How to Jump Start A Dead Car Battery – Instructions

 

Introduction:

To jump start a dead car battery, you need to have a set of jumper cables and a good car battery.  Make sure that there are no liquids leaking from either battery.  There are five steps involved in jump starting a dead car battery.

 

Step one:

Line both cars up so that the batteries are close enough to one another, but so that neither car touches one another, as shown in (figure 1).  Ensure that both vehicles are in park and turn off the engine.  Turn off all accessories like the headlights, the radio, the turn indicators, the hazard flashers, and the windshield wipers.

 

Figure 1

WARNING!  Touching parts of either car to one another may cause an explosion.

 

 

 

 

 

Source: Brauer, Karl.  Edmunds.com. 2003.  How to jumpstart.  24 July.  Internet:  http://www.edmunds.com/ownership/howto/articles/43793/article.html.

 

Step two:

Now that you have lined both cars up without touching each other, you connect the jumper cables in the following order:

 

a         Connect one end of the Positive (+) cable to the Positive (+) post of the dead battery.

b        Connect the other end of the Positive (+) cable to the Positive (+) post of the good battery.

c         Connect one end of the Negative (-) cable to the Negative (-) post of the good battery.

d        Connect the other end of the Negative (-) cable to a good solid metal part of the engine on the dead car, as shown in (figure 2).  Usually a giant shiny nut on the engine block works.

 

Figure 2

WARNING!  Connecting the Negative (-) cable directly onto the Negative (-) post of the dead battery may cause an explosion.

 

 

 

 

 

Source: Brauer, Karl.  Edmunds.com. 2003.  How to jumpstart.  24 July.  Internet:  http://www.edmunds.com/ownership/howto/articles/43793/article.html.

Step three:

Now that you have connected the cables, you start the good car's engine.  Let the good car's engine run for approximately one to three minutes before attempting to start the dead car.  When the dead car starts, the dead car battery holds a charge.

 

Step four:

Now that the dead car battery holds a charge, you remove the jumper cables in the following order:

a         Disconnect the Negative (-) cable from the engine block of the car that was jump started.

b        Disconnect the other end of the Negative (-) cable from the Negative (-) post of the good battery.

c         Disconnect the Positive (+) cable from the Positive (+) post of the good battery.

d        Disconnect the other end of the Positive (+) cable from the Positive (+) post of the dead battery.

 

Step five:

Now that you have removed the jumper cables, you turn both cars off.  Then you restart the original dead car to make sure that it starts.

 

 

Colby Rockhill

ENG 200 Technical Communications

Summer 2003