Today this lady jump started my car and said she did not have to turn her car off. Can this damage my car? l have a 1996 Mercury sable and now am worried that she messed up my car. Is there any way l can tell if this happened?

It is normal to leave the host car running while jump starting. If you hooked the cables up wrong you could of damaged either car.

If she left her car on it would only damage hers not yours. Do not worry besides the chance of a new battery(nothing to do with her car) you shouldnt have any problems.

No you do not have to shut off the car. Her alternator will help throw some charge into your battery. It will not damage anything unless you hook up the cables wrong.

usually when jump starting a car.. u leave the car running so the alternator is producing enough power to start the other car..

SOME VEHICLE COMPUTERS WILL NOT ALLOW THIS..

you can burn out the electronic ignition on some cars if u just Connect the power to the battery as per normal & try to start the car.

To over come this.. turn the car that u r trying to start off..or disconnect one of the battery terminals.. then charge the battery from the good car..(with it running),, should push enough power into the battery in around 15 to 20 Min's.. then reconnect battery & start..

you can jump them by connecting the negative to the negative.. & then put the positive directly to the starter motor.. *(not easy on all cars)..

there r also special jumper lead sets that allow u to start cars with out frying the electronics..

SO the bottom line is.. it all depends on ur car..

Hi Denise, when you jump start another car you have to keep the live car running.
In order to get juice from one car to another you have to have the jumper car running, in fact you should rev up the jumper car to transfer more juice over to the dead cars battery.

The best & safest way to jump start is to have neither car running usually that will work if u have good quality booster cables. If for some reason that is not enough the next safest thing is to start the car & connect the cables & let it run a few minutes or even 5 to 10 minutes then shut it off & try to start ur car. And if still unsuccessful then leave the car running & try to start yours the only damage would be to the car that is running & its not common that any damage is done to either vehicle so no need to worry much either way u do it..