While Greenwood’s Seattle auto body shop is well suited to solve all of your bigger car problems, a jump start is a task that you should be able to take care of by yourself. If your car isn’t starting and you blame the battery, get yourself some safety goggles, a good pair of jumper cables and a friend with a functional car. Then follow these simple steps to get your engine running again.
WITH BOTH CARS TURNED OFF, open the hoods and locate the batteries of each car. Each battery will be clearly marked with a positive (+) side and a negative (-) side. It is important to keep track of these, because attaching the wrong cables to the wrong sides can do serious damage to your engine. Attach the red cable to the positive ends of each battery. Attach the black cable to the negative end of the good battery, and then to a section of unpainted metal on the dead car. DO NOT ATTACH THE BLACK CABLE TO THE DEAD BATTERY, AND DO NOT LET THE RED CABLE TOUCH THE BLACK CABLE OR ANY OTHER PART OF THE CAR WHILE IT IS CONNECTED TO YOUR BATTERY.
Now that the cars are connected, turn the key on the car with the good battery. Leave it running for a minute or two to allow a charge to build up in the dead battery. Now you can try to start the car with the dead battery. If the car turns over, go ahead and disconnect the cables and be on your way. If you continue to experience problems, it may be time to contact your auto body shop.