Ever wondered how to jump start a car with leads? Well, we’ll walk you through the process in 10 easy steps if you’re having difficulty getting your car started.
One of the best ways of getting your car to start again and solve the flat battery in the short-term is to jump start your car with jump leads. You’re going to need the following things to carry out this technique:
- Pair of jump leads.
- Another car which is running a fully charged battery with the exact same voltage as yours.
Caution – advice to keep you safe when jump starting
There is a lot of electricity running through a car battery so you need to be extremely careful when carrying our this jump start technique. Ensure you remove any metal objects on your person (e.g. rings, watches, etc.) which could touch the battery terminals. Where possible, use a pair of insulated gloves to prevent any burns from the jump leads or sparks when connecting them to the battery. During the process, the clamps and leads can sometimes become hot – you should remove them carefully using the technique below if this occurs. If your battery or leads appear damaged we’d recommend avoiding continuing to jump start your car and get professional help.
Jump starting your car with leads in 10 easy steps
Here’s our comprehensive steps on how to jump start your car effectively.
- Turn off any electrical parts on your car, like the lights, CD player, etc.
- Get the car which is running with the full battery to park as close as possible to the dead car, preferably bonnet to bonnet, otherwise the cables won’t reach easily between the batteries.
- Turn off both cars and remove the keys.
- Open the bonnets on both cars, locating the battery terminals for each.
- Connect the red jump lead to the car with the flat battery on its positive (+) terminal, ensuring a good metal to metal connection.
- Then connect the other end of the red jump lead to the full battery’s positive (+) terminal on the working car, again ensuring a good metal to metal connection. Watch out for a spark.
- Next attach the black jump lead to the flat battery’s negative (-) terminal, ensuring a good metal to metal connection.
- Then attach the other end of black jump lead to the working car’s unpainted bodywork (NOT THE BATTERY). There should be plenty of areas under the bonnet to connect to. Again, watch out for a spark.
- Start the engine on the working car and keep it running for a good 2-3 minutes to help charge the flat battery on the other vehicle.
- Attempt to start the engine on the car with the flat battery. If it starts keep both cars running for another 5-10 minutes to ensure that the battery is charged well. If the car doesn’t start, then you will need to try again, or call your garage for assistance.
Removing the jump leads once running
Before turning off any of the cars once your car is running again, ensure that you remove the jump cables in the reverse order that you started them with. To recap, here is how you should do it:
- Remove the black jump lead on the working car’s unpainted bodywork. Watch out for a spark.
- Detach the black jump lead on the previously flat battery’s negative (-) terminal.
- Remove the red jump lead from the working car’s battery positive (+) terminal. Watch out for a spark.
- Detach the red jump lead on the previously flat battery’s positive (+) terminal.
If all else fails, contact MCM Garage in Bath
Should this jump start technique not work, we’d advise speaking to your local garage to help fix the car, as there could be something else preventing the car from starting. At MCM Garage near Bath and Radstock, we can help get your car to our garage and carry out some diagnostics to remedy the problem. Call us today on 01761 415 501 if you require assistance or send us an email.