What to Do When Your Car Battery is Dead

Handling a Dead Car Battery: Tips and Tricks

A dead car battery is a common inconvenience that can mess up your day and leave you stranded. Fortunately, knowing what steps to take can help you handle the situation with confidence and minimal stress. Here’s a comprehensive guide on what to do when your car battery dies, whether at home or on the road.

Before you jump start, try these tricks

1) Try rotating the battery terminals— Pop the hood and try rotating the battery terminals to see if they’re loose. If they move, they’re loose. If you have tools, tighten them to the point where they no longer rotate. However, rotating them might clear off enough corrosion to get you a better connection. Try starting the engine. If that doesn’t work, move on to trick #2.

2) Tap the battery terminal— I know this sounds crazy, but it works sometimes. Remove a shoe and use the heel as a hammer. Tap the side of the battery terminals. Then try starting the engine.

Why this works: Corrosion can build up between the battery terminals and posts and that corrosion can prevent a good connection. In addition, the battery post can develop high resistance with the bus bar inside the battery. Sometimes, all it takes is some vibration to establish a good enough connection to get you going. Just for the record, this tip has helped many people, so don’t scoff at it.

3) Repeat start attempts followed by a 5-minute rest period— Try starting the engine five times in a row. Then don’t touch the key for at least five minutes before trying to start it again.

Why this works: The repeated attempts create heat inside the battery, causing the plates and bus bar to expand during the five-minute wait period. Then, the heat and expansion might be enough to get you the power you need to finally start the engine.

None of these tricks are permanent fixes, so get your battery and charging system tested as soon as possible to find the root cause.

Use a Jumper Pack or Try Jump-Starting the Battery

Position the Working Vehicle Close to Your Vehicle

Park the working vehicle close enough to the dead vehicle so the jumper cables can reach both batteries, but ensure the cars don’t touch.

Connect the Jumper Cables

Warning: Connecting the jumper cables to the right locations is critical. Reversing the polarity can blow fuses in your car and even damage expensive electronics, costing thousands to repair. Check and double-check your connections. If you have any doubt as to which terminal is the Positive + or Negative, see this post on how to jump-start a car.

Red Cable (Positive +): Connect one end of the red cable to the positive terminal (+) of the dead battery. Attach the other end to the positive terminal of the working battery.
Black Cable (Negative): Connect one end of the black cable to the negative terminal (-) of the working battery. Attach the other end to a metal, unpainted part of the dead vehicle’s engine or chassis, away from the battery.

Look for the embossed polarity markings on both batteries. The positive post will have a + sign and the negative post will have a — sign. Don’t guess! Getting it wrong can damage electronics in both vehicles.

Allow Some Time For the Working Vehicle to Charge Your Battery

• Turn off all electrical accessories in your vehicle.
• Turn off all electrical accessories in the working vehicle
• Start the engine in the working vehicle, rev the engine to about 1,500 RPM, and hold it at that RPM. This will help generate more power to charge the dead battery.
• Let the revving engine run for about five minutes to charge your battery

Start the Dead Vehicle

Try starting your car. If it starts, let it run for a while to recharge the battery further. If it doesn’t start, check the connections and try again or seek professional help.

Disconnect the Jumper Cables

Once the dead vehicle is running, carefully disconnect the cables in reverse order: black cable from the dead vehicle, black cable from the working vehicle, red cable from the working vehicle, and red cable from the dead vehicle.