My wife's Kia Soul is completely dead. I want to use the Stinger to jump it, but where is the negative terminal to put on the stinger battery? I see the positive one under the hood. I know the battery is in the trunk, but there has to be an easier way. Any ideas?
The positive terminal is under black plastic cover at the rear of the engine compartment on the passenger side, it is the large segmented strip that is pointed up. Towards the front of the engine compartment on the passenger side is a long silver bolt that sticks out of the body, that is the negative terminal.
The positive terminal is under black plastic cover at the rear of the engine compartment on the passenger side, it is the large segmented strip that is pointed up. Towards the front of the engine compartment on the passenger side is a long silver bolt that sticks out of the body, that is the negative terminal.
Don't I need to hook up the negative jumper cable to the negative terminal of the battery on the Stinger? I thought the negative connection under the hood was just a ground. Or is that the actual terminal connection?
The link says to connect the black cable to the negative connection on my battery. Is the negative "connector" in the Stinger, under the hood, a ground or does it go to the negative terminal on the battery?
For the future I highly recommend getting a jumper pack, they come up for sale on amazon all the time... they hold a charge for ages, take up very little room, and are quick and easy to use... and unlike cables you don't need to maneuver around, or push the dead car for the hookup. Mine is an Aukey one, 600A, and IIRC cost me around $70CAD, you can even use it as a flashlight, or charge a cell phone with it. (I'm assuming for camping/emergencies, because why would I if my car is running?)
You just need to find a good ground to hook up to. Something screwed into the chassis preferably. As mentioned there should be a post under the hood for this purpose
The manual shows how to do this. (page 6 | 5) And yes, you only hook the cables inside the engine bay; the battery is not used directly, physically.
But, it's been a long time since I used my vehicle to boost another vehicle's dead battery (and I haven't used the Stinger to jump start). The manual only speaks to the Stinger being jump started: not using the Stinger to jump start another vehicle, as the OP wants to do. If the Stinger is the "booster battery", on page 6 | 6 the manual says: "Proceed to connect one end of the other cable to the negative terminal of the booster battery, then the other end to a solid, stationary, metallic point." So, the dead (receiving) battery has the negative cable grounded, but the Stinger (boosting) needs both negative and positive terminals on the battery connected to the jumper cables. This cannot be done from the engineroom, because only the positive terminal has a contact point there; there is no negative contact point, only a grounding screw, as mentioned. So, I, too, am hanging around here for education.
UPDATE...I tried hooking my jumper cable to the positive terminal under the hood and the "negative" screw under the hood. Then the other end to positive on the Soul Battery and a negative ground on the Soul and it didn't work. I wound up calling my insurance's roadside assistance. They came to the house with a jump box and started it right up.
I think to use the stinger to jump another car, you need to access the battery itself.
That's what I am thinking too. Which is a bit of a pain. Unload the hatch, remover cover(s), remove spare tire and tool kit. NOW, you can hook up the battery cables. Heh.
I used my Stinger to start my dead truck (5.4l V8) just fine, hooked up where you would to start a dead Stinger. Truck battery was so low, dash and interior lights were dead until I hooked up the Stinger.
I used my Stinger to start my dead truck (5.4l V8) just fine, hooked up where you would to start a dead Stinger. Truck battery was so low, dash and interior lights were dead until I hooked up the Stinger.
Back in the old days, before any of this electronic crap, I'd just go positive to positive, negative to negative battery terminals and it always worked. I'm not sure when "ground" got into this; but I've never been clear from one jump start to the next (usually years between). Now, reading the Stinger manual, it seems that if the Stinger is the "boost" battery, it has to be both cables on the Stinger battery terminals, but the dead battery has only positive hooked terminal to terminal, and the negative is grounded. But would the old way work? Or is that too risky anymore?
In automotive applications negative and ground are the same thing.... unless you have an old British car, but then you would be and expert on things not running
I would never use positive terminal under hood to jumpstart another vehicle from stinger. The cable gauge thickness to that terminal is not designed to handle high starting currents from another vehicle. That small wire is a long ways from the battery as well which really doesn’t help things. As Merlins pointed out, under hood terminal will suffice to help start the stinger itself but not the other way around. I have jumpstarted my brothers vehicle directly from my battery. Of course I am a weight savings freak so I removed my spare which makes this a bit easier.
Jump packs as others have suggested, do work awesome.
Ever since car electronics systems became a thing (for me, when I owned a 2005 Acura TL) I’ve been very hesitant to jump start another car. Now that I’m driving so little during the lockdown, I decided to invest in portable jump starters for each car. Haven’t had to use them yet but I think it is well worth the $50 each I spent for a little peace of mind.
(page 6 | 5) And yes, you only hook the cables inside the engine bay; the battery is not used directly, physically.
