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• Park both cars so their batteries are within easy reach of one another.
• Keep the handbrakes on and the ignitions off.

• Use the red jump lead to connect the working battery’s positive (+) terminal to the flat battery’s positive (+) terminal. Never touch the ends of the red and black leads together as this could create sparks and cause vehicle damage.

•  Take the black jump lead and attach it to the negative (-) terminal on the working battery
• Then, attach the other end to an earthing point (unpainted metal on the engine block or chassis) well away from the flat battery and fuel system.

•  Keep both engines off and wait for 3 minutes, then start the working car’s engine and let it run for 1 minute .

•  Turn on the engine in the car with a flat battery.

•  Leave both cars to idle, at a fast pace, for around 10 minutes.

• Turn off both cars’ engines and carefully disconnect the leads in the reverse order to the way they were connected (remove the black lead from your car first and finish with the red lead from the other car).
• Make sure the leads don’t touch one another, or either car, as you remove them.

• Try turning the keys in the ignition to see if your car will start up. If not, you could have a charging issue usually caused by a faulty alternator or battery.

A jump start is a handy way to start a car with a flat battery but jump leads can cause damage to both cars and people if they’re not used properly.

For your safety, and our peace of mind, we’d always prefer you to give us a call and leave the jump starting to our trained mechanics.

If a jump start is attempted in an unsafe manner then yes, it can be dangerous. One of the worst possible outcomes is that it could cause a fire (if you attempt to jump start a damaged or leaking vehicle battery).

In modern cars, jump starts can also lead to damage of key electrical systems on board the vehicle, including anything from the airbags to the Bluetooth systems. At worst, using jump leads in the wrong way could harm you physically, and at best, it could cost you a fortune in vehicle repairs.

If in doubt, it's best to contact us to get help.

A successful jump start is unlikely to cause any damage (or additional damage) to either battery. A battery that's in good shape will continue to perform as usual and start recharging as you're driving. However, if the jump start is carried out incorrectly, it's possible to cause damage to a car battery.