This entry was posted on Friday, July 10th, 2009 at 11:12 pm and is filed under cars. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Car Profiles
Just another Car Blog
How To Jump Start A Car
Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
Even with all of the car maintenance tips flying around on the internet, you may still find yourself with a problem without sufficient information online on how to solve it. This guide aims to give you an introduction on jump starting a car, as many drivers will be unaware of what to do should the battery in their car go flat
The first thing to do when your car won’t start is to find out if it is in fact the battery at fault or some other mechanical problem. The test for this is relatively simple, simply turn the key in your ignition as if starting the car and if the car doesn’t fire up and all you hear is a low ticking then this means your battery is most likely dead.
Next you’ll need to locate your car battery, they are usually fairly prominent when you open the bonnet of your car but the exact position can vary on each model and make. With modern cars or batteries there is normally an indicator LED to show whether the battery is charged or flat so keep an eye out in case your battery has one of these.
The important thing to remember is that just because your battery is flat it doesn’t mean you necessarily need to go out and buy a new one. In many cases the battery may be flat because you made the mistake of either leaving the radio on or the number one cause; leaving your headlights on. In this case the battery simply needs a jolt and for the car to be driven for a short while so the alternator can charge the battery back up.
Connect your jump leads
Park your car and another car so that they are opposite each other with the bonnets facing. Switch both car engines OFF and let them cool down for a few minutes. Now it should be easy for you to connect the jump leads from the working battery to the flat one.
You then need to connect the batteries as follows:
The positive terminal on the working car’s battery connects to the positive clamp (the red lead) on the jump leads, and the other end on to the flat car’s positive terminal.
The negative terminal on the working car connects to the corresponding cable clamp (the black lead) and the other end to an earthing point on the flat battery car.
Ensure that the two leads DON’T touch. An earthing point can be the engine block or a part of the bodywork on the car, basically just a piece of metal that is far away from the electronic and fuel components.
Now you start the healthy car as normal, rev the engine to 2,000rpm and then wait 30 seconds before starting the car with the flat battery. If it doesn’t start then wait a minute and do the same again.
Once the flat car has started up and the engine is idling, you need to switch off the healthy car and then disconnect the leads in reverse order to how they were connected – make sure you disconnect the negative terminal first.
Once the flat car has started it needs to be taken for a drive of at least 30 minutes, this enables the alternator to charge up the battery to a good level. This should mean that your car will start the next time you come to use it, if it doesn’t then the battery probably isn’t holding charge and will need to be replaced.
With older cars it’s important to not leave them idle for too long, especially in the winter. So make sure at least once a week you start the engine up to let it run for a few minutes to ensure the battery is fully charged for when you need it.
Related topics include car loans, yes car credit and yes car
Leave a Reply