There is no worse feeling than starting your car to find out it just won’t turn over. Perhaps we left the interior lights on overnight, or spent too much time listening to the radio without the car running. Whatever the situation, most people will experience having a dead car battery at some point or another. Luckily the situation isn’t the end. As long as there is a working car nearby, there’s an easy way for you to jump start your car.

Knowing how to jump start a vehicle can save you a lot of trouble. It's an everyday skill that can make a bad situation manageable. We here at Grosse Pointe Auto know this and want to give you step-by-step instructions on how to properly jump start a vehicle.

Check The Car Battery

The first thing you want to do is park both the car with the dead battery and a working car near each other, preferably face to face. Don’t get too close as you will need room to maneuver. Next, you’ll want to open the hood of the cars and locate the batteries in each. 

Depending on the car, the battery will be located in different spots - so keep an eye open or check your car manual. You’ll then want to locate both the positive and negative terminals that are placed on the battery. The positive terminal will have a red cable attached with a plus sign labeled on. While the negative terminal will have a black cable attached and a negative sign label.

Inspect The Battery

Before continuing with anything else, you should inspect the dead battery to be sure there isn’t any damage done to it. Look for anything that seems 'off' on the battery. If you find something out of the norm, stop what you are doing because it’s time to completely replace it. Never touch a physically damaged battery, as battery acid is extremely corrosive. However, if everything looks okay and there doesn’t seem to be any problems, you’re in the clear to begin the jump start.

Connecting Cables And Jump Starting

Begin by untangling your jumper cables and putting them in place. To avoid any trouble, you have to be sure the red and black ends of the jumper cables do not touch when they are connected to the battery. This can avoid injury. 

From here you begin connecting one of the red clamps to the positive terminal of the dead battery, and the other red clamp to the positive terminal of the working battery. Next, connect one of the black clamps to the negative terminal of the working battery and the other black clamp to a piece of metal in the dead batteries car.

Start The Car

Once the cable clamps have been properly placed on the right terminals of the batteries, it's time to start up the working vehicle. Once the car has been started wait for a few minutes before revving the engine for about 30-60 seconds. After that, it's time to try starting up the dead battery car. If at the first attempt it doesn’t start, turn off the car and try to reconnect clamps back on the battery. Continue to do this process until the dead battery car jump starts.

Once the car jump starts you’re good to remove the jumper cables. It's important to note that you should remove the cables in the reverse order that you first connected them in. Once you’re done with that let the once recently dead car sit for a bit to get a nice full charge. After that’s all done you are set to go wherever your heart desires.

Jump starting a car may sound complicated at first but once you get a chance to see how it’s done, it’s easy that it’s fairly simple. It just takes some time, patience and a good hearted person willing to help. Remember, if you need help replacing that battery, Grosse Pointe Auto can help!