The battery is the lifeblood of a car. Your car can’t even start without a battery. It not only helps in igniting the engine but also helps in powering the electrical components. The lifespan of a car battery relies on how long it takes to get discharged or if it’s still capable of recharging. Commonly, the life of a normal battery is around 3-5 years. It may vary according to its usage. To improve the lifespan of a car battery, it’s very important to take good care of it and get its service done every month.
In this article, we’ll discuss the signs that show your car battery is dying and needs replacement.
Signs Your Car Battery Needs Replacement
Here are a few signs that show your car battery is failing.
1) Slow Engine Startup
With time, the lead inside your vehicle’s battery decays, and it takes more time to generate energy for starting the engine. This is one of the most common signs that the battery needs replacement. If this happens with your car, we suggest you not to ignore it and get your battery checked as soon as possible.
2) Ignition Clicking Sound
It often happens when the battery becomes weak, the ignition makes a clicking sound and the engine doesn’t crank at all. This means that the battery isn’t supplying the required power to start the engine. You must get it checked and replaced by an auto mechanic near you.
3) Issues With Electrical Components and Headlights
Due to a weak battery, the headlights and other electrical components aren’t provided with the proper required power to run them. Therefore, you can face several issues, such as the headlights can become dim, the horn can sound weird, or the radio can stop working.
4) The Check-Engine Light
The “check engine” light on a car’s dashboard shows that something’s wrong with the car. It also turns on when the battery gets too weak. So it’s recommended to keep a check on this light, and if it’s on, get your car battery checked by any nearby service center.
5) Puffed Up Battery Case
Many times, because of internal chemical reactions or exposure to extreme temperatures, the battery case puffs up, gets cracked, or becomes out of shape. This is an indicator that most probably your battery isn’t working properly.
6) Decreased Fluid Level
The fluid level of a battery matters a lot. If it isn’t correct, your battery may not work properly and get damaged soon. This level should be equal to the height of lead plates in the battery, if it’s below the lead conductors, get it refilled, and also get your car dynamo checked.
7) Leakage
Leakage is another signal of a dying battery. Many times, the fluid inside the battery leaks out from the terminals. This causes corrosion and the car engine may not start due to the lack of conductivity.
8) Bad Smell
Because of an internal short in the battery, gases are formed and leak, which can produce an unpleasant smell. This smell is usually like rotten eggs, which indicates a dying battery.
9) Damaged Terminals
Because of the leakage of gases and fluid from the battery, the terminals become corroded and damage slowly. This shows that the battery isn’t working fine, and you must replace it.
10) Old Age Battery
If your battery is too old, and you haven’t replaced it for a long time, get it changed as old batteries can’t properly start the engine and run other electrical components in your car. Anytime, you can face inconvenience due to a battery failure.
Things You Should Know About Replacement of Car Battery
When you know that your car’s battery can no longer work, you’ve to buy a new one. But before buying it, there are a few things you must keep in mind, check them below.
– Group Size
Knowing the group size of your car’s battery is very important to purchase a new one. Every car is compatible with only one battery group size. If you buy the wrong group size, your car won’t work properly. So, to avoid this, you can check the group size on your existing battery.
– Reserve Capacity (RC)
The reserve capacity of a battery refers to the time duration it can run the electrical components when the car dynamo fails. It’s usually calculated in minutes. The battery you buy should have the appropriate RC according to the mentioned range by your car’s manual.
– Brand
The battery you’re buying should be manufactured by any reliable brand. In the market, several cheap brands are selling low-quality batteries and providing them at a low cost. But purchasing a high-quality one at a slightly higher cost will save you from the loss that you can face by an early failure of a cheap one.
– Warranty
It’s very important to check the warranty period when buying a new car battery. Most of the brands offer a one-year free replacement warranty that you can avail of within that period. So, it’s good to buy the battery of the brand that’s providing a longer warranty period.
– Date of Manufacturing
When buying a new battery for your car, it’s very important to check its manufacturing date. New batteries shouldn’t be older than 3 months of their production. So, if you want to take good care of your car, it’s suggested to make sure that the battery is freshly manufactured.
It’s very important to get your vehicle’s battery checked in order to avoid battery failure. You should add this to your vehicle maintenance checklist.
In this article, we discussed the signs that show your car battery is failing and needs replacement. We also talked about the things you should know when replacing it. Hopefully, these things will help you a lot when you’ll face battery failure in your car. If you have any of Toyota’s cars, we suggest you get your car’s battery replaced by an authorized Toyota dealer in your town, such as Toyota Creek Motors in Karachi, Pakistan.
Author Bio:
Sibtain Haider, a content contributor at Mainstream Pakistan, associated with trading and digital marketing. Presently working at Digital Eggheads, a well-reputed digital marketing agency in Pakistan.
