Battery Info

Battery Service

Batteries in Winter

Battery Replacement Tips

As daylight gets shorter, short trip driving with lights, defrosters and wipers running can slowly discharge a battery because the alternator doesn't have time to make up for the energy used to start the vehicle and run all the accessories. Alternator output is lower at low speed driving than when you are out on the highway. Each day the battery may become another 1 or 2% discharged leading to a problem within a few of weeks.
Running batteries low on charge causes shortened battery life and older batteries to fail.
One way to prevent this is to take the car out once a week for a longer drive.
Also, a low or marginally bad battery can continue to start a car for months, but during starting the voltages can be so low that we often see electronic issues such as performance problems caused by the computer being confused by the low voltages during starting.

If your battery does get discharged due to short trip driving or leaving the lights on it's important to know that it can take 4 - 6 hours to properly charge a fully discharged battery.

If your battery gets discharged, don't expect the alternator to do the job, especially in the winter. To begin with, unless you're going on a long trip you won't fully charge the battery, leading to possibly more problems or early battery failure. Alternators are not designed to charge a fully discharged battery. Doing so can shorten its life or cause it to fail.

 

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