How to Jump-Start a Car | Halfords UK

Is your car battery flat and are you unsure how to jump-start it? Grab your jump leads, and watch our guide on how to jump-start a car.

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Before jump-starting your car, make sure you have:
1) Two jump leads. A black, ‘negative’ lead, and a red, ‘positive’ lead
2) Another car with a charged battery
3) Gloves and goggles for extra safety

For safety reasons, double check:
1) The battery isn’t damaged or leaking. If it is, don’t try a jump-start – get a professional’s help
2) There’re no metal items or clothing near the battery
3) There’re no naked flames, including cigarettes, nearby
4) The key is out of the ignition

Park the car with the charged battery opposite the car that has a flat battery so the bonnets are facing one another. Pop the hand brake on.

Next open both bonnets and check the jump-leads reach between the cars.Find the ‘positive’ terminal on the working car. It should look like this.

Connect the red ‘positive’ jump-lead to the ‘positive’ terminal on the working car,checking that the teeth grip the terminal properly.
Then connect the other end of the red jump-lead to the ‘positive’ terminal on the car with the flat battery.

Next, attach the black jump-lead to the working car’s ‘negative’ terminal.

Head to the car with the flat battery but don’t attach the other end of the lead to the ‘negative’ terminal. You’ll need to find a piece of solid metal, like this, far away from the fuel system and battery to attach the black lead to. In some cars this is a specific ‘earthing rod’ – check your handbook to find out if your car has one.

Now all four jump-leads are connected, wait five minutes.

Now start the charged car’s engine and let it run for one minute.

Leave the engine running and try to start your car. If it doesn’t start within 5 seconds, give it 2 more minutes and try again.

Once your car has started, leave both cars running for ten minutes. After this,

remove the leads in reverse order, making sure they don’t touch one another or any metal in the process:
1) Black lead attached to dead car off
2) Black lead attached to working car off
3) Red lead attached to working car off

Finally, leave the previously uncharged car running for twenty minutes or, take it for a 30-minute spin before parking it for the day.
Don’t fancy getting your hands dirty?

Don’t forget Halfords has a professional battery fitting service