Could not locate negative for jumpstart

[taklu]

Hi

Today morning, i was trying to start the car 325i 95.

somehow the car could not start, it did give some initial starting noises but didnt manage to start the car.

So i tried to jumpstart the car with a battery that i newly bought. I could locate the positive terminal to connect to however could not locate the negative to connect to ..

I felt stupid... can anyone help me please, also do you think there could be some other problem besides the car being cold ?

All replies are greatly appreciated

[10kken]

You attach both the + and - leads from the cable on the battery you're using to jump the car. But on the car that you're trying to jump start you ground the - negative lead to a solid picce of metal on the car. The support near the radiator is one place that's easy to clamp onto.

[taklu]

You mean that anypart hard metallic part on the car would do. This means that there is no negative terminal of the battery

[10kken]

The battery has a negative terminal, there just isn't a negative terminal in the engine compartment, only a postivie one.

Even when jump starting a car that has the battery in the engine compartment, you should still hook up the cables in the way that I described.

[luckytopher]

could/would you not jumpstart it through the trunk battery location?

[10kken]

I suppose that you could, but there's no need to.

BMW put the battery in the trunk to help distribute the weight of the car more evenly, but they put the postive terminal in the engine compartment to make it easier when you had to jump start the car.

[Daved]

Use the positive terminal on the engine bay and one of the bolts on the strut tower (not all of them worked for me, it was just one of the three).

[beatniks325]

or just look around on the flat piece of metal on which the postive terminal stands; there is a grounding bolt near by it that you can hook the negative up to.

[krayon]

or just look around on the flat piece of metal on which the postive terminal stands; there is a grounding bolt near by it that you can hook the negative up to.

Yes I believe that there is a ground bolt very close to the positive terminal. Just a little below and to the right IIRC (if standing in front of car). Or just use any bolt.

[Fetish]

could/would you not jumpstart it through the trunk battery location?

Doing that theres a chance of spiking the ECU i wouldnt do it :)