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Car batteries Care-Caring for your batteries during the winter months

Car batteries Care

Car batteries Care during the winter months

The Rome Observer

(METRO) — Few things can be more frustrating than jumping into the driver’s seat on a frosty morning, turning the key in the ignition and failing to hear the engine roar to life.

Car batteries Care-Why do your Car Batteries fail in the Winter?

As silly as it may seem many drivers hardly use their cars. Hence, in the winter months. Indeed some drivers lock the cars away in the garage, (if they have one).

Nothing can be more stressful. As a result trying to start your car on a cold winters morning. Therefore, only to find that your car wont start. Of course, it is one of the saddest sounds that you as a driver will hear. When the battery just makes a slow grinding noise. Hence, made by the starter motor. As it tries to start up your car. Normally the engine just zips up. Hence, at the turn of the key and off you go. So but not this morning, it’s frosty and -2 C or bellow. Therefore, the car will not start up.

This is the scenario .That thousands of motorists a day will experience. Of course, a bit of knowledge goes a long way. Setting out a few facts can help the motorist understand. Consequently, a little more about their 12 Volt Battery car batteries. Including, how they respond to the climate. The two extremes of weather conditions, the cold and the heat will affect your car batteries performance.

Here in the UK we rarely experience excess heat, so I will concentrate on the cold.

In cold weather the chemical action in the battery will be slowed down and I have actually seen the battery liquid (sulphuric acid) frozen solid.

Car batteries Care-The corrosion on this battery must be removed

So of keeping your car in a garage if possible, either in really cold weather or overnight. What happens is that although it may be cold in the garage, the heat from the engine when the car was run the day before, will act as a heater for the battery as the engine compartment will still retain the heat.

If the battery is over five years old then it should be replaced with a new battery, most car batteries will fail after the five year period, and this is what we have found over the years, also imported cars from the Far Eastern countries such as Japan, China and South Korea are imported with 038 car batteries that are lower specifications that the ones made for the European market, these batteries do not stand up to the cold weather and usually fail early on in the cars life.

The best thing that drivers can do is to have their car batteries checked before the onset of winter and replace It if necessary, but in really severe cold as experienced in the USA recently, then the battery could still fail without further protection from the cold.

 Car batteries Care-A few things to look out for when buying your new battery.

Make sure that it is the correct battery for the car and has the same power, the same number of amps and cold cranking amps. It will be all right to go bigger if it will fit the cars battery compartment as long as the battery has the same voltage, usually 12volts and 6volts on classic cars and vintage cars.

Here are a few more tips if the weather forecast is for really cold conditions. You can use a battery blanket, to cover the battery and stop it freezing. You could also use a trickle charger, because the battery will retain some heat as the battery is been charged up, and stop it from freezing. If your car is stored in the garage for a period of time then disconnect the car battery and try to keep it on a trickle charger when the battery is in storage, you can buy cheap intelligent chargers now that will do this job.

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