Sometimes it happens – you get into your car, turn on the ignition and nothing happens! Your car just won’t start. You can use your jumper cables to try and put jumpstart your car. But what if you didn’t bring your jumper cables? Or worse, it won’t start even when you tried to jumpstart it? The only quick fix solution is to roll start your car. Here’s how to do it.
Pushstarting, or roll starting is a good way of putting needed energy or electricity into your car’s engine. There are certain instances that you just can’t load juice into your car’s battery or engine even with jumper cables. A push start or roll start is the only other way to solve your problem in this case especially if there’s no tow truck to help you.
First of all, you should know that push starting will only work on a manual transmission car. It’s not possible to use this method on an automatic transmission car. The reason for this is that the clutch plays a big part in using this method. Push starting an automatic transmission car will only result in damage to the car. Make sure your car’s emergency brake is engaged before you start to make sure the car won’t roll on its own before you start.
Ask someone to push the car. This method cannot be done by just one person. Ask one or two people to push the car while another person should be in the driver’s seat as he will be controlling the car and stepping on the clutch. Make sure that you do this in an area where there is enough space to make your car run at a speed that will engage the transmission. Also, you’ll definitely gain a sudden speed burst once the car goes into gear and engine fires up.
Turn the ignition on even if the car is dead. The ‘On’ position is the notch right before the ‘start’ position. Ensure that it is on the ‘On’ position before you start push starting your car.
Now ask your companions to begin pushing your car. Release the emergency brake while also stepping on the clutch. Make sure that the car is in gear and can power start the moment it gets the juice it needs. Keep stepping on the clutch while the car rolls, steering the car so that it goes straight and won’t veer left or right.
The moment the car reaches the correct speed you will feel it get in the right groove. Once you think the car is in the correct speed, pop the clutch while making sure that the car is running on either the first or second gear. Just remember that putting the car in first gear will result in a more jerky start compared to putting your car in second gear.
You’ll probably fail to push start the car on the first try. Just repeat the steps above and you’ll eventually be able to make your car run. Let’s just hope the brakes don’t fail on you, too! Here are tips on how to stop a car without brakes — we hope you never need these tips, but knowing how may save your life.
Photo from ehow.com.uk