Having a car means taking regular care of it. The battery is a crucial part of the car. If the battery malfunctions, the car becomes completely incapacitated. You know how to charge a battery, but do you know how to charge a dead battery?
In this article, we’ll let you how to charge a flat or dead battery.
A car battery can die for a number of reasons. If it takes a long time for you to start your car, or if you keep the car outside in freezing temperatures, the battery can be damaged.
Once you realize your car battery is dead, you need to ensure you have the jump leads needed to charge the battery. You will need another car that is fully operational with its battery fully charged, and a set of jump leads long enough to reach the batteries of both vehicles. The jump leads will be used to connect the two cars so that one transfers the energy from its battery to the other.
Table Of Contents
Before you jump start
Before you start, you need to inspect your car’s battery. Make sure the battery is in a safe condition. It shouldn’t have any visible cracks from which battery acid can leak out. Don’t make the mistake of jump starting the car if your battery shows a crack or an acid leak.
Personal safety
You should be careful to ensure your personal safety at all times. Don’t forget to wear rubber hand-gloves and safety goggles prior to starting work on the dead battery. Your eyes and hands require adequate protection from sulfuric acid which may be discharged from the battery at any time.
Check the cables
The jump leads that you are going to attach to your car should be fully insulated and corrosion-free. The battery attachments need to be in good working order as insecure cables can cause sparking.
Align the cars
Once you have all the electrical equipment and PPE you should place the two cars in alignment. Drive the car that is operational next to the stranded vehicle ensuring that they don’t touch. The two cars might both face the same direction, or face each other head on. You need to get the batteries of each vehicle as near as you can without removing either of the batteries.
Distance and size
The distance between the two cars is important and they need to be in close proximity to each other. The length of the jump leads matters; if the length of the leads is short, then the cars will need to be brought really close to one another. You also need to ensure the capacity of the cables is suitable for the current that will travel through them.
Starting the process
After you bring the two cars close to each other, you need to open the hoods of each of them because the batteries are located under the hood. After opening the hood, check each battery’s positive and negative terminals. The indication of the positive terminal is the “+” sign and that of the negative terminal is the “-” symbol. The terminals are also color coded with the +ve terminal identified as red, and the –ve terminal identified as black.
Why checking the terminals is important?
You need to ensure you connect the batteries with their terminals matching so that the +ve terminals are connected and the –ve terminals are connected.
Positive jump leads are normally color coded red. Negative jump leads are normally color coded black.
Firstly connect the two ends of a positive jump lead to the positive terminals of the functional car and the car with the dead battery.
Secondly connect the two ends of the negative jump lead to the negative terminals of the functional car and the car with the dead battery. The negative terminal is normally also earthed to the chassis of the vehicle.
The remaining part of the process is fairly simple. Start the engine of the car that is functional. Once the engine starts, the jump leads will begin charging the dead battery. Continue charging the dead battery until you feel it has received sufficient charge before then starting the engine. After starting the engine, run it for at least 4-5 minutes and then drive for at least 15 minutes with the aim of ensuring there is enough charge in the battery to start the engine without the support of another battery.
So, the process of charging a car with a dead battery is not so difficult if these steps are followed correctly. Providing you can keep the battery healthy after recovering it from a flat or dead state you will avoid having to spend money on a new battery.
Ideas courtesy by premier-plates.co.uk
