Car Battery Maintenance Tips : Tips to keep car battery healthy and long lasting

The battery of your car goes through severe fluctuations in temperature in its lifetime. The engine produces a lot of heat and this diminishes the capacity of the battery at a rapid rate. In areas with cold weather, a battery can last anywhere between five and six years. However, in the hot weather conditions, this gets reduced to around three years. When your car is running and on it is the alternator that charges the battery.

However, when your car sits idle for a few days the battery loses its charge, and that too rapidly. In fact, in these cases, it can even drop below the minimum level that you need to start your car. So, if this situation persists for several days the life of battery gets worse and this means that your car is prone to breaking down all of a sudden.

6 Tips to keep the car battery healthy and long lasting

The first step that you need to do to keep your car battery healthy and long lasting is to switch on the battery of the car at regular intervals.

You can be sure that this would be great for the car battery life. As we have said already, if you do not use the battery for a long-enough time it tends to lose its charge. In these cases, the power of the battery drains away, and rapidly at that. This is why experts recommend that you start your vehicle and take it on a ride at least once a week. If the battery loses its charge totally you would have to jumpstart it to start the car.

1. Minimizing battery usage when the engine is off 

In this case, it is also important to know how to maintain the right car battery voltage. These batteries tend to discharge at a higher rate when the engine is not being used. The music systems and lights of your car tend to use up a lot of power of the battery which harms its lifespan as such. So, whenever you are leaving your car make sure that you have switched off the interior accessories and lights.

2. Keeping the battery clean

You must never let dirt gather on the battery. This can lead to the battery getting drained of its charge because of the dust that has settled on the casing of the same.

You may have the best car battery in India but even then that would not be too helpful if you let the dust settle on it – it would not last long for sure. In fact, such accumulation of dust can also lead to the battery getting short-circuited and this could kill the device as well. The terminals of these batteries also tend to get corroded with time. This is the reason why you must clean those areas by using a brush so that such corrosion may not happen.

3. Minimizing the exposure to heat 

This also plays a major role in improving the car battery lifespan. When a battery is exposed to a lot of heat its life can reduce, and drastically so, as well. This can in fact evaporate the fluids in the battery. For that matter, this can happen with the new and sealed batteries as well. During the winter a battery does not need a lot of charge for it to start a car. However, owing to heat-related damage that happened during the summers it can fail even then. This is why always keep your car in cool and shaded areas during the summers to protect the battery from getting overheated.

4. Checking the battery voltage each month 

A car battery utilizes materials such as lead-acid and its life would be shortened significantly if it is not charged fully. Both half charge and lack of charge are harmful to the battery. So, you need to monitor this by checking the voltage of the battery at least once each month. You can use a voltmeter for this purpose as well. The minimum voltage of a healthy battery in a car would be 12.7 volts. If it goes down to 12.5 volts experts recommend that you recharge the battery.

5. Adding distilled water as and when is necessary

You need to make sure that the equilibrium of your car battery is a healthy one. One of the best ways to do so is to mix distilled water with the same – this would extend the life of that battery for sure. During summers the weather outside is hot and this means that the battery fluid may evaporate as well. When you add distilled water it would help reduce the damage that the cells suffer from because of overheating.

6. Keeping the battery insulated 

It is important to keep your car battery protected at all times and a great way to do so is to use insulated covers. Newer variants of cars are being made and they offer you better fuel efficiency as well as aerodynamics. This has meant that the hood space of the cars has now been reduced. This has a bad effect on the airflow in the engine and this means that the batteries are now more vulnerable to being damaged by heat. This has reduced their lifespan as well. You need to use insulation wraps to protect your car from all extremes of temperature.