Bump Starting Your Car When Your Engine Is Playing Hide And Seek With You

There will come a time during your car's lifetime where you will need to change the battery. Depending on how much you use it and how old it is, you may be lucky to not have to worry about it for 7 years. As all cars are different, some people may find that they need a new car battery as early as 3 years. It's perfectly normal but an inconvenience when you go to use it and it won't start up. The first thing most people will do is panic, especially if they are a new driver that has never experienced this before. Otherwise you may be lucky enough to have a neighbour who can help you get going again or give you a lift.

What is bump starting

Bump starting is the term given when you force a car to start running, usually this will need to be done when a car has been idle for a long time or the car battery hasn't been changed in many years.

How to get your car to bump start

Here's what you need to do:

• You will need to put the car into second gear
• Get some friends to help push the car
• When the car is rolling slowly take your foot of the clutch
• It should give the car a 'bump start'
• Drive around to re-charge the battery

If bump starting works then the battery just needed to be re-charged but will probably need looking at in the near future for changing. If bump starting didn't work and the car engine failed to start, then you may need to jump start your car instead to get the engine running again.

You can bump start a car yourself if you live in a fairly quiet area as you just need the room and time to push the car until it starts again, but if this fails you will need to have it parked legally until you can get it looked at. Once you bump start a car it usually performs fine if you keep using it often but for peace of mind you shouldn't just assume it's all fine as it may start to play up again.

With the average price of a car battery at £50, it's not really an earth moving amount of money and all car owners need to take this into account when purchasing a used car, expect the price to double if you use a mechanic to have it fitted as they will charge you labour.