How Can I Jump With a 12 Volt Battery?

If you have ever returned to your car to find the battery has died, you will appreciate the knowledge of how to get it running and get back on the road. If you leave your vehicle's lights or music on when parked, chances are you will come back to a dead battery. If you can find another 12-volt car battery, or another working car, you can jump-start your vehicle quite easily.

Instructions

1

Open the hood of the car with the dead battery and locate the red, positive (+) and black, negative (-) battery terminals.

2

Connect the clamp of the red jumper cable wire to the positive terminal of the dead battery.

3

Connect the clamp on the other end of the red jumper cable wire to a spare battery, either on its own, or in another car, clamping it to the positive terminal. If using another car's battery, align the two cars close enough for the cables to stretch from one battery to the other. Keep the car with the working battery running during the jumping phase of this maneuver.

4

Connect the clamp of the black wire to the dead battery's negative terminal, taking care to not let either clamp on the black wire touch any metal part of either car.

5

Connect the last of the four clamps (black wire) to the working battery's negative terminal.

6

Start the car with the dead battery. The jumper cables allow you to use the electricity stored in the good battery to start the car with the dead battery. After the car has been started, the alternator will begin to recharge the dead battery, so let the car run for at least 15 minutes in order to charge it enough to start the car again later.

7

Remove the jumper cables, starting with the black wire from the previously dead battery, taking care not to touch any metal on either car. Then remove the black cable from the good battery, red wire clamp from the good battery, and finally the red wire clamp from the previously dead battery. Close the hood, and either drive away, or wait 15 minutes to allow the battery to recharge.