How to Start a Car With Jumper Cables

Video Transcript

"Hello, my name is Tom Brintzenhofe, certified master mechanic from Reading, Pennsylvania. Today we're going to talk about how to start your car up with jumper cables. First thing you want to keep in mind is any time you're working on a battery, have a pair of safety glasses, even a pair of sunglasses will do, any protection is better than none. You get battery acid in your eyes, it's just not a pretty sight. But, make sure you have them on. We're going to pretend today this battery I have sitting over here is another vehicle. Get your jumper cables out. If you're anything like me you got to untangle them. Just keep in mind, positive is always red, negative is always black. You don't want to mix them up. Make sure they're nice, clean, and not corroded up. If you have kind of corrosion or any kind of paint on your terminals on the inside you're going to have a hard time jump starting any vehicle. Black is always negative. Hook your positive up to the other vehicle. Hook your negative up to the other vehicle. Always keep your two extra cables that are going on your other vehicle separate, you don't want to touch them or get them even close together, it's just not a pretty sight. It would be like the fourth of July in your hands. Your positive goes on first, like so, make sure that it's good and tight. Black or negative, somewhere on the engine, you can go battery to battery, if you can't find anything that's nice and clean, a metal bracket, the alternator bracket, the - even the engine somewhere on here, as long as it's nice and clean metal, painted surface, it just doesn't cut it. But if this one - specific for this Jeep - it's an 04 Jeep Grand Cherokee, we're going to go off the alternator bracket down here, just the best surface we can get right now, hook this up, start the vehicle that you're jumping from. Bring it up to about two thousand RPM, just let it run for a couple of minutes. Get a somewhat of a decent charge on this battery before you go to start it. Fit the key, fire it up, first thing you want to disconnect after this engine starts, negative, keep your hands away from the fan, I forgot to mention that earlier when you were hooking them up. Positive, on the vehicle being jumped, keep them apart 'cause they're still alive from the other vehicle, the negative battery post from the other vehicle, again, try to keep them apart, then your positive, and you're good to go. Just wrap these up, so keep them nice and tidy in your trunk 'cause you might need them for another day."