How to jump a battery - need best practice tips

[hestersu]

Tater's battery gave it up this week and the car is completely dead. Not even clicking. I need to jump the car to get it down to the dealer for additional service work and now replace the battery. I need explicit instructions so I can do this tonight and possibly again in the morning.

Can someone please tell me precisely which terminal should be hooked up first? I don't want to fry my car if at all possible.

My car: 2006 TDI automatic (DSG)

Thanks for the help.

[RedThunder94]

on all cars i have jumped we always do the positive first, negative last, keeps sparks down to a minimum with both cars off and keys out of the ignition, then start the jumper car let it run for a few minutes and then try yours. if it is really dead you may need to have somebody rev the jumper car off idle that way it can give a little more power. hope this helps. the battery on the marq is only a year old and it died on the first cold snap we had here too, lol. gotta love it.

[boblamb58]

NO NO NO NO NO!!!


Absolutely DO NOT hook the terminals


of both cars together!!!!!

Positive to positive is OK.

Negative terminal on one to a grounding point on the other car, that is NOT the battery. Look for a metal spot on the frame.

Hooking up the batteries together can create an dangerous situation where one of them could possibly explode!

[FarrisK]

Boblamb: I've always heard that too, but I've jumped many cars, tractors, trucks, etc, battery to battery and never even seen any deformation of batteries. I'm not saying it CAN'T happen, just adding my own personal experience to the matter.

My dad has also jumped MANY cars (he had 58 project cars during college... in 3 years) this way and never had an explosion.

[hestersu]

I've probably jumped a hundred cars in my life connecting positive to positive and negative to negative and not had an issue. Maybe dumb luck or maybe not. I don't know. We jumped our tractor just last week doing it this way. I'm not saying it won't explode but I would wonder about the condition of the battery that may have contributed to an explosion.

I'm not saying I will or won't hook it up that way but I have to do something by tomorrow morning. I have to drive this car 100 miles south to a dealer in the morning. Our battery tender died and I don't have another one. I may only get one shot to get the car started in the morning. I need to make it count.

[marvins_dad]

Just spent last month with sim. problems Sue.

I probably jumped my car around 20+ times before we finally determined it was the alternator...3 times back and forth to SEARS and VW and 2 batteries...because we kept running them down because VW couldn't figure it out.

Anyway...have always done battery to battery...I switched for a while to the frame method for the negative when I heard that years ago, but as cars got more plastic I went back to battery to battery. Don't know if I could find a good ground point on the beetle...but maybe Bob can point an area out.

[Toad]

yeah, ive used my bug, fox, brother's 1.8t, the audi (from the battery under the seat and the positive terminal clip under the hood) and i've never had a problem going terminal to terminal.

I know if you do it wrong, you can mess **** up bad, but just make sure you go positive-positive and negative-negative and dont accidentally jump the terminals or any other stupid stuff and you should be fine.

[raff]

I'm assuming you've already done this - take off the battery cables and make sure the posts are clean/corrosion free - then re-attach the cables and tighten well.

Good luck tomorrow.

[hestersu]

Raff - I didn't have a chance to take everything apart. Just getting the top cover off was a major undertaking. There is a cable clip on the left side of the box that is attached to the cover. Getting that thing unclipped took me about 30 minutes. I was shocked. My husband (who was in a meeting) called his dad to bring the battery charger over. My father in law is 85 and thinks he knows everything. I just about got into a fight with him over the battery having a negative terminal. Since he couldn't see it, he insisted there wasn't one. This went on for over 10 minutes. It's there - just under the edge of the fender and hard to see. Then he wouldn't let me hook up the charger saying that I didn't know what I was doing. Another heated discussion ensued about it being my car ending with the statement that if the car gets fried, its on him. He let me hook it up. He then claimed the car would start within 10 minutes of beginning the charge. It didn't. He claimed it did because he heard a pump come on. That is not the motor and it did not turn over. He insisted it did. After 45 minutes of charging, the starter finally made some noise like it was groaning. I told everyone to leave and I would let the car sit over night on the charger. I did go out about 2.5 hours later an attempt to start the car. It did start but grudgingly. I shut it off.

