What is involved in buying and replacing a car battery
The battery in a car is one such part that apparently suddenly breaks down. Because one day your car will just start and the next day it will suddenly stop. Which often means that the battery is no longer as good as expected.
If you need to replace a car battery and you are going to buy one, you will soon find out that there are still quite a few differences between the batteries. Even though they are all suitable for in the car.
When should you replace a battery?
If you wait to replace a battery until the car does not start one morning, then you are very late. It goes without saying that it is better to replace the battery before then.
However, that is the trickiest. Because a battery usually lasts for at least 4 years. Which means that a battery can still perform excellently after 4 years. And that there is nothing to indicate that the battery will break down in the foreseeable future.
Something that will certainly be the case in the summer. Because if the outside temperature is higher, then a worse battery will still do well enough to not notice that the battery needs to be replaced.
You often only find out that a car battery should have been replaced during the first cold night in winter. In cold weather, a battery has less capacity and less power. As a result, a battery that needs replacing will no longer be able to turn the starter motor and supply all other parts with enough power to start the engine.
The modern car is equipped with all kinds of indicator lights and warning lights. And often we can also be shown everything on a screen, including malfunctions. It may surprise you, but there is no indicator light for the diminishing battery.
It is different when your car is equipped with a Start / Stop system. In that case, an electronic record is made of how often the system has been used and the degree of wear and tear it has caused to the battery. When the system suspects that the battery needs to be replaced, you will be notified via a warning light. The Start / Stop system will often be switched off if you wait too long to replace the battery.
But doesn’t every car have a red coloured indicator light that is shaped like a battery? Indeed it is. However, that light only comes on when something goes wrong with recharging the battery. Something that unfortunately says nothing about the condition of the battery.
Also, measuring the voltage of a battery is not everything. Because if the battery can still be fully charged, you will be able to measure 12.7 Volts in voltage. But that again only says something about whether the battery can still be fully charged, so not really anything about the condition of the battery.
Because even a worn-out battery can often still be fully charged. The worn-out battery will just not be able to hold the power for very long. As a result of which the battery will be empty faster than average.
Many batteries are equipped with a so-called magic eye, or glass eye, in which you can quickly read the condition of the battery. If the eye is green, it means that the condition of the battery is still OK.
However, the eye is only an indication. Because only one cell is measured. Unfortunately, the fact that one cell is still good does not mean that all other cells in the battery are also good.
The more electronic gadgets you have in your car, the more important the place a battery occupies in a car. Because for many electronic gadgets, a constant voltage is especially very important, where a voltage that is not constant enough can cause all kinds of strange faults to occur in the car’s electronics.
It is therefore smart to ask your garage during maintenance if they also want to check and measure the battery for you. Something you can also often have done at specialist battery stores. They also have special equipment with which a car battery can be measured.
This way you ensure that you always have a good battery in your car. This prevents you from being confronted with strange electronic faults that are difficult to solve.
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