Does the size and relative power of either car matter or do damage to either car when jump starting a car? Basically is it perfectly fine for a 4cyl normal Honda Civic (non hybrid) to jump start a larger passenger vehicle with 6 or 8 cyl? Will this weaken the Civic’s battery or alternator more than if it was jump starting another 4cyl vehicle? Thank you
No worries-you can jump these cars just fine. You only run into trouble when you try and jump start motorcycles, in which case the car you’re jumping from should be turned off. Also, if you were to jump start an antique car with a 6 volt system.
No. Both vehicles use a 12 VDC system to turn the starter. As long as the donor vehicle has a good charging system and battery, it shouldn’t be an issue.
Tester
It makes absolutely no difference. Assuming the jumped car starts up promptly (as opposed to five minutes of futile cranking) there will be no harm at all to the battery or alternator of the donor car, regardless of which car has the larger engine.
What they said, plus you have the Civic running when you try to start the other one, right?
More important than the car or battery used to jump a larger vehicle are the cables. I have jump started many vehicles with my little Honda after pulling up and finding people with cheap jumper cables having difficulties. I carry a set of 20’ 4 gauge cables that are now 15 years old and they are the best investment I ever made. The 20’ length lets me reach batteries in vehicles that are in awkward places.
In a pinch two sets of cheap cables in parallel can do the trick too.
You only run into trouble when you try and jump start motorcycles, in which case the car you’re jumping from should be turned off.
Curious why you would say that. My bike has a 12VDC lead-acid battery and the magneto charging system puts out about 14 volts- it’s no different than a car battery and charging system with the exception that the current demand is lower. I’ve had bikes with gel cells too. The few times I have jumped bikes, I never started the car engine because the current demand of the bike isn’t enough of a load to need the car’s alternator helping. My current bike has compression release so starting is a snap. Just curious what your reasoning is…