DIY: How to jump-start a flat battery

By NYC 8 hours ago

Every motorist has at one point or another in their driving history encountered the dreadful dead car battery. But fear no more, we’re here with help, and a quick lesson in how to jump-start your vehicle and be off on your way.

For many of us, dead batteries are a horrible encounter. You go to start your car’s engine, and are greeted only by the sound of a weak starter cranking, or worst, a ghostly silence after you’ve turned the key. Of course, there are many things that can result this way, but more commonly than any other reason, a weak battery is usually to blame. In that case, we’re here to help. Here’s how you jump-start a car.

Tools

• Jumper cables
•  A donor car

Steps

1. Line up the donor car whereby both batteries can be as close as possible.

2. Open the hood of both cars

3. With the donor car’s engine running, clamp one end of the jumper cable to the negative terminal of the donor battery, followed by the other end to the grounded vehicle’s engine block, usually the hoisting point.

Clamp both battery terminals of donor car

* Some recommend an equally effective method by connecting both batteries in parallel (negative-to-negative; positive-to-positive). But because hydrogen is one of the battery’s byproduct, some amount of gas may have leaked out in the case of a faulty battery, creating a risk of igniton should a spark be created during the connection.

For safety reasons, I selected to connect the negative cable to the engine

4. Next connect both positive battery terminals via the other jumper cable. Be careful not to have any of both ends come in contact with any other metal part.

 * There is no specific order of connecting either positive or negative terminals first as long as both do not some in contact with each other

5. Now try starting the vehicle. Once started, give it a few revs to make sure it does not stall

6. Disconnect both cables

Normally if the depleted battery is more than a year old, it is likely to have trouble storing the charged electricity. Unless, you are sure it was discharged unintentionally - e.g. leaving the headlights on when parked, it is best to have it replaced as soon as possible.