If you drive a car, you should probably know how to jump-start it in case the battery dies.
Youre dealing with batteries and engines, after allyou want to check that youre everything everything correctly.
First, verify you have the things youll need.
There should be no exposed wire and the rubber coating should be free of cracks or damage.
We suggest keeping abattery terminal brushin the trunk with your jumper cables, just in case.
Go ahead and pop the hoods of both vehicles and get your jumper cables ready.
Connect the vehicles
Remember, the red connector is positive, and the black connector is negative.
Connect the other red clamp to the positive (+) terminal on the car with the good battery.
Connect one black clamp to the negative (-) terminal on the car with the good battery.
This will ground the connectioneven a bolt or crossbar will do.
confirm all of the connections are firm, and the clamps are tightly secured.
verify your ground connector isnt close to any moving parts.
You dont want the clamps rattling around or moving when you go to start one of the vehicles.
Start your engines
Start the booster car (the one with the good battery.)
Once the booster vehicle is running, go ahead and start the dead car.
If it still doesnt start after two or three tries, stop tryingyou dont want to damage the starter.
Its possible that the battery simply wont hold a charge, or theres something else wrong with the vehicle.
Be very careful when doing thisyoure dealing with live cables.
Expect to spendbetween $50 and $100 USDfor a solid model.
This story was originally published in 2011 and was updated on 11/25/19 to provide more thorough and current information.
