If jump starting your vehicle was so scary and dangerous, the manufacture wouldn’t include the instructions in the owner’s manual:
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Thank you for the picture. I will save it to my phone for future reference.
Sure. If you don’t know what you’re doing…
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Jump started hundreds upon hundreds of vehicles and seen even more jump started over the years, never had any issues IF done correctly… If a vehicle is going to catch fire or explode etc, it would do it with a jump box also… I hooked cables up from my 09 to my 76 and ran the engine for over 30 minutes to charge the fun car battery back up once, no harm done, and I jump started my 17 with my 09 with no issues ether…
Can something bad happen while jump starting a vehicle, sure, can something happen pumping gas in your vehicle, again sure… The odds of it happening, probably better odds with the lottery…
Most vehicles now a days have a main fuse that will blow before major damage is done, now some of those fuses are an absolute PITA to replace, and may require a ECM flash or something afterwards, but no fires etc…
Idiot at work crossed the jump box cables trying to jump a Lexus or Infinity… What a freaking pain for a fuse, lots of stuff had to be removed, the pic doesn’t do it justice… lol
My Dad didn’t have to jump start his 1939 Chevrolet and worry about damaging the electronics. The 1939 Chevrolet came with a hand crank and the engine could be started with the hand crank if the battery did not have enough power to run the starter. I have seen my Dad start the Chevrolet with the hand crank. I think the compression ratio was less than 6:1, so hand cranking the engine was possible. Even if you did jump start the car, it didn’t have any electronics that could be damaged. The battery was under the right passenger floor.
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You make a good point that hand cranking may not be feasible w/modern engines sporting modern compression ratios (10+) b/c of the manual force required to turn the engine. My truck is appx 8, and Corolla is 10. I wonder if it is possible to design a hand-crank mechanism to hand crank either of them? Maybe some sort of clock-spring arrangement?
@George_San_Jose1 I bought a used Sears lawnmower with a spring starter. There was a crank to wind the spring. When the spring was wound up, the crank handle was flipped over and the spring would spin the engine. That spring starter for power mowers was.only svailable for a few years. I never knew why it was discontinued.
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I never knew why, either. I thought that it was a good idea, but i suspect that it wasn’t durable.
@VDCdriver Maybe there were safety considerations. The springl driven starter for power mowers was discontinued about the time the starter cord came up the handle to keep the operator a couple of feet from the revolving blade.
When the spring was wound up, the crank handle was flipped over and the spring would spin the engine. That spring starter for power mowers was.only svailable for a few years. I never knew why it was discontinued.
Years ago I worked for many years fixing lawnmowers and snowblowers. Those “wind up crank” starter mechanisms would break all the time. I was glad to see them discontinued.
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Hand cranking a modern car is impossible for a completely different reason than the compression ratio…
You can’t hand crank a modern engine fast enough to generate enough voltage to wake the ECU, run the fuel pump and fire the injectors.
I doubt you could bump start a modern manual trans car either.
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I’m able to pretty easily push-start my Corolla. Just by myself, running along-side while pushing it in a parking lot. I’ve done this several times before, when the starter is on the blitz. It is configured with computerized fuel injection, electric fuel pump,injectors, ecu. Maybe you are referring to most modern cars having automatic trans, which are usually difficult or impossible to push start. The owner’s manual says it is best to not push start the Corolla , implying emissions reasons.
But was the battery OK? My comment refers to a manual transmission car with fuel injection with a dead battery (which was how this whole discussion started) not a faulty starter.
Ok misunderstood your point. I never tried to push start it with a completely dead battery. One time the battery was partially discharged, contributing to “iffy” starter no-crank, and was able to push start it then. But it wasn’t completely dead.
The OP is asking about jumpstarting another vehicle. I damaged my Corolla’s alternator by jump starting another car.
You can damage your alternator while recharging the battery in your car.
How long did it take to damage your very old alternator?
Yes, there are many ways to damage an alternator. Aging may be all it takes.
IIRC the car’s original alternator was about 15 years old when I replaced it.
If your point is that jump start didn’t harm my alternator at all. It stopped working b/c of its age, and the jump start immediately prior to its failing was just a coincidence – definitely possible.
How long did you have the jumper cables connected?
Your Corolla has a 70 amp alternator, if you try to recharge a battery that has a shorted cell for 20 minutes, the diodes will overheat and cause damage to your alternator.
The OP’s car has a 150 amp alternator, that can handle a 5 minute jump start.
It took quite a long time. Other car’s battery was very discharged. But not 20 minutes. Probably 10-15 minutes. I’ll take your advice and not keep it connected for more than 5 minutes in the future, thanks. I was thinking the alternator was damaged after the jump start worked & when both cars were running at the same time and each alternator was battling the other. It was a diode problem.
Alternators are meant to keep a charged battery charged (in addition to actually running all of the electric stuff). But they aren’t meant to actually charge a battery. So yeah, if you try to charge up someone else’s battery via cables then it is alternator abuse. But that wasn’t the question.
Even when I need a new battery for whatever, I generally put it on a dedicated charger before installing. Maybe that’s over the top, but who knows how long its been sitting or if it’s in good shape. Sure, you can put a meter on it, but I have a good “smart” charger that makes sure it’s ready to go.