Keeping Your Car Battery in Good Condition.

Car battery care tips

Many car owners these days tend to neglect their oil and water levels, these days and this includes the car battery. Like anything else in this life things will work better if they are looked after. Being a garage owner myself I see the amount of neglect on the cars that come into the garage for minor things, such as to top up the cars washer bottles, or check their oil level for them.

When we lift the bonnet (hood) you can see that the battery terminals are all corroded with the white powder and the battery is generally filthy and dirty. This is a sure sign that the battery has not been checked in ages.

Car battery types

The ratio of sealed batteries and open ended types with a screw top are about 60/40 these days. This means that about 40% of cars should have the tops removed and the batteries water/acid levels checked and topped up if required. The 60% of batteries that are sealed lead acid batteries cannot have their water/acid levels checked, because obviously they are sealed and you cannot gain access to the cells.

The sealed ones have a different type of material to make the cell plates out of. The plates are made of lead alloys and do not gas as much as the screw top type of battery that are made of lead antimony and this will tend to give off more gasses, thus reducing the amount of liquid in the battery. The acid/water mix is known as electrolyte and should be just covering the tops of the plates inside each battery cell.

 It is not a good idea to top your battery up with tap water as it may contain other chemicals. You can buy electrolyte from a motor accessory store or if you have a condenser type of spin dryer, then the water that it produces in the plastic reservoir, is in fact distilled water and can be used to top up battery. Your car battery will need more checking up in hot weather because of a higher rate of evaporation. Also if you have to constantly top one particular cell up, then the cell could be shorting out and boiling up the acid, if this is the case, than a cheap car batteries are the answer.

Car battery terminals

This is one of the commonest problems that can occur with your car battery is the gradual erosion of the

Terminals like these require a really good cleaning

battery terminals. The white powder is caused by a mixture of hydrogen crystals and sulphuric acid. This comes from the escaping hydrogen gases from the battery vents mixing with the acid and forming crystals onto the steel bolts that fasten the terminals to the battery and also the battery terminal wire which is usually made of copper. This can eventually cover the complete terminal and looks a real mess; eventually it will completely corrode the terminal wire and break the batteries circuit.

This mess needs cleaning off, as it does no good at all. The best way to do this is to pore some hot water onto the terminal slowly, remember this is acid and you should not let it touch your body, eyes or cloths. Some people use a mixture of water and baking powder, which neutralises the acid and you, can then give the whole terminal a rub down with a cloth and a wire brush. The terminal should then be protected by coating the terminal with a good smothering of petroleum jelly. Here in the UK we use a brand name called Vaseline.

Keep a car battery charger handy

In the winter time when the days are short and the nights long and cold it is always a good idea to charge your battery every now and then. If you keep your car in a garage then it would be easy to hook the car battery up to a charger, from say your work bench, but if you leave the car outside you should probably

Ring smart battery charger suitable for cars

remove the battery and charge it indoors. This sounds like a bit of a chore but it will keep your battery in good condition much longer, than if you just neglected it.

Battery chargers are now very cheap to buy. You can now buy what they call smart chargers, and all you do is connect them up and leave them, the charger will take care of your battery without you touching it again.

Before you charge the battery up, make sure that you unscrew the tops. This allows for the gases to escape while the battery is being charged up due to the acid heating up and evaporating, then top the battery up to the correct level after the charging has finished.

Checking the specific gravity of your car battery

If you want to take testing your battery a little further then I suggest that you invest in a hydrometer. They are not very expensive and will determine the state of charge of your caravan battery. The hydrometer measures the specific gravity of the electrolyte in your battery. If you place the rubber tube into the battery then

A simple hydrometer will show you the state of you battery

squeeze and then let go, then the electrolyte will enter the glass bowl. In the glass bowl is a float similar to a fishing float. This float has markings on it to determine the state of the battery. If the marking that is level with the liquid reads 1.27 or higher the battery is in good condition, if the reading is below 1.13 then the battery is flat. You then squeeze the liquid back into the cell and check the other cells. Simple?

