How to Unlock A Steering Wheel in 3 Easy Methods
June 19, 2017
a Crankshaft Rear Main Seal
How to Replace a Crankshaft Rear Main Seal Without the Hassle
June 22, 2017

How to Charge a Dead Car Battery Using Jumper Cables

Charge a Dead Car Battery Using Jumper Cables

Charge a Dead Car Battery Using Jumper Cables

There are various reasons your car battery could be drained of its power (literally dead). While it is quite easy to “resurrect” your car battery and bring it back to what it was before you last used your car. There are also various ways on how to charge a dead car battery using several methods, but here, we will teach you one of the most popular and the cheapest method.

Some of the most common reasons of a dead car battery include leaving the car in freezing outdoor temperatures, a long idle time without starting your car, leaving tail lights and interior lights on while your car is turned off, and other similar reasons.

On this article, we will teach you how to charge a dead car battery by using just jumper cables, better read on, folks!

What you will need to jump-start your car battery

  • Safety goggles
  • Safety gloves
  • A functioning car
  • Jumper cables
  • Old toothbrush

What you will do to charge a dead battery

How to Charge a Dead Car Battery

Before you start, wear your protective gears (goggles and gloves) to keep you away from any injury and harm. You also need a fully functioning car as support vehicle where you can clamp-up your dead battery, and then follow these simple steps:

Prior to jump-starting


1. Check your battery physically

 Your battery should free from acid leaks, properly intact, and has no sign of crack and other damage. Do not try to jump-start your battery if you noticed these impairments on your battery which may lead to injury. Wearing the goggles and gloves will protect you from the acid that may eject from the battery.

2. Check your cables

If you have corroded cables, clean it first with a brush with stiff bristles (an old toothbrush may suffice). Be sure that you clean the cables’ clamp thoroughly (do not use water or any other liquid).

3. Bring the functioning car closer

Drive the functional car and position it next to your car, nose-to-nose, or facing one another without touching each other. Be sure that the two cars are close enough to be able for the cables to reach each other’s battery terminals but far enough to have you a comfortable space to move freely. Be careful not to attempt to connect the two batteries with different types of cables and with different length, this may melt the cables and may start a fire.

4. Shut off the functional car

At this instant, turn off the engine of the functional car where the charged battery is located. This may protect you from accidental electric shock when you incidentally touch the battery with your bare hands or if it touches other metals that may create annoying sparks.

Jump-starting your dead battery


1. Opening the cars’ hoods

Prop up the hoods of the cars and make sure there are no obstacles around the perimeter of your workplace.

2. Know the positive and negative terminals

Take note of the batteries’ negative terminal, indicated by a negative sign (-) and the positive terminal, with a plus sign (+).

dentify the negative and positive terminals

Negative and Positive Terminals

3. Connecting positive terminals

The positive side of the jumper cable is usually colored red, connect each end to the dead car battery and to the functioning car’s battery on the positive terminals. This way, there is still no current flowing into the cables that may drain the functioning battery. Be careful not to touch the clamps of the negative cables (usually black) onto the red cables’ clamps, this may cause short-circuit that may damage both batteries.

4. Connecting one black cable

Next, connect first the negative cable into the functioning car’s negative terminal while its other end is hanging freely and touching nothing (you will find out later in the next step where you will attach this other end).

Charge a Dead Car Battery Using Jumper Cables Connecting one black cable

Connecting one black cable

5. Grounding the other end of the black cable

Now, this will be the last connection that you will make prior to charging your dead battery. Select a metal part of the hood (inside or outside of the hood) where the black cable could be clamped. You may choose either the chassis, frame, or another element that is free from dirt, paint, oxidation, and other insulation that may block the flow of electricity.

This will serve as the ground of the car with the dead battery when jump-starting. When you are able to select the nice spot for the ground, clamp the black cable and go to the next step.

6. Starting the functional car

After making sure that all connections of the jumper cables are secured and tight, you can now begin to charge the dead battery. At this point, you have to turn on the engine of the car with charged battery(functional car). When the engine is started, it will automatically charge the dead battery through the jumping cables.

7. Allowing sufficient time to charge

At this instance, the charging battery will charge the dead battery for as long as 5 minutes. Wait until 5 minutes of charging time before you start to turn on the engine of the car with the dead battery. This is a sufficient time for the dead battery to accumulate a charge of its own. But it will take some time for the dead battery to be fully charged.

8. Start the car with the dead battery

After 5 minutes, try to start your car and observe if it will run. If not, wait again for another 5 minutes before restarting your car. This will allow the dead battery to absorb more power from the charged battery.

put car key into Ignition

Start the car with the dead battery

9. Remove the jumper cables

When the engine of your car starts, disconnect the jumper cables in reverse order when you connected them a while ago. This will prevent minor explosion or sparks from happening. But do not turn off the engine of your car, let it run continuously to fully charge the once dead battery.

10. Drive your car around

You can idle your car and allow it to fully charge the battery or drive around your neighborhood for about 20 minutes to fully charge the battery. This is the usual time a dead battery could be fully charged while the engine is running. However, if the battery does not charge sufficiently to crank the car, you may probably need to replace your battery.

Conclusion

Did you enjoy our presentation for today? We hope you do. You can certainly do the things that you seldom do even when you know nothing of it by just reading articles like this one. Knowing how to charge a dead car battery will surely save you some cash and precious time instead of hiring someone to fix your trouble.

Please send us your comments on what you think about this write-up and share us if you liked this article.

 

 

8,606 Views

You can't copy this contents!!