Jumpstarting a car.

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pinback
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Jumpstarting a car.

Post by pinback »

Online, they always say, "red goes to red, then black goes to some piece of metal on the dead car's frame." But that never works for me. It only works when I hook red up to red and black up to black. Why don't they say to do that? Am I gonna explode the car at some point?
I don't have to say anything. I'm a doctor, too.

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Flack
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Post by Flack »

The negative side of your car battery is grounded to the frame, so in theory, hooking the negative end of the jumper cables to the post is the same as hooking it to the frame. In reality, it doesn't always work that way. It can be hard to find a spot on the frame where you can hook the jumper cable. If it's painted, like a lot of modern cars, then it may not work.

The reason they say not to hook it up post to post is that IF the battery was leaking gas (which it really shouldn't do) and IF it were to spark and IF it were to explode then it would blow your face off. If you hook it to the frame and it does spark and your battery is leaking gas, hopefully the spark will be far enough away from the battery that it won't explode.

That being said, your battery probably isn't leaking gas, it probably won't spark, and even if it does, it probably won't blow up. 99.999% of people never have a problem doing it this way. 0.001% of people no longer have a face.
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AArdvark
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Post by AArdvark »

They stuck the battery in my trunk in the Ion. Under the hood they put two posts that pretend they are jumper points. I guess this is to minimize the risk of boom!
The one and only time my wife let someone ( a stranger in need) jump from our car, they hooked the positive up to something else and killed our power steering. Luckily it was just a fuse. What kills me is that there's actually labels that say: "hook positive cable here" and "hook ground cable here".

But they couldn't read. or something.


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Post by pinback »

Alright then. Yeah, I think my problem is I didn't know what "counts" as to metal you can hook the negative one up to. So I will do it the "black on black" way (videos available online).

If I lose a face, hey, you seen this face? No great loss.
I don't have to say anything. I'm a doctor, too.

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Flack
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Post by Flack »

I helped a friend jump his car one time. I hooked up my end on my car correctly and he hooked his end up backwards. When he went to start the car it sounded like a shotgun went off and we both pissed our pants. It blew every fuse under the hook -- not the small interior ones (it blew a couple of those, too) but all the big ones actually under the engine hood. If you ever want the guys at Autozone too look at you like you're an idiot, walk in and purchase 20 or so fuses...

The older cars I've owned (79 Firebird, 79 Mustang, etc) had enough spare space under the hood to hide a small child. The engine compartment of my WRX doesn't have enough space to store a taco (or the rest of her, nyuk). I can't imagine finding anywhere to ground a jumper cable under the hood of that car.
"I failed a savings throw and now I am back."

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