Charging car batteries
Charging car batteriesCharging Batteries
A person can usually tell that their car battery is dead when they go to turn on their car and nothing happens. There is usually no sound and no engine turnover. A battery may go dead if you keep your headlights on or play the radio for a long time while the engine is not running. An old battery might not even start up if it is really cold out. If the battery is dead, then you can't start the engine. You could be able to restore power to your battery by using jumper cables to connect it to a working battery in another car. It is always a good idea to keep jumper cables in the trunk of your car.
Jump-starting your battery is the most common way to recharge it. To do this, you need another car with a working battery that is the same voltage as yours and a pair of jumper cables. Before you do this, you would want to make sure that the battery fluid is not frozen or the level of the fluid is low. If this is the case, then you wouldn't want to try and jump-start your car because it could explode.
In order to jump-start your car properly, you would first need to position the cars so the cables can reach between the two batteries. But make sure that the cars are not touching. The ignition and the electrical equipment in both cars must be turned off. Then you have to shift both cars into Park or Neutral, and put their parking brakes on. You want to double check that both the cars have the same amount of voltage (usually 12 volts).
You should remove cell or vent caps if the battery has them. Then check again to make sure that your dead battery is not frozen. Cover each battery with a heavy cloth to protect against splashing of boiling battery fluid. Attach the positive jumper cable (red, or marked P or +) to the positive terminal of the good battery. Clamp the other end of the same cable to the positive terminal of the dead battery. Attach the negative jumper cable (black, or marked N or -) to the engine or frame of the car with the good battery. The cable can not touch the fan or drive belts.
Attach the other end of the negative cable to the engine or frame of the car that has the dead battery. Make this connection as far from the battery as possible and far from moving parts, such as the fan. Start up the engine of the car that has the good battery. Next, you have to hold down the accelerator so that the engine runs at a high idle. Start the engine of the car with the dead battery and, with the cables still attached, run it for several minutes.
With both engines still running, remove the cables in reverse order from the order in which you attached them. (Remove negative first, then positive.) Replace battery caps if they've been removed, and dispose of the cloth covers in case they contain acid.
There is a lot of steps needed in charging a battery. If you follow the directions carefully and take your time, then you should have no problem with this procedure. It happens often to many people. I guess it is just a matter of bad luck.