How to Jump-Start a Car | Halfords UK

Is your car battery flat and are you unsure how to jump-start it? Grab your jump leads, and watch our guide on how to jump-start a car.

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Car Batteries:

Before jump-starting your car, make sure you have:
1) Two jump leads. A black, ‘negative’ lead, and a red, ‘positive’ lead
2) Another car with a charged battery
3) Gloves and goggles for extra safety

For safety reasons, double check:
1) The battery isn’t damaged or leaking. If it is, don’t try a jump-start – get a professional’s help
2) There’re no metal items or clothing near the battery
3) There’re no naked flames, including cigarettes, nearby
4) The key is out of the ignition

Park the car with the charged battery opposite the car that has a flat battery so the bonnets are facing one another. Pop the hand brake on.

Next open both bonnets and check the jump-leads reach between the cars.Find the ‘positive’ terminal on the working car. It should look like this.

Connect the red ‘positive’ jump-lead to the ‘positive’ terminal on the working car,checking that the teeth grip the terminal properly.
Then connect the other end of the red jump-lead to the ‘positive’ terminal on the car with the flat battery.

Next, attach the black jump-lead to the working car’s ‘negative’ terminal.

Head to the car with the flat battery but don’t attach the other end of the lead to the ‘negative’ terminal. You’ll need to find a piece of solid metal, like this, far away from the fuel system and battery to attach the black lead to. In some cars this is a specific ‘earthing rod’ – check your handbook to find out if your car has one.

Now all four jump-leads are connected, wait five minutes.

Now start the charged car’s engine and let it run for one minute.

Leave the engine running and try to start your car. If it doesn’t start within 5 seconds, give it 2 more minutes and try again.

Once your car has started, leave both cars running for ten minutes. After this,

remove the leads in reverse order, making sure they don’t touch one another or any metal in the process:
1) Black lead attached to dead car off
2) Black lead attached to working car off
3) Red lead attached to working car off

Finally, leave the previously uncharged car running for twenty minutes or, take it for a 30-minute spin before parking it for the day.
Don’t fancy getting your hands dirty?

Don’t forget Halfords has a professional battery fitting service

[tasty_fish]

Someone needs to tell the RAC youtube channel that this is how it’s done properly

[alinutzalin]

Dunno, I always hook it to the negative as I found I cannot jump the cars if clamped on something else. Never went wrong.
Also how I've done it is: Have ur car running, Connect + to +, - to - and jump start the other car. Wait 10 sec, by the time you get out the car, take out the leads and ur done.

[clarescott]

Really helpful, although he forgets to tell you when to take the red lead off the flat car.

[garagefitpt]

I bought a Halfords lithium jump starter and it device will bot charge! I've plugged it into a USB socket as advised and it won't charge up. What do you suggest please???

[geoffreyboyling]

If you're starting a car in unfavourable circumstances, such as with a flat battery as above, or if the weather is very cold, around freezing, start it with the clutch pedal down, even if you're in neutral
This will disengage the gearbox from the engine, and reduce the drag or load on the starter motor

[caro]

What about the red lead attached to the car with a flat battery?

[boo]

I think they got the negative terminal bit the wrong way. Mine didn't work for ages until a passerby offered help. He connected to the negative terminal (not a random bit of metal) on the flat car and it immediately worked

[Niteshift]

It is safer to attach the positive cable to the dead battery first because it has less chance

[glenross]

Why do all these videos all do things in a different way?? And they wonder why people get confused 🤔 this video is the way I would do it but sometimes I would have to put the negative to negative just to make sure it starts. I know it’s meant to be dangerous but I’ve never had a problem to be honest.

[bp]

Attaching one of the the black negative grips to the car bonnet did not work for me. The car only started when the negative terminals were connected to each other. Some people here suggesting that the attachment point was not providing sufficient earth and a better location would make it start.

Once home, fully charge the battery via a mains charger. It will never fully recharge by driving the car.

[adamspeed]

Make sure the battery is away from a metal like a car 🤣

[robertmills]

Are you aware that you are connecting the live jump lead in the wrong sequencs

[georgewalton]

doNOT agree that the first clipping is to the live red good battery - see other websites which effectively advise "red to dead" first. surely that way it's still dead if you inadvertently touch something metal?

[GirGir]

Background music was way too intrusive. I could barely concentrate on what was being said.

[casselskeep]

Aren’t you supposed to start with the positive of the flat battery car? Red on dead?

[michaelseecharan]

Halford battery chargers are useless, wasted over £40 on it and it stopped working after a short while.

[Do_Not_Buy_Kia_Look_After_UK]

The front end of that car has such an ugly grill.