You can also use a simple voltmeter set at 20 volts or above. The reading for a fully charged car battery should be 13.5 volts or above, if it is below 11 volts then the battery will need replacing.

Disclaimer

Please note these are the words and opinion of the author (Eric Roberts) only. Neither the author nor the website can be held responsible for any errors or omissions. You should seek professional assistance if in doubt about your choice of battery. The article may contain a link to Batteriesontheweb where you can buy battery products online.

|This article is also posted on..http://www.batteriesontheweb.co.uk/blog/

To the Public-All Car batteries Look the Same

All Car batteries may Look the Same but there not

It never stops surprising me, the number of our customers who think that they can fit any battery to their car. A typical question is will an 063 car battery fit my Ford Mondeo1, 9 turbo diesel. This is because the 063 cost in the region of £35 to £45 depending on the make of the battery. I suppose that most car batteries do look pretty similar and indeed some are.

Most of the black coloured boxes are in fact recycled and whatever the battery make they do in fact all look the same apart from the fact that they do come in different lengths. In fact most batteries that fit European cars are the same height and width, but they increase in capacity with their length. From a 063 battery being the smallest to the 019 battery being almost the largest. There are larger batteries, but the 019 is probably the commonest of the larger sized batteries and fits many Mercedes and BMW models.

The other colour of box is the white or opaque and is used to make the top quality batteries such as Varta batteries made by Johnson controls, but not to confuse matters; Johnson controls also make other quality battery brand names such as Lucas batteries. Lucas batteries are of excellent qualities and can be bought online at www.batteriesontheweb.co.uk at discount prices with a next working day delivery.

 One of the key things to look out for when buying your new battery is the number of amps that the battery states on the label. For instance an 063 battery can have anything between 35amps and 50 amps, the 50amps battery will be the strongest battery, so this is well worth looking out for. Most standard car batteries are known as wet cell lead acid batteries and are designed for starting and supplying the electricity to your car. One thing to watch out for is the advent of the AGM batteries that are now being fitted to some models of cars.

The AGM (absorbed glass matting) have an electrolyte-laden mat made of boron-silicate glass between the plates and therefore can be totally sealed as the battery acid does not evaporate, these batteries can also be used as deep cycle batteries, and are used for mobility scooters and golf carts. In the case of cars the batteries are used in the stop/start systems used by Volvo, BMW and other makes of cars. This is where the motorist has to be careful it is important to fit the correct battery and if you are not sure which type of battery that you have on your car, you must check with your local battery store or better still contact your car makers garage, but don’t buy one off them because you will be paying twice the price as you would online.

Most car batteries that are sold online

 will come with a three or four year warranty and to be truthful many of the companies will stick to warranty agreement, like buying any other products you take a certain amount of risk when buying anything online. Check the trustworthiness of the company, a good way is to email them with a question or better still telephone them with a question, you will soon know if they sound genuine or not. If they do not have a contact phone number on the web-site then do not buy a battery off them, there plenty of come and go companies, you are looking for trust and understanding, when you buy a new battery, so that if something should go wrong then it will be sorted out for you.

And finally most car batteries these days will be advertised as maintenance free and come with carrying handles, these handles sure help when it comes to lifting your new battery into the engine compartment.

Eric Roberts

Hi I would like to introduce myself. I have worked in the Garage and tyre and Battery business now for 40 years. I have worked for a couple for national tyre companies in my younger days, before starting my first business. I now own a company here in the UK called Pellon Tyre and Auto-centre, and I am a keen blogger about anything to do with cars and their related products that will help my business. We are members of Point-S and Motor-Codes and are also a Unipart Car Care Centre and of course Tyre-safe.

Related articles

• Check the battery once per month for cor
• Latest update battery killer?!