How to Jump Start Your Car or TruckUh oh, your vehicle's battery just died. What are you going to do? Here's how to jump start it and get yourself back on the road.
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Uh oh, your vehicle's battery just died. What are you going to do? Here's how to jump start it and get yourself back on the road.
Step 1: Find a booster vehicle.
The first step to bringing your car or truck back to life is to find a vehicle to jump start it with. Once you have found one, park the booster vehicle close to your car.
Step 2: Turn off the booster vehicle.
Once the booster vehicle has been parked in the proper place, turn off its ignition put both vehicles in park or neutral and set the parking brakes.
Step 3: Turn off anything that drains electricity.
Make sure that anything that drains electricity like the lights and radio are turned off.
Step 4: Hook up the positive ends of the cables.
Now it's time to hook up the jumper cables. Open the hoods of both vehicles and hook up the jumper cables. The red side of the cable is positive and the black side is negative. Start by clamping the red positive end of the cable onto the positive side of the dead battery's terminal. It is marked by a "+" sign on the battery. Then connect the other end of the positive cable to the positive side of the booster battery.
Step 5: Connect the negative ends of the cables.
Next connect the black negative clamp to the negative side of the booster vehicle's battery terminal. Once that is connected, connect the other side to a large, unpainted metal part in the engine compartment of the dead car. Don't use a surface that can get hot like the exhaust manifold. Check to be sure that the cables are set and are not near any moving engine parts.
Step 6: Start the booster car.
Now start up the booster vehicle and let it idle for a few minutes while it is feeding juice to the dead battery.
Step 7: Start the dead vehicle.
After you have fed a little power into the dead car's battery, start it up and let both cars idle together for a few minutes.
Step 8: Disconnect the cables.
Once the dead car is running smoothly, disconnect the jumper cables in reverse order. Don't let the ends of the cable touch eachother and don't let them dangle into the engine compartment.
