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Bump Starting Your Car

I’m sure many drivers have been in a position where they have had to bump start their car, all it takes is to accidentally leave the lights on for a couple of hours and drain your battery. It's a very easy mistake to make, but can cause a lot of hassle if you don't know what to do!

Bump starting your car is very simple when you know how, however it isn't something you can do by yourself unless you are parked on a fairly steep hill! If your battery is completely flat or faulty then not even a jump-start will save you, but it's worth a try before having to resort to other methods of starting your car.

When your engine is turned off the car’s alternator can't keep charging the battery but you can continue to use power from it which can lead to a flat battery. A flat battery means that the ignition will not work and you can't start your car.

1. Bumping off your car is very simple and has just a few steps:
   Your car needs to be in a state as if it was running. This means the key must be turned all the way as if you were starting the engine and then take the hand brake off.
2. You then need to place the clutch fully down, select second gear and get the car moving, this will be difficult to do on your own unless you are parked on a hill, so you may need to get someone to help you out.
3. Once you are going at least 10 MPH you then need to take your foot off the clutch and as you do, apply plenty of gas, the faster you are going the more effective this will be so try to pick up a fair bit of speed.

This can only be done in a manual car, as an automatic has no clutch. If you try this a several times and it doesn't seem to be working then the battery may be too flat or you may have bigger problems with your car!
If you have been unfortunate enough to be a victim of battery problems on your driving lessons Leeds then you will understand what needs to be done on when this happens.

If bumping the car off doesn't work the next step is to use jump leads to jump-start the car, however for this you will need a set of jumps leads and a donor car. This isn't something that is taught on your driving lessons and if you are quite inexperienced and not very confident with bump starting your car you may want to consider getting roadside assistance which will help you out if this ever does happen.

The cars used on your driving lessons in Leeds will be covered with roadside assistance as driving instructors can't afford to be stranded at road side for a long period of time, so fortunately you will never have to bump start your instructor’s car during your driving lessons Leeds.

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