Car Jump Leads
All car owners should carry with them in their vehicle certain accessories that will assist them in the unfortunate event of a roadside breakdown. One of these accessories should be a set of car jump leads, should you find one day that you are unable to start your vehicle due to a dead or low powered battery then you will find that owning a set of car jump leads is a very sensible option.
Even if you are fortunate enough not to require the use of a set of car jump leads it is always useful to have a set on hand as your assistance may be called upon by some other unfortunate driver who has had a battery failure and who hasn't had the fore-sight to equip themselves with a set.
As we all know, batteries tend to lose power over a period of time and a car battery is no different, although due to the fact that a car battery is rechargeable you can generally assume that you will get a much longer life span from one.
But no matter how good or how reliable your car battery is, you can practically guarantee that one day it will let you down. either through normal wear and tear or because the power has been accidentally drained, usually by unknowingly leaving the lights on or some such similar occurrence.
A set of car jump leads will quickly enable you to start you car, although it must be pointed out that you will need the assistance of another willing driver and vehicle to complete this procedure.
The fuel system of vehicles have no bearing on the ability of starting cars with jump leads, a petrol engine can be used to start a diesel engine and vice versa, although it should be noted that, on older diesel engined vehicles, they are slightly harder to start than a petrol engine.
Another thing to take into account is engine size, a small engined car will have less power output than a larger engined vehicle, which can in turn make it slightly harder to start the larger vehicle using jump leads, although it is still achievable.
Starting a Car with Jump Leads
The actual task of starting a car with jump leads is a fairly straightforward process,
1, Position both vehicles close together but not touching, so that the batteries are as close to each other as possible and apply handbrakes, ensuring both vehicles are not in gear.
2, Turn off all electrical equipment in both vehicles, to prevent damage in cases of power surge and to avoid diluting power from donor car.
3, Connect one end of RED jump lead to (+) Positive terminal of good battery and do same with other end to dead battery.
4, Connect one end of BLACK jump lead to (-) Negative terminal of good battery and do same with other end to dead battery.
Safety Note : never allow RED and BLACK leads connected to same battery to touch, as this can lead to risk of fire, circuit damage or even explosion (rare).
5, Start engine of donor car (good battery) and rev for a short while to boost battery.
6, Turn running engine off and attempt to start car with dead battery, with luck engine will start and will begin to recharge own dead battery, hopefully. If no luck and power is insufficient to start then proceed to step 7.
7, Restart engine of donor car and rev for a short while, with engine still running ask other driver to attempt to start car, running engine may need to be revved during this attempt to give extra boost (see technical note below). This final procedure is practically guaranteed to restart vehicle with dead battery.
8, Car jump leads can now be disconnected, removing first BLACK connections and then RED.
9, If you are the unfortunate driver with dead battery thank the other driver for their assistance.
Technical Note :
It is recommended by some that the donor vehicle should have it's engine turned off before attempting to start car with dead battery as this can lead to circuit damage on either one or the other vehicle, but in over 35 years of vehicle owning, and having used this method on numerous occasions, I must confess that I have never encountered such an issue, but there is always a first time for everything.
When buying car jump leads it is always best to choose a good heavy duty, sturdy set that will give good value for money whilst getting the job done. A cheap, flimsy set whilst good on the pocket will tend to (more often than not) let you down, usually the Copper wire core is insufficient to the voltage and can overheat, which is not only dangerous for the user to touch but can cause the plastic coating to melt and allow the Copper wire to touch and so short circuit, which in turn causes very costly electrical damage to the vehicle.
Another point to take note of when buying car jump leads is that the clamps (the parts that actually attach to battery terminals) are of good, solid construction and ideally should be fully insulated.
Cheap, poorly constructed jump leads will, in the long run, prove to be neither use nor ornament and can in some cases actually be a danger to the user and vehicle.
Some of the low end jump leads have only a thin plastic sleeve covering part of the clamp and during use these clamps can, and often do, get very hot, causing the plastic sleeve to melt. This is sometimes only noticed when the user attempts to remove clamps from battery terminal and finds that the plastic is sticking to their hand and burning it.
Considering the fact that many car fires are caused by faulty electrical circuits it would seem sensible to interfere with your vehicles circuitry in as little a way as possible.
Shown above are several sets of car jump leads currently available from Amazon.
