Check The Battery
Look for any signs of damage. Never try to
jump start a battery with cracks or leaking fluid. A damaged battery can
explode.
Clean Your Battery Terminals
Clean any corrosion off of the terminals as
best as possible. Corrosion can make it harder to jump the battery and may
have contributed to it going dead in the first place. Make sure that you
properly identify the negative and positive terminals. The positive
terminal is usually red but some cars may be poorly marked.
Connect the cables
The order in which you connect the cables is
important.
First connect the positive cable to the positive terminal on the dead
battery.
Second connect the other end of the positive cable to the positive
terminal on the good battery.
Third connect the negative cable to the negative terminal on the good
battery.
Lastly connect the other end if the negative cable to the engine block of
the dead car. You do not want to connect the negative cable to the battery
of the dead car. If the battery is bad it could have built up Hydrogen gas
and could potentially explode upon charging. You do not want to be next to
it if that happens.
Start The Vehicle
After hooking up the cables start the vehicle.
Remove the cables in the exact opposite order in which you hooked them up.
If you don't know why your battery went dead, for example leaving your
lights on, have it checked as soon as possible.
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