Imagine a scenario where you’re running late to the office, have a dozen tasks lined up for the day, you enter your car and it doesn’t start! In such a situation, wouldn’t a battery failure be the most austere nightmare of the day? In the UAE, a car is not just perceived as a status symbol, but the lifeline of the people. Many traverse huge distances in their cars galloping miles on diurnal basis and if the car goes defunct, it comes across as a detrimental emotional and psychological loss besides monetary.
As cars’ ignition remains on for hours daily, the cause of a breakdown in many cases would be a faulty battery. However, there are certain DIY tricks to prevent a battery failure and save a day’s worth of productivity. These require simple, easy to understand and affordable tools which you can use at regular intervals to keep your car’s battery health in check. These are:
1. VOLTMETER TEST
As the name suggests, this method involves ascertaining the vehicle’s battery voltage. For this, a tool known as Voltmeter is required, which one can find at any car spare parts shop. To appraise the voltmeter reading, it is crucial to keep the car’s ignition off. As you might know, the battery has two (positive and negative) terminals. Find these under the hood of the car and connect the red lead to the positive terminal and black to the negative.
If a reading of 12.4 to 12.7 volt appears on the screen, it implies the battery is in good shape. Readings outside this range indicates a fault which needs to be shown to a mechanic. Do note that the readings will fluctuate when the car is turned off and when the key is moved towards ignition. When the car’s engine is on, the voltage reading will be higher as there would be greater load on the battery.
2. POWER PROBE TEST
This method is almost identical to the aforementioned, save for a small difference. Here, we utilize a different gadget called Power Probe. Like a voltmeter, the designated cables have to be connected to the battery terminals in such a way that the positive lead established contact with the positive battery terminal, while the negative lead commences a connection with the negative battery terminal. If a voltage of 12.4 to 12.7 appears, it alludes that the battery is working fine and is the assurance that it will chug along for a reasonable period of time.
3. CRANKING TEST
This evaluation can only be done when life breathes into the engine. In a way, this test can be considered superior to the former two as it provides a real-time analysis of battery voltage when the engine is under load. Depending on the type of vehicle, make sure to slot the car’s gear in neutral and hand brake engaged if it’s a manual transmission vehicle, or shift the gear to Park (P) in case of an automatic vehicle.
Perform this in a closed and safe environment and let a known person accompany you for the experiment. If a reading similar to the ideal bandwidth is obtained in this test, you can heave a sigh of relief as the battery is in fine fettle.
Additionally, more sophisticated methods to fathom vehicle’s battery life have emerged in the recent times. These are:
HYDROMETER
As you might have guessed from the word ‘hydro,’ this method involves measuring the specific gravity of the battery electrolyte. Electrolyte is the fluid in which the positive and negative terminals lay submerged. Since this liquid can get greatly affected by outside temperature, it becomes difficult to use this technique and those not having a fundamental understanding of battery components might want to resort to conventional methods.
BATTERY ANALYZER
Synonymous to a computerized system, this gismo checks battery related aspects such as voltage, starter system and alternator health. This machine would be common with a trained auto garage professional or a mechanic but a laymen might not be able to understand the conclusions it provides as knowledge regarding the device and certain terms will need to be procured.
