You know that feeling when you turn the ignition and your car won’t go? It may be a minor annoyance at first, but over time it can be a major pain in the ass. You have to waste time waiting for the engine to warm up, or spend too much time at the gas station so you don’t run out of fuel.
Even worse, if you don’t take some steps to prevent this from happening, you could end up completely ruining your car battery in the process.
Keep Your Car Battery Charged
The most important thing you can do for your car battery is to keep it charged. While you’re driving around, the current going into your battery is the same as what is coming out of your battery when you turn the ignition off. If your battery isn’t getting charged, it won’t have the energy it needs to start your car when you need it.
Instead, you’ll have to wait a few minutes before the engine is able to warm up enough to turn over. This is especially important if you have a large battery. A battery that is not kept charged will eventually lose its ability to store enough energy.
When this happens, your battery can’t deliver the amount of power it used to. Eventually, it will die. This can cause your car to not start at all, as well as decrease your car’s overall fuel efficiency. Keeping your battery charged is easy and cheap. You just need a battery charger.
Clean and Protect it
Let’s be honest. Sometimes, you clean your car battery out because you want it to work better. So, you start pumping the acid around with a brush and hose. While you may be excited to start seeing improvements, you’re actually damaging your battery. When you clean it with a brush and hose, you are taking off the protective coatings on the plates inside the battery.
Without this coating, the acid in the battery will start corroding the metal in the battery. Over time, this can lead to a battery that will no longer hold a charge. This is why you should never clean your car battery with a brush and hose. Instead, you need to use a specialized battery cleaning solution. This will clean your battery without actually touching the acid in the battery and causing damage.
There are several different ways to clean your car battery depending on what you want to accomplish. You can use a car battery brush, a hose, and fluid or soap. Since you’re in a van, you want to look for a brush that has stiff bristles. You can use this to help get into the corners of your battery and clean it out.
Avoid Extreme Temperatures
It’s important that you don’t let your car battery discharge completely in extreme temperatures. You’re most likely aware that you need to keep your car battery charged, but you may not realize that you need to do the same thing in extreme temperatures. If you’re not careful, your car battery could get severely discharged in very hot or very cold temperatures.
This can cause your car battery to become less effective in these extreme temperatures. If your car battery gets too cold, it can even freeze up. This is dangerous, and it can also damage your car battery enough to cause it to fail while you’re driving. If this happens, you could end up with a major inconvenience and possibly a very expensive repair.
Use The Right Battery Charger
Like your car, your battery will lose charge if you completely discharge it. Since this will happen when you’re in extreme temperatures, you should not let your battery discharge completely. The best thing you can do is to keep it charged the entire time. This means that you need to make sure that you are using a high enough battery charger while you are driving.
Even if you’re only driving around town, you need to keep the battery charged. If your car battery is kept charged, you won’t have to worry about it completely dying if you’re stuck in the middle of nowhere. This will prevent you from having to call for a tow or start digging a hole in the ground to get your van out.
Monthly Tread Test
There are several things you can do to make sure your car battery is always ready to go. The first is to keep it charged and clean. Next, you should also check your battery voltage every month. You can do this by taking your car’s manual and following the specific steps to check the voltage. Once you know your battery’s voltage, you can start to keep an eye out for any changes or irregularities.
Two-Week Battery Test
There are a few signs that you can look out for to determine if your battery is getting close to being completely discharged. Fortunately, they are all pretty easy to spot and easy to fix. Your lights will begin to dim down before your battery is completely dead. This is an easy way to check and make sure that your battery is getting low.
If you have a trickle charger, you can use this to test your battery. You can plug in your charger to your car battery and then plug your battery into a timer on your timer so you don’t kill your battery. If your battery is getting low, it will charge up within the time frame.
Final Words
While it may not be optimal to completely discharge your battery, it is important that you keep it charged. There are several things you can do to ensure that your battery is ready for any situation. You can also use a battery charger, like the one in this article, to keep your battery charged while you are driving around.
These preventative measures will ensure that you don’t have to call a tow truck or spend money at the gas station because your battery is completely dead. With these tips in mind, you can prevent your car battery from discharging completely and avoid any major repairs.
