In Madison, WI winter can bring extreme weather conditions, like freezing temperatures, icy roads, and snowstorms. Although this weather can cause road conditions to be bad, something else you need to worry about is your car battery discharging and the issues jump-starting your vehicle can bring.
Why Does My Car Need a Jump Start?
Car batteries become discharged more often in the winter because the colder temperatures affect your vehicle in a couple of ways. First, when your car battery is cold it doesn’t have as much power as a battery that is at normal temperatures. Second, the oil in your car gets colder, and while oil doesn’t freeze, it gets thicker the colder it gets, and thick oil makes it harder to turn over in the engine. Both can make starting your car difficult, which can in turn drain your battery. Most of the time a discharged battery can be recharged and work just fine, but you need to recharge the battery in a timely manner. If not done in time, a discharged battery can freeze and you will be unable to recharge it, which will ruin your battery.
This issue can occur in traditional cars as well as hybrid cars, but while most people know how to jump-start a traditional vehicle, most people don’t realize hybrid cars, like the Toyota Sienna, Camry hybrid, and Prius, for example, require different precautions to jump or receive a jump.
How to Jump-Start a Hybrid Vehicle:
- Don’t use your hybrid vehicle to jump-start other vehicles too much, this can damage your vehicle’s electrical system.
- Apply your parking brake and turn off your headlights and interior lights
- Turn off the hybrid system and remove your key
- Open your hood, the fuse block cover, and the exclusive jump-starting terminal cover
- Connect the positive clamp (red) jumper cable to the exclusive jump-starting terminal
- Connect the negative clamp (black) to a solid, stationary, unpainted, metallic point of the vehicle with the discharged battery
- If the booster battery is installed in another vehicle, make sure the vehicles aren’t touching and all unnecessary lights are off
- Whenever you are boosting a vehicle, use a battery of matching or higher quality
- Allow the discharged battery to rest with the jumper cables connected for 5 minutes. Then, run the engine in the vehicle that is boosting at about 2,000 RPM with the gas pedal lightly depressed
- Start the hybrid system and make sure the “ready” light is on
- Disconnect the negative cable and then the positive cable
How to Jump-Start a Traditional Vehicle:
- Park the booster vehicle close, but not touching the vehicle that needs to be jumped
- Begin by clamping one end of the positive jumper cables (red) to the positive battery terminal (labeled +) of the discharged vehicle
- Connect the other end of the positive cable (red) to the positive battery terminal (labeled +) on the booster vehicle
- Connect one end of the negative jumper cable (black) to the negative battery terminal on the booster car (marked -). Then take the other end of the negative jumper cable (black) and attach it to an unpainted metal surface on the engine of the discharged vehicle
- Start the discharged car and let the two vehicles idle for a few minutes
- Once the discharged vehicle is started and running smoothly, disconnect the cables in the reverse order that you connected them
- Drive the recharged car to somewhere safe before shutting off the engine in case the battery happens to die again
Visit Our Madison, WI Service Center for More Help
Knowing how to jump your vehicle correctly can prevent damage to your vehicle and prevents you from harming yourself. While car batteries becoming discharged is one of the problems winter weather conditions can bring, it can also bring other problems to your car. If you have any other vehicle problems or need to winterize your vehicle, come visit our Service Department at Smart Toyota in Madison, WI and our certified-trained technicians can help with all your service needs. We proudly serve customers throughout the greater Madison area, including Middleton, Sun Prairie, WI, and beyond.
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