Jump-Start

Edmunds.comEdmunds.com Member, Administrator, Moderator Posts: 10,316
edited January 2015 in General
imageJump-Start

How To Jump-Start a Car article on Edmunds.com

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  • willopad357willopad357 Member Posts: 1
    Yes and when I followed this procedure, I blew out the120 amp main fuse on my 1999 Mazda Millenia S.
    Took me two hours to remove the fried fuse and now it's gonna take me three days to get replacement parts (I live in a very rural area...no Mazda dealers out here!).
    I've always had good luck with grounding to the frame of the booster car that I use for the jump and connecting the ground cable to the terminal of the dead battery.
    Thanks for helping me really mess up and cost me time, labor, and parts for an unnecessary frying of my fuse.
    Perhaps you need to rethink your advice for the 21st century automobile.
  • erasmuseerasmuse Member Posts: 2
    Why this order of connecting the cables?
  • ray80ray80 Member Posts: 1,655
    erasmuse said:

    Why this order of connecting the cables?

    Its the best way to keep sparks from flying around

  • thecardoc3thecardoc3 Member Posts: 5,850
    Today the correct approach is to connect the red (orange) cables to the battery jump start posts, due to the remotely located batteries in most cars and the black from one engine block to the other. The reason that you use both engine blocks and the jump start posts is that you are effectively shortening the cable lengths thereby reducing resistance in the circuit that could have an impact on getting enough current flow. Plus since you aren't near a battery at any time, the order in which the cables are connected becomes a non-issue.
  • avantanavantan Member Posts: 1
    edited September 2015
    I'm asking these questions out of curiosity. What would happen if the negative cable doesn't go to the chassis of the dead car but that of the booster car? Can it be connected to any metal surface with sufficient grounding?
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