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not sure if this has been discussed before as I cannot find any thread but I think its very imp as our car are battery hungry and sometimes need jump start.
my question is where to connect the -ve (BLACK) cable while doing jump start.
As per the manual(pg 324) it says to connect it to the the grounding strap , but it seems too close to the pully,
I found another solid area as outline in the pic, under engine cover for grounding, but the manual strictly mentioned
not to connect to any other engine part.
Please let me know what other have done and its safe procedure.
I think I have only jumped my TL once since I have owned it. Right or wrong, I have always used the battery terminals. Just make sure the last connection made and first to be removed are not on the dead battery since you do not want sparks there. There is no way I am sprawling my cables out across my engine bay while trying to start the car. Most other cars I have had to jump over the years had a ground post sticking up somewhere on the battery side of the engine bay for this purpose.
I haven't had to have my TL jump started (yet), but I have used it to jump other peoples cars, I just used the battery cable connections, I have also done this for years on every vehicle with no issues. The negative cable on the battery goes straight to ground, just like the ground strap shown in the manual (it just doesn't start at the battery). So I am not sure what you gain or lose by using any grounding point on the car. I also wouldn't use the engine, unless it has a grounding strap coming off of it (most engines do, I haven't looked close enough on this engine), it is more or less isolated by the engine mounts being made of rubber, so you aren't grounded at all or that well.
Also if you don't feel comfortable connecting to the ground strap that is specified in the manual & your clamps are big enough on your cables, you can clamp it to the engine mount bracket that the ground strap is connected too. Same concept as going straight to the cable. Assuming you want to follow the procedure specified in the manual.
Last edited by 05 Acura TL; 08-30-2019 at 10:30 AM.
Regarding: battery hungry, that's just false. It sounds like your car has the famous parasitic draw from either a faulty HFL unit or a bad A/C relay.
I agree with this as well. I am pretty sure I am on my 2nd battery in 11 years on mine. I have jumped it once for sure, maybe twice. The one for sure was within the first week of owning it, I manually turned the lights on after the ignition was turned off....lesson learned....they don't automatically turn off if turned on after the ignition is turned off. The "I can't remember" would have been when the first battery finally failed...or more specifically, when the first battery caused the positive clamp to dissolve. I just don't remember if I had to jump it or just used the jumper cable clamp to hold the terminal on long enough to get it started.
The reason for recommending not to use the battery terminal directly - the presence of hydrogen gas around a lead battery has the potential to ignite via battery spark when jumping. I imagine a clearly marked post on the other side of the engine bay is about a safe place as you can get. Personally, I always ground to another metal piece on the frame away from the battery. You should also connect positive terminals first so there's less chance of a short should it be dropped or touch something.
Batteries have gotten a lot safer (and sealed) through the years, but if you on an engineering or legal team, and had to write directions on "how" something should be done, you'd pick the 99.9999999999999 safe option, instead of the 98% one to avoid legal issues. It only takes one incident to ruin your day, career, etc, and if you've got millions of cars on the road, then the math starts to add up. Legal liability is a major decision maker for these types of things - because there's always that one idiot, and darwinism is not a legal defense.
In short, it works, and you don't have to follow instructions, but you do so at your own risk.
Last edited by blueknigh7; 08-31-2019 at 01:56 PM.
08-28-2019, 03:13 PM
