Image Description: A person inspecting the car’s engine to locate the car’s problem

It is a beautiful sunny morning. You went to the nearest supermarket to get groceries. Once getting done with the loading, you sat on the driver’s seat and tried to turn on the car engine but your car didn’t start.

Thank God it is a hypothetical situation and you are not in the sparsely crowded parking lot of the supermarket. But, this situation is quite closer to reality. A large number of people encounter this situation where their batteries betray them and leave them deserted in the middle of nowhere.

 So, what should we do in such situations? First, ask the lady luck to send a helpful stranger your way. With a running car by your side, you still have a chance to bring your battery back to life – albeit for a short time. However, the time will be enough for you to at least reach home or the nearest mechanic shop.

But, how is having another car going to help you? Are we suggesting car towing? No! You can instead try to jump start your car.

How to Jump Start the Car?

By hooking up jumper cables to yours and other car’s battery, you will be able to jump start your car in no time. The steps you should take to hook the jumper cables are as follows:

Steps for Hooking Up Jumper Cables

1. Park the Vehicles Close to Each Other

Since your car cannot start, bring the donor car – the car whose battery you will be using – near to the car. Turn off the engine of both cars and take out the keys. Also make sure to engage the parking brake.

2. Check the Voltage

The next step is to check the voltage of both batteries to ensure that the donor’s car battery matches that of the car in need. In case you hook up your car battery with the one with a higher voltage, the current received from the donor battery will be dangerously high enough to burn out the car’s entire system.

3. Hook Up the Clamps

Lay down the jumper cables on the floor to separate the four clamps – two red and two black. Now, attach the red clamp to the positive terminal of the red battery. Hold the second red clamp and attach it to the positive terminal of the dead battery.

Take the first black clamp and attach it to the negative terminal of the donor battery. Be careful when attaching the second clamp and ensure that it is not touching the positive terminal at all. Take the last remaining clamp and attached it to an unpainted mental surface in the car with the dead battery.

4. Start the Engine

Start the engine of the donor car and let it sit idle for a minute. Now, turn the key in the ignition to start the engine of the car with the dead battery. Your engine will now start without any problem. If your car engine doesn’t start, it might mean that your car battery is completely dead.

5. Disconnect the Jumpers

Carefully remove the jumpers in reverse. So, first, remove the black clamps and then detach the red clamps – remove the red clamp from the original car at last.