A beginner’s guide to jumpstarting a car

When you only drive your car for short trips, you might face some issues with your car battery. This is because the duration during the short trip is not enough to charge the battery fully, thus causing the battery to fail upon the next engine start-up.

Have you ever forgotten to turn off the car’s headlights after parking and locking your car? If you leave your air conditioning systems, radio, or lights on while your car is not running, your battery’s power will be drained very quickly. This is because the battery is not able to recharge itself. So, if you forgot to turn off the headlights the night before, you may have to deal with a dead battery the next morning!

As mentioned above, an average battery can last up to 5 to 7 years. Although that may seem like a long time, you still need to do regular maintenance to determine how well your battery is performing and maximise the lifespan of your car battery.

Aside from taking your car for monthly maintenance, you should also do some routine maintenance yourself. What you can do is clean your car battery and check that the battery cable is connected properly. You should also learn to spot signs of weak batteries so that you can get the problem sorted immediately.

First things first, you will need two cars to jumpstart a car. Turn on the engine of the working car and park it close to your vehicle (the one with the dead battery). Next, ensure that both cars are in Park or Neutral and shut off the ignition in both cars. Remove the plastic covers on the car batteries of both vehicles and make sure the other party’s car battery has at least as much voltage as your own.

The next step is to use jumper cables to carefully connect the batteries. The jumper cables will be marked, one in red and one in black. Using the red cable, you will need to connect the “+” terminal from one car’s battery to the “+” terminal on the other car’s battery. Using the black cable, repeat the same process but for the “–” terminal. Before you start the car, double-check that you did not cross the cables or connect the “+“ with the “–“.

Only start your car once you are sure that the cables are properly connected. If the battery power from the donor car is sufficient, your car will be able to start immediately. If not, keep on revving the car to give more power flow. Once your car has successfully started, let it run for a few minutes.

When disconnecting the cables, be sure to do it one at a time. And you mustn’t let the clamps touch because they can cause sparks that can damage the electrical system of the car.

Last but not least, always visit a car workshop after jumpstarting your car. This is to check if your battery needs to be replaced.