Regular maintenance is the key to a healthy car, and maintenance should include your battery. Battery checkups can help warn you of many potential problems. Other engine problems can also affect your battery and weaken or kill it completely. As your Chevy dealer, we want you to know some signs that you need to visit us for a new car battery.
Signs You Need a New Car Battery From Your Chevy Dealer
Failing Alternator
The alternator is a generator inside your engine that produces the electricity for all your car’s systems and devices. It’s also responsible for recharging your battery. The battery uses a large part of its electricity reserve to start your engine. Once the engine is running, the alternator starts recharging it. As the alternator gets older, it slows down and produces less electricity.
The reduced electricity supply will affect all your car’s systems, and battery recharging will also suffer. If your alternator replaces less electricity than your battery uses, the battery will gradually run down and fail. We’ll test your alternator and replace it if necessary.
Driving Short Distances
These days, everything seems to be moving too fast, and there’s never enough time. Since time is so important, it’s very easy to jump in the car, drive a short distance to the store, for example, and then drive home. This saves time, but it can cause problems for your battery. As we saw above, your battery supplies the charge that starts your engine.
The battery uses the same amount of power each time your engine starts. We also saw that your alternator begins recharging the battery when the engine starts. Recharging stops as soon as your engine is switched off. If you routinely drive short distances, your alternator won’t have enough time to recharge the battery. The solution is to drive a longer distance when possible to ensure your battery can recharge.
Phantom Drain
A phantom drain is a phenomenon that can rapidly drain your battery overnight.In this situation, a particular component doesn’t switch off when it should and will continue to drain power. Two of the main culprits are the glove box light and the trunk light. These two lights should automatically switch off when the doors they’re connected to close.
If your battery was fine when you got home, and then struggled to start the next day, you could have a phantom drain. Our technicians can trace the flow of electricity through your car and identify problems in the system that can cause a phantom drain. Once we fix the fault, the drain will disappear.
A dead battery could leave you stranded and waiting for a tow. Don’t risk this happening. Call our service department today at Heidebreicht Chevrolet.
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