Hi All,

 

Just needing to jump start my car as I left the lights on (Fabia VRS 2014) but don’t know where a good earthing point is I can’t see anywhere that would be good and everyone’s saying don’t connect directly to the battery?

 

Thanks,

 

James

If your car is early enough, this may not be the issue it is on current Skodas. What does your handbook say on attaching charging leads? The same points can be used for jump start leads.

 

If you have no steer from the handbook, any solid metal bit of the engine / gearbox will do. You also need to be able to safely remove the jump lead while the engine is running. Truly fussy people would measure the resistance between the bit of metal chosen and the battery post. No or very low resistance is what you seek.

 

Crappy tin induction shields, ECU cases or metal clips on plastic pipes are not recommended.

Thanks for the reply - tried it on a little unpainted bolt and had to hold it on. It did work but wouldn’t want to be doing that again!

Just pop the engine cover off and connect onto either of the engine lifting eyes in the image below.

 

 

10 hours ago, JamesP1999 said:

Hi All,

 

Just needing to jump start my car as I left the lights on (Fabia VRS 2014) but don’t know where a good earthing point is I can’t see anywhere that would be good and everyone’s saying don’t connect directly to the battery?

 

Thanks,

 

James

 

It's ok to connect to the battery negative because it goes directly to the chassis, I've always done this for 40 odd years and never had a problem or heard an adequate explanation as to why I shouldn't, it's one of those myths that's been around since Christ was a cowboy...

11 hours ago, sepulchrave said:

 

It's ok to connect to the battery negative because it goes directly to the chassis, I've always done this for 40 odd years and never had a problem or heard an adequate explanation as to why I shouldn't, it's one of those myths that's been around since Christ was a cowboy...

And I have done this for 50+ years. In the old days of vented batteries, removing a charging cable could cause a spark which theoretically could ignite the Hydrogen being vented but a flat battery isn't giving off gas and modern batteries do very little venting. The idea of connecting the charging earth cable remote from the battery was you could remove it first and any spark was nowhere near the gas then when you removed the positive cable there was no circuit so no chance of a spark.

Current handbooks are quite specific about using an earth point rather than the negative terminal of the battery. The point about venting hydrogen being a thing of the past is well made, but by using an earth point you are taking a more direct path for starting current to get back to the donor battery / car from the dead starter. There is also some discussion about battery management gubbins not enjoying jump starts.

 

 

 

 

 

I have to agree that there is sometimes an issue with the earth return between the engine and the battery negative terminal but if you connect the donor battery to the flat battery and it still doesn't start then connecting to an engine earth point  which allows the car to start points that out immediately.

Commonly with a Mk2 vRS Fabia it is where to put the positive that has people dithering. 

The clamp on that positive post looks really loose? Trick of the pic? Looks like massive gap on the left. Whose car?

I think this battery/earth idiocy is subject to a staggering amount of speculation and guesswork, there's a lot in the motor trade that is pure nonsense, legacy idiocy from so far back in automotive history that no-one can remember why they do the stupid thing any more, it's become like a rite in ritual magic or the Catholic mass.

It's not a commandment, you don't have to keep taking the tablets!

@Breezy_Pete No idea whos', it is out of a vRS Induction thread and moving the battery to the boot just like the Polo GTI Twinchargers are, 

or the kit for turning the battery around.

http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/308808-turning-the-battery-round

 

Edited 26 March, 20233 yr by toot

@UrbanPanzer has given the only info the OP wanted.

It's a really good place to earth the recipient car for best chance of good cranking speed

🙂

James, are you connecting to another spare battery that is in (very) good state of charge, or to another reliable car, using good quality (quick enough) leads with all four the clips connected well and securely?

 

After you get the car started, or if not, read your Owner's Manual and fully recharge the battery using an appropriate battery charger and maintainer, if the drain was low and slow it'd be best if the recharge is too.

 

Months ago a neighbour couldn't get his girlfriend's car jumped started using a good spare battery (I know it is because I charged it) but also some awful taped extended double jump lead sets (he used to be in the motor trade) I borrowed another neighbour's good quality jump leads and as my wife had just arrived back we used her 2015 Fabia as the power source.

 

54 minutes ago, sepulchrave said:

I think this battery/earth idiocy is subject to a staggering amount of speculation and guesswork

 

 

Did you have a crystal ball when you wrote "idiocy"? Can you choose some lottery numbers for me?

 

38 minutes ago, nta16 said:

After you get the car started, or if not, read your Owner's Manual and fully recharge the battery using an appropriate battery charger and maintainer, if the drain was low and slow it'd be best if the recharge is too.

 

For the love of our lord please just try to resist your obsession Do you really believe that a battery knows or cares the rate at which it was discharged and will react badly if not recharged in the same manner, that James's battery is going to come to harm if he simply lets the alternator recharge it like it has done and will do thousands of times during the life of the battery?

Edited 26 March, 20233 yr by J.R.

33 minutes ago, sepulchrave said:

there's a lot in the motor trade that is pure nonsense, legacy idiocy from so far back in automotive history that no-one can remember why they do the stupid thing any more

 

It's also a case of doing as they were told without understanding why and never trying to work it out, then add that to a desire to be seen to be knowledgable and helping people on social media makes a perfect storm.

 

If you think its bad in the UK, and indeed it is, it is 100 times worse in France, the education system is such that any student actually asking "why, can you please explain?" to a professeur will at the minimum be sanctioned and get a bad report and year end marks (which are really important for a future career) at worse be picked on by them and even their colleagues for the rest of their schooling.

 

It creates adults that accept and obey what they are told without question and who feel really uncomfortable if encouraged to do so, it means that tyre distribution retailers can tell the Kwik-fit type managers and employees complete rubbish citing non existant laws and fines in order to double their sales volume and those people will do it forever with a clear conscience believing 100% that they are acting in the best interests of the customer and protecting them.

 

Thats just one motoring related example, its like that across all industries.

 

The other factor is the Professeur or supposed specialist be it a mechanic or Gendarme is always right and must not be questioned, being elevated to that position means they will never admit they don't know the answer to something so will make up a reply which will be believed 100% and repeated.

Edited 26 March, 20233 yr by J.R.

I read an Audi TPI not long ago that stated something along the lines of  “The wiper arms should not be used as an earth when attempting to jump start the vehicle”, I mean, why would you do that anyway but someone must have.

Back in the day when things did what they said on the tin rather than being painted plastic replicas I did on occasion use both cars bumpers as the earth connection for jump starting, only of they had the same earth polarity of course.

 

I would do so if the battery positions were too far apart or if the persons toy jump leads had tiny conductor cable whereupon I would use both in parallel with the bumpers making the earth circuit.

 

If you viewed a used car with blue pitting on the front bumper like an arc weld strike you knew it either was a bad starter or worse still owned by a mechanic like me!!!!