Jumpstarting your Car's Dead Battery
with
Barbara Terry
Learn how to safely jumpstart your dead car battery to get your engine started and your car running again.
Transcript: Jumpstarting your Car's Dead Battery
Hi, I'm Barbara Terry for About.com Autos. If you are not lucky enough to have a jump-box, you will need to borrow a friend's car in order to jump start your weak or dead battery.Possible Dead Battery Causes
If your battery is low on water, simply pop off the cover and check the level.
You should be able to see the water level close to the top.. or it may be your battery cables. If there is corrosion on the connecters, the power from the battery will be altered.
Jumpstarting Safety
When jump-starting your car make sure both cars hoods are properly propped open for safety.
You will need to have either the negative to the positive clamp clamped on the cable like this until you affix the first clamp then affix the second clamp…note…black is for the negative and red is for the positive.
Attaching your Car Battery
You will then need to repeat the same steps to the other car that will be giving you the juice you are requiring to get your car started. Let the 2 cars sit for at least a minute. You can also reve the idle up in the assisting car in order to get quicker voltage to your dead or weak battery. Try starting you car, if it is having a hard time, let it sit for a few minutes before trying again.
Keeping your Car Battery Going
I would recommend even after you have gotten your car started to keep the battery connection on for a few more minutes to assure enough voltage to keep your car running until you can get it to the shop to determine the exact problem. Repeat the same procedure when you are unhooking the cables you will want to affix the first clamp to the cable like so…..and repeat the same steps on unhooking the other car.
After the Car Battery's Started
Keep in mind that you may need to buy a new battery or it could possible be the alternator that has gone bad, when this happens it interrupts the voltage to keep your car running.
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