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Mistakes Motorists Make That Diminish The Functioning Of Their Car Batteries

While car batteries do have a limited life span that is not more than several years, this does not mean that they are built to degrade prematurely. In fact, what may surprise you about car battery problems is that the leading cause of defects tends to stem from oversights by motorists rather than the manufacturing plant itself.

Hence, to prolong the lifespan of your car battery and to avoid its untimely and continual replacement, you must be familiar with the blunders you could potentially be making that are rendering your battery ineffective. This piece highlights typical mistakes motorists' make that diminish the functioning of their car batteries and necessitate regular auto servicing.

Disregarding professional maintenance

Auto maintenance is essential to keep all the systems in your vehicle running efficiently. Thus, you are probably aware that you should take your car in for a service after several hundred kilometres. However, in addition to this routine maintenance schedule, you should also have your car battery professional maintenance by your mechanic from time to time.

When you exclusively seek help from your mechanic when your battery starts acting up and requires repairs, you are inadvertently letting problems fester until they affect the functioning of the battery. With routine maintenance checks, the mechanic will inspect water levels in your vehicle, the voltage of the battery and more to establish if the battery is discharging and stop this from happening.

Refilling the battery with tap water

The use of tap water to refill the water levels in a battery is a common newbie mistake. The problem with using regular tap water for your car battery is that this type of water contains a high amount of metal ions. When the water circulates in the battery, the metal ions in the water will cause a reaction with the ions and electrodes in the battery. As a result, the battery progressively loses its charging capacity and you will begin to experience issues when driving.

If the water levels in your auto battery have diminished, you should only use distilled water to top up the level. Distilled water functions to dilute the lead-acid in the battery and this, subsequently, helps with facilitating enhanced electric flow in the battery. Take note not to overwater the car battery, as excessive amounts of distilled water will water down the electrolytes and subset decrease battery performance.

Further blunders to avoid to prevent premature replacement of your car battery are overlooking alternator repairs, overcharging it and so on.

For more information on car batteries, reach out to a local auto service.