In newer vehicles drivers are starting to be more cautious jumpstarting their vehicle and helping others when they need a jump as well. Due to the sensitive electronics in cars, it makes me wonder. How do I jumpstart a 2004 Cadillac Deville? After some research, this is the answer that I found.
Locate your positive jump location, which will be on your left-hand side by the fuse box. This location has a red cover and is in between your coolant reservoir and your fuse box. You need to put your red
cable on this location first then put your positive cable on your vehicle that you are using to jump
start with the second. Then put your ground cable on your running vehicle followed by the ground cable on your dead vehicle. You will need to put the ground cable on a ground spot that does not have paint on it, and the best place will be the top of your strut tower that is by your coolant reservoir. By doing this in the correct order, you will have your Cadillac Deville back up and going.
Make sure when you are jumpstarting a vehicle that you have any additional accessories turned off. By doing this, all voltage is going towards starting the car and not towards making sure your radio is on. What happens if you hook the vehicle up incorrectly? Let’s look further into this and see the essential tips on this process.
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Why would I need to jumpstart a 2004 Cadillac Deville?
The reason why you are jumpstarting your vehicle is apparent; your vehicle’s battery has somehow become dead. Now you need to give it some juice (voltage) from another car to get it running again. Well, that is easy enough, but it is always more than that. Once you have your vehicle running again, you need to find out why was your vehicle dead in the first place.
Having a dead battery is when a multimeter comes in handy to have. Let’s say that you got your vehicle running again, but when you shut it off it is dead again, in this case, you have a bad car battery. In the situation that your vehicle started great.
But while you were driving your headlights and interior lights began to fade. Then your vehicle died and will not restart; then this is your alternator. The battery has one job, and that is to start your car.
Your alternator’s job is to keep your vehicle running and to recharge the battery, so next time you shut off your vehicle, you will be able to restart it. When you test your car battery with your multimeter, the voltage should be reading at 12.5 volts or above while the vehicle is parked and not running. When your vehicle is running your voltage should be between 13.6 and 14.6.
This is for a car and truck battery, so when it comes to a motorcycle battery, the reading is going to be different. The voltage is different that is allowed while the motorcycle is running and the battery is under load.
A great way that I found online while doing my research to test your battery in case you do not have a multimeter accessible is as follows. Using your vehicle and the headlights you will be able to check your alternator and the strength of the charging system.
Start the vehicle and look at the headlights if the headlights are dim while the car is running. By the lights dimming this shows that your vehicle is running off of the battery. With your alternator supplying little to no charge to your car and its battery. Your vehicle will only be able to do this for a short while until your car battery runs out of voltage, and the car dies.
If you press on the gas pedal and increase your engine rpm’s and the headlights become brighter. Then this shows that your alternator is supplying some voltage but may fail to provide the correct amount of energy while the vehicle is idling.
This would be enough proof to show that your alternator is needing to be replaced. In the case that your headlights do not change their brightness when you increase the engine’s rpm’s then this will show that your alternator is supplying the correct amount of voltage and your vehicle is running at regular operation.
There is always a chance that your battery is good and your alternator is 
good as well, but your car is still dead when you try to start it after it has been sitting for a few hours.
In this situation, you will need to check for a short in your wiring. Somehow while your vehicle is sitting, there must an exposed wire or an increase in resistance in the wiring that your voltage is slowly draining out. If you want to test your battery for energy, do not just put your multimeter on the battery and test that way, this will only give you the surface charge.
You will need to conduct a load test on the battery. To do this, you will need to have a load tester tool that is relatively cheap, and it will prevent the headache of a bad battery ruining your day.
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Where would I jumpstart a 2004 Cadillac Deville?
You can jumpstart your vehicle anywhere you want to but when jumpstarting the car make sure that the dead vehicle and the running vehicle you are using are moved next to each other so your jumper cables can safely reach both vehicles. Do not daisy chain jumper cables! Doing this is highly unsafe and can cause the jumper cables to arc and cause damage to either you and the vehicle’s electronic system or both.
Daisy-chaining is when you do not have enough length to your jumper cables that you hook up another pair of jumper cables to the first pair of cables to increase the range provided. In the case that the jumper cables touch as in the positive lead touches the negative lead or you hook up the cables backward. Doing this will cause the wires to arc, damage the electronic system, or even cause the battery to explode.
So make sure when you are attaching your jumper cables you look for the positive terminal that is marked with an addition (+) sign and the negative terminal is labeled with a subtraction (-) sign. This will keep both you and your vehicle safe from an incorrect hookup.
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What would I use to jumpstart a 2004 Cadillac Deville?
In the situation that you need jumper cables to start your vehicle, you will use on average a four gauge 20 foot set of jumper cables. These cables come with a red and black cable that has clamps on the end of both sides. The smaller the number is on the size of the cable the bigger the cable will be.
The size of the cable will increase the amount of amperage and voltage that can go through the cable. For a car to start the starting system will need 300-500 amps to start. For a diesel truck, some will need up to 1,000 to start, but your four gauge jumper cables will be big enough to work with both applications
Is it bad for my 2004 Cadillac Deville if I jump start it?
No, it is not bad to jumpstart a vehicle; it is only bad if you hook up the cables backward, or you do not hook the wires up in the correct order. Voltage is needed for our Cadillac to run correctly, and it is up to us to make sure it has what it needs. Do make sure you have your vehicle’s needs are completed and remember that you need to keep up to date with your maintenance interval schedule.
All major faults can always be caught before they become major problems by keeping an up to date maintenance record. So make sure this is a priority for you and your vehicle and wallet will thank you.
Thank you for reading my article! I hope you enjoyed it and it helped you with the problem you are having. I hope you check out my next piece!
