Have you ever been in a situation like you get into the driver’s seat to start your car but it isn’t starting at all? Well, most people do need to charge dead car batteries once in a while. Can you fully charge a car battery with jumper cables? How long does it take to charge a dead battery?
For older cars, the dead car’s starter starts instantly when jumping with jumper cables. A modern car’s starter doesn’t start until it reaches a minimum voltage level. So, it takes around 5-10 minutes to jump-start a modern car depending on your car’s model.
This article discusses how long to charge car battery with jumper cables and how to do it correctly. So, let’s begin!
How to Charge A Car Battery With Jumper Cables?
Well, charging your dead car’s battery with jumper cables isn’t a hard one to do. you only need a fully functional car right beside the dead car and other required tools with you.
What do you need to jump-start a car battery?
- A functional vehicle: To transfer charge to your dear car’s battery.
- Jumper cables: The thumb rule is, the longer, the better.
- Safety gloves and goggles: Keeps your hands and eyes protected.
- Owner’s manual: You may need it to locate the battery position precisely.
Once you collect all the required tools to jump-start your car you can start with the process with few easy steps. Those are as follows:
Before Jump-Starting
Inspect Your Car’s Battery
You must inspect the physical appearance of the dead battery prior to jump-starting. There shouldn’t be any crack or leak of acid in your battery. If you find something like this, you have to replace the battery indeed.
Don’t jump-start your damaged battery as there’s a possibility of an explosion that would injure you and others.
Check the Terminals & Cables
See if the terminals and cables of the battery are corroded or not. If so, you should brush up the those with a brush.
Bring the Functional Car Closer
Drive the functional car next to your car as near as possible. The best would be if you can keep them nose to nose or face to face without touching each other. Then, turn off the engine of the functional one to get rid of any electric shock or sparks.
Jump-Start the Dead Battery
Connect Positive Terminals
Open both cars’ hoods and identify their terminals. The negative terminals are indicated with a minus (-) sign and positive terminals with a plus (+) sign.
The positive terminal of the jumper cable is colored red. Connect both of the battery’s positive terminals. No current will still flow from the functioning battery as the circuit isn’t completed. But make sure you don’t connect a positive cable to a negative terminal which may cause short-circuit.
Connect Negative terminal
Connect one end of the negative jump cable (black) to the negative post of the charged battery. Connect the opposite end of the cable to a grounded metal which may be either the chassis, frame or other metal parts of the car of the dead battery.
This connection acts as the ground when jump-starting.
Start the Charged Car to Start Charging
When you set up all connections, start the engine of the functional car to start charging the dead battery through the jumping cables.
How Long to Charge Car Battery With Jumper Cables?
Now comes the question of how long does it take to charge car battery with jumper cables. If you have an old generation car, you don’t have to wait at all. The starter would pull off instantly when it gets connected to the functional battery and your car would start.
However, if you have a modern car, it would take some time to start until the charging system gets a minimum amount of voltage. This is because, when your dead battery gets a charge from the active car battery, it may get started but it doesn’t have full control over all operations.
That is why you should wait at least five minutes after jump-starting. After 5 minutes, the dead battery should pick up some voltage to start running.
Even though the battery runs after five minutes, I recommend leaving the jumper cables for about three to five minutes so that the functional car takes some of the load off the jumped car’s alternator to charge the battery.
Once you’re done with jumpstart for car make sure to disconnect the cables exactly opposite to the connection steps. You have to disconnect the negative terminals at first. Then, disconnect the positive cables of red colors.
Caution Before Jump-Start
Here’re few considerations that you should keep in mind before jump-starting a dead car.
- Never jump-start a frozen battery.
- Never jump-start a dead battery if it’s leaking or cracked.
- Make sure the battery has an adequate water level. You should know the symptoms of low water in a battery.
- If the battery is corroded, make sure you wipe them off. You can clean battery terminals with baking sofa easily.
- Read the owner’s manual before jumpstart car. Sometimes, manufacturers advise not to jump-start due to specific electronic circuitry.
Conclusion
Knowing how to and how long to charge car battery with jumper cables is important as it comes in handy when you’re in trouble. Apart from driving your car only, you should be capable to do these sorts of actions to save both your time and money.
I hope, this article helps you get the proper guidance on how long does it take to jump-start a car with dead battery and how to charge a completely dead battery properly. If you have any more doubts, please feel free to comment below.
Thanks for reading up to here. Have a safe drive.
Related Posts:
