How to jump start a car, by Yonatan Frimer

For those of use that have a broken down POS car, we already know how to jump start a car as we've done it so many times. However, I recently got a brand new car and I've still had the rare occasion that it doesn't start, usually a result of a door-a-jar or some kind of headlights switch not being turned off completely.

The first thing that you need for jump starting a car is ANOTHER car that starts just fine and has know visible electrical problems. Next, you will need a set of jumper cables. You might need to roll the car out of its parking spot of finagle some things to make sure that the cables reach.

Next, you connect the jumper cable to the battery of the car that is running. Make sure that the contacts are clean and that there is no large swaths of oil or grease which can catch fire.

Connect the positive to the positive and the negative to the negative. This is called a parallel configuration. Give the car half a minute to build up some juice and crank that baby to life! Disconnect the cables, close the bonnets and you are on your way. If your car is a stick-shift, or if it is an automatic that is prone to stall, then give it a few minutes to charge up so that in case you stall out again, you have enough juice to start 'er up.

It can't be that hard to do it, a well trained team of monkeys can do it, as this maze cartoon illustrates.


AAA Monkeys with jumper cables.

Maze of AAA monkeys jump starting a Fiero?
Click here to view the AAA monkey maze larger