How to Jump Start a Car

Our service team at Honda Cars of Bellevue hopes to provide you with answers to all of your auto-related questions. If you want to learn more about DIY services & repairs we want to help you learn it all. Our Bellevue service center will also do our very best to meet your needs, which, if you drive, will inevitably include service-related questions at some point or another! So, keeping that in mind, if you need to know how to properly jump-start a car, keep reading or contact us, because we can help you learn how to jump-start a car, eliminating your anxiety and saving you from spending money on a jump-start car service outside of Bellevue.

How to Properly Jump Start a Car

You can always call a jump start car service, or maybe your Honda warranty has roadside assistance that you can rely on if your car won’t jump start. However, it’s usually a bit easier to know how to jump-start a car battery yourself, as it’s not a difficult process. You will need to be sure you have another person and another vehicle to help you out, and a set of jumper cables of course. Once you have access to all of that, here is what to do. Note — if you don’t feel comfortable asking a stranger to help you and you’re in a new area alone, it may be safer to call a jump-start car service. Otherwise, it’s easy to learn the process to jump start car battery:

1. Face the two vehicles towards one another. Usually, vehicles have batteries in the engines, so they’ll usually face hood-hood. There are some foreign cars that have the battery in the trunk. After parking the vehicles in a position where the batteries are close enough to be reached by the jumper cables, turn them off and set the parking brakes.
2. Access both of the batteries, and take into consideration that you may need to remove a plastic hood to expose the battery terminals.
3. Locate the positive and negative battery terminals, taking care to be sure they are clean and free of any corrosion or dirt.
4. Separate the red ends from the black ends of your jumper cables. Take care that they do not touch, ever, as they could spark. Next, connect the red clamp to the positive post on the dead battery.
5. Hook the other red clamp to the positive terminal of the battery with the charge.
6. Connect the black clamp to the negative post on the good battery.
7. Connect the last black clamp to a grounded, unpainted metal surface on your car’s frame.
8. Once everything is hooked up securely and in the proper position, start the engine of the vehicle with the good battery. You can attempt to start the engine right away, but it might be better to let the car with the good battery run for a bit, then try starting the engine of the other vehicle.
9. Once the dead vehicle has been successfully jump-started, carefully remove the jumper cables in the reverse order that they were placed on, and keep the other vehicle running.
10. Be sure to keep the engine running on the restarted vehicle for at least 10 minutes to ensure that the weak battery doesn’t die again right away and to allow it to recharge. You can consult your owner’s manual for more information on recommended times. Then schedule an appointment online and visit our Honda Cars of Bellevue service center to get your battery tested and/or replaced.

Turn to Honda Cars of Bellevue to Learn the Proper Way to Jump Start a Car

Are you in need of more service and maintenance tips? Our team is happy to help! If you are curious about why your car won’t jump start, be sure to contact us today! We can get you in for battery service, and be sure to check out our service specials to save money on a new battery!