Can You Jumpstart a Car With a Bad Alternator?

When your car’s battery dies off in the middle of a journey, you just need to pull out your jumper cable from your car’s emergency kit and plead with other drivers to help you “jumpstart” your car.

But there’s a culprit here – the alternator. Can you jumpstart a car with a bad alternator? The alternator plays a vital role in jumpstarting vehicles with dead batteries. Basically, the alternator is what passes electricity to the battery to get it charges while the car is in motion.

So, if you’ve got a bad alternator, your car’s battery won’t charge as you drive, but this doesn’t practically prevent jumpstarting. Hence, you can still jumpstart a car with a bad alternator. But before doing that, here are some tips you should know.

Can You Jumpstart a Car With a Bad Alternator?

Definitely, you can, the alternator does not actually play a role in the jumpstarting process. More so, you will have to remove the alternator while jump-starting the car.

Already, the jumper cable ends to perform the same functions as alternators – passing electric current to a car battery.

That said, what are the steps to jumpstart a car with a bad alternator? Well, the steps are not complex; it’s something anyone could do, and we explained it below.

Related Post: Can a Bad Alternator Cause Limp Mode?

How to Jumpstart a Car With a Bad Alternator

Here’s how to jumpstart a car with a bad alternator!

Step 1: Turn of all accessories

First things first, you need to turn off all the accessories and gears that draw power from the battery. So to say, your car should be completely turned off, and if you’re using add-on gears like mini-refrigerators, disconnect them.

This is a prerequisite step to make because leaving those gears connected, may cause the car not to start.

Step 2: Connect the jumper cable

Plead with other drivers on the road to help you out. If you could get one good driver to help you, connect the jumper cables on the car with a good battery, and then connect the other ends to your own car battery.

The connections should go this way:

• Connect the red (positive) cable end to the other car’s +ve battery post; connect the other red (+ve) end to your car’s +ve battery post.
• Now, connect the other cable (the black one) to the negative (-ve) battery post on the other car. Then peg the other -ve end to any part of your engine (to serve as ground).

Note: Don’t connect the -ve (black) cable to your own battery’s -ve terminal; it could cause an explosion. That is to say, the negative battery post of the car to be jump-started must be free, with no cable connected to it.

Step 3: Start the car

At this point, the owner of the good vehicle can start the car – your own (dead) battery would start charging – drawing current from the other car’s battery. You should allow your battery to charge for about 5 minutes before trying to start your car.

However, if your battery does take time to charge, plead with the other driver to spare you more time. Once your battery is charged to an extent, you can safely continue your driving; however, you’d need to replace your bad alternator as fast as you should.

Once your car is running, it is advisable to drive straight to the mechanic to fix the alternator issues.

Note: Once your car (which had the bad alternator) starts, remove the jumper cables. Also, while removing the cables, ensure that they do not touch each other – most especially the metallic ends – to avoid getting short-circuited.

What Else?

There’s nothing else to do; since your car is now up and running, you need to get to a close mechanic store to fix your battery alternator.

Otherwise, the battery won’t still be charging as you drive, and too long again, the battery may die off, requiring another jumpstart session.

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