The plan now is to get up and get dressed in the morning and start the car and go. I have a 1.5 hour drive to the dealer. The point here is to now get a new battery and have the radio pulled so it can be replaced. It is wedged in and they will have to really work at it to get it out. I believe the radio is what is draining the battery. It broke over a week ago.

I really hope this solves the problem. I'm royally upset and frustrated by what occurred with my father in law. It shouldn't have happened. I should have checked the terminals and I know how and what to look for. I will say that externally, they look good - even new looking. I see no signs of corrosion anywhere on the battery and nothing in the crevices. I used my Surefire to inspect it all. There could be corrosion under the connectors but it sure doesn't look like it.

[doublebarrel]

Best listen to boblamb58.DO NOT go battery to battery,I have seen 1 battery explode and the top get blown off another one because of this.The best way is + to +,then - on good battery and - on car being jumped.Last connection should be away from battery,anyplace metal should work,I normally try to go to a bracket on the engine.Be sure to keep the cables away from the fans as they could come on if car is warm.

[RedThunder94]

okay, i have done hundreds upon hundreds of jumps battery to battery and never had anything remotely similar to what you are describing, are you sure that you hooked them up properly, or were the connections crossed? battery already shorting out internally? lol, sounds like an urban myth. but to each his own.

[cep]

If you CAN attach the last negative to a metal point away from the battery, you have nothing to lose by doing it this way and unless you crave a face full of burning hydrogen gas and battery debris, quite a bit to lose by going direct.

I, too, have jumped hundreds of batteries going direct. But I do know of one person who suffered eye damage from an exploding battery from jumping direct. I like my eyes. Without them, Playboy magazine just isn't the same although a 'Braille' version might have some 'good points'. ba da BUMP...Ching!

But I do it this way. Hook both cables to dead battery, then positive to good battery, then negative to good vehicle ground, usually the other end of the neg (ground) cable if it's easy to get to.

[hestersu]

Well I'm back home with my car. The charger got enough of a charge on the car that it turned over grudgingly this morning at 6:45am CT. I only had 1/4 tank of diesel so I had to go fuel up. I didn't turn the car off while I fueled. I have never done that but the husband said it would be safe. After fueling, I headed south to Lubbock. Pulled in at 8:40am CT. They were expecting me and they pulled it into a bay immediately. First order of business was to test the battery. This had been done 2 weeks ago and the battery showed adequate (good) then. Today, it showed a dead cell. Easy fix - put in a new battery and clean the terminals. Cost: $0. Yeah for me!

The second order of business was to pull the radio and attempt to get the CD out along with ordering a new radio. Success on the pulling the radio and ordering a new one. Fail on getting the CD out. Bummer. The new radio will be here in 2 to 4 weeks. The old radio will be sent back to VW and they will get the CD out. I don't expect to get my CD back until late November or December. Cost: $0

Both of these items were under warranty so I didn't have to pay a dime. The radio was not causing the power drain which is good.

Thanks for all the pointers regarding how to jump the car off. I didn't have to do it but at least now I'm prepared to do it if I need to.

[cep]

How'd you get off so cheap? Extended warranty?

[hestersu]

I'm still under warranty. I don't have an extended warranty (I think). I've considered it but haven't done it.

[cep]

That's good to know. I guess our '06 is still under warranty, too.

[hestersu]

Update: dealership called yesterday to tell me the new radio is in. Impressive. They told me it would take 2 to 3 weeks to get one. I'm trying to arrange for the time to get down to the dealership (100 miles away) so I can get this swapped out. If I can take a day of vacation, I will go ASAP. Otherwise, it will be 10/17 before I can go down there.