What To Do When Your Car Won’t Start

If you’ve ever owned a vehicle, or are thinking about owning your vehicle, you might’ve heard that cars require regular maintenance. This is to ensure that your vehicle is running efficiently and properly. Even if you’re always on top of the maintenance of your vehicle, sometimes things start working and don’t start properly. Car Batteries sometimes die and if you’ve ever had a car battery die, you understand how frustrating it can be. Especially if you have places to go! At Trubicars, our goal is to share our knowledge and driving experience with you so that you can be a safe and responsible driver. We have outlined a step-by-step guide on how to jump-start your vehicle.

As a vehicle owner, you should always have an emergency kit with supplies that you may need in the event of a breakdown or a vehicle not starting. Jumper cables are cables that most people have in their emergency kit in case their vehicle needs a jump start. Once you have your jumper cables follow the steps below to jump your car:

7 Steps to Fix Your Car: What to Do When Your Car Won’t Start?

1 Find another vehicle owner with a working battery

To successfully jump-start your car, you will need to find another vehicle with a working battery. If you are stuck in a public setting such as a mall parking lot or grocery store parking lot, ask the owners of nearby vehicles if they can help you. If you are stuck on the side of the road or not in a public setting, consider calling a close friend or family member to come to help you out. 

2 Parking

In most vehicles, car batteries are usually under the hood, located near the engine of the vehicle. To jump-start your vehicle, you will need to have your vehicle and the vehicle giving you the boost parked front to front- or have them closely parked next to each other. This ensures that the jumper cables will reach both batteries.

3 Make sure both vehicles are off 

Once each vehicle is in the proper parked position, make sure both car engines are turned off.

4 Open the hoods and attach the cables

Once you have popped the hood of each vehicle, it’s time to place your jumper cables on the batteries. On each battery, you will find two terminals: Negative and Positive. Each vehicle must be turned off! If you fail to ensure this, you can get an electrical shock. To attach the cables:

• Place one red clamp on the positive terminal on the dead battery
• Place the other red clamp to the positive terminal on the working battery
• Place one black clamp on the negative terminal on the working battery
• Place the other black clamp on an unpainted, metal object on the dead car

If you fail to place the second black clamp on an unpainted metal object on the dead car, there is a higher risk of electrocuting yourself, starting a car fire, sparks, or explosion.

5 Start the working vehicle 

Once all the cables are properly positioned, start the working vehicle’s engine and let it run for a few minutes to charge up the vehicle that has the dead battery.

6 Start the dead battery vehicle 

Start the vehicle that has a dead battery. In most instances, the battery will power back up and your engine will start. If you try turning the key in the ignition and the vehicle still does not start, you may need to replace the whole battery.

7 Remove the cables  

After the vehicle has been successfully jumped, you can begin removing the jumper cables. You will need to remove the cables in the reverse order that you put them on. To remove the cables: 

• Remove the grounded black cable (the cable that was attached to an unpainted, metal object on the vehicle) 
• Remove the black cable from the working vehicle’s negative terminal 
• Remove the red cable from the working vehicle’s positive terminal 
• Remove the red cable from (the once dead) vehicle’s positive terminal

Now that your vehicle has been jump-started, remember to thank the individual who helped you out. Also, be sure to drive your car around for a few minutes to recharge the battery. If you fail to let your vehicle run and instead turn it off after it’s been jumped, you may need to redo the jump-starting process. Consider taking your vehicle to a local, trusted mechanic to determine whether or not you need to replace your battery, or if there is another issue with your vehicle. At Trubicars, our goal is to share our knowledge and driving experience with you, this is why we have outlined the steps you need to take to jump-start your vehicle. If you are looking for more information on what to do if your vehicle won’t start, check out the Trubicars website!