A common issue that leads to the call for roadside assistance is cars who’s batteries have run out. This issue – while fixable – can prove to be not only inconvenient, but extremely dangerous, especially while you’re driving. In this blog post, the towing company at Towing Chicago will detail a few guidelines on ways to jump start your car in Chicago with a dead battery.
Jump Starting your Vehicle
There’s a few methods you can use to jump start your car in Chicago:
- Try connecting the dead car battery to a working car battery with jumper cables, and allow the working battery to run for a while to transfer the electricity and charge up the dead battery.
- If a battery has been connected to a battery charger for a while, you can use the disconnected battery charger to then jump start the dead battery.
- You can use a fully charged jump starter box to provide the battery with enough of a charge to help jump start the vehicle.
How long does it take to jump start a car?
If the car battery isn’t severely damaged, a jump start while plugged into a proper battery charger, charged separate battery, or jump start box can usually provide adequate juice to allow the car to start by itself.
Can jump starting cause damage?
This is unlikely, but if the two cars are much different ages, especially if the car requiring the charge has a computer and a fully dead battery and the older car doesn’t, the computer can be fried out. With very old cars, a jump start has been known to blow the fuse of the car with the good battery.
What not to do when jump starting a car:
- Never put your body above the battery of either car.
- Never smoke while jump starting a car.
- Don’t jump start a car if there’s any liquid frozen inside it – this can cause explosions in your car engine.
- Don’t jump start a car battery that’s leaking or cracked.