Jump Starting Car

[theshedman]

Hi everyone, my car like many others has died through flat battery I think. I have jump leads and son has car for jump starting. I have looked at various sites and come up with conflicting ways on how to connect the leads. Some say to connect the Live from one to Live to the other, then connect the Negative to Negative of the other. Others say to connect Live to Live but Negative to part of the engine on the car with the flat battery as in these 2 links below. Anyone got idea as to which is correct or safest. Thanks.

http://www.theaa.com/.../using-jumpleads.html

http://www.carbasics....how_to_jump_start.htm

[ChuckFickens]

Doesn't make any difference.

[dothawkes31]

I've seen it done both ways, it must be safe both ways, as long as the car starts, you should still take the battery indoors and fully charge it with a charger i think, i did this and it's started fine now, after jump starting it it just faded again within 24 hours of this cold weather.

[Teleph0ne]

As long as you do positive to positive & negative to negative it will be fine, you will get a better connection directly from the battery rather than a piece of exposed metal and I would leave the donor car running whilst connected for a few minutes before trying to start the flat one. Good luck

[theshedman]

Hi, thanks for the quick replies. After reading the AA one I sort of got confused as in the past I had always done it the other way. Didn't want to cause damage to my son's battery as he only bought it couple of months ago. Thanks again.

[Panic Button]

The AA way is more advisable, negative to earthing point on part of the engine.

I believe it is something to do with ensuring a surge doesn't damage electrical circuits.

[Panic Button]

I don't suppose you watched the video at the end of the carbasics site did you?

It also tells you to connect the black lead to an earthing point on the engine.

[theshedman]

Hi all, thanks for the answers, got it going in the end doing it the AA way. No Panic Button I didn't watch the video just read the instructions and me being the one who always tells my boys to read all the instructions that come with things lol. It was really flat but wife let my son's car run at fast idle for couple of minutes and then mine started first turn. Thanks again.