Today, when I stepped outside and headed towards my car, a carpet installation van had its battery dead. The driver asked if he could use my car to jump start his.
I’m a very generous and clueless man and I try to help others as much as possible ; needless to say, I permitted the van driver to use my car to jump start his with a confirmation from him that he knew what he was doing.
He used his own jump cable.
Once done, the devil started whispering in my ear saying stuff like “ Your battery just got destroyed. Your alternator will soon go, too. Heck, why did you help someone with car issues when you are clueless ?”
Presumably the jump start did the trick and after you helped this person, you drove off on your way to wherever. A jump start, properly done, isn’t going to harm your battery or alternator. And if it all worked and you each drove on your merry way, then it was properly done.
Many years ago, when I was living in an apartment complex, a lady’s car needed a jump start. She had the cable and asked if I knew how to jump start a car, and instead of being honest with her that I didn’t know how to, I told her yes because I wanted to help, and because I’ve seen people do jump start a couple of times before.
So I connected the cable to the batteries ( not understanding the positive and negative technicals ) and the cable sparked fire, and the lady ran away from near the car.
Fortunately for us, my friend who was a mechanic saw what happened and came to us. He then showed me how I connected the cable incorrectly and said I was very lucky to not be electrocuted.
It was a long time ago ( about 15 years ago ), so I can’t recall how to correctly connect a jump start cable to a battery.
I saw my brother in-law perform a different technique when jump starting a dead car. He connects one side of the cable wire to the battery and the other cable wire to a metal part of the car, such as the hood and it worked fine for him.
If the other driver used cables it could have damaged the electronics in your car. The problem is from a backward electrical surge. I wouldn’t do that in the future. My wife’s minivan has a habit of losing charge and having a no start. If you really, really want to be a Good Samaritan buy a power pack for yourself and keep it in your trunk. Its battery will discharge over time. If you have driven the car and not noticed any electronic failures, you are probably OK.
This is why the jumper cable clamps are colored red and black, red must be connected to the positive terminal, black to the negative. If you are color blind, use clamps that are marked “positive” and “negative”.
Lithium Ion jump starters have polarity protection to protect the jumper battery. These can be a challenge to use; the jumper pack disconnects after each start so if the engine does not start on the first attempt, the jump starter must be reset by disconnecting and reconnecting the cables from the jumper pack.
I am on my third lithium ion jump starter, they don’t last long.
If your battery can start your engine, it should be able to start other engines. It doesn’t matter which engine your battery starts.
Years ago, dealers used a jump start “buggy” to start vehicles with dead batteries. Those large jumpers don’t have enough power to start a diesel pick-up truck with two dead batteries, so I made my own jumper. One battery, two cables and two clamps.
This battery can jump start many diesel engines without fail, mainly because the short cables allow for more power delivery.
When I was a pump jockey/grease monkey in ‘66, a young lady had me check the electrolyte level in her VW bug. I removed the back seat, not one battery but two hook in parallel. I looked at her, she says “it always starts”.
I have a jump pack, got it when on sale, only used it once to start my neighbor’s car.
I recall (not fondly) having to remove the back seat of my brother’s '64 Beetle in order to jump start it.
When he went off to Vietnam, he left the car with his father-in-law, who used the VW solely for extremely-short drives (1.5 miles, or less) and as a result the battery went dead fairly often. It was my job to jump-start the VW–on a congested city street where there was a VERY long reach to get to the battery terminals–and it really pissed me off that these rescues were my responsibility.
Those short drives–coupled with absolutely no maintenance for the 1 year+ that the FIL used the car–resulted in my brother having to junk the Beetle shortly after he returned home.
Those large jump starter packs have a gel lead-acid battery. From my experience with those, they have a shorter life span than the battery in the car. So, when you need it, will it work? If you have one of these jump starters, have you tested it to see if it can still start an engine?
Jump starts are not a good idea with modern cars full of expensive electronics. If the van had a shorted electrical system you definitely could have had a problem including explosion and fire. Even with older vehicles there was a procedure to follow to minimize the chance of damage.
