The battery is an essential element for starting a vehicle. Through ignorance, certain errors or practices cause it to discharge completely and prevent you from starting your car.
To prevent your car’s battery from going flat, don’t forget to turn off the headlights and lights. Do not use a faulty alternator or old battery.
Menu :
The different mistakes not to make so that your car battery does not run out of charge
A car battery has a charge limit, so you should not make the following mistakes if you want it not to be completely flat.
Leave your headlights and lights on
When you forget to turn off your car’s headlights or lights for a long time, it causes the battery to completely drain. This is a situation that often arises when you come home tired from work. You get out of the car and forget to turn off the headlights or the dome lights.
It is necessary to develop the reflex of always turning off functions that consume electrical energy before getting out of your vehicle. You may also leave a warning light when you do not properly close a door or trunk of your vehicle.
To get around this difficulty, most of today’s cars alert you when your headlights or interior lights are not turned off. If you have an old car model from before the year 2000, no alert will be triggered to notify you of your omission.
Driving your car with an old battery
The average lifespan of a car battery is between 4 and 5 years. If yours is an old battery, it is obvious that it can no longer fully recharge.
This is noticeable by frequent startup problems. In this case, the only alternative is to consider replacing the old battery with a new battery.
Take short trips or keep your vehicle idle
When starting the car, the battery discharges. Starting is an operation requiring a lot of energy. If you are therefore used to traveling on journeys of less than 25 km while starting is energy-intensive, the battery does not have time to recharge properly. This can cause battery failure.
Among other things, if you keep your vehicle in the garage without starting it for a long time, the battery may also drain itself. The best way to avoid this battery failure is to drive your car frequently.
Using a faulty alternator
Many car models today use an alternator to recharge the battery and operate certain elements such as the radio, lights, air conditioning and automatic windows. If your alternator is faulty, the battery won’t charge even when you’re on the move. As a result, your battery will drain very quickly.
Exposing your car to extreme temperatures
High or low temperature is not beneficial for a car battery. This negatively affects battery performance. When the temperature is very low, it weakens your battery. Since starting requires a lot of energy, the battery drains automatically.
It is especially advisable during periods of cool weather to park your vehicle in a garage or in a place where it will be sheltered from these various bad weather conditions.
High temperatures also cause damage to your battery, particularly over its lifespan.
Activate energy-consuming systems
An attitude also leading to the dead battery problem is the activation of energy-consuming systems. It’s about the heating system. It is an energy consumer (three times more battery energy). Contact your mechanic for a tune-up to avoid unpleasant surprises.
SEE ALSO: Car starter: operation and maintenance tips
Your car battery is flat: what should you do to restart it?
Faced with a battery failure problem, the best reflex is to contact a specialist in the field to help you repair the problem. Aside from this choice of calling a mechanic, there are solutions that you can use to resolve your dead battery problem.
Be aware that some of them can cause damage to the components of your battery.
Use jumper cables
One of the techniques for starting a car with a dead battery is to connect it with the battery of another vehicle. Connection is made using jumper cables.
This method is really risky and improper handling can damage the electronic components of both vehicles.
If you still want to use it, here are the different steps to follow:
- Place the two cars facing each other so that they are not touching;
- Open the hood of each vehicle and start the engine of the vehicle equipped with the charged battery;
- Leave the engine running;
- Using the cables, connect the terminals of the two batteries by connecting the positive poles with the red cable and the negative poles with the black cable. Note that you must be careful not to reverse the cables and connect the positive terminals before the negative terminals;
- Let the battery charge and start the vehicle;
- Unplug the cables.
Use System D
This second alternative is often used when you do not have equipment (cables) or another car to be able to boost your broken down battery. This is an old method of pushing the car with the help of another person.
System D consists of engaging the clutch and engaging a second gear then turning on the ignition. Then, get help to push the vehicle. As soon as the car has gained good momentum (with a speed of 10 km/h), gradually release the clutch.
Using these two different methods, if your dead battery does not start, it is very certain that it is out of order. Faced with this type of situation, the only option is to buy a new battery with the same characteristics (choose a battery of the same size and the same amperage) as the old one.
How long does it take to recharge a dead battery?
The time required to recharge a flat battery depends on its size and the number of amps of your charger. With its different information, you can easily know the recharge time of your battery. Simply divide the battery size by the amp rating of your charger.
After starting your vehicle with one of the different techniques previously described, it is mandatory to drive it for a while to recharge the battery. If you do not have any information on the size and amperage of your battery, you must recharge the battery for at least an hour before it can restart.
Also, know that there are devices that can help you in these situations. These include car battery boosters and vehicle battery chargers. Boosters help start your vehicle during a breakdown and battery chargers are used to charge your battery from an electrical outlet.
As soon as your battery is charged thanks to its devices, you must always drive the vehicle for a while.
