How to Jump Start Your Car

When your car won’t start, it’s probably an issue with your battery. This happens to everyone at least once in their lives, as you could have a defective battery, or you could have just left something on overnight. Regardless of why your battery died, you’ll need a way to jumpstart it. This article will give you a tutorial so that you can get back on the road. If you want to inspect your battery, you can always bring it to Toyota of Poway.

The First Few Steps to Jump Starting

Below, you’ll find some of the steps to jumpstart your car. You’ll want to be careful when you’re doing this, as you’ll be playing around with a lot of electricity. Make sure that you don’t skip steps, and that you connect your clamps in order.

• Park Close: You’ll want the cars to be close so that you can connect the jumper cables.
• Open Your Hoods: You’ll need to find where each battery is located. You may also want to look for signs of corrosion.
• The First Red Clamp: The first red clamp is going to connect to the positive post of your dead battery.
• The Next Red Clamp: This red clamp is going to go to the positive post of the donor’s battery.
• The First Black Clamp: This goes on the negative post of your donor’s battery.
• The Next Black Clamp: The final clamp is going to connect to an unpainted metal surface somewhere on your car.

Charging Your Battery

You’ll want to take a second to go back and ensure that everything is properly connected. If it is, then it’s time to start your donor’s engine. Start the car with the working battery first so that you can get things flowing. If your battery is in decent condition, you should be able to start your vehicle now. This should slowly charge up your battery over time, but you’re not going to want to rush it. It may take a few minutes before your battery has the charge it needs. Once you’re good to go, you can carefully remove the cables in reverse order. This means that you’ll want to start with the negative cable before making your way to the red ones. If your battery still won’t work with you, and you live near Oceanside, Poway, or Escondido, you’ll want to take it to Toyota of Poway, where we can inspect it.

A Bigger Problem with a Dead Battery

Sometimes your battery will refuse to start your vehicle no matter what you do. If this is the case, you’ll want to bring it to us at Toyota of Poway so that we can test it with our voltmeter. If your vehicle is still having issues and your battery is in great shape, it could be due to:

• A Bad Alternator: Your alternator charges your battery, so when it stops working, you’re not going to be getting any electricity when you’re out on the road. This will inevitably cause your battery to die.
• A Bad Starter: If your battery is working fine but your vehicle won’t turn over, it could be due to your starter. Our mechanics will be able to take a deeper dive into your problems when you visit.

If your electrical system is going haywire, you can schedule your service at Toyota of Poway.