United Tire and Service News

Replacing a battery can be pricey, so everyone is looking for tips that will help them extend their car battery life. When it comes to extending your car battery, there are only a few tips that are really helpful. There is a lot of misinformation out there about how to extend your battery, but the tips in this article are proven to be effective. Read on to learn several helpful tips that will help you extend your car battery life.

 

This is one of the most important tips for extending your battery's life. When the engine is running, the alternator is charging up your car's battery. When the car is on but the engine is not running (when the key is in the "accessories" position) the battery is being drained without the benefit of the charge from the alternator. You can even drain your battery flat if you use a lot of power when the engine is off. For example, running your car's A/C with the engine off is a terrible idea, because this can drain your battery all the way in a short period of time. You can always get a jump, but the battery's life will be shortened a little every time.

 

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Many people let their car sit for a long time. This often happens when people go out of town for an extended period of time or when they store their vehicle during the winter months. Letting your car sit for a long time often leads to the battery slowly losing its charge. If you are going to store your car for more than a month or so, you should hook up a trickle charger to your battery to keep it from going flat.

 

You're probably familiar with the corrosion that tends to build up on car batteries. This corrosion is often greenish-blue, and is concentrated at the terminals of the battery. This corrosion may seem harmless, as the battery will probably keep working just fine. However, corrosion will actually slowly damage your battery and shortens its life. You can clean off this corrosion quite easily. Start by mixing water and baking soda. Get an old, worn-out toothbrush and dip it in the solution. Scrub the corrosion off the battery with the toothbrush.

 

This is an often-overlooked but important tip for extending the life of your battery. It is important to protect your battery from extreme temperatures, as both extreme heat and extreme cold can shorten the life of a battery. This may seem difficult to do if you live in a climate where it gets very hot or very cold. However, protecting a car battery from extreme temperatures is actually pretty easy. All you have to do is wrap it in the widely available insulation made specifically for car batteries.