Jump-Starting: Do It Safely Without Damage to Your Car!

Your battery is dead. You are stuck in a parking lot. A friendly stranger offers a jump start. You are relieved. You grab the jumper cables, attach them quickly, and within minutes the engine roars back to life. Problem solved.

Except it is not. You may have just damaged your car"s electronics. And you would never know it until weeks or months later, when a sensor fails, the engine computer glitches, or the radio stops working.

Jump-starting a car seems simple. But doing it incorrectly can send a destructive voltage spike through your car"s sensitive electronics. Modern cars are packed with dozens of computer modules that operate at precise voltages. A single spike can fry them instantly.

Here is why you are probably jump-starting incorrectly, and how to do it safely every time.