I went out to my car this weekend after work to drive and get a bite to eat, and found engine chattering when I tried to start. I ran a check on the battery with a voltmeter and during cranking it was dropping from a decent 12.5V down to a whopping 4V. Bad battery? Oh yes.
So, it needed jumping.
How to jumpstart a car:
1.) Park good car near enough to bad car so that jumper cables can reach between the batteries, and open the hoods of both.
2.) Hook both read jumper clips to each red (positive) battery post on both cars.
3.) Attach black jumper to good battery negative post.
4.) Attach other black jumper to bad car metal chassis (engine block, unpainted bolt, etc) AWAY from bad battery (this is to avoid sparks which may ignite the hydrogen produced when charging a battery).
5.) Start good car. Rev it around 3-4k RPM for about 30 seconds.
6.) Start bad car.
7.) Remove black jumper clip on bad car, then on good car.
8.) Remove both postive jumper clips.
9.) Let bad car run for 30 minutes. Do not need to rev it, it will not charge any faster.
10.) If you have a Voltmeter measure the voltage at the battery posts while the car is running and the rear defroster, high beams, and heater fan are running. Less than 13.5 volts, your alternator is history.
In my case the car would not start on its own even after charging. Battery is a goner- need a new one!
If you change it yourself be sure to bring the old back to the place where you buy the new to recover you $10 core charge. Plus it helps the enviroment, if you give a flying shit. Mainly it saves you 10 bucks. And its probably illegal and a pain in the ass to dump it. So please, save a tree.
After a reader posted about saving water from lead I would like to start a rant.
Above, I am being sarcastic. Notice, that almost all old car batteries are recycled. This is because quite simply, a core charge exists. People in general do not give a shit about the enviroment - you have to make them give a shit by making in financially lucrative to do so. If it costs people time or money to save the environment, then it won't happen. Showing a bunch of bullshit National Geographics on saving the earth on TV isn't going to save the environment. IT will make people feel good, but it wont help. In fact, the power used to watch such films will, in essence, continue to destroy the enviroment. I am tired of people patting themselves on the back about recycling or "saving the enviroment" while they still burn incandescents in there home. Compact Flourescents use 1/4 the power, which saves 75% on your electric bill..which helps the environment. And you save money.
I actually care about the enviroment. I've spent enough time on 50-mile backpacking trips and camping to realize that we need to preserve what we have around us. What I don't care for, at all, is folks who are into recycling, "saving the enviroment", etc just because its hip and chic. This leads them to save it in the least efficient way (or worse, harm the enviroment more) and when the fad is over, they quit. Its kind of like those folks with the support our troops and breast cancer ribbons on there cars - stop advertising your doing it, becuase 10% of it went to the cause, the other 90% to the ribbon - just give your money to the foundation directly and stop bragging.
The rest of us are saving money, doing 10 times what the fakers are to save the enviroment, and getting cool tax breaks because of it.
A core charge is a good idea. A deposit on cans and bottles, is a good idea. Compact fluorescents are a good idea.
If you saved money, you probably saved the enviroment.
