Can a Car Battery Be Too Dead to Jump Start? (Explained)

Having a dead battery is a bad day for all drivers. Jumpstarting your car is the first and could be the only option you can do, but is it possible that a car battery can be too dead that it will not start? Let us find out.

So can a car battery be too dead to jumpstart? The answer is no. Even if a car battery is too dead, it can always be jump started.

Of course, if your car battery is already damaged, then that would be a case where your car battery cannot be jump started. So now, let us talk about jumpstarting a dead car battery.

Can a Car Battery Be Too Dead to Jump Start

What to Do If Your Car Is Too Dead to Jump Start?

A battery that is too dead can still be jump started. However, you need to follow a few steps on jumpstarting a car with a too dead battery. The first step is to check if the car battery is completely dead or not.

You need to do this checking first because if your car battery is not completely dead and you will give it a boost, your car battery can acquire damage from the boost. You must carry jumper cables all the time because you would never know when you needed a jump start.

Dead batteries can happen anywhere and anytime. With that, you must always be prepared in case you need to jumpstart your dead battery. To do a jumpstart on your too dead battery, you need a lending hand.

It would help if you had someone who will offer you their help and lend their good battery. You need a good source of power to jumpstart your car. Before connecting the jumper cables to perform the jumpstart, it must ensure no leaks on the vehicle.

With the precautions, make sure that there are no leaks because hydrogen gas can cause harm to people. You also need to use gloves for further protection. With all the precautions, you can now connect the jumper cables to the batteries.

How Do You Jump Start a Completely Dead Battery?

In jumpstarting a completely dead battery, you need to park your car very close to the car with good and fully charged batteries. This must be followed so that the jumper cables can reach the two cars. It is essential, though, to not let the two cars reach or touch each other.

The next thing to do is turn off the ignition of both cars. Now, find the one end of the clamp and the positive cable and connect it to the positive clamp of the dead battery. After that, connect the other end of the cable and clamp it to the positive clamp of the other battery.

Find the negative cable and connect it to the negative terminal on the good battery. Now, get the other end of the negative cable to the ground on the car with a dead battery. You must make sure that you don’t touch the two ends of the cable when you perform this.

You then need to start a car that has a good battery. Next is to start the car with the dead battery. If nothing happens when you do this, you need to check for any errors.

Look for the cables and check if there are any loose ends. You also need to check for any dirty ends or rusted ends. Try again after doing all the checking.

If your car starts, allow the car with a dead battery to run its engine for at least twenty minutes. Have the battery enough time for it to recharge. If, after doing everything and your car still will not start, other problems need to be addressed.

How Long Does It Take Jump Start a Dead Battery?

The answer is the same for everybody. The amount of time will always vary. Sometimes, the average would be from two minutes to ten minutes.

But this is not in general. Some cars would take up to thirty minutes. And some cars would even take more.

There are a lot of things that must be considered. The condition of the battery is also a factor. Though you can jumpstart a dead car battery, it is a different issue if your car battery is already damaged.

The good battery that you will get the power to jumpstart can also be a factor. If the car battery that will help your dead battery is also damaged or not charged enough, the jumpstart might take relatively longer than the average. So the amount of time that a jumpstart would take will vary from many factors.

jump starting dead car battery

How Do You Fix a Dead Car Battery Without Jumping It?

When you are stuck in a position that you have a dead battery, jumpstarting your car is the best thing. But there are worse cases that you can find yourself in.

One case is that you are in a remote area and no one can give you a helping hand, and you have no jumper cable. You must always have a second option or a backup plan to get your car to start without jump starting it.

You can grab the portable jump starter that you have in your car, or you can call a tow truck. You can also call the AAA for battery service. This is why it is essential to have with you always jumper cables.

You also have to always check your vehicle and your car battery so that you will not have a dead battery in the middle of nowhere. You can be lucky if you had the dead battery on in a public and crowded place, but in cases that you do not, it is always helpful to be prepared. So you can try the different options mentioned above in case you got a dead battery and no help on sight.

Summary

In summary, a car battery that is too dead can still be jump started. It is another issue if your car battery is damaged already that it cannot hold a charge.

But if it is just dead, you can jumpstart your car to get it running. You can do some options if you have no other car to help you jumpstart your car.

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Image credits – Canva

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My name is Hank, and I've been in the automotive industry for 27 years. I've been working in my own auto repair shop for the last 13 years, and now I want to help you here, on my blog. Let me know if you have any questions. Read more