What You Should Know About Jump-Starting Your Car

ByAccurate Automotive Attention

Most of us have experienced a dead battery at some point. You turn the key, and instead of hearing the roar of your engine coming to life, there’s either silence or a series of repetitive clicks. The engine refuses to turn over—and this is the only time you should jump-start your car. If you’re driving and your car dies, the battery isn’t the issue.

Why it’s Important to Jump-Start Your Car Correctly

Jump starting your car may seem simple, but it can be dangerous—and expensive—if you do it incorrectly. When the battery is charging, hydrogen gas is slowly released from the top; if the battery explodes while jump-starting the vehicle (which isn’t unheard of) the gas can cause injury and blindness. For this reason, it’s always a good idea to have a pair of gloves and safety glasses packed in your vehicle emergency kit. And needless to say, you don’t want to be smoking while you jump-start your car!

How to Properly Jump-Start Your Car

To jump-start your car, you’ll need:

  • Jumper cables
  • A power source, like another vehicle or a portable jump battery (also called a jump box)

Most drivers don’t keep a jump box in their trunks, so more than likely, you’ll be working with another vehicle to get your car started. Before jump starting your car, make sure the battery that will be providing the jump is a matching voltage (for example 12V, 6V, etc).

  1. Position the vehicles so they are either side by side or nose-to-nose, and close enough that the jumper cables will reach between them.
  2. Put both cars in park or neutral.
  3. Turn off the ignitions.
  4. Put on the parking brake.
  5. Open the hoods and secure the jumper cables in the following order:
    1. Red to dead – Connect the red clip (positive) to the positive terminal on the dead car’s battery.
    2. Red to donor – Connect the red clip to the positive terminal on the donor battery.
    3. Black to donor – Connect the black clip to the donor battery’s negative terminal.
    4. Black to metal – Connect the black clip to an unpainted metal surface under the hood, like a bracket or other protruding metal engine part. If unsure, you can connect to the negative cable of the dead battery but the explosion danger is increased by doing so.
  6. Once everything is connected, start the donor vehicle and allow it to run for a few minutes.
  7. After a few minutes have passed, check an interior light on the car that’s receiving the jump-start. If it’s receiving power, the light should turn on.
  8. Try to start the car with the dead battery. If everything has been done correctly (and the problem was the battery) it should start. If it doesn’t start, check the connections and try again. If it still doesn’t start, the battery may not be the problem—or it could be too old or depleted to hold a charge.
  9. Carefully remove the jumper cables in reverse order – black from the unpainted metal, black from the negative terminal, red from the donor battery, and red from the car that had a dead battery.

Once you’ve got your vehicle running again, it’s best to drive it for at least 10 to 20 minutes to give the battery a partial charge. Once a battery has needed to be jumped, it is usually a good idea to have the battery properly charged at a repair shop or with a charger capable of producing at least 10 amps of charging power.

Safety Tips

  • Make sure to read your owner’s manual; it’s not recommended to jump-start some models because of the circuitry.
  • Don’t try to jump a battery that’s corroded, leaking, cracked, or otherwise damaged.
  • Don’t jump a frozen or dry battery.
  • Don’t touch the clips of the jumper cables with each other.

Need a Jump? Call Accurate Automotive Attention

If you’re having battery trouble, Accurate Automotive Attention offers mobile battery replacement services for AAA members. Give AAA a call at 1-800-222-4357 from 7 am to 7 pm, and they’ll have you up and running in no time.

If you’re not a member of AAA, we can arrange for a jump-start or a tow to our facilities. In addition to replacement services, we also offer battery maintenance, such as cleaning the corrosion around the terminals, checking electrolyte levels, and more. Contact us today at (928) 783-8808 for our Central Yuma location or (928) 342-1912 for the Foothills.