5 Things That Can Drain Your Car’s battery

Good-quality automotive batteries are ingenious and robust components that allow your engine to start. They use a relatively simple chemical reaction between lead electrodes and sulphuric acid to store electricity for longer intervals. This stored electricity can be used to power many features of your vehicle such as heating/cooling systems, headlights, interior lights, etc. A correctly installed and well-maintained battery must last anywhere between three to five years. Did your car battery give up much sooner than anticipated? There can be a host of reasons why such a thing has happened. Here is a list of the top 5 factors responsible for shortening your car battery’s life.

Buying a Smaller and Cheaper Battery

It is surely tempting to save those extra bucks by buying a cheaper and smaller battery for your car. But, such battery sets do not have ample Reserve Capacity or Cranking Amps to sustain high performance for a long time. Cranking amps is a measure of how much instant power can the battery provide to start an engine. Now, it does not take much electricity to run a car’s stereo, but it takes almost 200 amps to ignite an engine. This number increases or decreases depending on the size of your vehicle. Stay away from locally-made batteries, even if available at throwaway prices, as they decrease the performance of your vehicle and do not last for three to five years. Battery brands like Amaron, Exide, Bosch, and 3M must be installed by an expert service provider like AIS Windshield Experts for longer battery life.

Taking Too Many Short Trips

Your car’s battery recharges itself when you drive the car. The alternator is responsible for this. But, it takes time for the alternator to do the job. The only way you can keep the alternator running till it amply recharges the battery is by driving your car for an extended period. If your vehicle is being driven for only 5 to 10 minutes each time, you are unknowingly reducing its lifespan. When you mostly drive around for shorter distances, the alternator never gets the opportunity to recharge your battery.

Exposure to Extreme Temperatures

It is established that turning on your vehicle’s engine eats up a lot of battery power. The only thing that makes this power consumption worse is the engine ignited under very cold or very hot conditions. Temperature differentials favour the build-up of lead sulphate crystals inside the battery. Sulfation impairs the optimal conversion of chemical energy into electrical energy. This leads to longer battery charging intervals, shorter battery life, and battery failure. Once the battery starts taking a long time to fully charge, it will not charge to a hundred percent even when you take it for longer drives.

Forgetting to Switch off the Headlights or Other Features

This occurrence is more common than you would imagine! Accidentally leaving your vehicle’s headlights on can drain your car’s battery in a matter of hours. Many a times, owners forget to shut their vehicle doors or trunk doors tightly. Failure to do so can leave your cabin or boot light on. This ensures that your battery keeps sending power to those lights until it is completely drained of energy. If this happens only once or twice, you can jumpstart your battery again. However, if this drain happens multiple times, it will shorten your battery’s life drastically.

Defective Alternator and Terminal Corrosion

A car’s alternator is what recharges its battery. If your alternator has failed, your battery won’t charge. This will drain it off completely and you will need to jumpstart it. If your battery keeps dying, and you are lately noticing other issues such as dimmed or flickering cabin lights or strange sounds, get your alternator inspected by a professional service provider like AIS Windshield Experts. This problem generally occurs in older batteries.

Relatively old batteries must also be checked for terminal corrosion. Open the bonnet of your car once a month to glance through your battery terminals. If you notice a fuzzy, light blue build-up around them, clean it immediately. How? Before beginning, remove the lead or the wires connecting your battery to the vehicle. Then, take a toothbrush along with a portion of baking soda mixed in some water to clean off the corrosive build-up.

The Bottom Line

Car battery fails can be frustrating, which is why you must always get battery sets checked and replaced by a professional service provider. Looking for a new car battery? AIS Windshield Experts offer high-quality car battery service via our tie-ups with brands like Amaron, Exide, 3M, and Bosch.

We are India’s biggest automotive-care network offering both in-store and doorstep services. If you ever get stranded at a random location because your battery set suddenly coughed up and died, call us at 1800-102-6364! One of our hundreds of mobile vans will be at the place of incidence in a jiffy. Log onto  to book a consultation today!