Jumpstart Your Car in 5 Easy Steps [With Video Guide]

We’re sure you’ve been involved in an unfortunate experience of having a dead car battery. Turning the key and nothing happening or the starter being so weak that it can’t start the engine – what a stressful situation! When you face this situation, there are only 2 ways around it. Push your car to get it going or jumpstart your car with another car and a set of jumper cables.

If you don’t know how to jumpstart your car, don’t worry! Even though it’s a simple process, it can be quite dangerous if you don’t do it properly.

To avoid any mishaps, follow these 5  simple steps to jumpstart your car. (Video at the end of the article!)

5 Steps to Jumpstart your Car!

1. Start the engine with a working battery

Turn on the engine of a working car and pull it close to the vehicle with the dead battery. You’ll need these two cars to be as close as possible.

Then, open the hood of both vehicles and find where the batteries are. Once you’ve found the battery, remove the plastic covers on the car batteries of both vehicles for easier access.

2. Connect the batteries with jumper cables

The jumper cables come clearly marked – one in red and one in black – and be very careful while connecting the batteries.

Find the positive terminal on one car’s battery, marked with the “+“ and connect it with the “+“ marked terminal on the other car’s battery, by using the red cable.

Repeat the process with the negative terminal marked “–“ using the black cable. This way you will know the terminals are connected with a cable.

You MUST not connect the “+“ with the “–“ and always double check before you continue. Connecting a positive and negative terminal puts you at risk of causing the battery to explode and even a fire. This puts your car at huge risk of getting destroyed. Avoid crossing the cables and it’s best that the cables are away from each other.

3. Start the car

Before starting your dead car, the person in a donor vehicle should rev its car slightly and keep it in around 3000 rpm. This way, the donor car’s alternator will replace the lost energy and will give a bigger boost of power needed for starting the car with the dead battery.

You should only start your car if the cables are properly connected and if everything is in order. If the power from the donor car is enough, your car should be able to start. Otherwise, repeat the process but this time maximize the power flow through higher revs.

In most cases, the car with the dead battery starts right up.

4. Carefully disconnect two batteries

The most dangerous part of the whole jump starting process is over but you can still have some problems if you are not careful enough.

Disconnect the cables one by one. For your safety, don’t do it together. Do not let cable clamps touch because they will cause sparks, short-circuit and could damage the electrical system of the car.

5. Inspect the condition of the cables after the jumpstart

Before you put away your set of jumper cables, carefully inspect them.

If the cables are warm or even hot, it’s an indicator that the cables are probably broken and in poor quality. You should not use them again and replace them as soon as possible.

Cheap cables are usually made of poor quality copper wires and cannot withstand high or even medium electric power running through them. Stay away from cheap jumper cables and always buy thicker and more expensive ones with high-grade copper inside.

This way you can use them for a long period of time without worrying when it will spoil.

Watch Our Tutorial Below!

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