Autowirez Blog

All too often car batteries are neglected and only ever get attention when the cold winter mornings work their wonders and the car battery fails to start the engine. By getting rid of a few bad habits, you can greatly increase the life of your car battery and prevent the failed starts.

1. Bad habits
When parking up for the night, switch off all electrical items and allow the cars engine to idle at around 1000 RPM for around 30 seconds then let off the throttle for a few seconds allowing the engine’s idle to settle, then switch off. This will top up your car battery with a little charge that may just be the difference between getting to work in the morning or not.

Many people will park up with their headlights on, front fog lights, rear demister, heater etc, then switch off the engine. Only when they have got their belongings together to step out the vehicle do they switch everything off the ignition switch didn’t. This is totally opposite to the above and doesn’t help your car battery during the cold winter night when you are tucked up in bed.

2. Cleaning the car battery - You will need baking soda & water
Once every three months, remove the leads from the car battery disconnecting the negative (-) terminal first. This will reset any coded car radio so you will need the code to unlock it. Now with the leads removed, clean the car battery terminals and casing with a solution of baking soda and warm water. This will break down any dirt and make cleaning easier. If this fails to clean the battery terminals, a wire brush will have the terminals like new with a perfect electrical contact as it scratches away at the metal (often lead) surface revealing a shiney new layer underneath. You could also do the same with the terminals on the positive (+) and negative (-) cables. Now charge the battery as in step 3 below before securing both cables to the battery.

3. Charging the car battery
After cleaning, with the cables off the battery attatch the red positive (+) lead from the car battery charger to the same terminal on the battery. Now attatch the black negative (-) lead from the charger to the (-) of the battery taking care to observe polarity. Leave to charge in a well ventilated area until the charge completes. Most car battery chargers nowadays have either an anologue / digital meter or some form of indication of charge status. Once charging is complete, switch off charger at the mains and remove both leads from the battery. Now reconnect the battery to the vehicle, again, taking care to observe polarity - Red (+) positive and Black (-) negative.

Summary
Although most car batteries today are totally maintenance free, it simply means they do not require topping up with de-ionised water like older batteries. By following the quick and simple steps above, you can greatly increase the lifespan of your battery and help prevent failed starts on those dreadful cold winter mornings.