Why do you have to wait awhile when jumpstarting a car even with very thick cables?

Question

It seems like it would be a pretty direct connection from the live battery to the dead car's starter. I have some very nice cables. Is it quicker to ground on something metal or just black to black red to red?

Answer 1

the best bet when jump starting a car is to go + to + with the red cable and from good battery - to bad battery engine block ground. if you cant get a good crank and you know you have a good connection then the dead battery is too far gone and needs to be replaced, its drawing all the current and is acting like a second load device.

Answer 2

The dead battery will draw power off, causing what you describe. You could take off the positive terminal of the dead battery, but then you'd have to connect it up while running, and that isn't advisable. Let it run for a couple of minutes.

The reason you hook the last black lead up to metal on the dead car's engine is to keep sparks away from the battery, just in case there's hydrogen gas present.

You may never blow a battery up just hooking up to the terminals, and it doesn't happen very often, but you don't really want to be a poster child on a safety bulletin board.

Answer 3

The "wait awhile" is due to the heat generated with a large current drain. Let the battery cool down a bit if doing repeated attempts.

As for the connection of the leads you MUST ensure you don't short out or wrongly connect the jumper leads as you can fry the engine management computer. An expensive exercise. Obviously you need batteries with the same voltage. Check your owner's manual for their recommandations. You usually find people recommend connecting the positive connections post to post then the earth (black) last.

Answer 4

you need to wait because the dead battery may need to build a charge first.if the battery providing the jump isnt rated as high as the battery getting the jumped, it wont have enough power. conversely if the dead battery is of lower rating than the battery providing,the wait wont be as long since the higher rated can provide a full charge much quicker

Answer 5

My understanding is that its not like a light switch that you jump to turn on, but rather like an air pump or gas tank that you need to give a little bit to recharge. I think it depends more on how dead the battery is. If you left a light on over night, it probably wouldn't take much to recharge it. However, if its an older battery you could very well have it stall out again as soon as you stop at your first stop light if you don't give it a little bit of time to charge.

I'm not by any means a car expert, but that's how I understand it.

Answer 6

ok here it is first off u have to let the dead battery take a little charge to help the current flow though after about 2 mins the curent can flow freely and its easyer to boost always hook red to red and on the good battery hook to black and last and not least hook the other blk cable to a good ground on the dead car aways hook up red first and before boost turn the ign off on the good car after car is boosted disconnect ground first ur done and no dammage is done to either car if u forget to turn off boosting car when dead car starts it could fry the alt on the good car good luck

Answer 7

wait, you want to go from the starter to the battery? LOL
Id LOVE to see that. Ill be the fire dept, comes by and every thing.
your starter does not hold power, you need to connct to the battery and it should only take a minute to crank but you need to run 5 minutes to keep it going and drive it 30 to charge the battery back up.

Answer 8

don't know about wait for awhile, grounding the cables is easier to start the motor, yes + to + & - to - , cables direct to the stater's + point is another way you can try.

Hope it helps, Merry Christmas.

Answer 9

depends on how many cranking amps are on the opp. batt