You pull into your driveway one night, put your car in park, and turn on your vehicle’s cabin lights in order to gather your belongings. With your arms full, you push the door of the vehicle closed with your hip, and attempt to get yourself and everything you’re carrying inside for the night.
The next morning, you walk out to your vehicle to get to work. Oh shoot, your vehicle isn’t starting. As you reach to turn the key again, the realization strikes: you never turned off the cabin lights of your vehicle last night!
Moments like this are common, however many of us aren’t comfortable with or know how to jumpstart our vehicles. In this article, we’ll walk you through how to jumpstart your vehicle using jumper cables. So, let’s all go out to our vehicles with this article in hand, pop our hoods, and dive right in.
What you’ll need:
- A vehicle that runs
- Jumper cables
- Access to your vehicle’s battery
- Your vehicle
Step 1 Pop the Hood or Trunk- Wherever Your Battery is Located
First thing first, locate and access your vehicle’s battery. In most vehicles, the battery is located under the hood. In some vehicle it’s in the trunk, and, occasionally, the battery might be in the backseat. Look carefully, the car battery might blend in with its cover on. Wherever your battery is located, make sure it’s accessible.
Step 2 Find the Positive Side & the Negative Side
There’s a positive terminal and a negative terminal: black is negative, red is positive. Starting with the dead vehicle, connect the negative cable clamp (black) to the negative battery terminal and the positive cable clamp (red) to the positive terminal. Next, start the vehicle that will be assisting in jumping the dead vehicle and hook up the other end of the jumper cables to it.
Step 3 Cables Are Hooked Up, Rev It Up!
Once everything is hooked up, rev the engine of the running vehicle to around 1500-2500 RPMs and attempt to start the dead car. If the vehicle still doesn’t start, hold RPMs at 1500 for a few minutes, then try to start the dead car again. At this point, the dead vehicle should start. If not, skip ahead to step 5.
Step 4 It’s Alive!!
Once your vehicle has been jump started, be sure not to turn it off immediately; otherwise, you might have to jump it again. Instead, leave both vehicles hooked up and let both vehicles run for a couple of minutes or so. Finally, go drive it! As you drive your vehicle the alternator will charge your battery; that way you won’t have an issue when you go to start your vehicle later.
Step 5 “What if my vehicle still doesn’t start?”
If you do this and the car still doesn’t fire up, your car battery might be too far gone or there might be another issue that would require further diagnosis. The starter of your vehicle might have gone bad, or possibly your alternator.
Need help diagnosing your vehicle’s issue? Give us a call if you’re having issues starting your vehicle. Our awesome technicians can handle diagnosing the cause of the issue. (360) 695-3353