What Can Cause Your CAR BATTERY to go Flat-Advice for New Drivers

There are a few things to write about here that some drivers will know about and others, perhaps newer drivers will not know about. Some of this information is basic stuff, but you would be surprised at the number of customers that we get calling into our garage for their battery testing, who know nothing at all about their battery and how to look after it.

Car battery may not be used enough.

This is one of the commonest problems especially with the older drivers. These are the drivers that do not drive their cars very often, especially over the winter months. What they don’t realise is that modern cars are fitted with electrical devices that use small amounts of electricity 24 hours a day and slowly but surely discharge the battery over a period of time. When the driver tries to start the car then the battery will be flat and will not start the car.  

The vehicle is fitted with the wrong Car Battery

This is a problem that we can get on two different occasions. The first is when a customer comes to collect a battery without his car and gives us the wrong information about the car. The most common piece of wrong information is whether the car battery is for petrol or a diesel car. They always want a cheap battery for some reason and not the best one for their car. They always say that they think it is a petrol car or they “don’t know” it’s the “wife’s car”. The diesel battery is much stronger than the one for the petrol engine car, but is more expensive. The second one is the customers who buy a smaller battery on the internet, because the battery is a cheap battery. They always go for the 063 battery, because it is usually the best priced battery on all the websites, but is only suitable for small petrol driven cars. 

Short Journeys can flatten your Car Battery 

This really comes into the category of the battery not being used enough. There is enough power to start the car but on short journeys the car alternator does not have enough time to recharge the battery. If this continues the battery will be flattened beyond recovery and the battery will have to be replaced.

Leaving the Lights on will flatten your Car Battery

This is another common problem, drivers leave headlights on, either after a journey or perhaps when they go to the theatre in winter, if the side lights are left on then the battery will probably cope with that for a few hours, but on long winter nights the battery will be flattened.

Cold Winter weather will kill your Car Battery

This is the battery problem that most drivers will know about, and is the biggest killer of batteries fitted to anything and not just car batteries. What happens is that a cold spell will affect the chemical action of the

batteries, which results in a lack of power to start up the car. This affects the cars with older batteries, but the result is usually a new battery. The other thing is that in winter time you will be using all your electrics at once, and this will put strain on a week or old battery, which will have to be changed. This winter has been a very mild winter here in the UK and it has led to very weak car battery sales.

Very Hot weather can also kill off your Car Battery  

This is a problem that not many drivers will know about. Here in the UK he very seldom get very hot weather, but when we do then battery sales can rocket. What the heat does is to BOIL the acid in the battery. The engine heat is always very high and this combined with the heat of the outside weather can boil the battery and all the acid evaporates and leaves the battery without acid and kills the battery.

Mechanical failure can kill your Car Battery

This is what a typical car alternator looks like

This is the final thing that I think is important. You will buy a new battery for your car because your old battery is dead. Then a couple of weeks later, your new battery lets you down. This is a sure sign that you

Freezing nights like this will kill the older car battery

have a problem with your car’s alternator. The good thing is that most garages can carry out a simple test that will show whether or not the alternator has failed you. Other than the alternator there is really nothing much else can cause you battery problems, that are of the mechanical nature.

I hope this post is of use to you.

Eric Roberts

Hi I would like to introduce myself. I have worked in the Garage and tyre and I am MD for online battery company www.batteriesontheweb.co.uk. I have worked for a couple for national tyre companies in my younger days, before starting my first business. I now own a garage and MOT testing centre, 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.