Summer Battery Care
From family visits and beach outings to vacations and cross-country road trips, you have a planned a summer full of fun - with your car playing a key role. Nothing stops a road trip faster than a dead car battery.
Summer’s heat can be more damaging to your car’s battery than the snow and cold of winter. Summer’s sizzling temperatures can rob your battery of its starting power and cut its life short. Excessive heat causes the fluid in your battery to evaporate, weakening the battery’s charge and causing plate corrosion. This eventually leads to sulfation (crystals forming on the battery’s plates), which will eventually make your battery unusable.
Fortunately, you can prevent this by learning how the summer weather can affect your car battery by performing some basic maintenance. Discover what you can do to ensure that your battery is charged up all summer long.
Keep it clean
Keep dirt and debris from the top of the battery. Grease and dirt buildup can drain your battery’s power. Routinely examine the battery for dirt and immediately remove any buildup.
Watch for corrosion
The high temperatures of summer means increased heat in your vehicle’s engine. This increased heat can cause corrosion inside your battery which can result in inhibited current flow. Inspect your battery on a regular basis for signs of corrosion. Clean any corrosion with a copper brush or a scouring pad.
Check the water level
In a lead-acid battery, the summer heat can cause the water to evaporate from the electrolyte. Check the water level in each cell and if low, refill with distilled water.
Keeping your battery charged
The key to getting the optimum performance out of your lead acid car battery is to keep it “juiced up”(100% state of charge). If the car is not used daily and driven for a reasonable distance, ensure when you start the car in the morning give it some time before you turn on your air conditioner, radio, wipers, lights etc. When turning the car off at the end of the day, turn off all auxiliary, phone charger, lights, wiper, radio and any load that drains the battery.
Park your car in a garage where possible
If you can, park your car in a garage or under cover to keep it out of the heat. Avoid parking on the lawn as condensation can collect on the engine and ignition parts which can cause current leakage.
Use Charger
We recommend regular recharging of your battery with the Smart Charger that can be left connected to your vehicle's battery maintaining a full charge on a healthy battery while the vehicle is not being used.
Warning Signs
Your battery’s age also plays a part in whether you’re more likely to have trouble on a chilly morning. If your battery is more than three years old, a typical sign that it’s on the way out is your car cranking slowly when you attempt to start it.
Be proactive
As your battery ages, the chances for failure increases with every passing year. If your battery is more than four years old, consider changing it rather than risk being stranded. Get AA Battery Service to test your battery and related electrical system to ensure the state of health of your car battery is good and reliable.
Feeling flat?
If you’re unlucky enough to experience a flat battery, AA Battery Service can come to you 24/7 and usually within the hour.