When Boosting another Vehicle is this correct.

Yes, it is good to leave the headlights on - but you should be connecting the negative of the dead-batt car to chassis (ground it) and not to he Neg output - you are putting it parallel to the good batt and a good chance that you MAY kill that chip. Hooking ip (+) to (+) and (-) to (-) is wrong and bad.

When jump starting another vehicle you should shut the running engine off before connecting anything. Then connect both positive ends to the positive terminals of the batteries. Then connect the negative leads to a steel bracket on the engine of both vehicles, usually there are lifting brackets or an engine locating strut bracket. Note that I said; engine locating strut "BRACKET", not the strut itself as the strut is mounted in rubber.

because I haven't done that a hundred times on newer vehicles... didn't damage any of them.

"Denny B" wrote

There are enough stupid people out there that aren't careful how they hook up the leads and end up frying some valuable components. This is what the manufacturers are trying to prevent.

There is nothing wrong with just hooking up booster cables to the two batteries (correctly) even with the engine of the donor car running. I've been working on cars for 23 years, and have yet to have had any problems by boosting this way. The recommendation to put the negative cable away from the actual battery post is simply a precaution in case the battery is leaking acid and the spark ignites the battery and blows it up. If at all possible it's better to install the negative booster cable to a ground on the engine, but I've done it both ways.

Just the other day, I was talking to one of the service advisors about a customer who had just towed in their fairly new Blazer. Seems the wife and daughter had attempted to boost the vehicle, got the positive and negative crossed....and the vehicle almost went up in smoke. Who knows what they blew on that vehicle.....will be interesting to find out how many components they fried. But that's the main concern, crossing positive and negative. Boosting new cars is done all the time. I'm not dragging a car in the shop if I can just roll a booster pack out to it.

Ian

Well, if you put them + to + and - to - and always use your own car to do the jump, your batt is gonna need replace - gonna run low on juice lol. Well, just make sure you have a good set of cables and try to match up the batt sizes :) I once saw some guy using a Honda Civi to jump start a Ford Windstar - the Winstar sucked the juices out of the Civi cause they decide to leave the cables on to "charge" the Windstar before cranking it. I drive a GMC Safari, so I ended up jumping the two of them LOL

--- take a quick read in your car's owner manual, they will show you how to properly jump start your car. *note. on some newer car's like the Chevy Venture, they put the "Negative" terminal in a super uneasy spot to reach on purpose so that owner's wont beable to help jump start other cars unless they REALLY know what they are doing - cause if not, they might damage something. Hence why again, the (-) of the bad car should go to a metal connection on the car, not the (-) - you end up putting the two batts in parallel, rather than series. Here is a quick goggle -

The negative side of the battery is connected to car ground. It does not make any difference if the (-) cable is put on the battery or part of the car. It is the same thing. The reason it is not wise to attach the cable directly to the battery is because there may hydrogen gas there. It may explode.

You want the batteries parallel. It would be difficult and dangerous to put them in series.

I had to jump start my Grand Prix and I was using a Silverado to give me the boost. Had the negative cable hooked up to the battery (Gramps did it) and my car wouldn't start. Moved the negative cable to an unpainted part of my chassis, turned the key and it churned right up.

Sounds like it either wasnt making contact at the bat post or it had a=20 bad ground wire.

I guess if this thread tought me anything it is that Nissan doesnt want=20 their cars jumped and I'll gladly oblidge them in that endeavor. ;-)

Better ohm/volt out the cable. It is not grounded properly. It will lead to early alternator death along with a host of other electrical problems.

Oops, my bad - you are right, the other way around - hah hah. :P Silly me, series means it will be a total of 24V when they are "good" LOL - not good for the rest of the electronics! The important thing, just get it right - and yes, not to wise to hook up to neg batt cause it may explode, I think that link give a description of that.

LOL! Me too. GW

Better ohm/volt out the cable. It is not grounded properly. It will lead to early alternator death along with a host of other electrical problems.

I'll check into the cable thing when it warms up a little bit. It happened just after I replaced the alternator too (first one @ 90k miles). Just curious, but could a loose connection at the alternator have done that?

I'm probably going to check the wire when it gets a little bit warmer out (gotta love Milwaukee weather...one day its 60 the next it's 15). But then it may also have not been making contact. All I can remember is that it was freaking cold out and my alternator plug wasn't pushed into the alternator all the way.

And every one of them is behind the wheel here in Southern Calif when it's raining. Except for me. I'm stupid, just not that stupid.

My prediction is: The sacrificial devices now installed by the factory are arrayed like a regiment of pikemen, lancers and bowmen. I don't forsee any factory component other than what was supposed to open up at the reversal will be affected.( Aftermarket things that they hang on and hook directly to the battery with a long wire run can sometimes fizzle.) That's not how I would expect the factory to do things, as I'd expect them to leave one component supply unprotected just to sell a part to a dummy. Let me know if I was right or just passing gas.

I concur. I think what the folks are trying to prevent here is damage due to voltage spiking during the establishment of the connection. But capacitors can be a sponge for those, especially big ones, and a car battery is almost a perfect capacitor, and a huge one at that. The component that's a bugger for killer spike generating is the cycling AC compressor clutch, and the AC compressor is included even in the defrost selection, so it's a well used component. The various points of the electrical system are already hardened for that stuff, with the first device being the diode across the compressor clutch supply and earth at the connector. Many of the sealed electronic components are internally protected, just in case some yahoo scratches his head wondering who the hell put a resistor on this here icebox? (true event)

Jack

A loose connection at the alt should not prevent jump starting with cable= s at the battery posts but it could shorten alt life due to resistance and transients.