**Identifying and Troubleshooting a No Start Condition with a Battery Jumper**

When dealing with a car that won't start, one of the first steps is to jump-start the vehicle using jumper cables. This simple method can often get the engine running again, allowing you to assess the situation better. In this article, we'll explore the process of identifying and troubleshooting a no start condition when using a battery jumper.

**Pre-Jump-Start Preparations**

Before attempting to jump-start the car, it's essential to ensure that both vehicles are parked on level ground, with the engines turned off and in neutral or park gear. The batteries should be connected to each other and to the vehicle's positive (+) terminal, while ensuring the cable is securely attached to the negative (-) terminal of the other vehicle. It's crucial to check that the prong on the battery post fits snugly onto the metal bracket, as a loose connection can prevent the car from starting.

**Understanding Battery Connection**

The condition and cleanliness of the battery posts are critical for a successful jump-start. A good connection is essential to ensure that the voltage flows freely through the system. If the battery posts are dirty or greasy, it may not provide an optimal connection, leading to weak voltage or no start at all. In this scenario, we can see that the top of my battery post is very clean, indicating a good connection.

**Double-Checking Battery Health**

While checking the battery connections, it's also essential to verify the overall health of the battery itself. A failing battery may not display any visible signs of damage or wear. However, by performing simple tests, we can determine if the battery needs to be replaced. In this instance, we decided to test the battery's cold cranking amps (CCA) to ensure it was functioning correctly.

**Test Results and Conclusion**

After conducting the necessary tests, we discovered that the car started up after using a battery jumper. However, since the battery didn't show any signs of failure during the initial jump-start attempt, we decided to bring the vehicle to a local auto parts store for further testing. The results revealed that the battery had failed, with low CCA and voltage readings.

**Determining the Correct Battery Replacement**

When selecting a replacement battery, it's essential to consider factors such as CCA, regular amps, and the size of the battery. In this case, we discovered that the correct battery for our vehicle was one with 1,000 cold cranking amps and 65Ah (ampere-hours) capacity.

**Post-Jump-Start Maintenance**

After installing a new battery, it's crucial to maintain the terminals to ensure optimal performance and prevent corrosion. To achieve this, apply a rust-inhibiting lubricant, such as 1000 spray, to both terminals. This will help protect the metal from damage and keep the connection clean.

