How to Charge a Car Battery without A Charger?

charge car batteries

You may have left your car headlights on at night and boom! You have a fully drained battery that can’t start your car engine.

So, you need to charge the battery to get it running. Car batteries can be charged by following different methods, some are safe and some are risky.

However, we’ll discuss the safe charging options of the car battery and embed a video that describes some unorthodox ways to charge a car battery when you don’t have access to a car battery charger or a jumper cable. Stay with us!

Charging Car Battery Without a Charger

For charging your car without a charger, you need to get assistance from another working car. Convince your neighbor to help you.

1. Prepare the Vehicles

Get both of the vehicles close to each other. The more distance you can maintain the better. But you must consider the cable length when positioning the vehicles. Put them in a position where the cables can reach both the batteries comfortably.

After positioning them, clean the battery terminals of both of the vehicles so that you can make a strong connection with the cables. Put both of the vehicles in parking or neutral gear and activate the parking brake.

Importantly, you must shut everything off of your car that runs on the battery. Remove anything that was plugged in and carefully shut off the radio, speakers, and other lights and accessories.

2. Connect with the Cables

Connect the red clamps with the positive terminals of both of the vehicles and put one black clamp with the working car battery. Connect the other black clamp with an unpainted metal surface for safety.

jumper cables connection

Image Source: dummies.com

When connecting, make sure to check whether the connection is strong or not. Loose connections will make your task hard.

3. Start the Working Vehicle

Now, get into the working car to start it. Carefully ignite the engine and let it run for around 5 to 10 minutes to pass current to the dead battery through the cables.

After 5 to 10 minutes, shut the engine off and get into the dead vehicle to start it. It should start. After starting the engine, let it run for 5 to 10 minutes and in the meantime, disconnect the cables.

After disconnecting the cables, drive the vehicle that had a battery drain out problem for 2 to 3 hours to fully recharge the battery.

How to Charge a Car Battery with Charger

As you now know that charging the dead car battery without a charger requires the help of another working vehicle. So, it is wise to have a car battery charger in the trunk. Here’s how can you charge a car battery with a charger-

1. Open the Hood

Open the car hood and locate the battery of it. Clean the battery terminals to get a strong connection. If you don’t know which terminal is positive and which one is negative, clean the surroundings of the terminal with a cloth to watch out for a ‘+’ or a ‘-’ sign. ‘+’ is the sign of the positive terminal.

If the terminals are rusty, use sandpaper to mildly sand the rust off the terminal to get a proper connection.

2. Connect the Cable

Now, take the car battery charger and figure out the positive and negative clamps. The red clamp will go with the positive terminal and the black one with the negative terminal.

After connecting the clamps, make sure to double-check for any loose connection.

3. Turn the Charger On

After properly following the above steps, turn the charger on to pass current through the cable. Allow the dead battery to get current for 5 to 15 minutes before you try to start the engine.

If the engine starts, disconnect the charger and drive the car for charging the battery. When you drive, the alternator charges the battery.

Unorthodox Method of Charging Car Battery without A Charger

Caution! Attempt at your own risk! SacredCar.Com won’t be responsible for any harm or damage.

See the video for trying something interesting to charge your car battery. These are not the safest options and can damage your car.

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