Jump-Start Service

Click, slow crank, or nothing: what the sound tells dispatch

Turn the key once and listen. Fast clicking while the dash lights dim is a battery that cannot push the starter. A slow, dragging crank on a cold morning is a battery on its last legs, made worse by thick oil. One loud click with the lights staying bright points at the starter or its solenoid, and no jump fixes that. An engine that catches and then stalls before you reach the road was running on the battery alone because the alternator quit. No lights or chime at all means a flat battery or a corroded terminal.

Push-button cars add one wrinkle: with a dead battery the fob never wakes the car and the screen stays black, but the fix is the same jump. Tell dispatch what you heard and what the dash did. That answer decides whether we send a booster pack or the right tow truck for your vehicle, and you get an honest ETA and a confirmed flat fee before any truck moves. Dispatch is at 734-985-0010.

A booster pack, not a second car

We do not walk up with jumper cables and look for a volunteer. The truck carries a professional booster pack sized for cars, SUVs, and light trucks. No second vehicle is in the circuit, so a reversed clamp cannot take out a module in anyone's car, and the current is steady rather than whatever an idling engine can spare.

The pack is portable. Nosed in against a wall on an upper level of a downtown Ann Arbor structure, the truck stays at the entrance and the driver walks up. Cars that hide the battery in the trunk or under the rear seat almost always have a remote positive post under the hood for exactly this, and our drivers know where to find it.

The jump is not done until it holds

Getting the engine to catch is the easy half. Before the driver leaves, the car has to prove it can run on its own.

1. Charging voltage is read at the battery with the engine running. A healthy alternator pushes the reading well above what the dead battery showed. If it sits where it was, the alternator is not charging.
2. Headlights, rear defroster, and blower go on high. A tired battery or alternator sags under that load, and you want to see it sag in the lot rather than at a light on Washtenaw Avenue.
3. The engine is shut off and restarted on its own battery. A battery that will not turn the starter after a spell on the pack is not going to make it home.

Then you get a plain answer. Drive it, but get the battery tested this week. Replace the battery now. Or leave it, because the alternator is done and a tow to your shop costs less than a second breakdown on US-23.

When a jump becomes a battery install

A battery that takes the jump but will not restart the car on its own, a case swollen or crusted white at the terminals, or a battery on its second jump this month is finished. The same truck can install a new one on the spot. We carry Standard, AGM, H6, H7, and H8 sizes.

Cars with push-button start and automatic stop-start usually call for an AGM battery. A standard flooded battery in one of those cars dies early and can trip warnings, so dispatch matches the battery to your year, make, and model on the phone. Dispatch confirms the price of a mobile battery install before the truck is sent. We do not bill insurance directly; the job is paid at the car, and the itemized receipt is yours to submit.

Where dead batteries happen around here

The first hard freeze of the year fills the board. A battery that was marginal in October loses much of its cranking power on a bitter morning while cold oil makes the engine harder to turn. Driveways in Saline, Dexter, and Chelsea call before sunrise.

Long sits are the other steady source. Campus lots in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti after a semester or a break. Long-term and park-and-ride lots after a trip. The second car in an apartment lot off Carpenter Road, or off Ford Road in Canton, that has not turned over in a month. The car that started at home and will not restart at a gas station off I-94 had exactly one start in it.

Hybrids and EVs land on the board the same way. The small 12-volt battery that wakes the car dies like any other, and until it gets a jump the car sits dark with a full traction pack. If the fob would not open the door either, lockout assistance comes on the same visit.

Have these ready when the truck pulls up

Find your hood release before we arrive. On most cars it is a lever near the driver's left knee; some put it in the glovebox or behind the grille, and nearly all need a second pull at the safety latch under the hood lip. Have the key or fob in hand. If the fob cannot unlock a dead car, most fobs hide a mechanical key blade, and most driver doors hide a keyhole under a cap on the handle.

Give dispatch the structure level and a pillar number, or the building and lot section. Switch off headlights, wipers, radio, and the heater fan so the pack's current goes to the starter. Stop cranking. Every failed attempt heats the starter and pulls down what the battery has left. Once the car is running and has passed the checks, drive it. Idling in the lot puts almost nothing back.