The car’s battery has to work hard. Therefore, she should receive special attention. Otherwise it can quickly break down. Even a simple trick helps to recognize a flat battery.
Battery problems are the reason for almost every second car breakdown. This is due to the high average age of our cars, but also to a lack of maintenance and care. Because it is quite easy to tell whether a battery will soon give out.
Car battery: This is how the state of charge can be determined quickly
You can check the battery level by parking the car in front of a wall in the dark, switching off the engine and switching on the headlights. If the light becomes noticeably darker after a short time, the battery is weak.
Another sign of a bad car battery condition is when the engine starts poorly in the morning.
Easy to check with a voltmeter
You can also check the battery voltage using a Voltmeters measure. To do this, the positive cable is held to the positive pole of the battery with the ignition switched off and the negative cable is attached to the negative pole. The voltage of a fully charged and intact battery is 12.8 volts.
If the battery is still in good condition, the voltage is between 12.7 and 12.4 volts. If the value is below, it should be loaded.
The contacts on the battery should also be checked. If they are dirty or oxidized, leakage currents develop, which cause the battery to discharge.
Have the car battery checked in the workshop
The ADAC generally recommends having older car batteries checked in a workshop. According to the traffic club, most batteries die in the fourth year.
Drivers should therefore visit a workshop at the first sign of a drop in battery performance. There you can quickly determine whether the battery just needs to be charged or replaced.
Turn off power guzzlers
If you take care of the battery from the outset in winter, you can prevent annoying battery failure. “That’s why the following applies to cold starts: radio, blower, headlights, rear window and seat heating, i.e. all additional power guzzlers, depress the clutch before starting,” advises TÜV Rheinland.
Clean engine compartment protects against discharge
In order to protect the battery, the energy consumers should also be used as sparingly as possible while driving – with the exception of the low beam, of course, which is particularly important in the darker months.
Low-friction motor oils also help
Also helpful: fully synthetic, low-viscosity, smooth-running motor oils (according to the manufacturer’s recommendations). According to TÜV Rheinland, they are distributed more quickly in the machine and make the engine run more easily after a frosty night. A positive additional effect: The synthetic oils can reduce power consumption by almost 25 percent.
