How To : Jump start a car, the right way.

In the automotive world it is a fairly common site to find the aftermath of an unfortunate turn of events, someones car won't start and then a helpful stranger comes along and attempts to jump their car and hooks it up wrong, blowing the main fuse or worse. Read ahead to avoid being that helpful stranger.

The basics

What kind of jumper cables should I get, you wonder to yourself. The answer is simple, the best ones you can afford. Seriously, what's worse then not being able to start your car? Not being able to jump it because you bought garbage jumps cables and can't reach or they don't put enough power out to do anything. I'm talking 20-25 foot long, 4-2 gauge wire.

Heavy Duty 2 Gauge Wire Extra Long 25 Feet Ft Length 600 Amp Copper Plate Parrot Jaw Auto Booster Jumper Jumping Cable

Something like these giant cables would be awesome.

How do you know you need to jump start a car? It won't start.

Really though, if you try and start your car and the engine doesn't crank at all, or too slow to start then clicks it's a pretty good sign it's dead. You may also noticed that the lights are dim or don't work at all.

How to jump a car

First and foremost, make sure both cars are OFF! You do not want either car running at this point.

Second, hook the positive(red) cable up to the positive(red) terminal on the dead battery. If it's not color coded and you can't tell, look for a + on the battery case itself. Next hook the positive cable up on the good battery.

Next you are going to hook up the negative(black) cable to the negative of the good battery. IMPORTANT! you are going to hook the negative cable up to a clean, unpainted, metal surface under the hood of the dead car NOT the battery, this can cause a spark and may ignite battery fumes. If you don't get a good enough connection wiggle the cable around on the surface the scrape some of the rust/paint off.

Start up the car you are jumping with, and give it a shot. If it doesn't start immediately, let the car run for a few minutes to transfer a charge into the dead car and try it again. If you have good battery cables this is a much easier process.

BOOM you're done! Remove cables in reverse order from when you hooked them up and receive much gratitude from the stranded victim!

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