In most situations we will have another car to connect the ignition cables to in order to start a car that has run down its battery: a neighbor, a friendly person’s car passing by on the same road, or the towing service sent to us by our insurance company.
However, there are other ways to start a car without the help of another car. Let’s see what they are.
Table of Contents
- You can use a portable car battery jump starter
- Starting a car by pushing it ( only for manual transmission)
- Starting a car with a jack and rope (gasoline-powered vehicles with manual transmission)
You can use a portable car battery jump starter
To start a vehicle, you can also use a portable jump starter. It works on lithium polymer batteries and, because of this and despite its compact size, provides a fairly high cranking amperage.
You can purchase such a device if, for example, you use your vehicle in very harsh conditions, namely in areas with cold winters.
This device must be connected directly to the battery terminals. It is very important to respect the polarity when doing so.
For more detailed information on how to connect the jump starter cables, please read the battery jump starter manual carefully.
Normally, the following steps are necessary:
- Connect the red cable brought by the device to the positive terminal of the battery.
- Connect the black cable to the negative terminal of the discharged battery.
- Insert the connectors of the other two ends of the cables into the corresponding outputs of the portable jump starter.
- Select the required mode of the battery starter and switch on the device.
- Start the engine.
Starting a car by pushing it ( only for manual transmission)
This method is not valid for automatic transmission cars, unfortunately in the USA most cars use this type of transmission (95%).
When we cannot resort to other methods and our car is out of battery, one option we can resort to is the push start. This will, in most cases, make it possible to start the car without any electrical power and without any assistance.
The secret is to push the car down a downhill slope that can help us to reduce the effort, depress the clutch and engage second gear, and when it has picked up enough speed release the clutch so that the car, effectively, start without using the battery.
But be careful when releasing the clutch, do it with just the right intensity to reduce the retention blows and favor the start.
Using the second gear, instead of the first one, will make that you do not need so much force to start the car. In other words, you will not need to push the vehicle so hard. In some circumstances you will be able to do it even in third gear, although it is usually second gear the one that favors the most to start the car without battery with the method of pushing.
Starting a car with a jack and rope (gasoline-powered vehicles with manual transmission)
Before we try this trick, it is necessary to know that it does not work with all cars. The car in question must be a gasoline model (although it can also work on some diesels), with a manual gearbox and the smaller the engine, the easier it will be.
Once we decide to use this trick, we must follow the following steps:
- We lift the front wheels off the ground with the help of the jack lift
- Tie a rope around the wheel
- Put the car in first gear
- Turn on the ignition, just the ignition, in the car
- Make sure the handbrake is on
Once the above steps have been completed, the final trick is to pull hard on the rope to make the wheel turn as fast as possible, producing the same effect as pushing the car. Once you have done this, the alternator will work normally and you will be able to go to a garage to replace the battery.