How to jump start a car

What you need:

-A pair of working jump leads
-Another car with a working, fully charged battery that is the same voltage as your car battery (Try and avoid using hybrid or electric cars as this can damage them)
- Safety gloves and goggles (To protect yourself from flammable gases that your car battery can produce)

Step 1: Pre-Inspection

Before you get started on jump starting your car, you need to check a few things for your safety first:

-Check the battery isn’t damaged or leaking. The best way to tell if a car battery is leaking is if you see cracks in the battery casing, and visible liquid seeping through these openings.

-Remove any jewellery your wearing, as if this makes contact with the car battery, it could cause an explosion

-Remove any clothing that is dangling and could get caught in the engine parts, such as scarves and ties.

-Ensure no naked flames are nearby or cigarettes.

-Remove the key from the ignition

Once all that has been checked, you can move onto the next step.

Step 2: 

Line up both cars so that they’re facing each other, with enough space to open the bonnets. Ensure the cars aren’t touching, and that the handbrake is on and the ignition is turned off.

Step 3:

Put your gloves and goggles on, and connect the red jump cable to the positive (+) terminal on the working battery and the other end to the positive terminal on the flat battery.

Step 4:

Take the black jump lead and connect one end to the negative (-) terminal on the working battery. With the other end, connect this to an ‘earthing point’ and do not attach it to the flat battery.

Check your owners manual to see if your car comes with an earthing point.

Step 5:

Wait 5 minutes, then start the car with the working battery. Leave the car running for one minute, and then try starting the car with the flat battery. If after 5 minutes you’re still trying to start the car and it isn’t working, leave it a couple of minutes and try again.

Step 6:

Once the car with the flat battery is running, leave both cars running for 10 minutes.

Step 7:

Switch both cars off, and remove the cables in reverse order to how you attached them. So, remove the black leads first and finish with the red leads. Make sure that the leads don’t touch one another, or any other metal components of the car when removing them.

Step 8:

Try turning the keys in your ignition to see if your engine starts up. If it does, take the car for a 30 minute drive to ensure the battery is charged up sufficiently for the next time you jump in the car.

If you find your car doesn’t start, you’ll need to contact a car breakdown service such as RAC Breakdown on 0330 159 1111, or the AA, as there may be a more serious underlying problem.