery’s positive cable.
- Put the first red cable on the good battery’s positive cable.
- Clamp the black cable to the negative post of the good battery.
- Clamp the other black cable to a cleaned spot on a bracket under the hood somewhere, but never clamp it to the dead battery’s negative post.
Start the good battery car and let it run for 5 minutes. Then start the dead battery car. It should start right up. Remove the cables in the reverse order.
