How to NOT Jump Start a Car and Which Gauge Jumper Cables Should You Own

I hooked up jumper cables to Stacey’s car. Few minutes later we tried to start it.

Nothing.

"Maybe the battery is dead."

But something felt off. The cables felt small and light. It was hard to even get good contact from the battery.

Turns out it didn’t matter. Nothing we did would of started the car.

Jumper cables were 10-gauge. The could start a golf cart but not a normal car.

These jumper cables came from a car emergency kit I bought for Stacey. It included 125 items and one of them were jumper cables.

Jumper cable gauge typically ranges from 1 to 12.

• 1-gauge is heavy duty
• 12-gauge is light

Most mechanics recommend you to have jumper cables with 4-gauge rating. This will usually work in most cases including a dead battery.

I have since bought 4-gauge rating jumper cables and already used them couple of times with success, including a dead battery.

This pair of AmazonBasics 4-gauge jumper cables works well for vans, large-size SUVs, full-size cars, mid-size cars, and small/compact cars.

Look at the difference between these two jumper cables. Shitty ones on the left and good ones on the right:

Jump Starting a Car the CORRECT Way

Another thing I’ve been doing completely wrong since 18 when I got my first car is hooking up the jumper cables.

Wrong Way

DO NOT DO THIS!

• I would start the car
• Put the Positive Red and Negative Black on the running car first
• Then walk over to the dead battery car and put the Positive and Negative cables on the dead vehicle
• Often putting the negative on the dead battery car would crate sparks
• I would then leave the car running with cables connected for 10 minutes

I thought this was normal. And granted the car would start. All worked but this was incorrect. Wrong way. I’ve been doing this for decades.

Correct Way

SHIT. I’ve been doing the battery thing all wrong. Still worked but FUCK. Incorrect the entire time.

• Color Meaning on Jumper cables:
• Red (Positive +)
• Black (Negative –)

Below are the correct steps.

• Engine off
• Start with positive to DEAD battery (red dead)
• Positive to GOOD battery
• Negative to GOOD battery
• Negative to unpainted metal surface of the DEAD vehicle battery (frame, bolt or engine block)
• Start vehicle with GOOD battery
• Let it idle then start the dead vehicle 1-2 min
• Remove cables in reverse order
• Negative from unpainted metal surface of the dead battery (frame, bolt or engine block)
• Negative from GOOD battery
• Positive from GOOD battery
• Positive from DEAD battery

Drive the car around for 10-15 min.

Good detailed video about the process:

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