**Marking Off Battery Purchase Date**

To keep track of battery purchases, it's recommended to mark off the month and year on the battery with a marker. In our scenario, we marked January 15 as the date of purchase for this particular battery.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enHey guysChrisFix hereToday I'm gonna show you one of the most common problemsAnybody who ownes a car will face.And that's when you go to start your car,(Engine turning over)It just won't startI think you can hear thatMy battery definitely sounds lowDo it one more timeI want you to listen...(Engine turning over slowly, not starting)Now this can be a few different things,I'm gonna go through the steps that I would normally takeTo try to figure out what the problem isGiven, what you just sawSo that you can get a little bit of background information,When I go to start the car...Well now it wont even crank.But when I went to start the carIt was cranking.So you know that the starter is engaging,You know that the engine is spinningI drove this car last night, it's beenparked in my driveway, and the battery went dead.While I was driving, I did notsee any battery light come onif you see a battery light come on,It can be your battery or your alternator that's not chargingI didn't see any battery light come on.This was an overnight thingThe car won't start nowit got down to 30 degrees Fahrenheitlast night, and batteries don't like the cold,so it's making me think that it isa battery problemAlso, if you look at the clock right now,it's not twelve o'clockit's 2:30 on most cars when you losebattery power your clock will reset thetwelve o'clock so we know we lostbattery powerNow what I'm going to do with the car inthe run position, I'm going to turn theheadlights on and you can seeshut the headlights, turn it on, thedimming of the lights and the beepingare all indicators that we have a dyingbatterythese are all just little test that youcould do without a multimeterbefore you go take it somewhere just tokind of get some information on what'sgoing onlet's go check out the battery and seewhat's up. At this point I want you tothink about the situation and take aguess to see what you think the problem isbased on everything that we've gonethrough so far. So let's go take a lookat our battery and just see if there'sanything that stands out this battery isseven years oldthat's something good to note batterieslast on average four years so this isalmost double the lifespan of thebattery if we look at the negativegroundyou can see it looks pretty cleanthere's some crystallizationright down there so i might have to cleanthe negative battery terminal you'd besurprised on times with the negativebattery terminal dirty that's the reasonwhy car won't start and reason why youwon't get power to head lights and stuffso that's definitely something toconsiderand then the positive terminal. Thatlooks pretty goodit could use some cleaning too butthere's nothing there that really makesme think that's the positive batteryterminal looks pretty normalif you don't know how old your batteryis there should be a sticker either ontop of the battery or on the sideso here's where the date would be youknow you can see here's the monthshere's the years in my case you see noneof them are marked off so the person whoinstalled this battery didn't say whenthe battery was purchased and installednormally you would have a marker or inthis case I think these people offso let's just say in april of 2005 youbought this battery and how to installso the April mark and then the number 5mark will be marked offI think this one has a three yearwarranty it says three year warranty andthen sometimes are prorated after thatso you get some money back if it's likefive years and it goes bedeither way you get the idea that's acheck to see when your battery waspurchased and installed and that couldhelp you figure out if you think itmight be the battery like I said sevenyears is a long time for a batteryI'm pretty sure it is the batterybecause of that so we want to go startthe engineit did turn over turned over very slowlyit didn't sound right it sounded like itwas really working it was having a hardtime and that's typical of a bad batteryso without any equipment just listeningto things just doing some diagnosticstuff checking the clock on the radiolistening to hear the engine turningover making sure everything is actuallyengaging hearing that the starter soundslike it's going slow just by hearingstuff like thatwe don't even need to use a multimeteror any special equipment to get an ideawhat the problem isnow if you don't have a multimeter nextthing you could do is just jump startyour car battery charge it upwhatever you need to do to get chargeinto this and start your car and then goover to your local auto parts storethey'll check your battery for free andthey'll actually put a load on it andthey'll tell you the batteries bad and thenthey can also check your alternator forfree to tell you if the alternator iswhat's causing the battery problem thereis a slight chance that you could have adraw a parasitic draw which meanssomething is using battery power whilethe engines off and using too muchbattery power so overnight your car goesdead but I don't think that's thesituation herebut since I do own a multimeter i haveit set to 20 DC volts i'm going to turnit ongood at my two leads here you can seehere it's at zero volts I'm gonna goblack to black | red to red 10 volts thatshould be 12.6 or anywhere around 12.6so this just further confirms that ourbattery is most likely the culprit whenyou're testing with the multimeter youwant to make sure that your prong hereis on this battery head and it's niceand cleanyou want a good connection if this isall dirty and greasy and you put this onthere you might not get any voltage oryou might have weak voltage so you cansee the top of my battery post is verycleanI have a good connection and that goesfor the black negative side and for theRed positive sideboth are clean and ready to go. Soobviously this doesn't cover everythingI could go 20 minutes about this. I'mpretty sure it's a bad batteryI'm gonna go jump this and I'm gonna gotake a ride to the store and then we'regoing to see how they actually test thebattery and they'll confirm if it's abad battery or not they do it all forfreeit's just worth it so let's go see whatthey tell us(Engine turning over)(Engine starting)(Engine running)Now because the car started out when Iuse the battery jumper you could hear itactually still wagbut then finally there's enough juiceand that jumper to get startedand because I'm not getting a batterylight as the cars running and I mean Icould turn my headlights on and I stillwon't get the battery lightI could add the blower motor here turnit up all the waystill no battery light. The car didn't stallso I don't think it's an alternator problemI think it's a bad battery. And again I'mjust going through things that it might bejust so that you can get an idea ofhow to do all these tests without evenusing a multimeter. You could be on theside of the road with no tools at alland be doing these little simple testsjust to check things outso let's go out have your local partsstore check the battery and we'll seehow bad this battery actually isI'm here at the local auto parts storeand they're going to test out ourbattery for me.Just gonna, connect this load testerPut a load on the batteryWe're getting a printout of the resultsok so just as we thought we need toreplace the battery the voltage was goodwhich makes sense because we just ranthe car for 15 minutes to get to thestore that was 13 volts the coldcranking amps should have been 850 butit was 315 and then it said the batteryfailed and it should be replacedso even though we're going to go insideand they're going to show us whatbattery that we need just want to doublecheck on the battery somewhere it willtell you how many cold cranking ampsright there it says there's 850 coldcranking amps. 1,000 regular ampsand the size of the battery is 65njust got back from paying and by thetime I even get back there already havethe new battery in and I'm ready to goso let's see if she starts up.Starts up like a brand new car. Nice and simpleAnd that's exactly how Igo through troubleshooting a 'no start' condition.In this case we had a bad battery.But now you got to see how I go through step by stepTo try to identify where theproblem is.Is it the alternator? Is it the battery? Is the starter engaging?So hopefully this video is helpful.If it was, remember to give it a thumbs up!Also, if you're not s subscriber, consider subscribing.The tip for this video is, grab a markerNormally, on the batteries you'll have amonth and a year.This one doesn't have it and you'll beable to mark off what month and year you purchased the batteryPlus you do get a three year warranty and also batteriesLast around 4 yearsso after four years you might want toget your battery checked with the cold cranking ampsLike you saw what we didbut since this doesn't have a thing to mark it off,Right hereI'll just put January15I'll put it up here, tooSo now I know I purchased this batteryin January 2015. And this video is goingto have two tips. Since we have a brandnew battery, we want to keep these postsas rust free as possiblethat will give us the best connection inhere. Normally, I'd recommend usingsomething like WD-40 everybody has WD 40you just spray a little bit on there andyou're good to gobut I got something even better thisstuff is called get some 1,000it's a spray lubricant it lasts evenlonger than wd-40 just get a little biton thereJust like that. Get out positive terminal herespray that down tooand now our terminals are protected andthey'll stay clean and corrosion freeand you're good to go\n"