The most irritating experience many car owners do not want to get into is that of a car that will not start when you seriously need to drive to a place. There are many reasons that could make a vehicle not to start. It is always important to have a rough idea of the problem so that you do not struggle to jump start a vehicle when the problem is actually not with the battery. It is very essential to verify that the car is failing to start as a result of battery failure and not any other electrical or technical fault.
Learning how to jump start a car will depend on two main things. After establishing that the battery is actually the reason behind its failure to start, you should check out the vehicle’s transmission system. Manual vehicles will require a different method as compared to automatic cars. For owners of automatic cars, many will simply require that you get another battery that is tested to have the voltage and current that your vehicle needs to start. If you cannot get another battery within range, you can simply talk to another motorist to assist you by helping you jump start the vehicle.
So, how exactly do you jump start the vehicle once you successfully flag down a motorist who is willing to assist. There are items you will need in place even after learning how to jump a car to make this task successful. Among the things you must have will include jumper cables, pliers and a set of spanners that can open and tighten the battery terminals of your car and that of the volunteer who is keen on assisting you. Make sure your jumper cables are well labelled and properly rated. The jumper cables will naturally have two leads. Identify the positive lead from the negative lead because you will need to place the right jumper to the right terminal.
The battery always has two terminals which are the negative and positive terminals. You should pick up the jumper cable and tighten the positive terminal from the second battery outside your car to the positive terminal on the battery in your car. The positive terminal will always have a + sign and a red color to help you avoid any costly mistakes. Reversing these terminals could result in serious electrical faults in your car. You should therefore be very careful when doing this.
Among things that could go wrong if you reverse the terminals include light bulbs within the car, the car stereo system and alarm systems as well as any other accessories and devices that use direct current that are connected to the terminal in question. Once you have identified the right terminals and fastened the clips, go into the vehicle and make sure the gear lever is on parking mode and you have your hand or foot brake holding to avoid any risk of the car jerking into motion. The best thing to do is to get into the driver’s seat so that you have better control of the vehicle just in case anything happens.
Once you are firmly seated behind the wheel, insert the ignition key into its hole and crank just as you usually start your car. If the other battery from the new car has enough voltage and your car does not have any other technical faults, the vehicle should automatically crank and start. Once your vehicle is running, do not disconnect the jumper cables terminals immediately, let the engine run for some time so that your own car battery can charge a little. At this point, it is important to test whether your alternator is actually working because this is a very common problem that makes cars not to start naturally.
If your battery just went down due to lack of usage over the past few days, it should charge and be able to start the car alone within 10 minutes of the engine running. You can test this by turning down the engine and trying to start again without the jumpers. If it starts, your battery is good but if it doesn’t, you should check your battery for any faults.
The above situation works for automatic vehicles. When you have a manual car, there is a way you can jump start your car without even having another battery or jumper cables. This is not to say that the extra battery and jumper cables as explained above will not work for manual transmission vehicles. This is just another method in case you cannot get access to a good battery. In this method, you need to make sure you have a few guys who can help you push the vehicle into motion.