#MAINTENANCE FREE CAR BATTERY INDICATOR FULL#

Use care when jumping a dead batteryĪnd beware of jump-starting a car with a dead battery. Think twice before installing the replacement yourself, however, for the same reason mentioned above-your vehicle might need diagnostic scanning and reprogramming before some of its components will work right. If the battery is 5 years old or older, consider replacing it. If it can no longer hold a proper charge, be sure to buy a replacement battery that’s the correct fit and matches or exceeds the cold-cranking amps and reserve-capacity ratings of the original. If your car’s battery is 3 to 4 years old, have a technician load-test it. The absence of battery-supplied voltage erases the memories of modules that control the transmission, antilock brakes, and other components. If the terminals are corroded, have your service facility clean them, because disconnecting a battery without providing an alternative power source can create havoc in modern cars. They’re available from various retailers, auto-parts stores, and online.Įvery few months, check to be sure the battery is securely mounted on its platform, that the cable clamps are tightly secured, and the terminals are clean. If you drive your car infrequently-say, less than once every two weeks-a trickle charger that monitors the state of charge and recharges the battery when necessary is a good investment. Extreme cold also negatively affects battery chemistry.Ī battery will slowly drain and eventually die during a long period of inactivity.

Summer heat of 100-plus degrees, which increases a battery’s internal discharge.

Undercharging from, say, a faulty alternator or too many short trips that don’t give the alternator time to recharge the battery.

A malfunction (a stuck fuel-pump relay, for example) or an electronic device, such as a cell phone, left plugged into an “always on” power receptacle overnight.

Some things that can cause excessive drain and shorten battery life are: Lead-acid batteries in particular are damaged by deep discharges. If it’s another color or clear, let your service rep or tech know.

#MAINTENANCE FREE CAR BATTERY INDICATOR FULL#

If the eye is green, the battery should be in a full state of charge. Your car’s battery may have a circular charge-indicator “eye” on its top. Not only will this ensure that the car starts when you need it to, but the battery will have a longer life span. Charge it!Ī car battery must be kept well charged. They’re generally more robust, although they’re also more costly. And now there’s an alternative to the traditional lead-acid battery: AGM (absorbent glass mat) batteries are coming as original equipment on many new cars. Today, a battery is typically “maintenance-free”-sealed and meant to retain its electrolyte solution for its lifetime. Today’s batteries are betterįortunately, batteries have improved since the days when they needed periodic topping-off with distilled water. And many new cars come with a fuel-saving start-stop feature that causes the engine to automatically turn off and restart perhaps dozens of times during a single trip, relying on the battery each time.

While that’s still true, since cars are now loaded to their rooftops with vast numbers of electronic doodads, the battery also must work hard to keep those things functioning.įor example, even when the engine isn’t running and the alternator isn’t charging the battery, it must keep things like the radio presets and the security alarm operational. In the old days, a battery’s primary function was to start the engine. It’s hard to be more precise, because a variety of factors affect a battery’s performance and life span. Batteries in desert climates can fail in two years, and some batteries that are 5 or 6 years old work just fine. How long a battery should last is an excellent question, but a difficult one to answer.

Maintenance free car battery indicator