Most car owners don’t know how to kick start or jumpstart their car in case of emergency such as your battery just died or alternator failure. So it is important not just to know how to drive, but also know how to do simple car tricks to get you out of the road for good.
First off, jumpstarting is for automatic transmission vehicles, as kick starting a vehicle is not possible for automatic transmission cars. If yours is a manual gear box, then you just have to learn how to push your car then try to kickstart the engine by shifting to 2nd gear and turning on the ignition while the car is in motion.
So here’s what you need to be able to “jumpstart” a dead automatic transmission car.
A Right Jumper Cables
Yes, you need to have jumper cables with you all the time you are driving your car!
Jumper cables comes in many variants like different wire gauges (4, 6, 10 gauge wires) and amperes (600 up to 3,000 amps). So you better know which type of jumper cable is ideal for your car. Typically the general rule is that, the bigger wire, the better.
Jumper cables are cheap but it doesn’t come with your car from the manufacturer. So you better purchase yours online with price ranging from $10 to $30.
Here is a great list of jumper cables from Amazon.
A Supporting Vehicle from Someone
Yes, you need another vehicle to successfully jumpstart your car. Whether you are on the road or in a parking park, you better pray that someone may lend you a help from starting your car.
First thing to consider when picking the right vehicle is the car’s battery voltage. You don’t want to jumpstart your car with another vehicle with a low battery voltage. Typically you need at least 14 volts of car power to jumpstart your car’s battery.
If you don’t want to undergo this hassle, then I suggest you purchase a portable “power bank battery charger” and jumpstart your car without the need of another vehicle to connect jumper cables to.
Here is a list of battery power charging cables from Amazon.
So How Do You JumpStart a Car?
Once you have taken out your jumper cables with you and start organizing or lining them up according to polarity. If you don’t have jumper cable, find a friend or any car owner within your vicinity that is not just willing to assist you but also has jumper cables as well.
Here are the procedures that you should do step-by-step:
- Shut off the ignition of both cars and make sure that the gears are in Park or Neutral and don’t forget to engage both handbrakes (parking brake).
- Attach one of the red alligator clips to the positive terminal of your car’s battery. If you don’t know which one is the positive terminal, it has the “+” sign and usually covered by a rubber insulation, and is much bigger than the negative terminal.
- Attach the other end of red alligator clip to the positive terminal of the supporting car.
- Attach one of the black alligator clips to the negative terminal of the supporting car’s battery.
- Lastly, attach the other end of the black alligator clip to any unpainted metal surface on your car. Choose a metal that is far from the battery. One of the best option is the hood latch locking mechanism that holds the hood close.
- Start the engine of the supporting vehicle and run for about 5 to 10 minutes.
- Now start your vehicle. If your car won’t start, make sure that the cables are properly connected. If it still won’t start, then you have further more issues with your car.
- If your car starts, Do Not shut off your engine and let the alternator charge your battery to its full potential. This may last around 15 to 30 minutes, or just drive your car around your vicinity to help the charging more efficient.
A safety reminder, avoid any connections between the negative and the positive alligator clips as this will create sparks or even more electrical issues.
When disconnecting the cables, start removing the positive cable from the supporting car, then the positive cable from your car. Do the same procedure for the negative cable.
Also, make sure that the cable wires are not in the way of the engine fans, radiator fan, condenser fan and many others. This will create damage on your fan and on your jumper cables. Also avoid the wires from touching any hot surface in the engine bay.
Below is my video on how to jumpstart a car using jumper cables in a diesel engine. Take note that I mistakenly connected the negative cable to my battery’s negative terminal which is wrong by all means. So just you know guys! The video is in Tagalog with English subtitle.
