Dead Car Battery

Regardless of how religious you are about checking your vehicle there are some instances you may forget something. In some instances you may forget to close the boot correctly, accidentally leave the headlights on or perhaps forget to turn off the internal dome light. The problem is that these events are also utilising electricity from the car battery. The car battery will use the electricity all night long causing you to wake up to a dead battery. Generally most modern cars will alert you if something is left on but older vehicles don’t have this luxury.

Most mechanics will call this the parasitic drain but this is a normal occurrence in vehicles. Some of your vehicles components have to run 24/7 for example your car security system, the vehicles clock or car radio. All these components rely on the car battery to keep them operating. If there is a problem with the electrical wires, fuses or a faulty installation has taken place. All these trouble spots will drain the power from the battery resulting in a dead battery.

Everything has an expiry date due to wear and tear. Most batteries come with a life span of about 3-4 years. This is based on normal driving conditions. Without the correct maintenance and poor driving habits the battery will not last that length of time.

We recommend that you replace your battery within the suggested guidelines.

Corrosion can also be a factor in the vehicles power cells not keeping their charge. Rust can affect the composition of the chemicals involved in the conversion of chemical energy to an electrical one. Corrosion can prevent the battery from recharging 100%.

We advise that you get your cables checked for corrosion or to see if they are loose. Loose cables will prevent your engine form starting efficiently.

If you are forever driving short journeys this can cause your battery to drain. It takes time for the alternator to pump the fuel to your cars power cells. The only way you can keep the alternator running is by driving longer distances. If you turn off the engine before the alternator can recharge the battery then the power cells will continue to drain.

We recommended you keep short distance drives to a minimum.

The alternator is a critical piece of your vehicles technology as it powers the cars electronics during operation and it also charges the battery. If the diode is bad then it will continue to charge the system although the engine is switched off. In turn this will drain the power from the battery.

We have all the latest equipment to check your battery power. Our friendly team offer friendly advice and can chat through your options.

We have years of experience and are trusted locally by many clients offering a professional and competitively priced range of services.

Get in touch with us today to discuss your vehicle problems.