Bill Colwell Ford Blog

No one ever wants to find themselves stranded on the side of the road with a dead battery, but thankfully jump-starting that battery can get a vehicle up and running long enough to find its way to Bill Colwell Ford for battery service and/or replacement. How does one perform a successful and safe jumpstart? Let’s have a look to make sure you’re prepared for such a situation should it ever arise.

8 Steps to Jump Start an Auto Battery

Jump-starting a battery in a Ford vehicle is as simple as following these steps:

1. Park the two vehicles with the engines facing each other, but make sure the two cars aren’t touching each other. Place both vehicles in park, set the parking break, and turn off both ignitions.
2. Open the hood and remove the battery terminal covers. If there is any corrosion, begin by cleaning that off.
3. Using your jumper cables, clamp the red positive (+) cable onto the dead battery’s red positive (+) terminal.
4. Next, connect the other red positive (+) clamp onto the other vehicle’s red positive (+) terminal.
5. Attach the black negative (-) clamp to the working vehicle’s black negative (-) terminal.
6. Finally, attach the last black negative (-) clamp onto a large, unpainted metal surface in the vehicle with the dead battery.
7. Start the booster vehicle, and once it’s running, try to start the vehicle with the dead battery. It should start right up, at which point you should let both vehicles run for about three minutes.
8. Without turning the jumped vehicle off, remove the cables in the reverse order that you put them on and immediately drive to Bill Colwell Ford to have the battery checked out and/or replaced.

What to Do if a Jump Doesn’t Work

It is possible that your battery is just flat-out dead, in which case a jump won’t work. In this case, the battery will certainly need replaced, and that’s something we can help with. Sometimes, there are even Ford service coupons to help make this replacement more affordable. If you can jump-start, though, we hope you’re able to manage it safely and get back to driving in no time!