What causes sparks when jumping a car?

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asked Apr 15, 2020 in Repairs/Maintenance by 89wishmongreror (300 points)
What causes sparks when jumping a car?

1 Answer

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answered Apr 16, 2020 by Mechanic21 (29,150 points)
The cause of sparks when jumping a car is because of the voltage differences between the dead battery and the good battery and alternator sending voltage through it.

The sparks are normal when jumping a dead car battery and nothing to worry about.

It's normal to see a little spark just like when you connect a battery charger to a car battery it can cause a small spark which means it's getting the voltage.

However while small sparks when jumping a car battery or charging a car battery are normal there should not be large sparks.

If you get large sparks when connecting the jumper cables to the car battery or when the car is being jumped then the car with the dead battery may have a short in the wire somewhere.

But it's okay to see a little bit of sparks in car battery terminals when jumping the dead car battery.

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