Today after work a friend of mine needed a jump on his 98 Mirage (actually it's not his, but for the sake of this topic it's his ). I borrowed jumper cables from one of the valet employees, and tried hooking up my Fit to his Mirage. Nothing! His starter wouldn't even turn. Not even while I revved the Fit to 4K. We thought maybe if we let the Mirage battery charge for a few minutes it would start, but 10 minutes on the Fit juice, and the Mirage still wouldn't start. So I had the bright idea to try the battery from my Dynalite battery pack (I'm a photographer, and my friend and I had just finished a wedding). We hooked up the flash battery to the Mirage and on the first try it started. Dang, could it be possible? I mean, my flash battery isn't that powerful... maybe the valet that hooked up the cables did not make a proper connection to the Fit's battery? But the lights in the Mirage's dash would turn on when hooked to the Fit... strange. Yet it can handle the 200W stock audio system, all the car lights, etc. Maybe an Optima battery upgrade is in my future path

 

i jump start two other cars fine, not sure why you have had problems

maybe you should hook up the cables yourself next time

-joe

 

You're probably right. When I hooked up my flash battery I saw just how bad clamps of the jumper cables were, not a lot of grip.

 

I've jumped two old cars fine. the red terminal is sometimes hard to grasp

 

Do you connect the booster cable to the positive and negative terminals of the battery, as what i did with other cars in the past? I seem to remember reading on owner's manual that the negative connection should be clamped on to another part that is not on the battery...

thanks.

 

I jumped my gf's 98 IZUZU Hombre with no problems..

 

The last connection made should be on the dead car, the negative cable, at a good ground away from the battery (usually the engine). This last connection can be on the "live" car if no suitable ground is available on the dead car. This should also the first cable removed after jumping. This way the sparks generated when the cable is installed and removed will be away from the hydrogen (i.e. expolsive) gas being given off of the batteries. This will lessen the chance of a battery expolsion. You should also wear goggles when jumping a car, I keep a set with my jumper cables (so in the event of an explosion you will only be burned and not blinded).