Just got a nice little Portable Jump Starter Battery kit, and it comes with like a 2 foot long set of Battery Jumper cables - and I noticed it wants you to connect to the Positive of the battery fine, but then to the Ground of your Car - which is to the left of the Engine clearly - and the Battery is to the right of the engine and is further away than 2 feet!?! ....... I am just curious if there is a known better place to connect the black negative cable to that is close to the Battery (within 2 feet, the length of the negative cable) - I presume any unpainted surface, but I'm not really finding anything.... I don't want to connect to the negative of the battery as it specifically doesn't really say to do that, and instead says to connect to the Ground of your car which in this case as best I can tell is too far away to reach!

Hoping for a quick answer, diagram or picture of suggestion! ....initially I thought it was this Battery Jump Start Charger I bought, but they are ALL like this.. and have a couple foot cable length and that is it....

Set me straight folks!

 

Just follow the black cable of the battery to find a good ground point. I'm pretty sure the battery gets grounded to the inner fender on the driver's side of the vehicle, so near the battery.

 

I will look for that tomorrow morning! Thanks for the quick reply! I just checked again, and I do see a bare screw, but it is like a screw that is part of the 'case - which I'll have to check if that is just a plastic case or metal or not...' that goes around the battery.... (forehead slap)... I will see if there is some sort of grounding point along the length of the Negative Battery Cable that is within a couple feet then. I do see some other bare screw/nuts - I just didn't know if it matters what exactly that might be attached to. (but certainly a grounding type thing along the length of the Negative cable that goes to the car battery would seem logical! - my guess it won't reach...)

Is it normal for other cars to have the main grounding point right next to the battery or something? Seems odds that they would make the cables so short, as I thought possibly the concern is they don't want a spark to happen around the 'battery' which is what you'd get possibly if you connect it to the negative terminal of the battery itself... and if it is common for that main ground of the car to 'also' be away from the Battery - why in the heck do the various manufacturers make the cables of their Portable Battery Jump Starter batteries things so dang short! haha.... it can't just be 'cost' to have another couple feet of cable length I wouldn't think!

 

When connecting anything to ground you want to connect it to the opposite end of the negative battery post especially with ground cables having sensors. The negative cable is always connected to the inner fender. The pic below shows what end you want to connect to. I usually sand the paint off before screwing it back in.

Now I'm not saying you can't ground it to the negative post because you can. I just don't to prevent the sensor from having issues. Sparking should not happen unless you are connecting positive to ground. Honestly you can find any screw on the car to connect it to as long as you sand the paint down for a good connection.

 

So hopefully I can trace that Negative Battery cable to where it connects to the Fender (but I think on the Accord it is a bit buried under some other stuff) - and I suspect this 1' Cable thing I've got to work with actually won't reach - however that picture you show does look like a short pigtail type cable..so maybe... - ....but the best next bet is to find a bare piece of metal that might be available, and then I guess if not that, use the Negative of the Battery post itself .... (my fear is just connecting to the 'wrong' bare piece of metal and it damaging something or not providing the Portable Jump Start Battery what it needs to help provide the charge properly - or if using the actual Negative of the Battery I didn't want to damage this car electronics by not doing what is explicitly mentioned in their instructions... (as well as any risk of causing some sort of 'boom' ...which seems remote - but still)

Thanks for the pictures of what I should be looking for! I have just never had any reason to do this - nor have I used these little portable jump start battery packs. (I see videos of people just connecting other models of these little suckers directly to the negative of the battery itself, but the models they use don't actually say to connect it to a Ground like mine does! haha....

 

For the purposes of jump starting, you should be able to connect the black clamp to any "big" metal bracket on the engine. There's normally a lifting-lug on both ends of the engine.

The reason they say to make the last connection someplace other than the battery, is that a dead battery will sometimes give off hydrogen from it's vents, and you don't want sparks nearby from putting on the charger's clamp. So if you're rooting around down at the fender looking for something that's not right there easy to find, you're more likely to create sparks to begin with. And you're more likely to have your face close to the battery...

 

I guess this picture doesn't do it justice...

I'd look for any big piece of metal across the front of the engine, that you can get the clamp onto. Best for it to be as far away from the battery as the wire will reach. Seems like you could find something around the neighborhood of the AC compressor or exhaust catalyst. Actually, if you go all the way over where the picture shows, you'll have to be careful about the alternator belt when it starts spinning.

If you're worried, you can pick it out ahead of time by just trying the cable clamp onto various metal parts, without having the (+) wire connected. Or without having the jump-battery turned on, or whatever you can do. That way, when you need to jump-start, in the dark, rain, snow, or whatever; that's not the very first time you're looking for a place to hook up.

 

I totally misread what he was trying to do. I thought he was trying to install a cable for a battery maintainer.

For a jumper you just need to find metal to clamp on. The car is grounded.

 

I was going to say any metal part of the engine should work. I only say that, since a lot of manufacturers are using more and more plastics in these cars lately. You could also use the transmission, since that should be metal too.

 

These days you open up the hood and all you see is plastic. I see it as a deterrent so owners would think they have to bring it in to be worked on.