Jump starting an automatic car with a dead battery

Over the weekend, I decided to put up the car window tint film that I bought from ebay and since I knew it was going to take a long time, I switched on the engine to listen to some music so as to avoid boredom. Well that was a very big mistake! Actually the engine was not on but I had to turn the ignition enough to be able to roll the windows up and down. I must have been busy tinting the windows for at least 2 hours and that completely drained my battery.

After trying several times to no avail, I decided to wait until the next day to call a mechanic in. There wasn’t much I could do anyway. When I tried to switch on the front lights of the car, they work but when I turned them off, they would still stay ON. I had to retry the ignition for them to switch off and the rumbling sound the car makes is just awful to the ears of someone who’s kept the vehicle in top condition. I remember fixing the flat battery problem on my previous manual car by bump starting it. Just get into second/third gear and give it a good push and when you release the clutch, the car starts. Those were the good days...

With an automatic car, things are different. You cannot select your own gear; the automatic transmission does that for you. If you were to force a bump start, that could damage your gearbox which is very expensive to replace and other parts may get ruined as well. You would also need to get your vehicle to go at a speed of at least 40mph to trigger the bump start and that’s not an easy job in itself.

If you could not get a mechanic to your vehicle, you would need it towed but you need to make sure the drive wheels are not touching the road surface because the engine and the gearbox are always engaged and there won’t be any oil circulation without any running engine. You can of course get into neutral if you really must have the wheels on the ground but do that for a short period only.

Round the corner where I live, there’s a mechanic and I went the following day to see if they could help. I explained what had happened and the man told me that I needed an electrician to look at the battery but offered to come to my place to see if he could try to jump start my car. With a set of jumper cables, he fixed one end to his battery and the other on mine. You can find full instructions on connecting the jump leads here. As soon as I turned the ignition on, my car started that very second and I was bursting with happiness. The mechanic did not even take any money from me and I was surprised to see such people still exist.

Anyway, lesson learned now – be extra careful not to drain the battery either by leaving the engine running idle for a significant amount of time or by leaving the car lights on at night. A set of jumper cables is a must have in your boot if you drive an automatic car as well. It’s a hell of a job getting your car towed and it costs money as well and bump starting is a no-no as it can cause expensive damages, so the pair of jump leads in your car will be a life saver as you can always ask a fellow driver to help you out if your battery becomes dead.