On "jumping" and "being jumped"

Factual Questions
1

Car batteries, that is.

I’ve jumped many, many people.

I’ve been jumped many, many times.

I’ve never seen a problem on either end.

So what’s this about jumping might “blow out the computer” that I’ve heard?

(Please, nothing about alternators) :slight_smile:

2

Keep the pluses and minuses in their proper polaces and keep on truckin!

3

Well, the car battery has always done the brute work of starting the car, and has viewed the driver as the CDO (Commanding Driving Officer) and it gets upset when this upstart computer comes in and starts acting as middle management.

4

Mjollnir
I think that this link will answer your questions. http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/003504.html
The thing to watch out for is crossing the jumper cables and makeing the last ground connection away from the battery at the engine block.

Peace
t lion

" I Wonder What Happens When I push THIS Button? "

5

[hands to ears]
NOOOOOOO!!! LALALALA!!! NOOOOOOO!!!
[/hand to ears]

  1. It could happen, in theory.

  2. It hasn’t happened when a jump start was properly done (rather, it has not been positively documented and openly reported as having happened.)

  3. Some car manufacturers do insert a warning to limit their liability.

  4. Use the proper procedures. It would also be a good idea to make sure that the jumped car’s ignition is off when the cables are connected; to check and/or clean the battery connections on the car with a dead battery and to turn the headlights on for both vehicles.

  5. If you’re really worried about it, they do make jumper cables with built-in surge protection.

  6. http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/003504.html

  7. Being like the rednecks in the joke who live for giving roadside assistance, I find the idea of a car that cannot give or receive a jump to be one of the dumbest things to have ever come out of Detroit, Japan or wherever.

6

So what prevents the car computer from frying when installing a new, fully charged battery?

In this scenario you have a circuit that is completly dead (no battery) you then connect the new battery (one terminal at a time). Wait! no kerploof when the negative terminal is applied.

Personally I think it’s pure bunk.