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Get started? How to avoid mistakes!

Bridge with the jumper cable? Or would you prefer to push? Empty or defective car batteries are a classic driver annoyance in winter. We explain how to get started correctly!
If you haven’t got it yet, you’re just lucky. Many people know the sound of turning the ignition key in winter. Tick, tick, tick. Nothing. That means: the battery is on strike. The battery is particularly required in freezing temperatures, as it loses a lot of power when the temperature drops due to the slowed chemical reaction. An example: If 65 percent of the actual power is still available when the engine is started at minus 10 degrees, it is only 50 percent at minus 22 degrees. And if the battery has been around for a few years, many attempts to start fail in winter.

Push on when the battery strikes?

Forget the topic “Who loves his car, who pushes!” Asking neighbors, friends or passers-by to push the vehicle to start the engine is actually only helpful for young and old cars. In the worst case, unburned fuel, particularly in newer vehicles, can get into the catalytic converter and damage it.

Jumper cables a better choice

Jump-start jump starting is a better choice. But the same applies here: if the cable is connected incorrectly, expensive damage to the electrical system can result. First connect the red cable to the positive battery poles of the donor and recipient car, then the black cable comes to the negative pole of the donor car. In the breakdown vehicle, it belongs to a metal part on the engine block. If you connected the earth lead to the negative pole of the empty battery, sparking gases could ignite when connecting or disconnecting, which would destroy the battery.

Then start the engine of the donor vehicle. Then try to start the engine in the slave vehicle. If the slave vehicle is running, switch on the lights and the rear window heating. If everything worked out, disconnect the cables in reverse order (first black, then red). Beware of rotating parts with the engine running.