Although it is an easily avoidable mistake, at some point we all succumb to a dead battery. There are a whole host of reasons why someone can suffer a dead car battery: maybe they left their headlights, interior lights or indicators on; used the air conditioner or radio with the engine turned off; left the car in storage for a long period of time without turning the engine on; even low air temperature can cause an old battery to lose charge.

If you do find that your car battery has run flat, the best way to get your car running is to jump-start it. All you need is a set of jumper cables and another car with a functional battery.

Here’s how to jump-start your car with jumper cables:

Have a set of jumper cables ready in your boot in case of an emergency. If you don’t have any, hopefully you can find a good Samaritan who is both willing to help you and has their own set of jumper cables.

Place both vehicles in Neutral and shut off the ignition of both cars - make sure both handbrakes are engaged too.

Attach one of the red clips to the positive terminal of your battery. Your battery will indicate which is the positive terminal with a “POS” or “+” symbol on it. If it has none of these, or they have worn off, the positive terminal is generally the bigger of the two terminals.

Attach the other end of the red clip to the positive terminal of the other car.

Attach one of the black clips to the to the negative terminal of the other car.

Attach the last black clip to an unpainted metal surface on your car that isn’t near the battery. Using one of the metal struts that holds the bonnet open is a common method.

Try to start your car. If it doesn’t start straight away, have your good Samaritan run their engine for 5 minutes to help give your battery enough charge to start.

With your car now started, drive around for at least 15 minutes so your catalytic converter can sufficiently charge your battery for next time.If the problem persists you may need to change the battery, or you can use this is an opportunity to upgrade with V12’s selection of second hand vehicles.