Your cars have many critical components and you need to perform proper maintenance task for each. This is important f you want to keep your car in a perfect working condition. One of the components is the battery and if you don’t maintain it, you will fail to start the car. The best way is to check whether corrosion starts to build up on the terminals of your battery. If you find corrosion and deposits, it is important to immediately clean them up. Most of the time, you can restore the performance of the battery by cleaning up corrosion and making sure that the connection is right. You should also check the fluid level of the battery and make sure that the battery is charged properly y the car. You can use distilled water to maintain proper fluid level.
It is not advisable to use tap water, especially if you have hard water problem in your area. Minerals and chemicals in your tap water can reduce the usable life of the battery. During a trip, your next solution is to use bottled drinking water that you can purchase in convenience stores. They may not be as pure as distilled water due to the presence of minerals, but it’s still a lot better than allowing your battery to become completely dry. Make sure that you don’t overfill the battery, because you will end up diluting the acid solution. This will degrade the performance of the battery, because the acid level isn’t concentrated enough. Also, overfilling the battery will cause to battery to corrode faster and this also ruins the performance of the battery.
If you want to reduce the rate of corrosion, you should coat the post and its base with silicone sealer. Make sure that all the connections are very tight, so there won’t be outgassing that can corrode the cable. When you add new things in your car, such as powerful stereo sets and electronic devices, the battery will need to cope with the higher requirement. If you are planning to add new things, you should also consider using more powerful batteries.
Sulfation is a problem that often affects car battery. It happens when sulphur molecules are released from the acid fluid. There are lead plates inside the battery and if these plates are coated excessively by sulphur, they won’t be able to hold a charge. There are various causes of sulfation
- Very cold or very hot temperature. If the temperature is above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, internal discharging can start to become a serious problem. In extreme temperatures, you should occasionally use the battery, so it will still hold a charge.
- The car isn’t used for a long period of time
- The battery is discharged deeply
- The battery is undercharged.
So, when you purchase a new car battery, you should check when it was manufactured. A battery has expiration date, regardless of whether it is used or not. If not, you may pay the full value for a battery that may last for only one year.
