How to Jump Start a Car

Picture this: you’ve just put in a long day at work and are ready to drive home. You get into your car and attempt to start it, but it won’t turn over. Maybe you try a couple of times and it seems like it’s trying to start, but doesn’t. Perhaps, the battery is completely dead and you hear nothing. Either way, if you’re dealing with a dead battery, the easiest way to remedy your issue in the short-term is to jump start it. We’re here to help you learn how to properly and safely jump start a car.

What to Do Before You Jump Start a Car

The first thing you may be inclined to do when dealing with a dead battery in your is to panic. Don’t. If you’re worried about what to do, we encourage you to contact us and we’ll help you walk through what to do. At Deery Brothers Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram, we’re experts in battery diagnostics and replacement. We’d be more than happy to help you during your roadside emergency in Adel or West Des Moines. In fact, we’ve compiled this page with the hope of helping you deal with your dead battery yourself by jump-starting your vehicle. 

Fifteen Easy Steps to Jump Start a Car 

1. Remove the key from your ignition and keep it in a safe spot.
2. Locate the batteries in both vehicles. Often, they’re in the engine bay. In some foreign cars, they’re in the trunk, hidden where the spare tire is or on the side of the trunk. 
3. Once you’ve found the batteries in both cars, ensure all battery terminals are clean and corrosion-free.
4. Separate your jumper cables so their ends are apart. This is important to prevent sparks.
5. Hook up the positive (red) cable to the positive battery (+) terminal of the vehicle with the dead battery.
6. Hook up the positive cable to the positive terminal in the live car.
7. Hook up the negative cable to the negative battery terminal in the live car.
8. Hook up the negative cable to any grounded metal part of the dead car (i.e. strut tower), as far away from the battery as possible to avoid sparks that can cause explosions.
9. Make sure that you run the cables away from hot engine parts and the fan in both vehicles.
10. Start the live car and let it run for a few minutes prior to starting the dead vehicle to charge the dead vehicle’s battery.
11. Start the dead car and don’t turn the ignition off – head straight to a vehicle service center or repair shop near %%target_city_355 where you can get your battery checked.
12. Disconnect the ground on the dead car.
13. Disconnect the ground on the live car and then the positive cable.
14. Disconnect the positive cable on the dead car.
15. Your vehicle is now properly jump-started!

Contact or Visit Us for a New Car Battery in Waukee

Still have additional questions for us about how to jump start your car? We’re here for you! Want to see if your battery requires immediate replacement? We highly recommend taking it to a service shop like ours where a battery expert can run tests to see if it is capable of holding enough charge to continue using. If it doesn’t, you could wind up with a dead battery again very soon. For that reason, it’s often a good idea to purchase a new battery. If you do, browse our service specials to save money on your next battery diagnostic or replacement service.