Jump Starting Your Vehicle’s Battery
Vehicle battery issues seem to become more and more common as we head deeper into winter and the temperatures continue to drop. Our roadside assistance team at Hoffman Auto is always available to run out and provide a jumpstart, but what if you’d rather just do it yourself? To do this, you will need to either have a jumper pack available or another vehicle close by and a set of jumper cables (which you should always keep in your trunk for emergencies).
Follow these steps to make sure your jumpstart endeavor is a safe and successful one.
- Park the jumper car near your jumpee car (preferably facing each other and about 18” apart, if possible).
- Turn both vehicles OFF
- Open the hood of each vehicle, and identify the positive (red/ + markings) and negative (black/ – markings) on each battery.
- Attach the positive (red) clamp on your jumper cables to the positive terminal on the dead battery first.
- Connect the other positive (red) clamp to the positive terminal on the functioning battery.
- Next attach the negative (black) clamp to the functioning battery’s negative terminal.
- Then attach the negative (black) clamp to an unpainted metal surface on the car needing to be jumped (a clean nut on the engine block is ideal.)
- Start the functioning vehicle, and let it run for a few minutes.
- Start the dead vehicle. If it does not start right away, try letting the functioning vehicle run for another five minutes before trying again.
- Hopefully you’ve been successful, so now it’s time to drive. While it won’t charge the battery entirely, driving the vehicle will do much more than simply letting it idle, so get out there and enjoy the scenery!
If this does not work, don’t get frustrated. Give our roadside assistance team a call. Maybe your vehicle’s battery would prefer our team handle it with their soft, supple hands…or there may be an underlying issue keeping your battery from staying juiced and running in optimal condition. Either way, we are here to help!