You're Jump-Starting Your Car Wrong, And It Could Fry Your ElectronicsA dead battery always seems to strike at the worst possible moment — and jump-starting a car is one of those skills every driver should just have in their back pocket. Do it right and you're rolling again in minutes. Do it wrong and you're looking at sparks, fried electronics, or worse. Here's the safe, correct way to do it without hurting either car.What you need firstYou'll need a set of jumper cables plus a second car with a charged battery — or a portable jump-start pack. Pull the working car close enough for the cables to reach, but don't let the two vehicles touch. Shut off both engines, put both in park or neutral, and set the parking brakes before you touch a single cable.Connect the cables in this exact orderOrder is everything here. Red clamp to the positive terminal of the dead battery. Other red clamp to the positive terminal of the good battery. One black clamp to the negative terminal of the good battery. And the last black clamp goes to a bare, unpainted metal surface on the dead car's engine block — not to the dead battery itself.Why that last clamp goes to metalGrounding that final cable to bare metal instead of the dead battery's negative terminal keeps any spark away from the battery, which can vent flammable hydrogen gas. It's the most skipped step in the whole process — and the one that prevents the rare-but-real chance of a battery actually exploding.Firing it upStart the working car and let it idle a couple of minutes to push charge into the dead battery. Then try starting the dead car. No luck? Wait a few more minutes and try again. Once it catches, leave both cars running for a bit before you touch the cables.Disconnect in reversePull the cables off in the exact reverse order you put them on: black clamp off the metal ground, black off the good battery, red off the good battery, and finally red off the revived battery. Don't let the clamps touch each other or any metal while the other ends are still hooked up. Then drive the revived car at least twenty minutes to recharge the battery.The bottom lineJump-starting is safe and genuinely easy when you nail the sequence: red to dead, red to good, black to good, black to bare metal. Reverse that order to disconnect, then drive to recharge. If the battery dies again soon after, the battery itself — or your alternator — is likely on its way out.AdvertisementAdvertisementJoin our Newsletter, follow our Instagram page, and connect with us on Facebook.