JumpStart my Car

[Kevin Lang]

Soes my buddy's Ford Explorer XLS died on him--he had the lights on while studying for a few hours in it for his jap test, and forgot to turn them (and the headlights) off...so after 5 hours, the car died.



So I set about helping a friend out, while we had our best vince neal impressions



So I tried my old battery pack thingy, but it only had 25% charge and did nothing...so we tried jumper cables, and it did nothing.



During this, I was blocking other cars since it is a crowded parking lot, and a dude came out to his blue bmw sedan that I was obstructing, and he lent me his battery pack hoojit, and when combined with the jumper cables to my ST, managed to jumpstart the explorer.



So, why couldn't the ST do it by itself?

 

[Gary Hart]

You probably needed to have the ST running in order to provide enough amperage to the other car's electrical system.

 

[Kevin Lang]

I forgot to mention that my ST was running. Oops.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Maybe the terminals on your ST were corroded and you didn't get good contact, thus a weak jump????



Did you clamp the jumper cables on then rotate them back and forth to make sure you had a good bite and connection onto the terminals?



Also, maybe your ST's battery is a little low on charge (old). Yes, if the vehicle is running it will help, but the brunt of the charge still comes from the battery....keeping the vehicle running simply means that the battery is also (potentially) charging while you jump. (pretty sure I'm right on that).



TJR

 

[Dreman]

Old or cheap jumper cables tend to get hot instead of transferring power to the other battery. Your cables may not be up to par.

 

[Mike Corn]

I had to jump my mom with my 05 sport trac. I usually hit the gas at or around 2.5K rpms to amplify the output. After about 10 minutes I give the other vehicle a crank. It probably wasnt ready to start, every time you turn the key your draining your battery.



Also,

If the expl had the radio on or other periperals, that would take power from the starter.